章 131: Big Mom & The Golden Lion

[ Third Person POV ]

Big Mom Fleet

Charolette Katakuri was giving out orders to minimize the damages that the Golden Lion Pirates were inflicting upon them.

They had been fighting for the past few weeks now. Known only to the public in the sense of a couple of days. This was caused due to a breakdown in negotiations between Katakuri's mother, Charolette Linlin, and the captain of the Golden Lion Pirates: Shiki.

The main reason for a breakdown in negotiations was due to the fact that neither of them were willing to put their forces on the forefront. Instead, they wanted the other to put forth their own forces as a sign of good faith. At first, it was a minor skirmish between the two pirate captains, but it soon began to escalate after one of the Big Mom Pirate's officers was found dead in one of the Golden Lion's ships.

This was a huge scandal that blew into epic proportions once word reached Big Mom. She was 7 months pregnant with her latest batch of children, but that didn't stop her from demanding Shiki to explain himself for what happened.

However, Shiki, being the stubborn individual that he was; refused to go to Totto land to salvage the situation. That was because he found news that one of his officers was dead as well, and as a result, it led to the two pirate groups butting heads with each other.

Kaido, the third party in this tri-partate union, immediately lost interest upon hearing that Big Mom and Shiki were soon going to fight. He had wanted to fight Whitebeard or Boris, an internal conflict was far from his interest. As a result, he immediately set sail to different parts of the New World, so that he could foster more forces of his own. His intent to fight Whitebeard and Boris continued to shine through his actions.

In the meantime, Shiki and Linlin soon began sending their pirate members to kill off minor officers of the opposition. They had wanted to continue posing as a unified front in front of other affiliated forces, but soon as days passed, more and more pirate groups soon came to realize that the two of them were going to fight each other regardless.

Moreover, because of the influence of the Golden Lion and Big Mom Pirates. They couldn't necessarily withdraw from the conflict like Kaido, or declare neutrality. Matter of fact, declaring Neutrality was akin to opposing the two fighting Pirate groups, instantly placing a death sentence on them.

Consequently, they all started picking sides within the conflict. The goal to fight off Whitebeard slowly began eroding from their own actions as the fight slowly began to escalate.

Soon, territories began to be raided, more and more obvious conflicts soon began to emerge out in the open until it caught the attention of the World Economic News.

More and more cannon-fire could be heard in the distance, Charolette Perospero was in primary command of the forces as they directly clashed with the officers of the Golden Lion Pirates.

Though the overall power of the Golden Lion Pirates was a bit short compared to the Big Mom Pirates, the number of pirates that were under his wing proved to be overwhelming.

It was a fight that had easily left the Big Mom Pirates surrounded to the ratio of 3:1. The Big Mom Pirates had started off with a strong offensive push, but that advantage didn't last long as the numbers of the Golden Lion Pirates slowly began to build up and overwhelm that advantage.

Currently, they were on the defensive end, and they were currently trying to even out the competition so that they could relaunch another offensive coordinated attack.

Perospero immediately summoned a candy wave and sunk five more pirate ships that were trying to flank them from the right. Katakuri on the other hand, was currently dealing with the flanking group that came from the left by destroying their ships with his Mochi-Mochi ability.

For one reason or another, the Golden Lion Pirates were relunctant to pierce the flanks of the Big Mom Pirates head-on. Maybe it was because they feared the consequences of facing two powerful members of the Big Mom Pirates, or something else, but they didn't do too much on the central end of the battle. At most, they would fire lots of cannon-fire and try to sink the affiliated pirate ships that were on Big Mom's side.

However, in the distance, where nobody really paid much attention to, a pirate ship could be seen quietly resting on the chaotic waters of the New World Sea. The pirate group Jolly Roger was irrelevant, because the original owners of said Jolly roger had long since been killed. The culprit, was none other than Aegis Cipher Pol.

They had been ordered by the World Government to infiltrate the ranks of the slowly forming alliance to provide more intel.

Mariejois

The Five Elders were currently gathered within their meeting room. The environment was quite solemn, as they had gone through quite an argument amongst themselves over this particular scenario.

"I still don't agree with how we handled this," Saint Ju Peter declared heatedly.

"I agree with Peter on this one, this was a golden oppurtunity," Saint Mars agreed quietly.

"Don't get too far ahead of yourselves, you both knew that this was the best way to go about it," Saint Warcury chided the both of them, "Our priority is to maintain balance, not cause more chaos."

"Warcury has a point, even if we had let them continue on with this alliance against Whitebeard, it would have been an eventual danger for the World Government," Saint Nusjuro agreed. "this is a risk we can't simply resolve by killing off the head of the World Economic News."

"Moreover, it wasn't like it was just those three alone forming the alliance, rumors are going about that Shiki wanted to invite Aloof Red to join the fight as well," Saint Saturn stated, "Had they invited someone like him aboard, the alliance would have been way more troublesome than we could only imagine."

"I understand the risk behind that alliance, but wasn't this all for the sole purpose of destroying the Whitebeard Pirates?" Saint Mars questioned back. "We could've used the CP forces that had infiltrated their ranks to slowly kill off troublesome opponents."

"What about Aloof Red?" Saint Warcury countered, "Do you truly believe that a man like him wouldn't have noticed our interferance within the alliance?"

"You're talking as if he had already promised to join the alliance," Ju Peter countered.

"Whether or not he joined doesn't matter, it is the fact that there was a chance for him to be involved that does," Saint Jaygarcia objected, "It is because that we take factors like this into consideration that we deem them an overall risk to the prosperity to the World Government. An obstruction to our rule."

"We simply cannot entertain uncertainties like that, it will lead to the doom of us all; moreover, a doom to what we have worked so hard to maintain," Saint Nusjuro added.

Ju Peter and Mars could only sigh, they weren't the only ones who initially wanted to use this oppurtunity to kill off the Whitbeard Pirates. Nusjuro and Saturn wanted to use that alliance to destroy the Whitebeard Pirates as well. However, Warcury's compelling argument made the both of them change their minds to see the bigger picture in front of them.

The possibilities of the Whitebeard Pirates surviving it was minimal, but what would have happened after word? They alliance was single-handedly more powerful than the Whitebeard Pirates, a force that had both the strongest man in the world; and a living breathing calamity within its forces.

They had somehow managed to strike a deal with them in order to prevent further damage, but would that alliance be so willing as well? The momentum that they would have had after destroying the Whitebeard Pirates would have easily turned against them, soon leading to another war with the World Government. It was something that needed to be quelled rather than be left foster alone.

It was all for the sake of balance, just like the Five Elders invisioned. No matter how much they wanted to have vengeance against those Whitebeard Pirates.