With the team excited and exhilarated, the journey over to the Nine-Tailed Tower seemed like a short one, despite the dense crowds blocking the streets as they usually did.
It was only fortunate that Minos was lowkey, otherwise if people knew he was traveling in this carriage, he'd likely be stormed again.
Luckily no such thing happened, and after a snail-crawl of a journey, they finally arrived at the grand towers that were similarly located near the heart of the kingdom.
Unlike the Nine-Tailed Emperor's statue however, the Nine-Tailed Tower was firmly barred from the public, and they only opened up during special events.
Even then, only those participating in the battles were allowed within a certain distance of the tower, the others forced to watch from a distance.
As Minos's carriage entered this closed off area, a Forbidden Guard promptly appeared in front of them.
Seeing this, Minos realized it was time to say goodbye, so after a quick word with Suki and Tylia, he dismounted and entered inside.
As soon as he appeared, the crowds gathered around the tower instantly went crazy, fortunately the Forbidden Guards stopped them from entering the area, sparing Minos from more annoyance.
Still, he turned back and gave the crowd a smile and wave, which seemed to make them go even crazier.
With a slightly awkward laugh, Minos turned back and headed towards the Tower, soon joining the dozens others gathered in front of it.
As soon as he arrived, the others were quick to greet him respectfully, so much so that one would think he was already king.
"Alright enough, now isn't the time to bother the man." Princess Asumi suddenly said from the side, forcing the others to pause.
Despite being slightly annoyed by her words, they wouldn't dare say anything out loud, just promptly agreeing with the Princess before moving back.
"You need to learn to refuse sometimes, otherwise you'll just end up greeting people until you die from old age." Asumi couldn't help but advise.
"Nothing wrong with a little greeting, not to mention now is the time when I need friends and allies the most."
"These fence sitters wouldn't make good friends, but you've got a point, they've certainly still got their uses."
As the two were chatting, Orino suddenly showed up, who Minos was more than happy to let into his inner circle.
Somewhat surprisingly the Seventh Prince also soon joined them, and given the opportunity, Minos couldn't help but secretly scan him using his Soul Vision.
As he read his memories and thoughts, his understanding of the Seventh Prince rapidly evolved, finally confident enough to fully make use of the man.
The Seventh Prince naturally had no idea of this, just chatting casually about the upcoming battle, though it would be interesting to see his response if he knew such a thing.
Realizing this was a good opportunity to understand the next generation of elites, Minos began scanning everyone's memories, even including Orino and Asumi themselves.
With everyone analyzed, Minos created a list within his mind, splitting it into three sections.
The first was potential friends, made up of people with good and trustworthy natures, those who could be relied upon.
The second was allies, which were people who weren't completely rotten, but also not dependable enough to become part of his inner circle.
Finally there was the potential enemy list, naturally made up of people who held animosity towards him, and may even become hostile in the future.
While Minos could change people's natures using his Soul Vision, which had absorbed the Cat-Eyed Gem's abilities, he only kept that as a last option.
If he could save himself the energy, why not? Besides, his abilities wouldn't effectively work on those as strong as he was, and if his only friends were people weaker than him, the help they could provide would be limited.
As he finished creating this list, Ryold suddenly appeared above the tower, his soft yet powerful voice immediately reaching every ear and silencing the crowd.
"Welcome everyone, to the last and final battle, the Battle of Strength. The Nine-Tailed Emperor always saw violence as a last resort, which is why he made the Battle of Strength the final one."
"This in of itself is a reminder to people that if strategy and heart doesn't work, only then should you use power."
"The Nine-Tailed Tower is split into 9 layers, the first four testing combat ability, and the second four testing strength directly."
"As for the ninth floor, no one has yet had the blessing of reaching so high, but I have reason to believe today is the day that fact will change!" Ryold smiled, discreetly looking down at Minos.
"With that being said, let us begin the Battle of Strength, and just like yesterday, let's begin with last place first."
Announcing that, Ryold quickly called up a name, a man nervously appearing at the sound of his voice.
With slightly shaky steps, he made his way up to the Nine-Tailed Tower's, his foot finally stepping into the building after a moment's pause.
Surprisingly, as he stepped inside, a large holographic window appeared on the surface of the tower, showcasing his anxious looking face.
Minos thought at first that only Ryold would be aware of each contestant's results, but who knew that the Nine-Tailed Emperor would make such a show of things?
Though this wasn't a bad thing, after all if he understood what he was getting into before going, he'd have a clear advantage.
Focusing his thoughts, he looked up onto the holographic image, the anxious young man taking a few breaths before finally stepping into the center of the dark room.
As soon as he reached the heart of the room, he seemed to trigger something, the dark area immediately brightening up.
Clenching his fists, the young man soon witnessed a strange dummy-like figure manifest ahead of him.
Starting out illusory, the figure rapidly solidified, soon becoming completely solid, as if it was real.
With a stretch of its neck, the dummy reached out its hand before gesturing towards the young man, as if taunting him to attack first.
'Amazing… How did he do that?' Minos thought, not at all understanding the logic behind such an operation.
'Could it be Nux? Turning it solid is a simple matter at his level, but to make it maintain form and operate like a real human is something else completely…'
After a moment's thought, Minos decided to activate his True Vision, the shiny exterior of the Nine-Tailed Tower turning clear as he looked into its interior functioning.
'What is this formation? It's like nothing I've ever seen before.' Minos thought in wonder as he looked towards it.
The Nine-Tailed Tower had hundreds of formations, most of them Minos could at least comprehend, but this one was well beyond him.
'It seems to be some sort of soul-related formation…? Could it be the thing giving this puppet life?'
Unfortunately, Minos's formation knowledge was actually quite poor, and he had never really sat down and studied the field.
He had a feeling formations would become more critical in the future, so he decided to put studying them on his backburner, but for now it was more important to focus on the battle.
Back in the Nine-Tailed Tower, the young man seemed a little angry at the dummy's taunt, but he wasn't so foolish to attack right away.
Instead, he attempted to gather some Nux into his hand, but it dissipated as soon as it left his body.
'Dammit, I just remembered we can't use Nux during the first four floors… Luckily my father forced me to practice my hand-to-hand combat, so I shouldn't do too bad.' The young man thought to himself.
With a raise of his arms, he got into stance, slowly stepping towards the dummy that seemed disinterested in attacking.
Compared to a normal person, this dummy lacked eyes, making it hard to tell what it was thinking.
It seemed to be looking nowhere and everywhere at once, so he couldn't quite tell when was a good opportunity to attack.
After some frustration, he realized he was wasting his time waiting, so pulling his fist back, he finally unleashed his attack.
Not surprisingly, the dummy reacted almost instantly, its head teetering slightly to the side as it dodged the attack.
At the same time, it's fist shot out at an incredible speed, aiming straight towards the young man's gut.
Normally he could have dodged such an attack easily, but the tower was suppressing his strength to the level of a mortal, which he wasn't used to.
Due to the lack of familiarity with his current strength, he failed to dodge the attack completely, causing him to be forced back a few steps as he heaved.
The dummy clearly wouldn't let such a chance go to waste, so it immediately swung its other fist towards the side of his head.
Luckily for the young man, the first hit had woken him up, so with a duck, he managed to just barely dodge the attack.