Chapter 179: Golden Bell

Patting my stomach in satisfaction, I looked back at the ruins and started walking toward them, while Trenza had long since left, seemingly wanting nothing to do with the crocodile that nearly ate her. However, while walking toward the ruined city above the clouds, I occasionally see sparks of lightning and flashes of bright light followed by a gust of hot wind. Now, I was no genius, but I could discern a battle was happening far above the clouds, and if I had to guess, it looked like Enel and Mael were fighting each other, which makes sense as when I had returned to this place in the morning, I had smelled Mael and Grand's scent, I was just far too annoyed to bother with it.

"Hmm, wonder who's winning. It better be Mael." Remarked Diddy curiously as he looked at the sky before sporting a feral grin, only to shake his head a few seconds later.

Ignoring the battle happening above the ruined city, I ran back towards the pyramid at the center of the city, and when I arrived back at the top after passing through the clouds, I noticed only Trenza was present, causing me to tilt my head in confusion as I looked at her.

"Where are Sebas and Robin?" Asked Diddy curiously as he approached Trenza, who was sitting on the ground, reading the broken pieces of the golden while he approached her.

"I don't know. They were already gone when I arrived, so I just decided to wait for you, Captain. I figured you'd be able to easily find them by following their scent or whatever." Replied Trenza as she looked up at Diddy before standing up and dusting herself while pushing the golden slab on her lap out of the way.

Nodding, I did just as Trenza guessed and sniffed the air, and after a few seconds, I locked onto their scent, revealing a trail that headed directly upwards, higher into the cloud, wherever the beanstalk led.

"They went up; c'mon, let's follow after them." Said Diddy as he leaped in the air, causing Nimbus to appear beneath his feet before squatting down and outstretching his hand.

"You should've let me get on your back first, Captain." Muttered Trenza lightly as she grabbed Diddy's hand, prompting him to yank her onto Nimbus, yet instead of falling right through, she was standing on it.

"Eh, how am I standing on your cloud, Captain? Did you do something to me?" Questioned Trenza curiously as she held Diddy's shoulders for support, standing right behind him while looking down at the fluffy yellow cloud she was standing on.

"I can control Nimbus, and since I can stand on it, why couldn't I make it so anyone else couldn't stand on it? Granted, this took several attempts to learn, but it was pretty easy after I figured out Nimbus reacts to my intent or will, and since I want you to stand on Nimbus, you'll stand on it." Replied Diddy with a slight smirk as he stretched a little before sitting down, followed by Trenza doing the same, though she was much more cautious.

"That's awesome; I wonder what else you can make Nimbus do." Said Trenza with slight awe as she gently rubbed her hands across the top of the fluffy cloud, which listened to Diddy's desire and started to float higher into the air.

"This is about it; I can make it take on whatever shape I want it to be, but that's theoretical; I'm not nearly proficient enough in controlling it to do so, though I'll get there." Stated Diddy with a faint grin as he glanced at Trenza behind him before looking down at Nimbus, excitement glowing in his eyes.

With Nimbus lifting both Trenza and me into the sky, we quickly left the pyramid behind and entered the clouds, eventually emerging from the other side. Looking up, I noticed there was still another set of clouds we could enter, and not only that, the sparks of lightning and flashes of light became much more frequent, along with the temperature slowly increasing.

"Captain, do you know if that's Mael fighting Enel?" Asked Trenaz curiously as she looked up at the sky, eyeing the cloud above her.

"I'm pretty certain it's him; I smelled his scent around the pyramid; speaking of scents, Sebas and Robins continue to go up." Replied Diddy calmly with a nod as he glanced around, noticing nothing of interest other than a few ruins and golden objects before shrugging his shoulders.

Ignoring this layer of clouds, I continued to go higher, passing through the second layer of clouds, which was slightly thinner than the others, before emerging from the other side. When we did, I first noticed the flying boat-ship off in the distance, where I spotted Mael fighting some weird dude using a golden bo-staff.

