Enel quickly adjusted his attitude. "God... I mean, Captain. How should we handle these Sky Islands?"
Cavendish thought he was clinging to his status and mocked, "The world is far bigger than you think. What's the point of being a 'god' in such a small place?"
Enel glanced at him sideways, disdainful. "I never cared about these islands. My dream was to gather the gold from them to build the Ark Maxim and reach the Fairy Vearth."
"Fairy Vearth?" Cavendish frowned. "What's that?"
Enel's golden staff crackled with lightning at the tip, pointing skyward. "That is the Fairy Vearth. The dwelling place of gods."
"You mean the moon?" Cavendish's eyes widened. He hadn't expected Enel's dream to be so grand.
Ace looked up sharply, eyes under his cowboy hat flashing with shock and excitement. "We can really go to the moon?"
Setsuna smiled slightly. "Not a bad idea. But your vision is still too narrow. Your eyes shouldn't be limited to the moon, but to the vast, boundless starry sky."
Enel was thrilled. This was the first time he'd met someone who shared his dream, with an even grander goal. "As expected of the God King! Our dreams are the same."
The smile on Setsuna's face froze. Sharing Enel's ideas doesn't seem like cause for celebration.
Setsuna coughed twice. "As for handling these Skypieans... Find the god you chased away. Have him produce all kinds of Dials for us. These Skypiea's specialties should sell well."
Enel wasn't surprised Setsuna knew about Gan Fall. In his eyes, the God King knowing all was perfectly normal.
"Hah, that guy got off easy," Enel sneered, then asked, "But Captain, you seem quite concerned about funds?"
"It's not that I'm short on money. But who on these seas hates having too much?" Setsuna shook his head slightly.
He'd gotten Shiki's bounty, but the Belly's purchasing power was about equivalent to the Japanese Yen. Using his previous life's gold exchange rate, one ton of gold roughly equaled 20 billion Yen.
The bounty he got wasn't even worth 200 kilograms of gold.
To buy top-tier rare ingredients and establish the International Culinary Institution, that amount was a drop in the bucket.
Naturally, Enel wasn't planning to offer his Ark Maxim. "Captain, those Shandians in Sky Village have always spread legends of a Golden Bell. Should I go capture those barbarians and interrogate them for its location?"
"Not necessary. The Golden Bell is at the top of the giant vine," Setsuna gave the answer directly.
"As expected of the God King! You even know the Golden Bell's location." Enel was awed, feeling his own 'divine power' still wasn't strong enough.
Led by Enel, the group soon arrived at the clouds above the shrine.
A golden bell tower about 15 meters tall appeared before them. After four hundred years of weathering, marked by time, the gold's grandeur was even more pronounced.
Sunlight slanted through gaps in the clouds. The bell's body, like ignited amber, flowed with liquid golden light, turning the surrounding cloud sea into dazzling hues.
Setsuna ran a hand over the bell's surface, watching his reflection twist and shift on the gilded surface, then chuckled softly.
"Truly... a luxurious work of art."
"It really is art," Ace nodded in agreement. Though he had no artistic sense, gold was beauty. A golden bell this large was the pinnacle of beauty.
"How many Berry is this worth?" Cavendish gazed obsessively at the bell, 'Indeed, human handsomeness couldn't compare to gold's beauty.'
Compared to the Golden Bell, the Poneglyph looked like an ordinary stone, utterly ignored.
Setsuna stroked his chin, roughly estimating in his mind.
The bell tower was about 15 meters tall. The Poneglyph base was about 5 meters. The bell itself and the two gold pillars were 10 meters. The bell's wall thickness and the pillars' radius were both 0.5 meters.
'Calculating, the bell's volume was roughly 100 cubic meters. The two pillars combined were 15 cubic meters. Gold's density was 19.32 tons per cubic meter. So total weight was 2,222 tons. Converting... that was 44 trillion Berry!'
Even with Setsuna's composure, this number shocked him. It was roughly equivalent to 12,000 Shiki's bounties.
Though shocked, he understood after calming down.
The Emperors' bounties seemed high, but those were personal. Compared to national wealth, they were nothing.
Take Arlong. Adults paid 100,000 Berry monthly, children 50,000. Even if a village had only 200 people, he could easily collect 100 million Berry a year.
Arlong ruled 20 villages. Just from protection money, that was 2 billion Berry a year.
In a world like One Piece, where the strong dominate everything, the top 1% likely held 99% of the wealth. Yet even from these poor people, so much could be extracted.
Imagine how rich those kings were.
Compared to them, 44 trillion Berry wasn't much.
Of course, the broke King Riku, who couldn't even afford 10 billion, was an exception.
Setsuna voiced his estimate. "This golden bell tower is worth at least 40 trillion Berry."
Hearing the number, Enel, who had no concept of wealth, remained calm. But Ace and Cavendish's breathing grew rapid.
'40 trillion Berry!'
They hadn't just never seen it… they'd never even heard of such a colossal amount.
Ace laughed, hands on hips. "Hahahaha! I won't have to dine and dash anymore... No, I'll spend lavishly! Eat one bowl, throw away another!"
"Hah. Such a vulgar, nouveau riche idea," Cavendish elegantly brushed the hair from his forehead, eyes sparkling with longing. "I'll buy the front page of every newspaper. Let the world admire my grace daily."
Seeing their nouveau riche attitudes, Setsuna sighed, shaking his head. "Before planning how to squander it, let me ring this bell first."
After all, this bell carried the 400-year promise between the Shandians and Montblanc Noland. Though he felt no romantic sentiment for it, since he was taking their sacred artifact, he should at least fulfill their four-century-old wish.
Dong-
Setsuna swung his fist. The Golden Bell erupted in deafening resonance. Sound waves swept across the entire Skypiea like a tsunami.
The bell's sound pierced the clouds, forming visible golden ripples that spread layer upon layer to the horizon.
The ringing echoed, lingering, crossing Angel Island, reaching Sky Village.
In Sky Village, all Shandian warriors stood frozen like statues.
Their widened eyes trembled violently. In their ears echoed the bell their ancestors had yearned for over four centuries.
Some fell trembling to their knees, fingers digging deep into the soil. Others looked up at the sky, tears silently falling.
"It's the light of Shandora!"
"Four hundred years... Finally... we hear it again!"
Just as the Shandians wept for joy, the Golden Bell, having endured Setsuna's full-power strike, shattered with a thunderous crash.