Robin's emotional turmoil had finally settled. For the crew, that was good news, she'd always kept a certain distance from them before. But now, that barrier seemed to have dissolved.
"Are we really going to ring it?" Vivi asked, staring up at the massive golden bell.
Back on Jaya, they'd learned that Cricket was Noland's descendant, and the Shandians were descendants of the great warrior Kalgara. Both sides had been waiting for each other for four hundred years, separated by a knock-up stream and bad timing.
The Straw Hats exchanged glances. Ringing the Golden Bell seemed like the right thing to do, but they weren't the ones who should be doing it.
There were people far more suited for that honor.
---
Down at God's Shrine, the Shandians had just arrived, and they were confused.
They'd spent the entire approach on high alert, expecting ambushes from priests and preparing for an inevitable confrontation with Enel himself. They'd even managed to take down one priest during their advance, which should have triggered a massive response.
But when they reached the shrine... nothing happened.
The warriors looked at each other. Had they really made it this far without opposition? Something felt wrong.
That's when "Enel" appeared.
The god's servants, who'd been scattered and panicking moments before, immediately straightened up when they saw their ruler. They gathered together, confidence returning to their faces.
The God's Guard emerged from the shadows where they'd been waiting. They'd been here the whole time, just biding their time. After all, their god enjoyed toying with challengers, appearing too early would have ruined his entertainment.
"Finish them," Enel ordered with a light chuckle.
The God's Guard and the Shandians faced off, weapons ready.
That's when Usopp arrived with the people of Angel Island in tow, all of them ready for the fight they'd been promised. A chaotic battle erupted across the shrine grounds. But the result was... surprisingly one-sided.
The God's Guard got destroyed.
See, while the Shandians and the Skypieans had centuries of grudges against each other, their hatred for the God's Guard was something they could actually agree on. These assholes had been enforcing Enel's tyranny, and nobody had any sympathy for them.
With both sides attacking together, the Guard didn't stand a chance. They went down hard and fast.
In the end, only Enel remained standing, along with a handful of trembling servants cowering behind him.
But neither the servants nor the defeated Guard members looked worried. They'd witnessed the true power of their god before, they'd seen him obliterate people with lightning strikes. Humans couldn't fight a god. That was just facts.
The more loyal servants kept their heads high, already imagining the rewards they'd receive for their faithfulness. Promotions, wealth, power, all of it would be theirs once their god finished playing around and wiped out these rebels.
This was just another divine trial, they told themselves.
Then something unexpected happened.
Enel was defeated. Utterly, completely defeated. By that long-nosed "new god" everyone had been talking about.
After the massive explosion cleared, Enel lay on the ground, charred black and smoking. And the long-nosed god simply stood there, silently surveying the scene. His clothes were barely dirty.
There hadn't been any fierce battle. No epic clash of powers. Just... an explosion. One massive, overwhelming explosion.
The shockwave alone had prevented anyone from getting close enough to see what actually happened.
And Enel was just... done. Game over.
Not only the god-servants and the God's Guard, even the Skypieans and Shandians found it hard to believe.
The same Enel who'd slaughtered his way through the God's Shrine years ago with barely any resistance, taken out this easily?
McKinley stood with his mouth hanging open, unable to process what he'd just witnessed. That's when the residents of Angel Island started chanting.
"The old god is gone! Long live the new god!"
The chant started quietly, almost tentatively. But it spread quickly, and soon everyone from Angel Island was shouting it in perfect unison.
As for Wyper, the current leader of the Shandians, his expression was complicated.
"The old god is gone! Long live the new god!"
His declaration stunned the other Shandian warriors. Their leader was actually acknowledging this outsider as a god?
But... if even he said it, who were they to argue?
After a brief moment of internal struggle, swept up by the momentum and peer pressure, many of them started shouting too. And weirdly, the more they yelled it, the more natural it felt. Soon their voices were even louder and more enthusiastic than the Angel Islanders.
This made the people of Angel Island feel like they were losing the chanting competition, so they raised their volume in response.
As for "God" Usopp himself, he stood with his back to the crowd. He could feel all those burning gazes on his back.
On his way here, he'd done basically nothing except run into some scammer trying to sell him cloud insurance. Then he'd somehow made it to the shrine without encountering a single obstacle.
When he arrived, he didn't even need to fight, the Shandians and Angel Islanders handled the Guard for him.
Then "Enel" showed up, and he got a message in the group chat telling him to unleash the biggest explosion he could manage, if he held back, he'd get exposed and probably burned at the stake.
So he'd given it everything he had.
And now here he was, like he was some kind of divine savior.
He was doing everything in his power just to keep standing. If someone patted him on the shoulder right now, he'd probably collapse immediately.
---
Up at the golden bell, Vivi looked curiously between Usopp's distant figure and Marcus. "So how are you going to end this?"
Marcus shrugged. "Now we just need Usopp to disappear dramatically."
"What?"
"Gan Fall and the Shandia Chief are both still around. They're equal in status now, so they can actually negotiate without worrying about hierarchy or divine mandates. Usopp just needs to put on one final performance."
---
Down below, Usopp felt Marcus entering his consciousness, and he immediately started screaming internally.
"FINALLY! What do I do?! I'm exhausted! I can barely stand!"
"You really underestimate your own potential," Marcus said cheerfully. "Did you know the human body has built-in limiters?"
"What are you talking about? How does that help me right now?"
In the pure white mental space, Marcus held up a finger. "The human brain has mechanisms to prevent you from hurting yourself. Simply put, when you throw a punch that feels like full strength, you're only using about thirty percent of your actual power. The remaining seventy percent is suppressed by your body's survival instincts, because if you truly used one hundred percent, the recoil would tear your muscles apart. If the force is great enough, you could even break your own bones."
