Chapter 218: Endgame II
Facts spoke for themselves: once Rocks and Newgate teamed up to face four of the Five Elders along with the Figarland father and son, the World Government's top fighters were effectively carved up by the White Wolf Alliance. There was even strength to spare.
"Kyakyakyakya, looks like we won't need to team up this time."
"Gababababa, then let's start by dealing with those demonized samurai!"
Dorry and Brogy laughed.
In past battles, they often had to fight together against the Government's apex fighters to ease the pressure on the White Wolf side.
This time, they didn't.
Without anyone noticing, Silas's crew had grown enough to stand alone against Admiral-class foes, even surpassing the ordinary Admiral level.
Back at the Battle of Acropolis Port, Rocks alone possessed Admiral-class strength, and he only arrived near the end.
Now, Silas's Admiral-class crew numbered far more than one.
"Good thing when the World Government invaded Elbaf ten years ago, Silas came to help us. Otherwise, we'd have ended up like those samurai."
"Ten years? Wasn't it nine?"
"Close enough. It was recent anyway."
The Elbaf giants who joined this war numbered fewer than ten thousand, but that alone matched the so-called million elites of the member nations.
Naturally, giants didn't waste time on small fry. Their opponents were the demonized samurai—those poor souls enslaved by Imu.
Seeing what had become of the samurai only deepened the giants' gratitude for their good relations with Silas.
Nine years ago, when Elbaf burned, Silas had stood alone with no powerhouse at his back—and still risked his life to help.
A debt like that was why the giants volunteered for war and chose to fight beside Silas.
Nine years may seem long, but to giants, it was just the other day.
By contrast, the warriors of Wano weren't so blessed.
They came under Imu's gaze exactly during Silas's standoff with the World Government. With their closed borders and no outside help, the God's Knights easily shattered their gates.
Elbaf still had Harald.
Wano's Shimotsuki Ryuma had been dead for countless years.
The giants' raw power matched the demonized samurai—but against undying bodies, even giants had limited answers.
Breaking immortality started with Conqueror's Haki at the highest level—or with Armament Haki so refined it could only suppress the effect, not end it once and for all.
And yet, the giants were confident.
Silas and Tsuru had planned for this from the start. If they didn't neutralize those twenty thousand demonized Wano samurai, that undying army could swing the whole battlefield.
How to counter them was simple.
Vmmmmm—
Silas's Conqueror's Haki detonated between the giants and the demonized samurai. Black-red lightning covered the decks beneath them, forcibly knocking the samurai out of their demonized state.
Even Imu couldn't contract all twenty thousand at once. That was why the samurai hadn't yet entered the war—this was the truth behind their absence.
Silas had not sealed a single strand of Conqueror's Haki for the giants.
Which meant that for minutes on end, his Conqueror's hammered the Wano samurai continuously, reducing the number of demonized fighters again and again.
From twenty thousand to eighteen thousand, to sixteen thousand…
In under five minutes, fewer than five hundred still remained demonized—and those were the strongest among them.
The samurai freed from demonization stared around in a daze, with no idea what had happened.
To them, their memories ended at the moment Imu changed them.
Though years had passed since Wano's invasion, those years were empty to them.
Until the battlefield was filled with cries of grief.
"Father!"
"Uncle Yuuji!"
"Lord Jirou!"
Seeing the restored samurai, many Wano warriors shouted in surprise. They had believed the elders taken by the Government were lost forever.
But Silas's Conqueror's Haki had dispelled the demonization.
Not all of it.
Sealed Conqueror's could tell friend from foe, yes—but to break demonization entirely still fell short.
Silas had simply given the giants enough Haki stock to make it count.
That was also the limit.
Conqueror's Haki repelled other Conqueror's—even Silas's own. After sealing a dozen strands, the repulsive backlash between them could blow Sphinx clean into the sky if mishandled.
Literally into the sky.
Top-tier Conqueror's Haki could already affect substance.
And this was Silas's sealed Conqueror's Haki.
After unleashing a dozen strands, not all demonization was undone—but those who remained were few.
Which meant the giants could suppress them with ease.
Beyond Elbaf's giants and Wano's samurai, the third-strongest corps on the field belonged to Fish-Man Island.
One hundred thousand fish-men crisscrossed the lines, throwing the Government's rear fleets into chaos.
On the sea, they never needed to meet head-on. All they had to do was shatter ships and let the member nations' soldiers drop into the water for execution.
Whether to join this war had tormented the king of Fish-Man Island. This wasn't simply opening trade to the New World; it was staking national fate.
If Silas lost, Fish-Man Island would never know peace again.
On the other hand—
Without Silas, relations between Fish-Man Island and humanity would never have softened at all—and even now, only with some humans.
But that alone was unprecedented progress.
In the end, the voice that swayed him was a young fish-man who already led a trading caravan.
