Chapter 215: Silas: How Do You Lose When Your Crew Are All Emperor Class?
Silas and Imu were never going to make peace.
The Celestial Dragons were this world's true evil.
Even pirates who burned, killed, and looted could not match a fraction of the Dragons' cruelty.
That did not absolve pirates of their sins.
But compared to what the Celestial Dragons had done over eight hundred years, the pirates the Marines hunted barely mattered.
The Marines stood for justice.
But only a limited justice—one that did not target the Celestial Dragons.
If you never strike at the greatest evil, then that so-called justice is a joke.
Closer.
Closer still.
Hundreds of warships knifed across the New World's front waters. This world's cannons were still primitive—no way to hit enemies over a dozen kilometers away.
But if cannon couldn't reach—
People could.
A vast shadow rose behind Imu. Compared to the surrounding Marine warships, the one she stood upon was larger and broader.
Besides her, that ship hosted the Five Elders, more than ten members of the Holy Knights, and the Knights' Supreme Commander and Captain.
A burning grimoire appeared in Imu's hand.
"Transform."
The flaming book blazed brighter and reshaped into a massive longbow.
Imu drew the bow fully.
"Accelerate."
Whoosh.
A flaming arrow tore across a thousand meters in an instant, then faster still, screaming toward Silas's position.
"Replicate."
Just as the arrow was about to fall, Imu murmured again. What had been one shaft split into tens of thousands.
They blanketed the entire White Wolf Alliance fleet.
"Those struck by my arrow shall be bound to me in contract."
From more than ten kilometers away, Imu's first move was to turn Silas's fleet and comrades against him—make them her slaves.
Silas showed no fear as the sky dimmed beneath the rain of arrows.
He did not even need to move.
Standing slightly behind on his own pirate ship's prow, a young man barely in his twenties grinned at the falling storm.
"Gurararara, what a spectacle. This level of attack—leave it to me."
With Observation Haki, he had already glimpsed it: if no one acted, Imu's opening would halve Silas's forces.
No matter. He would act.
A milky halo gathered in Newgate's hand. Alongside it surged his Conqueror's Haki, coiling around the power of the Tremor-Tremor Fruit.
The Newgate of today lacked only the tempering of a thousand trials compared with himself at his future peak.
But as the saying went—
Young fists are feared.
If peak Newgate fought present Newgate, who would win was not so certain.
He threw a punch. The sea beneath the White Wolf fleet seemed to drop meters with that blow. A huge crack, starting from his fist, appeared across the sky at the fleet's fore.
"Airquake."
Imu's arrows covered a vast breadth, but after Newgate's strike, an immense branching pattern of torn air spread above the White Wolf fleet.
Like roots racing through soil, Newgate planted his power deep into the sky above both armadas.
And trapped every last one of Imu's arrows within.
BOOM!
The sundered air drank the arrows down like a black hole. A pure body arts specialist could never withstand a rain that wide, spanning over a kilometer.
But the Tremor-Tremor Fruit was a different story.
As the strongest Paramecia in the world, its destructive power stood among the greatest of all Devil Fruits.
And large-area attacks had a consequence: after drinking in Imu's assault, Newgate's rippling quake rolled onward toward the Government's fleet without losing steam.
Until—
"Hmph."
Imu's eyes narrowed. Conqueror's Haki burst from her at an extreme, shredding Newgate's quake in an instant.
"This brat's stronger than a year ago."
At Imu's side, Saint Jaygarcia Saturn's gaze darkened. In the battle on Oss Island a year before, Newgate could not thread the Tremor-Tremor Fruit's power together with Conqueror's Haki so smoothly.
He certainly could not wield it with such ease.
In barely two years, he had grown to the point where, aside from Lord Imu, none of them could handle him alone.
"A fighter like that—taking orders?"
True conquerors were proud.
Conqueror's Haki was never meant for those beneath others; submit too long, and your Conqueror's Haki would stall when it neared its peak.
But only if, in your heart, you believed you were beneath someone.
Take Rocks.
He knew that if he stayed with Silas, he could not grow—his ambition clashed with Silas's. Remain by Silas's side, and his Conqueror's Haki could never reach its limit.
Even now, obeying Silas's command to wage war on the World Government was a form of bowing his head—a shackle on his Conqueror's Haki.
But Silas had given him too much.
Years of teaching and tempering. He could not simply turn his blade on the man.
Pirates, too, were held to account for their debts and favors.
Silas's grace was a perfect lubricant, letting him convince himself—letting him obey orders while keeping his desire burning and his Conqueror's Haki blazing.
Even so, this peak was not Rocks's limit.
Rocks knew it.
Silas knew it.
They would fight one day.
But that was for later.
Compared to Rocks's feelings for Silas, Newgate's feelings for Silas were cleaner.
He was like a father.
If you became an emperor, would you dishonor your parents?
That pure devotion meant Newgate never once felt beneath Silas. His Conqueror's Haki met no bottlenecks like Rocks's.
The fleets had not yet clashed.
