The world behind the door.
Lu Qi and the others had been walking for a while.
Seeing that no accidents had occurred, Lu Qi's rapidly beating heart gradually calmed down.
"Hoo, it seems I was overthinking things."
His tense emotions relaxed, and his face regained its usual indifference.
"Huh?"
Just then, he noticed that the surroundings had suddenly fallen silent. His companions and Kaku, who was supporting him, had all stopped.
Tremors ran through his arm, and he could feel Kaku's body shaking violently.
As if recalling something, sheer terror, and fear, quickly spread across his indifferent face.
Slowly, very slowly, he raised his head.
As expected.
That unshakeable, terrifying figure, at some point, had blocked their path.
The newcomer exuded no aura, yet that familiar sense of pressure instantly penetrated the depths of his soul, causing his eyes to widen and his pupils to contract into pinpricks.
Kong Tai had seen it, perceived it, and left behind a spatial node. With a spatial node, he could naturally enter!
While invisible and intangible to others, space was something he could tangibly touch and feel.
The moment Bruno opened the door, his perception had already spread into the world behind it through Bruno's door.
Therefore, even after Bruno closed the door, it couldn't stop him from entering.
It was strange, really. Without Bruno opening the door, he couldn't sense the existence of this space, but once Bruno opened it, this space seemed to descend upon the world.
No, it was also possible that this space had always been there, and only Bruno's door could access it.
His inability to sense it before was likely due to a lack of coordinates.
In his mind, this was probably caused by different spatial dimensions.
His usual sensing was limited to a planar perception of space.
However, the world behind Bruno's door was formed by reducing dimensions from the basis of the real world.
If the real world was described as three-dimensional, then this world behind the door was two-point-five-dimensional.
It was from top to bottom, so he couldn't sense it.
But as long as he glanced at it, having the probability of this space and the coordinates to enter it, he could cross the spatial dimensions and appear in this world.
Otherwise, he wouldn't have let these people in so easily.
He wouldn't let go of evildoers, especially those who came to cause him trouble!
He tilted his head, gazing at the transparent glass-like space around him.
A flicker of curiosity flashed in Kong Tai's eyes.
Here, left, right, and below were all the same. People in this space felt as if they were truly standing in the void.
Only above.
Looking up, gazing at the familiar streets above, which resembled reflections in water, understanding dawned in his eyes.
Indeed, this was a projection of the real world, an existence attached to the real world, constructed by an inexplicable Devil Fruit ability, bridging the gap between illusion and reality, not spatial travel.
Having looked and felt, what now…
He looked down at the trembling CP9 members, all of them alert and wary, and the corners of his mouth curled upwards, a cruel smile gracing his face.
He reached out and clapped downwards.
"Sil-"
Lu Qi was about to speak when a sudden pressure bent him over, forcing the words in his throat back down as he was hit by the impact from above.
Bang—!
A deafening clap echoed through the space.
Then, crunch, crunch, crunch!!
Sounds like shattering glass continuously erupted.
Irregular cracks, resembling centipedes, spread outwards from the point of impact, covering the entire space in an instant.
Buzz—!
The space vibrated. Centered on Kong Tai, everything around him seemed to freeze in time. The rapidly spreading space, which looked like it would shatter at any moment, instantly halted.
With a single step, Kong Tai's figure instantly appeared above the shattered remains of Bruno's corpse. His gaze was cold as he sensed a special energy rising from the man's body.
Having experienced this energy multiple times, he naturally knew what it was.
As the energy appeared, the space outside of his immediate vicinity instantly collapsed. In the spatial storm, darkness encroached, and amidst the encroaching darkness, he sensed a dangerous aura rapidly approaching.
As if sensing something, Kong Tai abruptly raised his head, nebulae swirling rapidly in his pupils.
"A door?"
In his vision, he seemed to see a door in the darkness, a door made of a giant skull, rushing towards him through the darkness.
However, it was as if this space existed at the ends of the earth, no matter how fast the door accelerated, the distance between them did not shorten at all.
Just then.
Clang!
Wind.
A chilling wind, to an extreme degree, instantly crossed time and space the moment the door opened, appearing in this space and blowing towards Kong Tai's domain.
Rustle, rustle, rustle!!
The wind blew against the outside of Kong Tai's domain, like sand, and it began to slowly erode the space of his domain.
But clearly, Kong Tai's domain space was different from the outside space. No matter how the wind blew or eroded, it couldn't advance.
Clang!
As if sensing the situation here, the door opened a sliver further.
"Danger."
Kong Tai, who hadn't felt danger before, now looked with shock into the depths of the darkness. He felt as if something extremely dangerous was about to emerge from behind that door.
Sensing the energy rising from Bruno's body, and unable to find an exit, he was forced to enter his opened dimensional pocket, attaching himself to a Devil Fruit within his pocket.
He closed the dimensional pocket and cast one last glance at the distant door.
Without hesitation, he turned and stepped out, his figure disappearing from this space.
The instant Kong Tai disappeared, the cold wind from outside instantly swept through the space where he had just stood, causing the surrounding space to return to darkness.
Clang!
The distant door opened a sliver further, and then, by the side of the door, five pitch-black, blood-red claws that gleamed even in the darkness extended from the door and gripped the doorframe.
Bang, bang, bang!!
Furthermore, from within the door came the low thudding sounds of heavy objects smashing against it.
"Aoo~"
Just then, as if sensing Kong Tai's disappearance, the sounds of smashing stopped. However, from the crack in the door, a roar that reverberated through the entire space and could only be perceived by the soul emanated.
The sound was deep, hoarse, and filled with evil, like the voice of a demon from hell.
Then…
Clang!
The wind disappeared, the claws disappeared, and the roar abruptly ceased.
The door also vanished with the darkness.
With the door, the shattered remains of the CP9 members also disappeared from the void.
This space returned to its ancient silence, as if everything that had happened here was an illusion.
Outside.
In the spatial ripples.
Kong Tai stepped out of the void, landing on the rooftop of an inn. He looked back with lingering shock in his eyes.
The moment he turned, through the cracks in the door, he seemed to have seen a true demon. He could only see blood-red eyes, but the madness and evil emanating from them left him with lingering fear even after escaping.
It wasn't this unknown entity that gave him much of a sense of danger, but rather, from behind that door, he seemed to have sensed more, stronger beings.
"Damn it!"
Why did the more he explored this world, the more dangerous it seemed!
Earlier, he had encountered an existence beyond his imagination.
This time, although it didn't pose a fatal threat, if that door was real, then the outside world was likely far from peaceful.
He didn't know where that door was located.
However, judging by the reality of the door, the world behind it was clearly not comparable to the world behind Bruno's Door-Door Fruit, which was built upon reality.
It should be a world at least on the same dimensional level as the real world.
"A true parallel world?"
He didn't know.
"When I truly stand at the pinnacle of the world, I'll explore there then!"
He cast a deep look behind him, a cold glint in his eyes.
After all, he already knew the spatial coordinates, and conventional methods likely wouldn't allow him to pass.
The space behind the Door-Door Fruit was completely dark without its power, and he would only be in darkness if he went there.
However, his black hole energy could break through the spatial barriers of both sides, allowing him to traverse time and space directly to the other side of that bizarre door.
He shook his head, no longer dwelling on it.
Although these things existed, they were too far removed from reality to pose any threat to it.
He glanced at the cautious Marines meticulously clearing the streets, let out a soft laugh, and his figure vanished from the spot.