"Don't be silly. I'm not that bored," Teach said with a grin, shaking his head. "The entire Poneglyph is mine now. I'll take it with me. What's the point of carving words on it and leaving it here?"
Redyat nodded, then asked, "So what's next, Teach? Do we just pack everything up and leave?"
"The Golden Bell was our original goal," Teach replied. He looked up at the colossal bell, eyes gleaming. "Before that, let's relight the lamp that's been silent for four hundred years. You're all curious too, right? About what the legendary Golden Bell actually sounds like."
That alone was enough to stir excitement.
This was not just treasure. It was history.
"Help me steady the supports on both sides," Teach said. "I don't know how much force this will take. I don't want the whole thing toppling over."
Wallace and Slada stepped forward without hesitation, moving to either side of the bell. They placed their hands against the massive golden pillars, bracing themselves.
Compared to the Golden Bell, Teach looked absurdly small. Even a giant would have seemed insignificant standing before it.
Teach took a slow breath, then lightly hopped forward and threw a punch.
His fist slammed into the Golden Bell.
Boom!
The impact shook the entire structure, but the sound was not the bell itself. The bell trembled violently, and the massive clapper inside swung hard, crashing into the inner wall.
Dong!
A deep, melodious chime rang out.
The sound spread outward at astonishing speed, rolling across the sky like a living thing.
Below, in the Golden City of Shandora, the Nightfall Pirates who were busy tearing gold from walls and roads all froze. Tools stopped mid-swing. Conversations died instantly.
The bell's sound washed over them.
It was calm.
Warm.
It soothed the heart, eased agitation, and seemed to cleanse lingering negativity from the soul. The chime was beautiful beyond description, carrying a sense of harmony that words could not fully capture.
Far away, on Angel Island, the waiting residents and Gan Fall heard it clearly.
Gan Fall's body stiffened. His eyes widened.
"This is… the Voice of God?" he murmured in disbelief. "They actually found the Golden Bell."
Around him, many Sky Islanders trembled, then fell to their knees. Some clasped their hands together, others bowed their heads, praying instinctively toward the sound.
Gan Fall felt a complicated bitterness rise in his chest.
After becoming God, he had searched all over Upper Yard for the Golden Bell spoken of in Shandian legends. He never found it. Eventually, he convinced himself it was only a myth.
Now, the truth rang through the sky.
Yet the bell did not belong to them.
The sound the Shandians had yearned for across four hundred years finally echoed once more, but there was no one left to hear it.
Their faith had endured centuries of bloodshed and struggle, only to end one step short of fulfillment.
Teach had lit the lamp of Shandora.
But the people who worshipped that light were gone.
Far below Skypiea, on Jaya Island, pirates and various forces had gathered in growing numbers.
Many of them had personally witnessed the Nightfall Pirates ascend into the sky through the Knock Up Stream.
Among the crowd was a man being restrained: Mont Blanc Cricket, the descendant of the so-called Great Liar, Noland.
Footage of the Nightfall Pirates' ascent had already spread rapidly. News transmission was faster than ever, and the existence of Skypiea was no longer speculation. People who had once lived on Sky Island, or had visited it, came forward to confirm it, even selling recordings for profit.
Skypiea was real.
And now, everyone wanted to go there.
That was when someone remembered Mont Blanc Cricket.
The descendant of the man who claimed the Golden City existed.
They captured him quickly. Cricket was strong for his age, but he was outnumbered, and the sudden confirmation of Skypiea left him mentally unprepared.
Then—
Dong. Dong.
A deep, resonant sound echoed from above.
The crowd fell silent.
"What was that?"
"That sound… it came from the sky."
"Is it the Dark Emperor doing something?"
"What kind of sound could reach us from the sky?"
Confusion spread.
Cricket froze.
His eyes widened, pupils trembling. His expression went completely blank, then twisted into something fragile and overwhelming. His knees gave out, and he collapsed to the ground.
