Synergizing Aptus's

"Jiro, I take it you're prepared?"

"As ready as ever, Sir."

"Good. Lyko, bring out the map."

"Yes!" Lyko replied, quickly stretching the massive map across the living room table that he had spent the night creating with his Mind Map Aptus.

Compared to a normal map, this one was far more detailed, every street and alley recreated with incredible precision.

"We've already marked all the critical locations, so what comes next should be easy."

"Nissor and Koha, you two will guard Jiro, as for Ko and Masi, I want you two to use your Aptus's and make sure no one discovers you."

"Lyko, I need you to create more maps, as many and as intricate as you can get them. As for the rest of you, follow me, we've got our own plans to complete."

"What are we doing, Sir?" Yosh asked.

"Just got to pick-up some supplies." Minos replied with a smile.

…

"We've arrived." Minos said, his shining blue eyes returning to a dull state as he looked at the large building ahead of him.

Traveling here wasn't easy since they needed to stay in the shadows and avoid eyes, but fortunately with Minos's Omniscient Eyes, that was a relatively easy task.

"A pet store? Why did you bring us here?" Taji couldn't help but question, immediately recognizing the distinct smell of animals.

"We've got to keep our eyes on both the ground and the sky, otherwise we'll be missing out." Minos replied as he quickly picked the window lock and gently opened the back window to the store.

Peeking his head in, he noticed there was only one person inside, the worker by the entrance.

Signaling his men to stay back for the time being, he dived in through the window, ducking down into a silent roll.

Standing back up quickly, Minos quickly snuck behind the workers behind, a quick strike to the nape knocking him unconscious.

Grabbing his unconscious body, he gently lowered him to the floor before locking the front doors and signaling his men to enter.

Soon enough, the others joined him within the store, and after a quick selection, they quickly exited with dozens of different creatures.

"Ugh, what happened…" The worker groaned, getting up only a short while after the group left.

Rubbing his sore face, he finally took a look around the store, his eyes flinging open completely as he realized what had just happened.

"Thieves, thieves!"

…

"Well done everyone." Minos said with a laugh, entering the safe house with the animals in hand.

"What now?"

"Just wait for the others." Minos replied, falling back into the couch behind him as he continued to inspect the animals in hand.

The wait ended up lasting quite a while, and it was only after nearly six hours did the group finally return, but Minos naturally wouldn't blame them, after all their task was quite difficult.

"How did it go?" Minos asked as they entered the house.

"It all went well, Sir." Nissor said with a smile, satisfied with the performance.

"Good job! Then Jiro, I'll need to borrow your ability a bit longer, I hope you've still got the strength."

"No worries Sir, I've still got at least a few hundred tattoos left in me."

"Good, then I'll need you to put some eyes and ears on these animals. Since we want to dominate in terms of surveillance, let's dominate completely."

"Naturally!" Jiro said, just happy to put his ability to use.

As a Forbidden Soldier, he didn't actually do much real fighting, just spending most days training or cultivating, so it was exciting to get back into the field for some real action.

With a few touches, he quickly tattooed all the animals on hand, Minos nodding in satisfaction before letting the creatures loose once more.

Seeing them run and fly chaotically into the streets, Minos could only hope they would travel as far as possible, since the immediate vicinity was already under their watchful eyes.

"What now, Sir?" Jiro asked as the animals all disappeared into the distance.

"Now? Now it's time for Husos to shine."

"What shall I do, Sir?" Husos asked, happy to finally be involved.

"I want you to stitch Jiro and I together."

"Right away! I just need you two to get a little closer."

Nodding, the two immediately stood back to back, Husos walking up to them before summoning a strange needle in one hand, and a bundle of green yarn in the other.

After delicately threading and tying the yarn through the eye of the needle, he finally placed the needle onto Minos's flesh, Minos's body instinctively rejecting the foreign power.

But Minos quickly took control of this rejection and dismissed it, allowing the needle to phase right through him and into Jiro.

After a few back and forths of this, Minos and Jiro's bodies were completely stitched back to back, Husos pulling the needle back and tying up the final knot with satisfaction.

With the final knot made, Minos immediately felt a strange force flow into him, and in turn, his 'force' flooded into Jiro.

Not wanting that to happen, Minos sucked his 'force' back into himself, turning the two way sharing into a one way sharing.

Jiro naturally had nothing to say about this, just allowing his power to flow into Minos, soon settling naturally within him.

With Jiro's 'force' settled, Minos immediately got a grasp over his Aptus, as if he was born with it.

Feeling this, Minos was even more shocked at Husos's Aptus, truly mesmerized by the potential hidden within it.

But now wasn't the time to think about that, so after settling his thoughts, he immediately connected with all the tattoos Jiro had created.

Almost instantly, Minos felt dozens of warm threads connecting him to all sorts of different places, and with a single thought, he connected into one of those 'threads' causing his vision to snap.

By the time his eyes were clear again, the site of a busy road came into view, hundreds of pedestrians walking by in silence.

Connecting to the ear tattoo that was placed right next to the eye, the noise of the crowd soon entered in a flood, their endless chatting crisp and clear.

'Amazing…' Minos couldn't help but exclaim, his eyes once again snapping back to a different location.

After doing this a dozen or so times, he finally stopped, ready to actually get to work now that he understood this ability thoroughly.

Unlike Jiro who could only connect with a limited amount of senses at a time, Minos's Soul Form ability allowed him to connect with pretty much all of them at once.

Splitting his soul nearly a hundred times, Minos connected to each thread, his senses overwhelmed for a moment before he regained control of things.

Activating his Omniscient Eyes at the same time, Minos became akin to an all-seeing god for a moment, a large chunk of the kingdom clear to his eyes and ears.

Despite the tremendous amounts of information flooding him all at once, his powerful soul and brain handled it with ease, not to mention his Omniscient Eyes had the passive trait of making his information processing abilities infinitely more efficient than normal.

With all this working in his favor, it didn't take much time for Minos to spot a few Forbidden Soldiers who thought they were operating in complete secrecy.

Marking down their locations, numbers, and appearances, he continued looking, only stopping after nearly an hour of nonstop investigation.

With his eyes snapping back open into the real world, Minos shook his head slightly before calling out to Husos, who was closest to him.

"Husos, get me a pen and some paper. Also, unstitch us."

Hearing this, Jiro couldn't help but feel somewhat relieved, after all standing still for an hour with someone awkwardly stuck to your back was far from comfortable. Fortunately he was used to far worse, so despite some discomfort, he could easily cope.

"Yessir!"

With Husos disconnecting them, Minos stretched slightly before taking the pen and papers and seating himself.

With a hand like a specter, he wrote so quickly that everyone watching him could barely see what was happening, only noticing the increasing piles of paper beside him.

Finally finished writing the last remark, Minos put the pen aside and took the thick stacks into his hand, nodding in satisfaction.

Breaking the stack into ten even piles, he distributed them throughout the group, the crowd's pupils rapidly enlarging as they saw all the information.