"and done," James said to himself happy with what he just did.
"what's that?" James jumps out of his chair and immediately goes to a combat stance ready for a fight. He scans around his room to find nobody.
"Maybe I was hallucinating" James sigh thinking that maybe not sleeping even though he didn't need to has taken a toll to his mental health.
"No, you are not" Once again he can hear someone talking in the room but after checking around for the second time he still finds no one in the room besides himself.
"Who are you?" James said to the empty room. "Show yourself"
"Look doc, if I wanted to you'de be dead before you even realize it, so I suggest you to calm down and listen to what I want to say"
James didn't take the man suggestion and keep standing with a stance ready for a sudden fight. He is still scanning around even though by now he knew already that the man is using some kind of magic to hide.
"haah" A long overdrawn sigh can be heard, James follows the source of the sound but still find no one there. "Are you James rose? I heard the doctor is an exceptional man in a fight but here you are getting scared like a little girl."
What the man said is not completely false, James is really scared right now never in his life he had to encounter something that can become invisible whats true however is that James is exceptional in a fight even with an opponent that he can't see, at least not with his eyes.
Unbeknownst to the invisible man James has started, he spread around his mana to the room and with that mana he tried to feel for the void, the place where his mana cant go. He knew this trick when he tried to heal his first patient, he figures out that someone or something with a core will 'reject' his mana as such when he spread around his mana wherever the mana's not reaching must be where the man is.
"Whoever you heard it from is lying to you, I can't fight I'm just a doctor" James is stalling for a time, he can't just suddenly moves his mana outward since that will alert the man.
"You say that he is lying but the matter of fact here is that you're the one who is lying, by the look of your stance itself I know that you can fight," The invisible man said ridiculing James, his tone is somewhat easy going like he had done this countless times before.
Contradicting his easy-going tone of speaking the man is even more nervous than James, James knew that by feeling that the man is constantly moving, circling him. Or maybe that just how his magic works and he is truly a trained assassin.
"You know what? I am lying" James said before he lunges through the room at the invisible man. In an instant James and the invisible man collide, that broke the invisibility of the man and now he can see the man with his eye. James can see from the man eye that he is surprised so without wasting the opportunity James pinned the man to the floor.
James is now sitting on top of the man stomach with his now hardened nail on the man throat, a trickle of blood can be seen flowing down to the floor.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, doc, doc, doc, hey, hey I, I came in peace" The man is now panicking on the floor he tried to move his hand but James stopped it with his feet.
"You say threatening me is peace?" James put his nail harder on the man throat.
"No, no I *cough* That was a joke, please don't kill me."
"I won't if you tell me what I want."
"Please don't, I'll talk, I'll tell you everything."
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"Good, now what do you want from me? Say it in 20 words or less if you don't want to lose your head."
"I'm just a messenger."
"That doesn't answer my question."
"The WG sent me."
"What? But I already told them to join them through Adam."
"Yeah, I'm with Adam, Adam Miles the ferromancer, I was sent to make sure you accept the proposal."
"And if I don't?"
"Then to stop the word from getting out."
"What you want to kill just because I didn't accept your proposal."
"Something like that, but hey, you accepted it so it's all fine right, right?"
"I guess, but I don't like the way WG does their thing."
"You must understand that they can't afford to be known to the public yet, it's not the time."
"I guess but still they tried to kill me, YOU try to kill me."
"Listen, doc that was a JOKE, I tried to give you something since you have accepted our proposal."
"That is?"
"Can you release me first?"
"No, just tell me where it is and I'll take it for myself."
"Ugh, fine, it's in my back pocket, the left one."
James flipped the 'messenger' around and goes through his back pocket finding a metal badge shining with a red-blood color, the badge itself had a shape of heart, not the love kind but humankind of heart. From whatever angle you look you can see that the badge is specially created for James.
"What's this?"
"That will be your new identities, James Rose the blood mage of the council of magi"
"What kind of lame-ass name is that"
"Hey it wasn't me that picked it if you want to complain Adam is the ones who picked the title for the mages"
"And if it was you what do you suggest my new title will be?"
"I dunno, maybe James the crimson mage? Or something like that."
"Hmmm Crimson Mage, I like the sound of that."
"Great, now can you release me yet?"
"Not yet, first, how do you get here and how did you even know I live here"
"The internet is a powerful tool just waiting to be used"
"Once again that doesn't answer the question" James push his hand harder on the man throat farther opening up the wound on his throat.
"Okay, okay, They search for you using your IP or GPS or something like that and they also gave me a vehicle"
"They can do that? does that mean everyone else who still have access to the internet can easily be tracked by the WG?"
"Pretty much yeah, so how can you release me yet, please?"
"Sure," James said as he released the man and simultaneously healed up his wound on the throat. The man is very surprised about that.
"Whoah, you truly are the best healer dare I say in the world"
"it's not that good, it came with a few limitations"
"Still it's faster than the best healer the WG have, speaking of him he will probably be under your wing from now on, so anyway goodbye" After getting released by James the man immediately reentered his invisibility state and dashed right out of the windows, he is very pleased with himself to manage to escape from the clutch of James.
What he didn't realize is that James has already memorized his core signature, that's why he can heal him like that. So when the man turns invisible James faster than the man can move controlled his body.
"Wait a minute, you forget to tell me your name"
The man, currently invisible is shocked, he can't move his body, he cants move his eye to see what the hell James is doing to his body, he can even move his mouth to answer James question, he is not in control of his body. Now he is truly scared, when before he thought that he can still escape with his life when the situation demands it but now he's not so sure about that. No, it's not true, he is very sure that he can't escape from James.
"Oh I'm sorry, I forgot that you can't speak right now" As James said that he released the control of the man and see him falling to the ground headfirst like a statue.
"Oof" The man is laying on the ground too scared to even move a muscle.
James approaches the man, squat beside him and asked "Well, mind telling me your name"
"Josh," The man said in a soft voice still not dared to move a muscle
"What's that, speak louder, I can't hear you" Whether it's his personal experience or something but when James shouted right at his ear he quickly answers back.
"Joshua Read the first of the Phantoms. Code name: Loud Owl " Long has gone his easy-going tone of speaking, now he is talking to James like James is his superior in the army.
"What's that? Phantoms"
"It's a new division created by the World Government consist of people with the ability suited for infiltration, assassination and reconnaissance mission"
James then continues to interrogate the poor man that is on the floor, completely still like a statue. James used his ability to see if Josh is lying but ever since he fall on the floor all that comes out of his mouth is the truth.
James found out that the council aren't the first division created by the world government consist primarily of people with magic nor will it be the last, they are preparing for war, greater than the last war against the monster. They are preparing for whom, even Josh doesn't know, what he knows, however, is that their enemies this time around aren't some mindless monster but something more intelligent, more cunning and more numerous than all of the monster that had attacked earth before.