The atmosphere grew increasingly tense. A world-shaking war was about to erupt.
Everyone in the world, whether pirates or ordinary people, whether elderly, children, or adults, was paying attention to the impending war through various channels.
This war would determine the future ruler of the world.
And based on their ideals, it would determine the future lives of everyone in the entire world.
Outside of Mary Geoise, at the first line of defense:
"They're coming!!!"
A Marine, looking through a telescope at the ships slowly appearing on the distant horizon, shouted loudly.
At this, all the Marines' bodies trembled as they looked towards the distance.
Warships, one after another, appeared in their sight.
It was a long line; large and small warships combined, there were nearly a thousand!!!
These nearly one thousand warships carried more than 500,000 soldiers.
The fleets of the Sage Shinobi Nation and the Revolutionary Army had converged.
As the distance between the two sides shortened, countless Marines could more clearly see the terrifying fleet heading towards them.
How big was a warship that could carry thousands of people? In this world, before now, such a thing had almost never appeared.
Because it was simply too big, so big it was beyond imagination.
In the eyes of the Marines, each of the approaching large warships was a terrifying behemoth.
Each one was like a moving castle!
Compared to those warships, their Marine ships were like ponies encountering elephants!
The two sides simply didn't seem to be on the same scale.
Let alone ordinary Marines, even Fleet Admiral Sengoku, and Admirals Aokiji and Kizaru, were shocked by these enormous warships.
They had simply never imagined that there could be such large ships in this world!
But it was no wonder they couldn't imagine it.
After all, in this world, there were many gigantic creatures, but giant ships were almost non-existent.
After all, no crew would have thousands of people living on the same ship.
Moreover, the cost of building such a ship and it's maintenance would be too great.
For crews like theirs, who frequently engaged in battles, such a large ship would simply be a sitting duck for the enemy.
After each battle, the cost of repairs alone might exceed the spoils of war they gained.
So there was simply no need to build them so large.
The reason why the Sage Shinobi Nation and the Revolutionary Army built their ships so large was naturally because they had the backing of Sage Shinobi Nation technology, which far surpassed the technological level of the pirate world.
What they built were true behemoths!
At this moment, countless Marines held their breath, their faces pale.
Nearly a thousand ships were approaching them!
It was as if an army composed of ships had appeared on the sea.
And in this army, everyone was clad in armor, armed to the teeth.
It was simply too terrifying!
As the two sides drew closer, finally, some Marines' minds went blank, their legs went weak, and they collapsed to the ground.
The enemy...
Their hearts were completely terrified.
But this couldn't be blamed on them. After all, more than half of these 200,000 Marines were newly recruited rookies.
These rookies were facing the first major battle of their lives, a war of such a massive scale, against such terrifying enemies.
Their untempered minds couldn't bear it, their minds collapsed; this was only normal.
"All Marines, stand up!"
A loud voice boomed. It was Zephyr, Marine Admiral.
"Remember, you are Marines, they are mere pirates; they should be the ones fearing you!
"Justice is invincible.
"And the Marines are justice!
"Stand firm, straighten your chests, and prepare to defeat them and win this war!"
Zephyr was boosting morale.
The battle hadn't even started yet, and if the Marines remained in their current state, the upcoming war might directly turn into a massacre.
And they would be the ones massacred.
Zephyr's words weren't particularly effective, but they weren't ineffective either.
Although they couldn't make everyone regain their confidence, they stopped the panic from spreading further.
"Behind you is not Mary Geoise, but your homes, your families.
"If you lose this war, perhaps... you will lose everything.
"So, bravely prepare to fight."
A Marine Vice Admiral spoke, his tone somewhat indifferent, but it caused many Marines' faces to change.
Because the Sage Shinobi Nation and the Revolutionary Army had previously conquered various parts of the world, the families of the Marines had to gather from all over the world to the Red Line.
And they were located not far from Mary Geoise.
If they lost this war, just as the Vice Admiral had said, perhaps everything they had would become the price of defeat.
And who could bear such a price?
Perhaps they didn't have justice in their hearts, perhaps they didn't have the government's future in their hearts.
But, they had family in their hearts, they had something to protect.
They couldn't afford to lose this war; they had to win.
Finally, the forces of the Sage Shinobi Nation and the Revolutionary Army stopped.
The two largest ships led the way, stopping not far from the Marine defense line.
Several people walked to the very edge of the left warship's deck.
One was a blond young man with a handsome face. He possessed a leader's aura, yet he was sunny and approachable, making people instinctively feel good about him.
It was the leader of the Revolutionary Army, Minato Namikaze.
In the Marine ranks, Kizaru looked at Minato's face with unusual solemnity.
He had fought Minato before, and not just once.
But not many times either, only three times.
The first time was on his way to rescue Akainu when Minato intercepted him.
In that battle, both sides were merely testing each other and didn't fight seriously.
The second time, he led troops to attack the Revolutionary Army but was repelled by Minato.
In this battle, neither of them went all out.
Because at the time, Minato needed to cover the Revolutionary Army's retreat and didn't seem to have much interest in fighting him.
But the third time... he almost died at Minato's hands.
Because in the third battle, Minato seemed to have come prepared, completely suppressing him from beginning to end, leaving him with no power to fight back throughout the entire battle.
If it weren't for his own Logia type Devil Fruit ability, he might have already died in the third battle.
Now, looking at Minato again, Kizaru didn't want to fight him.
But...
There was no other way!
Sighing inwardly, Kizaru looked at the person beside Minato.
According to intelligence, this person's surname was Senju, also an extremely powerful individual, the second-in-command of the Revolutionary Army.
However, this second-in-command was very mysterious and rarely appeared in public.
The knowledge of his formidable strength came from a battle where this senju was forced to take action.
On the other side, on the right warship, several people also appeared.
At the forefront, and in the most central position, was naturally Konan.
She was currently the person with the highest bounty, the one who debuted by blowing up 70,000 Marines and pirates, and who almost single-handedly killed Whitebeard!
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