The titles of Chapters 545 and 546 got switched. I only noticed after posting them. What a mess. Rushing to update really does cause problems. The editor isn't around at this hour either, so please bear with me.
(After calculation, this really is free word count.)
"Whitebeard?"
Loa blinked in surprise. "You came to protect him?"
He was in no hurry to reveal his own objective. Mihawk's words had made him suspect that the man's ties to the Yonko ran deeper than he had thought.
"I wouldn't call it protecting him."
Whatever came to mind made Mihawk shake his head, a trace of reminiscence flashing through his eyes. After a pause, he continued, "If you only intend to weaken a Yonko's power, as you did in Totto Land, then don't count on getting lucky."
"Edward Newgate isn't Charlotte Linlin. She would compromise to survive, but he wouldn't. If anyone hurts his sons, the only possible outcome is all-out war. Judging by your decision not to kill Charlotte Linlin, that isn't what you want either, is it?"
That hit the heart of the matter!
The balance among the Yonko was nowhere near as fragile as that of the Shichibukai. As Loa had said before, the latter were more of a joke than anything useful. Otherwise, they would never have allowed Enel to become a Shichibukai and go after Gild Tesoro. The Yonko had long since sunk their roots deep into the sea, growing too powerful to remove. The loss of any one of them would cause upheaval across the world.
The loss of a Shichibukai, by contrast, would affect one country at most. Even with Doflamingo's frightening web of connections, no one caught in that web of interests had dared complain under Loa's Iron Fist.
*I get all that, but why