The Headbutt King

Golden City, Shandora Ruins.

The ruins of collapsed buildings lay half-buried in the island clouds.

At the heart of the ruins, a massive beanstalk rose from the ground.

Its vines twisted skyward, piercing the clouds and reaching the higher White Sea.

At the very end of that beanstalk—

A peculiar "island cloud" floated there, denser in texture and roughly the size of a small plaza.

On the cloud-covered ground, a bell lay tilted on its side.

A giant bell forged entirely from gold.

The top of the bell was engraved with a pattern of the sun and moon alternating.

Ever since part of Jaya Island had been carried to Sky Island by the Knock Up Stream, the Shandia had lost this land.

Ever since Noland had been executed... this bell had never rung again.

Then—

A blazing fireball came hurtling in from the distance.

Its trajectory was somewhat erratic.

Yet in the end, it struck the Golden Bell dead on.

Dong------

The deep, resonant chime spread outward from the Golden Bell. The sound waves blew away the surrounding clouds, and the entire White Sea trembled in resonance.

Dong------

The bell's chime carried even farther.

The Shandia tribal camp.

Everyone looked toward the source of the sound.

"Four hundred years..." An elder fell to his knees. "Calgara... did you hear it... the bell... the bell is ringing again..."

A town on Sky Island.

Gan Fall, the god who had been reviewing documents, suddenly raised his head.

He pushed open the window and looked toward the distant sky, his expression complicated.

"That sound... could it be..."

On the streets, Sky Island residents poured out of their homes and looked up at the sky.

Some were confused, some uneasy, while those who knew part of the history wore complicated expressions.

And high in