"Okay... But what does that have to do with anything?"
"Mmm... nothing really. Just giving you a heads-up about what's about to happen."
"What?"
Marcus took control of the body.
---
Usopp turned dramatically to face the masses.
"When you are in need of divine intervention, call my name, Usopp, and I shall appear!"
Then, before anyone could react, he shot into the sky like an arrow released from a bow.
He soared upward, higher and higher, until he was just a speck against the clouds.
And then, like a firework reaching its apex, he exploded.
Not literally, of course. But the blast of compressed air and light he released was so brilliant that it looked like a second sun had appeared in the sky. The dark clouds hanging over the shrine were blown apart, and golden sunlight came pouring through the gap, illuminating everything below.
The explosion tore through the ceiling of the shrine, leaving a massive hole that let even more light flood in.
Everyone standing in the palace grounds was bathed in sudden, glorious sunlight.
For several long seconds, nobody moved or spoke. They just stood there, staring up at the sky where their supposed god had vanished.
Usopp had just... left?
He'd arrived without fanfare, defeated Enel without breaking a sweat, and now he was gone, taking nothing with him except a chunk of the ceiling.
Was that what gods did?
McKinley stood with his mouth hanging open. His entire worldview was experiencing a system crash.
For someone who'd grown up under divine rule, a 'god' was supposed to be an untouchable authority figure. You worshipped the god, obeyed the god, protected the god, that was just how things worked. It had been that way for as long as anyone could remember.
Rebellion? Overthrowing the divine order? That kind of thinking didn't even exist in Skypiea. It was unthinkable.
Then Enel had shown up, killed the previous god, and declared himself the new one. That had been McKinley's first real crack in the foundation, because if gods could be replaced, then what made them divine in the first place?
Not that Gan Fall had been a bad ruler. Actually, he'd been pretty damn good at the job. Under his leadership, Skypiea had prospered, and the four-hundred-year war with the Shandians had finally cooled down to an uneasy peace.
But then Enel had ruined all of that.
When Usopp appeared, McKinley had assumed it was just another regime change. New god, same system, they'd worship him, obey him, and get ruled by him. That was how it always went.
Except... apparently not this time?
The god had left. Just packed up and flew away without establishing any kind of authority or demanding worship or issuing decrees.
It was like he'd only shown up to kick Enel's ass and then bounce.
"What..." McKinley's voice came out shaky and confused.
Then he remembered what Usopp had said before disappearing. Usopp wasn't interested in ruling them. He'd just given the people of Angel Island their autonomy back and told them to call if they needed help.
The god had descended not to dominate, but to save them from disaster. And once the threat was gone, so was he.
He had always thought a god was just the most powerful person on Skypiea, the one who sat at the top and told everyone else what to do. But now he was starting to wonder if maybe he'd had it backwards this whole time.
"This is what a god should be," he whispered, and tears started rolling down his face.
He wasn't the only one. All around the sanctum, people were having similar realizations. Some fell to their knees. Others clasped their hands together and began praying.
"Lord Usopp... your mercy knows no bounds. Only you deserve that title."
The prayers spread through the crowd, growing louder and more fervent with each passing second.
Meanwhile, their god was currently flopping around on the ground like a dying fish.
"Usopp? You okay?" Luffy poked him with one finger.
The touch sent what felt like an electric shock through Usopp's system. He gasped, tried to scream, and discovered he didn't even have the energy to make sound. A single tear rolled down his cheek.
If he could go back in time to the moment they'd arrived in Skypiea, back when he'd started playing up the god angle, he would slap his past self so hard his ancestors would feel it.
Sometimes showing off came with consequences. And right now, he was paying the full price with interest.
"What happened to him?" Nami asked, staring at the wreck of their sniper.
Marcus waved a hand dismissively. "Simple. I pushed his body past its limits to generate maximum explosion output."
"Can you explain that in a way normal people understand?"
"I flooded his system with adrenaline, forced his pores open to dump excess water weight through sweat, and then made him channel all his remaining physical energy into one massive blast. The downside is that his muscles are basically shredded right now. It's like sprinting at full speed for an hour without stopping."
The crew stared at him.
Chopper understood the medical terminology, but the practical application was beyond anything he'd encountered. "That's... you can't just do that to people! The damage could be permanent!"
"His body is not that weak, he'll be fine after some rest."
Kira spoke up, sounding confused. "Wait... I've been through something like that before when you took control, and I wasn't this bad afterward."
Marcus shrugged. "Different situations. Your thing was mental and spiritual exhaustion from ability overuse, not that much physical damage. Usopp's got a Paramecia Devil Fruit, so there's no built-in power reserve to drain. To create that explosion, I had to squeeze every drop of physical energy out of his body. His base stats aren't great to begin with, so... yeah. The blast probably hit around C2 output, if I had to estimate. The Bomb-Bomb Fruit is all about brute force. If you can make a big enough explosion, you can damage even Logia users without needing Haki."
"That actually works?" Sanji asked skeptically.
"Sure. As long as the explosion is so massive and fast that lightning can't escape it, physics takes over. Of course, if you've got that kind of firepower, you probably don't need the trick anymore..."
The crew exchanged glances. An explosion powerful enough to trap light itself? That sounded like complete overkill. But Marcus seemed confident enough that nobody wanted to argue the point.
While they talked, Gan Fall and Wyper had quietly approached the Golden Bell.
The former god's expression was complicated as he looked at the Straw Hats. "You really did something extraordinary here."
Wyper's face showed a mixture of emotions too. The Shandians had their own traditions of respecting divine power, and seeing a god defeated and replaced was... a lot to process.
Finally, his gaze settled on the massive golden bell.
The Light of Shandora.