World War III

World War III (第三次世界大戦) (alternatively written World War Three and World War 3, also referred to as Third World War) was a global war, lasting from October 19 to October 30 of the first year of the Toaru Majutsu no Index story timeline, between two opposing great powers and alliances: Russia, controlled by both the Russian Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church, and Academy City with its allies.

Participants of the conflict and true nature
The Roman Catholic Church, under the influence of God's Right Seat, manipulated events in order to ensure Russia's alliance with it, specifically that of the Russian Orthodox Church. France sided with the Catholic Church due to its long held animosity against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, who was allied with Academy City. Other countries like China and India would later join the war on the side of Academy City, while Japan would remain neutral by being subtly threatened by Academy City of being left on its own defending against Russian attacks should it interfere. Russia also used the pretext of the war to invade a neighboring neutral country, the Elizalina Alliance of Independent Nations, having been hostile to its existence since it seceded from Russia years prior. The United States of America were the only ones left out: as they were gearing up for it, the war ended before they could pick a side.

While seemingly not as widespread as the previous two historical world war, it did involve two out of the world's three greatest military powers.

Outside of the geopolitical causes, the war was also the result of a series of incidents and skirmishes between the Magic and Science Sides, notably involving the Catholic Church and Level 0 Kamijou Touma, a secret conflict that would bleed into the "normal side" and create the first open war between magic and science that both sides had been trying to prevent since even before the start of the story.

Ultimately, in reality, the world war was actually part of the plan of a single man, Fiamma of the Right, manipulating the great Churches and even God's Right Seat to do his bidding, and arranging circumstances to allow his Star of Bethlehem project to succeed and become La Persona Superiore a Dio.

Forming of Elizalina Alliance of Independent Nations
In recent years, several small nations to the west of Russia seceded from it and declared independence, forming the Elizalina Alliance of Independent Nations, because they did not agree with what Russia had been doing in recent years. Because of their declaration of independence and the opening of an access route to Eastern Europe which freed the landlocked countries from its indirect influence, Russia is hostile to the alliance and its countries, viewing them as a nuisance, and had been looking for reason to invade them ever since.

Tensions between the United Kingdom and the European Union
Several years prior to the British Halloween, with the influence of the Roman Catholic Church, the European Union adopted a treaty that specifically banned the weapons the UK was developing and required them to give up their nuclear arsenal to France. The official reason given was because, as France would be the sole possessor of nuclear weapons within the EU, they would therefore have the technology needed to safely disassemble them. This severely weakened the military prowess of Britain and served as a show by the EU being capable of provoking the country with impunity. This treaty was taken in stride by Queen Elizard, though people like Princess Carissa had a problem with this.

Sherry Cromwell's casus belli
Independently of other factors, in September of the story's first year, Sherry Cromwell attempted to start a war between the Magic and Science Sides, ostensibly to prevent another tragedy like the failed Magician-Esper Hybrid experiment her friend Ellis Warrior took part in, since, according to her, Academy City has been getting lax and the Anglican Church allowed the Index Librorum Prohibitorum to go free. In reality, she only wanted both sides to think they were going into the war in order to get them to isolate themselves from each other and not attempt to reach out, preventing the kind of collaboration that led to the death of her friend.

Academy City–Roman Catholic Church Cold War
Since at least July of the story's first year, speculations of a possible war between magic and science had been made, with things like Academy City dealing with the traitorous Russian shopping mall, and arms race on both sides like the Astra Reorganization project and the Space Elevator Endymion being taken as preparations for the upcoming conflict. The friction between the Vatican and Academy City was the most concrete example of this.

Although Lidvia Lorenzetti was planning to take over Academy City since at least February, the start of the hostilities can be said to officially begin in earnest following the events of Orsola Aquinas' rescue; an assassination attempt by the Catholic Church to prevent a particular grimoire threatening its hegemony if deciphered, and which was foiled by the intervention of the Anglican Church secretly getting help from Academy City. This event would firmly establish the sides in conflict.

With the destruction of their main fighting strengths, the Gregorian Chant and the Agnese Forces, as well as the Anglican Church recruiting the Amakusa Christians and Orsola Aquinas into their ranks, the Roman Catholic Church felt that the balance of the magical world was shaken, with their position as number one threatened. Because of this vulnerable state, Lidvia Lorenzetti was allowed to set-up the Croce di Pietro in Academy City, hoping to tip the already crumbling balance between the world's sides into their favor.