Tears streamed down his face.
Someone noticed immediately. "Hey, Cricket. What's wrong? Do you know something?"
Weapons shifted subtly. Attention focused on him.
"Talk. What do you know?"
Cricket's reaction was too intense to ignore.
"It's… it's the Golden Bell," he sobbed, voice shaking. "That's the sound of the Golden Bell! My ancestor didn't lie. The Golden City really exists!"
The words stunned the crowd.
The story of the Great Liar was widely known, but few had ever seen someone react to it like this. The Golden Bell was barely mentioned in the simplified legends, and doubt still lingered.
"What does the Golden Bell have to do with the Golden City?" someone demanded.
Cricket wiped his tears, forcing himself to calm down.
"My ancestor left a diary," he said hoarsely. "It records the complete story of the Golden City, Shandora."
He began to recount it in detail. For four hundred years, the name Mont Blanc had been synonymous with lies. No one ever believed the diary, so he had never shown it to the world.
But he had memorized it.
"The Golden Bell is the Light of Shandora," Cricket said. "Its sound is like a lamp in the darkness. It guides ships through storms and gives hope. Only the Golden Bell could ring from Skypiea and still reach us, ten thousand meters below."
His voice trembled again.
"This confirms one of my theories."
"What theory?" several people asked at once.
Cricket pulled out two maps. One was new. The other was ancient, yellowed with age.
"This is Jaya Island as it was four hundred years ago," he said, pointing. "And this is Jaya Island now. Except for one missing section, everything matches."
He tapped the ancient map.
"The Golden City was located at the skull's right eye."
Murmurs spread through the crowd.
"Before his death, my ancestor believed the city sank into the sea," Cricket continued. "But that was wrong. If it had sunk, it would have been found. I searched the sea countless times and only found scattered gold."
His eyes shone with clarity now.
"The truth is that part of Jaya Island, along with the Golden City, was swept into the sky by a massive Knock Up Stream."
"That's impossible," someone scoffed. "An island being blown into the sky?"
"Why not?" Cricket shot back. "Look at the storm from the Battle of Edd War. Super-scale natural disasters exist. Knock Up Streams erupt constantly in these waters."
He took a breath.
"Under the right conditions, it could happen. Gold falling from the island would explain why I kept finding it on the seabed."
He clenched his fists.
"Now all we have to do is wait. Wait for the Nightfall Pirates to return. If they bring back gold, or proof of land on Skypiea, then the truth will be undeniable."
Tears poured freely again.
"Four hundred years," he cried. "Four hundred years, and my family can finally be vindicated!"
Even the pirates around him were moved.
The Mont Blanc family had carried ridicule and scorn for generations. It was a miracle the name had survived at all.
As the crowd slowly dispersed, some pirates exchanged glances.
Gold on the seabed.
Cricket was known to be wealthy. He had sold gold in Mock Town before, claiming it came from the sea.
What if it was true?
With nothing to do but wait, several pirate crews set sail, preparing equipment and diving deep beneath Jaya Island in search of buried treasure.
High above, Teach knew nothing of this.
The Golden Bell continued to shake under his power, ringing a total of twelve times before finally falling silent.
Teach stepped back, looking up at it with satisfaction.
Then darkness surged.
Black energy poured from his body, wrapping around the Golden Bell and its platform. With a downward pull of his hand, the structure began to sink, swallowed into the darkness.
The bell resisted only because of its incredible material. Teach's mastery of the Dark-Dark Fruit allowed him to maintain a controlled void within his internal dark space, effectively turning it into storage.
Redyat's space was already packed with Ohara's books. Nelson could only carry so much. The rest of the gold would have to be transported normally.
Bit by bit, the Golden Bell, its pillars, and the entire platform vanished into the darkness. The black energy then flowed back into Teach's body.
"All right," Teach said with a laugh, turning around. "We're done here. Let's head back to Shandora."
The light of the Golden City burned brighter than ever.