"I've heard the ringing of the Golden Bell is incredibly beautiful. Are you going to ring it, Bardock?"
Robin, having finally recovered from the sheer shock of finding the Poneglyph and piecing together the overarching mystery of the True History, felt a massive weight lift off her shoulders. The dark, suffocating gloom that had haunted her for twenty years was finally beginning to dissipate. Looking at the ancient text and the colossal Golden Bell, her heart swelled with genuine excitement.
"I'm definitely going to ring it. But I strongly suggest all of you step back as far as you can. It's going to be incredibly loud," Bardock warned.
He had thoroughly inspected the massive construct. There was no exterior striking mallet to be found; this was a traditional bell featuring a massive internal clapper. Since he couldn't reach the clapper, he decided to just hit the side of the bell with his staff.
"Captain, please hold back! Don't shatter the bell into pieces!" the crew shouted in unison as they frantically scrambled to the far edge of the cloud island, covering their ears.
They were intimately familiar with the apocalyptic destructive power of the Jingu Bang. If Bardock carelessly swung that hyper-dense metal staff at full strength, he would instantly turn the legendary 400-year-old artifact into golden shrapnel.
"Relax! I know what I'm doing!" Bardock waved them off, rolling his eyes.
Once he was sure they were a safe distance away, he gripped the Jingu Bang with both hands, widened his stance, and swung the staff toward the side of the colossal Golden Bell.
However, the physical metal of the staff never actually touched the gold. At the absolute last microsecond, Bardock utilized advanced Armament Haki emission, projecting a highly compressed shockwave of invisible armor directly into the metal surface.
DOOOOOOONG...
A deep, incredibly resonant, and unimaginably beautiful chime erupted from the bell, instantly washing over the cloud island.
Standing right next to it, Bardock felt the sheer acoustic power vibrate through his very bones, causing all the hair on his arms to stand on end. Far away, the rest of the crew lowered their hands, completely captivated by the majestic, soul-stirring melody.
DOOOOOOONG... DOOOOOOONG...
Bardock fell into a steady rhythm, striking the bell over and over again.
Meanwhile, on the outer edges of Upper Yard, the bloody battle between the Shandians and the Divine Guard was drawing to a close. Once again, the sheer numerical superiority and disciplined formations of the Skypiean forces were forcing the guerrilla warriors into a bitter retreat.
Seeing that they were about to be violently expelled from their ancestral homeland yet again, the hearts of the Shandian warriors bled with sheer frustration and despair. They had lost count of how many times this exact scenario had played out. It wasn't that the Skypieans were individually stronger; it was simply that the Shandians' population had dwindled so drastically over four centuries of endless war. How could they possibly accept this?!
DOOOOOOONG...
Suddenly, a melodious, echoing chime descended from the heavens, washing over the blood-soaked battlefield.
"The Song of the Island!"
Hovering high above the battlefield on the back of his massive bird Pierre, Gan Fall gasped. Hearing the majestic chime instantly brought to mind the ancient Skypiean legends describing the 'Song of the Island' that had echoed across the sky when Upper Yard first fell from the Blue Sea four centuries ago.
"The Light!" "It's the Light of Shandora!" "The Golden Bell has been rung!"
The battered Shandian warriors froze, their eyes widening in sheer, unrestrained ecstasy. Yes! It was unmistakable! That was the legendary chime of the Golden Bell!
Wait.
A chilling realization suddenly swept through the Shandian ranks. Every single capable Shandian warrior was currently locked in combat right here on the front lines. None of them had breached the upper levels of the Giant Jack. That meant... the Skypieans had found it. The Skypieans were ringing the bell!
A primal, blinding rage instantly erupted within the Shandians. How dare those filthy thieves desecrate the sacred treasure of Shandora?!
Driven by absolute, suicidal fury, the Shandian warriors abandoned all tactical retreats and launched a completely reckless, hyper-aggressive counter-offensive. The sudden, terrifying ferocity of the attack caught the Divine Guards completely off guard, forcing the heavily armored Skypieans to rapidly retreat step by step.
Miles away in the Hidden Cloud Village, the remaining Shandian civilians also heard the majestic ringing.
The elderly Chief shot up from his chair, his eyes wide. "Someone has lit the Fire of Shandora! Gather every single adult who can hold a weapon! We march on Upper Yard immediately!"
As the village rapidly mobilized, a group of five teenagers urgently rushed up to the Chief.
"Chief! We are warriors too! Let us fight alongside you!"
"Wiper," the Chief said sternly, looking down at the fiercely determined boy. "It is not your time to step onto the battlefield yet. Stay here."
Without another word, the Chief led the armed civilians out of the village, sprinting toward the warzone.
"What do we do, Wiper? The Chief won't let us fight," Kamakiri, another young teenager, asked, gripping his spear tightly.
"That sound... that's definitely the Light of Shandora! If the Chief won't take us, we'll go ourselves!" Wiper declared.
Wiper was fearless, aggressive, and fiercely proud. As the direct descendant of the legendary Great Warrior Kalgara, the Chief had personally told him the tragic story of the unfulfilled promise between Kalgara and Mont Blanc Noland. Because of that burden, Wiper revered the Golden Bell far more obsessively than anyone else in the village.