Takeover attempt on the Daihaseisai
A non-violent attempt at taking over Academy City was implemented by Lidvia on September 19th using the Croce di Pietro. Despite her efforts however, the plan is foiled and both she and her hired mercenary, Oriana Thomson are later detained by the Church of England. With their failure and with the Croce di Pietro lost, the events of September 19 would force the Roman Catholic Church to opt for the total destruction of Academy City instead of capturing, by reviving an ancient weapon of the church, The Queen of the Adriatic Sea.

Mobilization of the La Regina del Mare Adriatico
Although violent, the main conflict between Academy City and the Roman Catholic Church could have been prevented by the usage of the antiquated La Regina del Mare Adriatico, which could utterly destroy all of the science side in a single blow. However, after the Battle of the Adriatic Sea, the La Regina del Mare Adriatico and its Queen's Fleet were destroyed, Biagio Busoni was captured, and a powerful group of nuns, the Agnese Forces, later defected to the Anglican Church.

The event severely weakened the Roman Catholic Church and further strengthened the Anglican Church. The total failure and the presence of Kamijou Touma, already present in several other events where the Roman Catholic Church failed in their endeavors, made conflict inevitable.

0930 Incident
Roman Catholic Church forces later tried to strike a preemptive blow to Academy City through the direct attack by Vento of the Front. Many citizens of Academy City and most likely the rest of the world were affected by Vento of the Front's Divine Punishment, which would've been used as the opening for the Roman Catholic invasion forces to impale the citizens of Academy City.

The main goal of the invasion was to assassinate Kamijou Touma, who by now, has become the core of the conflict between the two forces, as an enemy of God and quickly take over Academy City before it can counter-attack. This would have most likely prevented a war with Academy City and its allies.

However, the plan fails with the defeat of Vento of the Front and the destruction of the Roman Catholic invasion forces. With the appearance of Fuse Kazakiri and the blatant usage of magic of the Church, conveniently covered up as an outside esper program, both sides criticize each other's claims, and later demands of concessions and compromises could not be reached.

Anglican Church–Russian Orthodox Church Prewar Conference
The two great Churches of Europe met in London in St. George's Conference to discuss their stance of the upcoming war. The meeting was inconclusive apparently as the Churches could not decide who to ally with, and in the end the Anglican Church remained loyal to Academy City while the Russian Orthodox Church seemed neutral.

The Interceptor Show
Academy City starts preparing itself for the war to come by sending out rockets into the sky in order to make people speculate what their contents are, as they believe the more the possibilities the people can speculate, the more effective it is in holding others in check.

Moreover, already prepared for chaos ahead, Academy City showed the world it already had weapons and tools manufactured by way of a weapons expo, the Interceptor Show, showcasing various technologies, from unmanned attack helicopters to the latest powered suits, with lethal capabilities as a show of strength by Academy City, showing of its destructive weapons to their enemies as a diplomatic tool. However, the Interceptor Show was actually the City desperately gathering funds for the war, through making relatively insignificant weapons that do not take much technology to make and selling them at a high price as the latest weapons made by Academy City when in truth they would be reduced by 3 or 4 tiers below their original capabilities.

Licenses to create the core parts of the weapons were sold to cooperative institutions working with Academy City in various countries, needing only to inform the City on how many the company was making and where they will be deployed. After the war, those weapons would still be in use for the sake of keeping the peace.

The Anti-Academy City October riots and the Avignon Cleanup Operation
After the failure of bringing the other two great churches, Anglican and Russian, to its side, the Roman Catholic Church started looking for a way to force the Russian Orthodox Church to end its neutrality and join it, as it came to know that the Anglican Church had a relationship with Academy City. As the power balance between Academy City and the Roman Catholic Church was very equal, the joining sides could very well tip the balance, and so it was imperative to stop the Russian Orthodox Church from joining Academy City.

And so, in October, the C-Document was activated in Avignon by God's Right Seat member Terra of the Left, sparking worldwide protests and riots against Academy City from every Catholics. Originally starting as a series of large-scale protests throughout Europe, ranging from men and women holding banners, to youths setting fire to Academy City posters and vandalizing Japanese companies, it soon spread to America as well, appearing in the major West Coast cities and expected to spread throughout America before long.