But the strongest aboard them had already begun.
"I'll go first."
Behind Imu, Saint Marcus Mars of the Five Elders took to the sky—his body became a giant chimera of bird head, wings, talons, and serpent trunk.
He meant to bypass Silas and strike straight at the fleet's rear.
It was war.
War was not only victory or defeat—it was the efficient destruction of the enemy's living power.
On the sea—
A flyer like him stood unchallenged from the start.
"No—Saint Mars, wait!"
As if realizing something, Imu called to stop him.
Too late.
He flew face-first into a dragon thousands of meters long.
"What!?"
In front of that dragon, his wingspan of a few dozen meters looked like that of an ordinary fly. His face changed color.
"Barahahaha—surprised?"
A rough voice echoed from the dragon's maw. The azure giant stretched out a claw to seize Marcus Mars whole.
Thankfully, the Elder was agile—he broke away at once and glowered up at the dragon with a grim stare.
"Giant King Harald?"
"Barahahaha. That's right. I'm here to collect a debt—for the giants who died under your invasions in Elbaf."
Harald had once naively believed that giants and humans could live in peace. He learned the hard way that only some humans could.
He was no longer so naive.
"I'll help Silas topple you—and bring the world true equality and freedom."
In the future, Kaido, only six meters tall, transformed into a dragon hundreds of meters long with the Fish-Fish Fruit, Model: Azure Dragon.
Harald stood ten times Kaido's size.
After Silas gave him the Fish-Fish Fruit, Model: Azure Dragon, Harald's dragon form stretched over five thousand meters.
Just floating in the air, he was despair made flesh.
"Monster!"
"How do you even fight that?"
"One spit and he'll sink our ship."
Marine elites held—shaken, but steady.
The member nation soldiers broke.
You asked us to fight—not to slay a dragon.
"Saint Mars, pull back."
Imu's expression turned heavy as she stared at the dragon in the sky. Not just Marcus Mars—even she would find this creature troublesome.
Harald's dragon form was clearly no mere showpiece. The power he displayed could threaten even Imu.
"Demon Summon."
She wanted to save strength for Silas—but if Harald ran rampant, their morale would break before she and Silas settled anything.
Imu's looming shadow congealed, then took on substance—another giant, thousands of meters tall.
"Go. End him."
With a soundless roar, the giant created by Imu's power thundered toward Harald.
"Saint Mars—you, delay him."
"As you command."
A construct was still a construct. Against a foe who could threaten even her, Imu did not believe a simple summon could win easily.
And the Government had more than one fly of a Devil Fruit user.
"Glyndwr."
"...As you command."
The lifelong workhorse of the Cipher Pols, resentful but obedient, spread his wings and became a giant falcon.
By contracting with Imu, he had gained an undying body—and a power at the world's summit.
Barely crossing the threshold.
Age had put him where Silas once stood—skills rising while the body declined.
Imu had given him immortality, not youth.
He did not get far.
Before him—
"You're not getting through."
Swords in both hands, floating by his Float-Float Fruit, Shiki grinned at Glyndwr.
"A year ago, I wasn't your match. Now it's different."
"How many exchanges can you last?"
A year ago at Oss Island, Shiki was only at an Admiral-candidate level. He struggled even against a borderline Admiral like Glyndwr—let alone anyone else.
After a year of grinding, he knew: he might still not beat monsters like Rocks or Newgate—
But Glyndwr was no longer a problem.
As for Linlin?
Golden Lion Shiki had no interest in competing with some woman.
Another top fighter.
Seeing Glyndwr stopped, the remaining Five Elders' faces went dark.
Once—
Their top-tier numbers eclipsed the entire sea. Add every other strong soul in the world, and they still had more.
Now—
They felt Silas's pressure again.
Too many.
On Silas's side alone, the known quantities included three at the very top of the top: Rocks, Newgate, and Harald.
Beyond that, their second-generation trainee, Shiki, now stood at the Admiral level.
Not to mention, among the first-generation trainees, Ripley and Linlin had both been quiet for a while—
The former could be reasoned out.
Giants grew slowly. Even with talent, peak great pirate—or at most near-Admiral—was her probable ceiling.
But the latter—
From nine years ago, the first time she appeared, she had been called a monster.
Now, at sixteen, Charlotte Linlin had returned to her original body size. Over eight meters tall, she stood out even next to Silas.
Her beauty even made many pirates cheer at sight.
"It's Lady Linlin!"
"Lady Linlin, please step on me!"
"Lady Linlin, I want to give you a dozen kids!"
As a child raised by Silas's side, Linlin often wandered the outer isles of Sphinx. Many pirates knew her.
In their eyes, they had watched her grow.
Beautiful—and strong.
If Silas had not loomed above, those pirates would have crowned her the Pirate Princess.
Should Linlin ever sail on her own—
She would be this era's undisputed Pirate Empress.
"Old man, finish this one fast."
Linlin smiled as she stared at the Government's fleet.
"I can't wait to go back and prep the victory feast."