"But Wiper, won't we just drag the Chief and the older warriors down if we go?" Laki, a young girl, asked hesitantly, clearly wanting to obey orders.
"You can stay behind, Laki. Anyone who is afraid can stay in the village!" Wiper didn't wait for a response. He immediately activated his Waver—specialized, high-speed skates powered by Breath Dials—and rocketed out of the village toward Upper Yard, his proficiency with the skates already surpassing many adult warriors.
The remaining four teenagers exchanged nervous glances. Unable to let Wiper ride into a warzone alone, they quickly activated their Wavers and chased after him. They were the most elite prodigies of the younger generation; their raw combat skills already rivaled some of the veteran fighters. Fueled by the reckless courage of youth, they weren't afraid of dying for their homeland.
However, when the five teenagers finally arrived at the edge of Upper Yard, they didn't find a massive, bloody clash. Instead, they found the Shandians and the Skypieans locked in a tense, completely silent standoff.
The reason for the sudden ceasefire was immediately obvious.
Slithering through the ancient ruins, its massive body swaying rhythmically to the chiming of the Golden Bell, was a colossal, sky-blue python.
The Master of the Sky.
That was the terrifying title the locals had given it. It was supposedly over four centuries old. Originally a tiny, adorable pet snake raised by the Shandians down in the Blue Sea, it had grown into a terrifying, indestructible monstrosity that reigned as the absolute apex predator of Sky Island.
Neither the Shandians nor the Skypieans dared to provoke the Master of the Sky. They silently tended to their wounded, keeping a terrifyingly close eye on the giant snake while simultaneously glaring at each other.
Seeing Wiper and the other teenagers arrive, the Shandian Chief glared at them furiously. If they hadn't been in a life-or-death standoff with a giant snake, he would have beaten them all senseless with his cane for disobeying orders.
Far below the clouds, down on the Blue Sea.
Countless pirates and civilians on the remnant island of Jaya stopped what they were doing and looked up at the sky in absolute bewilderment. They could clearly hear the faint, incredibly melodious chiming of a massive bell echoing down from the heavens.
Was the sound actually coming from the sky?! Did that mean the ridiculous legends of Sky Island were actually true?! And if Sky Island was real... did that mean the City of Gold was real too?!
Many of the pirates immediately thought back to the terrifying rookie captain who had effortlessly incapacitated an entire tavern the day before, explicitly mentioning going to Sky Island.
Countless pirate crews instantly made a unified decision: they needed to gather as much intel on Sky Island as possible and figure out how to get up there! Even if they couldn't find the City of Gold, the sky dwellers likely had no concept of piracy or self-defense! Imagine the sheer amount of wealth they could plunder from an unprotected paradise!
Out on the open ocean, far away from Jaya Island.
A narrow, perfectly straight path of solid ice stretched across the surface of the sea.
A lethargic Kuzan lazily pedaled his bicycle along the ice path. Hearing the faint chiming, he hit the brakes, resting one foot on the ice as he looked up at the sky. He was aware of the classified Marine intelligence confirming the existence of Sky Islands, but he genuinely hadn't known there was one located directly above Jaya.
"What a beautiful sound. It actually makes me feel a little bit motivated," Kuzan murmured.
He resumed pedaling, following the ice path directly toward the island slowly coming into view on the horizon: Jaya.
High above the clouds, on the isolated island of the Golden Bell.
Bardock finally stopped swinging his staff.
He couldn't ring it anymore. The sheer acoustic resonance was becoming physically dangerous for his crew. It was especially agonizing for Chopper; as a reindeer, his hearing was incredibly sensitive, and since he hadn't learned Armament Haki yet, he couldn't physically shield his eardrums from the massive soundwaves.
"That's enough for today. Let's head down to Upper Yard and see what's going on," Bardock announced. "Bonez, Sai. Give me a hand. We're going to carefully lift the Golden Bell and secure it on the deck."
"Understood, Boss." "Yes, Captain!"
With the combined physical strength of the three martial artists, the colossal Golden Bell was carefully hoisted up and gently set down on the deck of the White Dragon.
Bardock wiped a bead of sweat from his forehead as he looked at the massive artifact taking up almost all of their free deck space. He let out a long sigh of relief. It was a good thing he hadn't planned on actually stealing the bell and taking it back to the Blue Sea; if he had, he would have needed to buy a significantly larger galleon just to transport it.
"Everyone hold on tight! We're descending!" Bardock yelled.
Down in the ruins of Upper Yard.
The moment the majestic chiming finally stopped, the fragile ceasefire shattered. The Shandians and the Skypieans instantly raised their weapons, glaring at each other with renewed hatred, waiting for their respective leaders to give the order to attack.
However, both the Chief and Gan Fall were completely fixated on the Master of the Sky. The absolute worst-case scenario was the giant snake deciding to attack the massive crowd. The Shandians couldn't retreat without claiming the island, and the Skypieans couldn't allow the Shandians to advance. They were trapped in a lethal stalemate.
Murphy's Law states: Anything that can go wrong will go wrong. Or, more simply put: The more you fear something happening, the more likely it is to happen.
Having two massive armies gathered in such a concentrated area was simply too enticing for Nola, the Master of the Sky. After all, it was a snake; tracking massive concentrations of prey via scent was its biological specialty.
Slowly, deliberately, the colossal python slithered toward the armies.
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