Thanks to the riots, the Roman Catholic Church was also gathering funds for a war in the form of "offerings" from believers of the church, on the pretext of funds to help bring peace back to the world from the current chaos. The greater the chaos grew, the more "funds" they would receive. Furthermore, if the chaos continued for a significant length of time, it could generate an economic bombing (経済的な爆撃), triggering a worldwide panic, which could end up tearing Academy City apart.

Many countries ended up resolving the riots happening in their lands through the use of military force, though that was not enough to stop them completely and even often exacerbated them. In truth, every country was waiting for one country to provide an example by making a move so effective at resolving the problem that they could see what made it work and what effects it had. Academy City would prove to be this country, by way of the Avignon Cleanup Operation: violently suppressing the riots in Avignon, isolating the city, destroying much of its infrastructure in the process and forcing its citizens to be relocated, all in an attempt to totally destroy the Document of Constantine and kill Terra of the Left. This would be the last riot caused by the Document of Constantine before Touma destroyed it during the operation.

Although ultimately dealt with by Imagine Breaker dispelling the Document, the show of power by the C-Document caused the Russian Church to ally itself with the Roman Catholic Church. The overall incident also dealt an economic blow which America took the brunt of - this led to investors moving their attention elsewhere and while facing a crisis, they feared the and  markets becoming more active, and were willing to sabotage their enemies. The war between the and Euro would later affect the circumstances of the European countries pressuring the United Kingdom under the Roman Catholic Church's influence and the Eurotunnel bombing, which led to Carissa's coup d'état.

British Halloween
Although the coup d'état in itself was not one of the sources of the world war, the conflict was the result of years of tension between the United Kingdom and the EU, as well as the manipulations of Fiamma of the Right, who had wanted to provoke a full blown conflict between France and the UK, which the coup ironically prevented, or rather, only delayed a conflict with France as both countries would later clash during the battle of Dover Strait.

Declaration of War
On October 18, the President of Russia, Krainikov, issued an ultimatum proclaiming that Academy City had held their advanced technology from the world for too long at the expense of the people around them, and must hand over all their advanced knowledge to the rest of the world by midnight. Otherwise, Russia would declare war on Academy City:

The higher-ups of Academy City chose not to comply, and on October 19th, World War III officially began.

Home Fronts
Officially, Academy City declared that they had no reason to fight, but would not sit idly by when they had the power to stop the war. Their operations during the war were thus seemingly limited to maintaining a defense line over the sea of Japan, evacuating and defending the facilities that worked with Academy City within Russia (which presumably includes the facility Misaka 10777 was a part of ), and only bringing to bear the "bare minimum" of defensive weapons needed to maintain peace, with the vast majority of Academy City's forces being unmanned units using AI and remote controls. But characters like Kamijou Touma, Accelerator, Takitsubo, and Misaka Mikoto express doubts about the City's intentions and official motives for participating, especially because Academy City could have easily stopped the war from occurring in the first place and entered the war way too quickly as if it had been prepared for it.

Due to its overwhelming technology, by way of its supersonic bombers and Powered Suits, Academy City managed to establish several within Russia itself.

In the City itself, usage of the airport in District 23 had been restricted for civilians. New technologies would be developed for the sake of the war, like the Griffon Driver, the HsSSV-01 (codename "Dragon Rider"), and the Enemy Blaster, but most would end up not being used due to the war finishing too quickly.

Within its borders, Russia deployed many units to defend itself. Many civilians in villages near the border with Elizalina were forced to evacuate their homes and were mobilized by magicians and the Russian military. . The government also contracted mercenaries to monitor some border areas and attack some villages considered "problematic". The Eastern European city of Baggage City would be taken over the military to serve as a central point along the railroad network, so it would transport materiel to the front.

Outside the two main belligerents, in the United Kingdom, in preparation for the war, the construction of multiple Mobile Fortresses would be commissioned, but, besides the Glastonbury, most would not be completed until mid-November, weeks after the end of the war. Prisoners would be conscripted to help Britain, including Second Princess Carissa, Knight Leader, and Brunhild Eiktobel (in exchange for having her charges dropped). In the United States, there was a rush to build as many bases as possible in order to deal with the war. A few units of the Italian army were deployed to help with the war. Finally, was in talks with the  Trident to hire them for the war, but negotiations broke down before a price could be settled on.

