The forest stretched endlessly beneath the fading light, while the ruined buildings were bathed in the warm glow of sunset. Looking down from above, Rojen and the others stared across the basin, deeply shaken by what they saw.
Shandora, the civilization that had vanished eight hundred years ago.
Legend said that every building in this city had been made of gold. At the very center stood an immense Golden Bell. Whenever it rang, its voice would echo across the heavens, washing away the confusion and weariness in people's hearts.
It was an ancient city, a civilization that had long since disappeared from the eyes of the world.
Four hundred years ago, when the city was carried into Skypiea by the Knock Up Stream, the clear sound of its Golden Bell was mistaken by the Skypieans for the voice of their god. Because of that, this land became their Holy Land, the Upper Yard in the sky.
Ancient. Vast. Heavy. Warm.
A mixture of emotions washed over everyone as they stood before a civilization that had disappeared from the world centuries ago. Anyone confronted with such a lost civilization would inevitably find their thoughts wandering in countless directions.
"Whew."
Rojen took a deep breath before stepping forward. He found a path along the edge of the basin and began making his way down.
The others followed close behind. Even from a distance, the ruins of ancient Shandora left them stunned.
"Four hundred years ago, the North Blue explorer Mont Blanc Noland arrived on Jaya Island. There, he discovered a city made entirely of gold. He was so overwhelmed by what he saw that he returned to his homeland filled with excitement and amazement, claiming that he had discovered a magnificent city, the Land of Gold."
As he walked ahead, Rojen ran his hand along an ancient wall covered in vines and riddled with cracks. His voice was low and measured.
Everyone behind him listened carefully.
The legend had nothing directly to do with them, but the story itself was fascinating.
The purpose of history was not merely to make future generations remember, admire, or mourn those who came before them. More importantly, history was meant to show the way forward. Every piece of history might be nothing more than a pale record of the past, yet the weight it carried could be enough to crush everything beneath it.
"But when Noland returned to Jaya Island, he discovered that the Land of Gold was gone."
"Because of that, Noland was branded the greatest liar in history. He had deceived the world. He had deceived his own country. In the end, he was executed. Yet even as he stood on the verge of death, he continued insisting that the Land of Gold truly existed."
"His story survived and was passed down through the centuries."
Rojen's deep voice pulled everyone's thoughts back through time, returning them to that distant era four hundred years ago. For a moment, they could almost see the explorer Mont Blanc Noland himself, and the glory that Shandora had once possessed.
"What Mont Blanc Noland didn't know was that the Land of Gold still existed. He simply never had the chance to see it again." Rojen sighed softly.
"This is Shandora?" Crocodile stared ahead in disbelief.
"I heard Noland's story when I was a child. I never imagined it would actually be true! He wasn't lying. There really was a city made entirely of gold!" Trens took a deep breath, his voice filled with amazement.
"This is incredible! Shandora actually ended up here. But how did it get into the sky?" Jason asked, unable to understand.
"Do you remember how we got here?" Rojen smiled as he gave them the answer.
"The Knock Up Stream?!"
The crew stared in shock, gasping in disbelief. They exchanged glances, their eyes wide. They had thought the current that brought them here was already powerful enough, yet there had actually been a force capable of carrying an entire island all the way up to Skypiea!
"It's hard to imagine just how powerful the Knock Up Stream must have been four hundred years ago," Lordling said, her voice filled with disbelief.
In truth, no one present was willing to believe such a thing at first. Yet they had no choice but to admit that it was the most reasonable explanation.
"So the Upper Yard and Shandora... this entire island was Jaya Island four hundred years ago?" Nalene asked.
"That's right. Four hundred years ago, Skypiea's Upper Yard and Jaya Island in the Blue Sea were originally one and the same," Rojen nodded. "When you put the two pieces together, their full shape forms a skull. And Noland's records contain a sentence that describes exactly that."
Robin froze for a moment. During her free time, she had happened to read the book kept in Cricket's room.
"I saw gold in the skull's right eye."
Rojen smiled at Robin and nodded. "Exactly. The Land of Gold was located in the skull's right eye."
Rojen gazed at the ruined remains ahead, bathed in golden sunlight, and took a deep breath. "Shandora means 'City of Gold', a glorious city. In that distant age, this ancient civilization possessed a splendor we can barely imagine today."
As Rojen and the others walked through the ruined city, they didn't say a word. The profound weight of history surrounding them had left everyone shaken.
Faded murals covered the crumbling stone walls. Though damaged beyond recognition in places, they still seemed to preserve fragments of stories from the distant past.
"This one depicts the Shandians hunting monsters."
"This one shows their wedding customs."
"And this painting seems to depict them worshipping their gods."
One mural after another came into view as they pieced together the stories hidden within them. Lordling and Robin were the quickest of the group, carefully interpreting everything they could.
"Look!" Chaporos suddenly shouted from farther ahead.
Everyone followed the direction he was pointing and saw an enormous mural. It occupied nearly a fifth of the wall surrounding the plaza, its sheer size both magnificent and breathtaking.
"What is that?!"
"The Golden Bell!"
Everyone cried out in surprise before hurrying closer.
"At the center of the ancient Shandian city, there seems to have been an immense Golden Bell. They rang this enormous bell every day," Robin murmured as she studied the mural.
Lordling ran her fingers over the ancient markings on its surface and continued, "Whenever the bell rang, the birds would change direction and abandon whatever they were doing to come here and worship. Every animal would bow down. And the ancient Shandians would pray to the heavens, to God, with sincere devotion, asking for favorable weather and a prosperous year."
Suddenly, Lordling, who had reached the area directly beneath the Golden Bell in the mural, trembled. "What is this?" She quickly looked toward Robin, signaling for her to come over.
"A Poneglyph?!" Robin stared at the black stone depicted directly beneath the Golden Bell, shock filling her eyes. "There's no mistake. It has to be a Poneglyph!"
The two quickly confirmed their discovery before stepping back to view the enormous mural from farther away. "We have to find the place where the Golden Bell was located!"
Rojen and the others had noticed their strange behavior by now and looked at them in confusion. "What are you doing?"
"There's a Poneglyph beneath the Golden Bell. We have to find it!" Robin answered quickly.
"Yes. If we want to learn about the Void Century, this is our chance!"
(End Of This Chapter)
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