The space beyond the sealed area had already begun to change.
Ever since obtaining the ability to isolate space, Cyrus had become far more sensitive to spatial fluctuations than before, and the changes surrounding the island were now impossible to miss.
That meant the time had come.
Cyrus had two choices.
He could eliminate Imu completely, wait for the spatial seal to expire, and return to his original world.
Or he could remain here and allow this entire overlapping space to carry him into the other world.
"Aaaah—!"
A shrieking shadow swept past Cyrus before rapidly dissolving into nothing.
It wasn't the first.
Ever since he began burning Imu away, shadow after shadow had emerged from her body like smoke rising from a fire, only to fade moments later.
Imu thought Cyrus was a monster.
Cyrus was beginning to think the same thing about her.
Apparently, every time she transferred her consciousness into another vessel, some influence from the previous owner remained behind—or perhaps fragments of their souls had simply become trapped within her.
The fact that Imu had carried so many remnants for centuries without completely losing her mind was impressive in its own twisted way.
But now that something which had once kept those fragments suppressed was gone, the accumulated consciousnesses were breaking apart.
They could no longer remain bound together as part of a single whole.
Perhaps that was for the best.
Cyrus quietly watched the dark silhouettes emerge from the flames and disappear into the air.
He had no idea whether reincarnation existed in the One Piece world.
But in the world he was about to enter, souls genuinely did have somewhere to go after death.
Maybe these people would finally receive that chance.
The flames continued burning as countless black shadows rose like soot into the sky and faded away.
Cyrus simply watched until nothing of Imu remained.
No consciousness.
No presence.
No lingering trace of her power.
Nothing.
"So that's finally done?"
He murmured to himself.
Then he turned and disappeared, reappearing atop a nearby sand dune that had likely been created by the shock wave from one of his earlier punches.
The space around the island had become increasingly unstable.
Cyrus waited patiently, curious to see exactly how the transition between worlds would occur.
If he could observe the process directly, perhaps it would offer some insight into how such passages worked.
Unfortunately, reality was far less dramatic than he expected.
There was no enormous rupture in space.
No violent distortion.
No obvious transition at all.
One moment, an endless ocean surrounded the island.
The next, the sea was simply gone.
In its place stretched an endless desert.
Rolling dunes extended all the way to the horizon, and everywhere Cyrus looked, the world was painted in the same dull yellow.
"Space really is fascinating."
Cyrus shook his head with some disappointment.
He had sensed nothing useful during the transition.
After briefly examining his surroundings, he vanished and reappeared above the Rose Hunter.
The ship was now buried deep in the sand, with only its upper decks and everything above them still exposed.
Robin had blocked part of the sand thrown up during the earlier battle, but clearly not all of it.
"So this is the other world?"
Robin looked up the moment Cyrus returned.
"It is."
Cyrus nodded, then glanced between her, Hancock, and Baby 5.
"Do any of you feel anything different?"
The three women exchanged looks.
"No."
Robin shook her head, and Hancock and Baby 5 did the same.
Cyrus was about to respond when his expression suddenly shifted.
He turned toward the distant desert.
"Before anything else, it looks like we have some guests to deal with."
His Observation Haki spread outward without restraint.
A large number of Hollows were converging on their position from different directions.
And they were not wandering aimlessly.
They were coming directly here.
'Because we're living humans?'
Cyrus considered the possibility.
If this truly was Hueco Mundo, living humans appearing here would be incredibly unusual. It wouldn't be surprising if even distant Hollows could sense them.
But there were far too many.
Cyrus's expression shifted again.
This time, instead of focusing on the approaching Hollows, he expanded his Observation Haki across the surrounding desert and carefully examined the environment itself.
Then he noticed it.
Reishi.
The strange spiritual particles were significantly denser here than in the surrounding region, concentrated almost perfectly within the area previously occupied by the overlapping island.
"Those souls inside Imu…"
Cyrus immediately understood.
"What is it?"
Robin noticed that he had fallen silent.
"Nothing important. We've attracted some unwanted visitors, but they're not much of a problem."
Cyrus waved it off.
"The bigger question is what we do next."
Robin looked puzzled.
"What do you mean?"
"This world we're in is itself something like a realm between spaces."
Cyrus looked out across the endless desert.
"If we want to meet more people and understand where exactly we've ended up, we can't stay here forever."
He began considering their options.
Hueco Mundo was chaotic, but not every Hollow was a mindless beast.
Higher-level Menos possessed considerable intelligence.
Whether they eventually wanted to reach the World of the Living or Soul Society, there should be ways to do it.
After all, powerful Hollows opened passages into the World of the Living often enough.
What Cyrus needed first was information.
Most importantly, he had to determine when they had arrived.
At the moment, he knew almost nothing about this world's current situation.
…
Las Noches.
Deep within Hueco Mundo stood the domain of Baraggan Louisenbairn, a terrifying Vasto Lorde who ruled the region and commanded numerous powerful Hollows beneath him.
Those who refused to acknowledge his authority rarely survived for long.
Today, however, an unexpected visitor had entered his palace.
Even Baraggan, whose strength had risen tremendously after entering his released form, could feel the oppressive pressure radiating from the man standing before him.
In a direct contest of Reiatsu, Baraggan had clearly lost.
"Shinigami."
His voice was unusually grave.
"State your purpose."
The hostility between Hollows and Shinigami was irreconcilable, but the man before him felt different from any Shinigami Baraggan had encountered before.
"Submit to me."
The bespectacled man looked harmless enough.
He spoke neither loudly nor quickly.
"Or die."
Baraggan erupted in fury.
His power of decay surged outward and struck the Shinigami directly.
Under the force of time itself, the man's body rapidly rotted away. Flesh deteriorated, and even his bones weathered into dust within moments.
"Your Majesty is invincible!"
"Such overwhelming power!"
Seeing Baraggan apparently destroy the intruder with a single attack, the Hollows surrounding him immediately erupted into praise.
Baraggan did not share their excitement.
Something was wrong.
The sense of danger he had felt from that Shinigami had been real.
Someone capable of exerting that kind of spiritual pressure could not possibly have died so easily without even resisting.
The contradiction between what his instincts told him and what his eyes had witnessed left Baraggan momentarily uncertain.
"Hm?"
Then his head snapped toward another direction.
A voice had come from there.
By the time Baraggan turned, the bespectacled man had appeared before him once again.
But this time, the stranger wasn't paying attention to Baraggan at all.
Instead, he was looking far into the distance, genuine curiosity appearing in his eyes.
"That's strange…"
"Has that man come to Hueco Mundo?"
"Why?"
The spiritual pressure he was sensing…
Aside from the old Captain-Commander, there shouldn't have been anyone else capable of producing power like that.
But that would mean his own plans had somehow been exposed.
And if they hadn't…
What could possibly have happened to make that old man come all the way here personally?