Eastern Front
Russia at first attacked Academy City with ballistic missiles, but this was unsuccessful because they were all quickly intercepted by Academy City.

Over the Sea of Japan, battles raged on between the Russian Air Force and Academy City's HsF-00 supersonic fighters. The Russian Air Force was no match for its enemy's supersonic bombers and were thus forced into a stalemate.

Magician Saronia A. Irivika, and presumably other Russian Orthodox magicians, was deployed to the city of in the  to stop Academy City forces from landing.

Near Indonesia, about twenty Russian navy submarines were navigating the Pacific Ocean to circumvent the ongoing battle above the Sea of Japan and cut off Academy City's supply line. They tried to find out if at least a single transport ship was headed for Academy City and thought of various possibilities including submarine, but they could not find the answer. Wiretapping their communication, an Academy City submarine carry supplies was slipping past the blockade at a distance of only a few meters without getting detected by their radar and sonar as they had blended in with the ocean currents.

Invasion of Elizalina
With the development of the war, Russia saw the opportunity to seize the territories that had separated and formed the Elizalina Alliance of Independent Nations. From the beginning the Elizalina Alliance of Independent Nations was threatened by the Russian military forces and the intentions of Fiamma of the Right. Russian spies, such as Sellick G. Kirnov, successfully infiltrated the small country.

Fiamma of the Right, with the intention of capturing Sasha Kreutzev, attacked the alliance by hisself and easily surpassed the leader of the country Elizalina, even though she herself was a magician. Fiamma of the Right caused a massive destruction in the city of the country, using a sword of many kilometers that was able to generate with The Holy Right. Both leader Elizalina and the normal security forces were completely unable to cope with Fiamma.

Battle of Dover Strait
After discovering the premature deployment of French ships during the British Civil War, England manages to anticipates the attack of French forces from Dover Strait, and prepared ships against them for a naval battle. However, they did not expect that the French forces would freeze the waters of the Strait and turn into a battlefield. Despite the fragile surface of the battlefield, the Anglican Church forces, composed of the Amakusa-Style Remix of Church led by Kanzaki Kaori and the Agnese Forces led by Agnese Sanctis, engage the magicians of the French forces. They are later aided by the reactivation of the Curtana by Queen Elizard and the arrival of the Knights of England, accompanied by its leader, and second princess Carissa.

The British forces take much ground against the French forces until the arrival of the Maiden of Versailles, which forces Carissa to clash against her and use the mobile fortress Glastonbury. The battle prematurely ends once the Golden Arms start appearing and the forces begin rushing towards Russia.

Proclamation of Armistice
The same day, the Russian archbishop Krans R. Tsarskiy declares the end of the hostilities:

Aftermath
World War III would be a significant turning point in the political alignment, climate, and social structure of the globe. Most countries, like Russia itself, whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery and expansion, assisted by Academy City. On the magic side, the power of the Roman Catholic Church and the Russian Orthodox Church were weakened. As a result, the world would tilt more towards the science side, and, as its single major representative and organization, Academy City gained much more power following their victory. Following the Star of Bethlehem project at the end of the war, the world is slowly beginning to recognize the existence of the occult, like the American President Roberto Katze. When it is not handwaved away as the psychological phenomenon "Third War Syndrome", people aware of the occult and that would normally be on the normal side make plans to prepare against the magic side or even manage to mix science and magic.

The magic-based terrorist group GREMLIN would also come about as a result of the war, born out of resentment of Fiamma of the Right, the Roman Catholic Church and their Christian Alliance with the Russian Orthodox Church having been made the "representatives" of the whole Magic Side in the war despite never having chosen them, and their losses against the Science Side being forced on the rest of them. They are thus a new type of occult, created to devour the newly made powerful science side and declaring their own war on Academy City.

Finally, the war would result in Aleister's Plan, already fraying at the seams, to be completely derailed because all the rules of the "old world", including the parts Aleister had controlled, were all gone.

Among the most important consequences can be highlighted:
 * Destruction of God's Right Seat
 * Change of Pope for the Roman Catholic Church
 * Kamijou Touma declared MIA
 * Disbandment of the organizations of the Dark Side of Academy City
 * Restructuration of ITEM
 * Revelation of Aleister Crowley's survival to the whole world