"Attack! Surround them!"
"These savages dare to occupy God's Island? Capture them all!"
"Wait—what is that thing?! Is it one of the Shandians?!"
The Battlefield: Sky Island, the Former Jaya
Once hurled into the heavens by the Knock-Up Stream four hundred years ago, this land had since been called God's Island by the Sky Islanders.
From the age of the great warrior Kalgara until now, war had never ceased.
Battle upon battle, hatred upon hatred — the cycle repeated endlessly.
Above the White Sea stretched countless territories: the Western Sky Summit, the Southern Reaches, and the region of God's Island itself.
Even centuries later, warriors like Urouge and Kaido would find themselves here.
This same sky — where Nami would one day study celestial navigation — had been drenched in blood for generations.
Today, under bright sunlight and calm winds, the war raged again.
Leading the Sky Islanders was their youthful, thirty-year-old chief: God Gan Fall.
Though known later for his love of peace, before Roger's era he too had fought the Shandians relentlessly — until Enel's arrival, who seized the title of "God" for himself and remade the island into his dominion.
At this time, Gan Fall was still in his prime — clad in silver armor, wielding a long spear, astride his winged horse Pierre, empowered by the Horse-Horse Fruit.
He gleamed like a fallen star as he charged into the fray, unstoppable.
The Shandians, defenders of the earth, fought with equal fervor — young, fierce, determined.
Their generations had sworn to protect:
The Golden City of Shandora
The Golden Bell of Shandora
The ancient writings carved upon its stones
Even if the Golden Bell had been silent for four centuries, their mission — and hatred — endured.
If not for the future arrival of Enel, nothing would have ended the bloodshed except annihilation.
"Protect Shandora!"
Warriors wearing wolf-head masks charged with wooden spears.
Another doomed battle was about to unfold — until the sky itself roared.
The Arrival of a Monster
The colossal vine that pierced the clouds trembled.
Thunderous crashes echoed — and several massive shapes flew upward.
One of them — a mountain-sized giant — plummeted onto the battlefield.
It was Sanjuan Wolf.
"Wuuuuh… Wolf hungry!"
The gigantic man blinked awake, his head dizzy from the thin air.
Below him, hundreds of tiny figures scurried like ants — fighting one another until his arrival froze them all mid-motion.
"Is that… the Sky People's reinforcements?!"
"Or a god descending?!"
Both the Shandians and Sky Islanders gawked.
Spears bounced off Wolf's skin harmlessly.
He blinked, muttered, "Hungry," and casually swatted away a dozen attackers.
He plucked fruit from a tree like grapes and tossed them into his mouth.
At nearly two hundred meters tall, this colossus — empowered by the Inflate-Inflate Fruit — was a moving disaster.
"Sweet heavens! That monster isn't with the Shandians!" someone reported to Gan Fall.
On the other side, the Shandians received the same message: the giant wasn't theirs either.
So what was he? A creature from the sea?
The Feast of Fear
"Hungry!"
Wolf tore out several trees, set their trunks ablaze with nearby torches, and began roasting sky beasts over open fire.
The battlefield fell silent.
Both sides — warriors and soldiers alike — dropped their weapons and ran to extinguish the spreading fire.
Only Wolf sat content, waiting for his meal, his enormous shadow looming over the scorched plain.
He didn't notice that his presence alone had ended a four-hundred-year war.
History's Echo
The history of the sea had always been this way — races and nations in endless conflict.
Humans had once fought the "rare tribes" endlessly, until the Lunar People descended and enslaved them all for eight centuries, erasing history itself.
Had Nika once called for peace eight hundred years ago, no one would have listened.
But the next time a "Nika" appears — when the world's long-silenced anger finally ignites — the people will follow him without hesitation.
Because this time, they've learned to value the flame they lost.
Now, the one who had fallen upon Sky Island — Sanjuan Wolf — stood as a new "god."
The old god, Gan Fall, once of the so-called "Divine Race" who ruled the Red Continent, suddenly seemed small by comparison.
Old gods always yield to new ones.
And those who resist are erased.
The Sky Islanders and Shandians alike froze, staring in terror.
The unknown breeds fear — and Wolf, immense and unshakable, was fear incarnate.
Then —
The Bell Rings
From far above the White Sea came a soft, melodic chime.
Gong…! Gong…!
"Aah! So pretty! Wolf likes that sound!" he said, chewing on roasted meat.
The clouds parted. At the vine's very peak, the Golden Bell glimmered faintly through the mist.
"Chief! Is that the legendary sound of Shandora's bell?!"
"...It must be," whispered the Shandian elder.
"No one alive has ever heard it before."
"It's the voice of the gods! The sound that rang through the heavens four hundred years ago!"
Gan Fall's spear trembled in his hands.
Once again —
Gong!
The Shandians dropped to their knees.
"The flame has been lit!"
"Someone has rekindled the Light of Shandora!"
Their cries rose with the bell's echo.
No one looked at Wolf anymore — as if his arrival was destiny itself.
Every eye turned upward.
And there — across the blinding sky — coiled a black-scaled dragon that filled the heavens.
"What is that…?"
"Captain… Sharn!" Wolf exclaimed, mouth full of meat.
"Captain Sharn! Pretty sound! Wolf likes!"
The name burned into every heart on Sky Island: Sharn.
He had rung the Golden Bell.
The Dragon and the Bell
The peal of the bell spread across the White Sea, through the clouds, and down to the Blue Sea below.
On the Grand Line, the people of Mock Town froze, staring at the heavens.
The shadow of a colossal dragon spread across the clouds.
Click!
Reporters' cameras flashed.
The photo would soon circle the world — a black dragon winding across the sky, wings reflecting the light of a golden bell.
"Is that… a dragon?!"
"A real one?!"
"And that sound — I've never heard anything so beautiful!"
The legend of Sky Island, once myth, became reality before the eyes of thousands.
Mariejois
Days later, atop the Red Line, the Five Elders gathered in fury.
One tossed a newspaper into the trash.
"'Sharn Pirates vanish, abduct archaeologist Olivia…' And now a dragon's roar over Jaya? That accursed bell!"
The bald elder with the hooked white moustache — Saint Vochury, God of Legal Affairs — slammed his fist on the desk.
He oversaw all affairs of Enies Lobby and commanded CP0 through CP9.
Speaking through the Den Den Mushi, he barked at the subordinate on the other end:
"Spandine! You know what to do!"
Spandine, father of the future CP9 chief Spandam, straightened immediately.
"Understood, Saint Vochury. I'll locate the Sharn Pirates at once. CP9 will erase them entirely!"
"Extinguish the flame!"
The Den Den snapped shut.
Spandine saluted.
"The flame will die, my lord."
But even as he vowed this, the world was already whispering of the black dragon who lit the sky with sound.
And at that very moment — in the sky above Jaya — Sharn's stomach growled again.
From the ship's galley drifted the warm scent of cooking.
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