Chapter 62: Gate of Heaven
"Dante Voss, save us quickly!"
As Luffy and the others rushed out of the Sea of Clouds, they saw Usopp with a look of terror on his face.
Dante Voss looked over.
At this moment, Luffy, Nami, Robin, and Chopper were physically weak, having relied on Zoro, Sanji, and Usopp to break through.
Dante Voss frowned, and several strands of black Demonic Energy surged from his body, pulling them all up.
"Ah, finally saved!"
Only after emerging from the Sea of Clouds did Luffy feel strength return to his body, recovering to normal.
"I almost died!" Usopp was trembling all over from fear.
"This cloud is just like the ocean; it almost made us all fall," Nami said, feeling like she had survived a catastrophe.
They had been flying just fine earlier, but ever since entering this Sea of Clouds, Nami had suddenly lost her strength, leaving them drifting in the sea.
Fortunately, Zoro, Sanji, and Usopp had not eaten a Devil Fruit, so they were able to bring the others out; otherwise, it would have been truly dangerous.
"This place seems a bit suffocating!" Zoro said, cold sweat beading on his forehead.
"This must be the Sea of Clouds, and this might be a fish from Sky Island!" Robin was holding a flat fish she had caught inside, examining it with curiosity.
"Is this a flounder!?" Chopper replied.
"Boom!"
Just then, several huge creatures emerged from the Sea of Clouds. They looked strange, like fish yet not quite, and they appeared on the surface of the sea while roaring, snapping at Dante Voss and the others.
"What is this?"
"It looks like it wants to eat us!"
"No!!!"
Nami, Chopper, and Usopp screamed in terror.
Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji also became serious.
Looking at these huge figures, Dante Voss slowly condensed a black sword in his hand and swung it directly at them.
"Hum! Hum! Hum!"
The huge slash cut their bodies into several pieces, and they sank back into the Sea of Clouds.
"Saved!"
Seeing this, Nami, Chopper, and Usopp finally breathed a sigh of relief.
"Sky Island is so scary!!"
Usopp was crying, already regretting coming here.
"Bang!"
Dante Voss took out the going merry, dropped it into the Sea of Clouds below, and placed everyone on it.
"This fish is so strange; it can actually turn into the shape of a balloon. It must be to adapt to the bottomless Sea of Clouds!"
As a scholar, Robin was very curious about these magical creatures.
Luffy was also very excited when he saw this strange fish. He snatched it up and gave it to Sanji. Before long, a plate of grilled fish was served by Luffy.
"So delicious!"
Luffy took a bite and shouted excitedly.
"We were still studying it!"
Nami shouted angrily.
"Where is Sky Island?"
Chopper held a telescope, looking around curiously, wanting to find the location of Sky Island.
Suddenly his eyes widened. Through his telescope, he spotted a figure flying over from the sky.
"Ah, there's someone in the sky!"
Chopper's voice was immediately heard by everyone on the ship, and they all gathered around.
"Where is someone?"
"Hmm? In the sky!"
"That person is actually riding a flying horse!"
The Straw Hat crew all discovered a person riding a horse with wings flying towards them.
The person was wearing armor and holding a spear. When he got close to the going merry, he jumped directly from the horse's back.
This made the Straw Hat crew vigilant.
The armored old man looked at their vigilant expressions and introduced himself: "I am the Sky Knight, Gan Fall!"
"Yeah!"
The horse behind also called out.
"Are you people from the Blue Sea?"
"Blue Sea people? What does that mean?" Nami asked, confused.
The Sky Knight explained: "Blue Sea people is the general term Sky Island people use for those from below."
Then he continued to ask: "Back to the point, are you Blue Sea people who came up from below!?"
"Yes, that's right!" Luffy nodded.
"I see. This is the White Sea, 7,000 meters from below. The layer above is the White White Sea, 10,000 meters from below..."
Afterwards, the Sky Knight told everyone about the information regarding Sky Island and the fact that he was a mercenary, then gave them a whistle that could summon him, and left.
After he left, Chopper discovered a strange cloud, and then the group sailed the ship in that direction.