'Is that in his back? This fool is stupid.' Mused Diddy as he eyed the circular halo-like object on Enel's back before shaking his head.

Ignoring Enel's weird taste in fashion, I watched the two fight for a little bit and deduced that it was quite an even fight; despite Mael being able to unleash stronger and more devastating attacks, Enel was able to counter it with his haki, which allowed him to anticipate his attacks slightly in advanced, making it hard for Mael to actually land any attacks.

"Logia vs logia; an interesting fight." Remarked Diddy lightly with a slight grin as he eyed Mael and Enel before shaking his head and looking away, searching the rest of the clouds.

"Eh, logia? Enel also ate a logia devil fruit, Captain?" Asked Trenza in slight surprise as she raised her eyebrows while watching the fight, her third eye granting her superior vision compared to before, allowing her to watch Mael and Enel speedily fighting on the flying boat-ship.

"He ate the lightning lightning fruit; that's why I couldn't manipulate his lightning. It doesn't matter how good my control over lightning gets; I'll never be able to defeat someone who is the very essence of lightning itself. Though his actual control over his lightning isn't that impressive, if it weren't for the fact that he's the very embodiment of lightning, I bet his control wouldn't even be half as good as it is now." Replied Diddy with a nod as he gave the fight one last look before turning to the left, heading toward a large golden bell in the distance where Sebas and Robin were.

"Is that how logia devil fruits work? Hmm, I should probably learn more about them." Said Trenza lightly as she ignored the battle happening behind her before nodding with a thoughtful expression.

Nearing a massive golden bell in the distance, I hopped off Nimbus without any warning as it returned to inside my body, causing Trenza to fall onto the ground, though luckily for her, the ground was of clouds, which didn't make it as enjoyable, if you ask me.

Approaching Sebas and Robin, who were just standing before a large stone engraved into the base of the massive golden bell, I noticed it had ancient writing similar to that of the door on the pyramid.

"Yo, what is this large stone? Seems a little out of place." Said Diddy lightly as he walked between Sebas and Robin and approached the stone containing the ancient words.

"Ho, Captain; that right there is a poneglyph, which contains information from the Void Century." Stated Sebas lightly as he looked at Diddy before turning and glancing at Trenza behind them, only to glance back at the poneglyph.

"Hmm, yeah, I don't really care about what happened 900 years ago. Though I'm interested, can I destroy this stone?" Remarked Diddy lightly as he dismissively waved his hand before smirking as she placed his hands atop the stone.

"The poneglyphs are made of near indestructible material; how else would they survive 900 years without a single scratch?" Said Robin with furrowed brows as she looked at Diddy, though her words only served to stimulate him.

"Hehe, indestructible? Now you're speaking my language, Robin; nothing is indestructible; no one has simply used enough violence, that's all." Stated Diddy with a feral grin as he unholstered Naga-sa from his back, only to flex his muscles and violently slam the but of his bo-staff into the poneglyph.

Despite attacking with nearly all of my physical might, the poneglyph remained completely unscathed, not even so much as a scratch or dent, but the same couldn't be said for the massive golden bell; surrounding the poneglyph, cracks began to form as they spread around the base of the golden bell. This prompted me to notice a couple of ancient texts off to the right of the poneglyph, which managed to pique my interest.

"Hey, Trenza, what does this say?" Asked Diddy curiously as he looked at the ancient text before gesturing to Trenza, who walked forward, his words garnering Robin and Sebas' attention.

"Umm, it's really just a whole bunch of advice; whoever wrote this wasn't really saying anything definite. Gol D. Roger. Hmm, I've heard that name before." Stated Trenza with a slight frown as she leaned down and read the texts before shaking her head and eyeing the last few words, which ended up surprising everyone.

"Gol D. Roger? The Pirate King, owner of the One Piece and first person to ever set foot on Laugh Tale. That Gol D. Roger?" Remarked Sebas with widened eyes full of shock as he looked at Trenza and Robin for confirmation, though the latter was just as astonished as him.