He said that relations between Fish‑Man Island and Government‑aligned humans were already awful. If they were already awful, how much worse could things get?
The sea was their natural shield.
Even if humans hated them, only a small number would dare risk everything to hunt merfolk for profit.
As long as the World Government existed, those people would never disappear.
If that was the case—
Why not throw in fully with Silas?
Stick your neck out or pull it in—either way, the blade would fall.
If they won their bet, the island would see a new era of peace with humans. If they lost, things wouldn't be any worse than before.
If Silas fell, they would go back to the way things were.
In other words, they had never had a choice.
The king of Fish-Man Island agreed.
Hence, the one hundred thousand fish-men. While most were street-toughs from the Fish-Man District, a closer look revealed no small number of merfolk among them.
Fish-men were ten times stronger than humans physically.
But in the water, merfolk were faster than fish-men.
At their first charge—
They wrecked dozens of Government warships, casting tens of thousands of Marines and member-nation soldiers into the sea.
On land, Marine elites might spar with fish-men. At sea, even the strongest swimmers couldn't match a fish-man of the same level.
"Damn it, these fish-men!"
"Isn't Fish-Man Island a member nation? Why are they helping the White Wolf Pirates?"
"Member nation? They withdrew when the White Wolf Alliance formed years ago—traitors!"
Many clueless Marines cursed the fish-men as traitors. But in many fish-men's hearts—
The World Government had never treated them as its own.
Where was the betrayal?
At sea, their destructive power defied imagination. Yes, many strong fighters stood among Marines and member nations, but the fish-men refused fair fights. They broke ships first, then drowned the fallen.
Only one hundred thousand fish-men stalled nearly a million soldiers in the rear member-nation fleets.
Admiral Hines Oran had to come back to help.
As the Ice-Ice Fruit user of this era, over ninety percent of his strength lay in his fruit. He had naturally developed it to the limit.
"Ice Age!"
In an instant, ice covered a sea tens of kilometers wide, freezing many fish-men who couldn't escape in time.
The price of splitting his attention was losing an arm to a late-arriving slash by Tentsuki Takiichi.
"Is immortality a license to do as you please? You underestimate an old man."
Restored to a youthful state, Takiichi's face stayed calm. He might not be able to finish Hines Oran outright, but he had been studying how to use Haki to suppress immortality.
He was an old skeleton propped up by Stussy's Youth Drug. He couldn't grow his Haki's raw power anymore—but skill? That could still advance.
"Hmph. You think you've already won?"
He had long since regretted agreeing to that damned global conscription. But after accepting Imu's fruit power and becoming undying, Hines Oran had no path back.
Now all he could do was fight to the end and pray his side prevailed.
His Ice Age turned a battle of millions back into a ground war—but not fully.
Compared to a true island, his ice was flimsy. The layer was only a dozen meters thick.
In ordinary war, that thickness would hold for days. But this was the world's highest-tier battle. Forget great pirates and Marine Vice Admirals—even many fish-men could punch through it.
Minutes after he froze the sea, the ice over those tens of kilometers was riddled with holes.
But it still gave everyone a foothold.
The giants took the demonized samurai. The current White Wolf crew—Ripley and other veterans—took the ordinary members of the God's Knights.
"My, how lively. Garling, will we die here?"
"No."
"Sigh—so confident."
After Acropolis Port, it wasn't only the Marines who birthed new stars; among the Celestial Dragons, several formidable talents also rose.
Most Celestial Dragons were waste.
But some pursued elite education.
Chief among them was the Figarland family, commanders of the God's Knights.
Standing here now was the third generation of that house.
Saint Figarland Garling.
His grandfather was the Supreme Commander of the God's Knights, and his father had been their Vice Captain—until he died at Acropolis Port years ago.
"I will wash away Father's shame."
Viewing that battle as a stain, Garling, just over twenty and of an age with Roger and Garp, stared bright-eyed at the remaining White Wolf Pirates.
But with the apex fighters tied up elsewhere, even Ripley—the strongest on these decks—didn't notice him. A great pirate in his twenties might be impressive among Celestial Dragons, but to Ripley, who had watched Rocks and Newgate grow—
He was nothing special.
"Everyone, move!"
Without Admiral-class fighters, great pirates like Ripley were the pillars of the fleet. Fortunately, she was not alone.
Silas's old crewmates stood with her.
Roya, Aide, Lili, Dean… Even the retired Kureha and the Sphinx's goat doctor had been hauled in for logistics to treat the wounded.
"This is the last fight."
"We can't drag that guy down."
"He's not going to go soft just because that woman Imu looks good, right?"
"Hey, Lili—have a little faith in your man!"
"The Youth Serum's not bad at all."
They had seen too many storms. This war dwarfed anything they had witnessed—but to these veterans, war was war.
Fight—and that was all.
And the final result had never rested with them.
It lay on the field where Rocks fought.
On the field where Silas stood.