The clouds rolled, acting like a solid surface carrying the going merry forward.
During this time, Luffy also discovered clouds with substance and even took Usopp and Chopper to play on them.
The going merry sailed for a while and finally arrived in front of a gate, with "Gate of Heaven" written on it.
Behind the gate, there was a layer of clouds that looked like a waterfall, which was very spectacular.
"Gate of Heaven? How inauspicious, it's like we're dead!" Usopp said, frightened.
"Who knows! Maybe we're already dead!" Zoro said, trying to scare him.
Sanji stroked his chin, "Very likely! Then it's not hard to understand why the world is so strange!"
"Are we really dead?" Chopper shouted in terror.
"Hahaha. Heaven is really fun!" Luffy laughed loudly.
Dante Voss was also lost in thought as he gazed at the scenery.
Many places in the Pirate world are indeed spectacular; the sky, the seabed, all kinds of places are inhabited.
"Who's dying!" Nami heard this and got scared, so she immediately punched them.
"What are you doing!"
Nami continued: "Don't make jokes like that!"
Chopper was crying silently on the side, "Why did you hit me too?"
"Hey, look, someone appeared inside!" Usopp stood at the bow of the ship and saw a figure walking out of the building inside the gate, and shouted.
"Click! Click! Click!"
That person was a very old woman, with white hair and a pair of small wings on her back. She was holding something like a camera and was taking pictures of the people on the going merry.
"Look, she has wings on her back!"
"An angel, is this an angel? She looks like a pickled plum!"
The Straw Hat crew said in shock.
"Excuse me..."
Nami still wanted to ask something, but was interrupted by the old woman from Sky Island.
"I am the overseer of the Gate of Heaven, Amazon. Are you here for sightseeing? Or for war?"
"Should I say war or sightseeing?" Nami was a bit flustered by the question.
Luffy didn't care about these things, but smiled and said: "We are going to Sky Island. Passing through this gate leads to Sky Island, right?"
Zoro was more composed and continued to ask: "What do you mean by war?"
Amazon said indifferently: "It doesn't matter which one. If you want to go to Heaven, please pay the entry fee, one billion extol per person. This is the law!"
"What? One billion extol?" Usopp was so scared that he backed away repeatedly.
"Converting one billion extol to Berries would be a lot, right!" Chopper said worriedly.
"One billion per person, that's eight billion for eight people!" Robin said.
"It takes so much money just to enter? Usually, entering a country doesn't require that much money. This old woman is clearly trying to scam us!" Usopp suspected.
As a little miser, Nami didn't want to pay this money, so she quickly smiled and said: "Excuse me, regarding this money, suppose, just suppose, what would happen if we don't have the money?"
"You can still enter!" Amazon didn't explain to them, but answered affirmatively.
"Then let's go in, to Sky Island!"
Luffy shouted excitedly.
"We don't have money, let us in, old lady!" Usopp also pleaded.
"Very well, so all eight of you want to go in?" Amazon confirmed.
"Yes, but how are we supposed to go in..." Luffy asked, confused.
"Boom!"
But before he could finish his sentence, a huge creature emerged from under the clouds, and its claws instantly grabbed the going merry.
Amazon explained: "This is the Express Shrimp, a specialty of the White Sea."
Before everyone had finished listening to Amazon, the Express Shrimp carried the ship and rushed up the waterfall.
Watching them leave, Amazon revealed a cold, sinister smile and quickly reported to Heaven:
"I am the overseer of the Gate of Heaven. Reporting to the Almighty God and all the priests, there are eight illegal intruders invading the God's country. Please grant them the judgment of heaven!"
After speaking, Amazon looked at the going merry rushing upwards and gave a cold smile.
"If you don't pay with money, you pay with your lives!"
However, under her gaze, she actually saw a red light flying over from that ship, moving extremely fast, and in the blink of an eye, it arrived in front of her.
"Whoosh!"
The red light instantly flashed across her body and went straight through the entire Gate of Heaven. In an instant, both Amazon and the Gate of Heaven were cut in two.