Declaring war on the World Government (2)

Because at Marineford right now...

The Navy had already lost a considerable amount of its fighting strength!

Facing the pirate crews of two of the Four Emperors, Big Mom and Kaido, was already difficult enough, and they still had Blackbeard Teach and even the Whitebeard Remnants to contend with.

The Navy no longer had enough strength to deal with Roya as well.

After all, every Marine had seen Roya's strength for himself.

And Sengoku believed that even if all the Navy's remaining forces gathered together to focus solely on Roya, they might not be able to kill him.

They had to remember.

Roya had yet to unleash that terrifying power he had used to injure Kaido.

Even without unleashing that power, he already possessed three Devil Fruit abilities, all from fruits universally acknowledged as the strongest: the Rumble-Rumble Fruit, the Tremor-Tremor Fruit, and the Venom-Venom Fruit!

What was more...

If Sengoku really obeyed the Five Elders' orders and attacked Roya...

He did not believe the other pirates would stand idly by, especially Big Mom and Kaido. Both of them wanted Roya.

Once he ordered every Marine to attack only Roya, it would inevitably prompt those pirates to act, while also helping the Whitebeard Remnants escape outright.

Wouldn't that be the same as announcing to the entire world that the Navy's campaign against the pirates had ended in complete failure?

At least for now, Sengoku, as Fleet Admiral, could not possibly agree to such a demand from the Five Elders.

However...

The Five Elders, enraged that Roya had challenged the authority of their World Government, did not give a damn about the Navy's reputation.

Roya had just openly challenged the World Government's authority.

Compared with the Navy's reputation, the World Government's reputation was obviously more important to them.

So the Five