"Quite anticlimactic if I do say so myself"
A calm voice echoed behind James just as the elevator doors closed, his hands lifting away from the floor selection pane where two numbers one and three were lit up.
"..."
James remained silent, his face losing the usual smile, instead he now had a bored, apathetic look on his face.
As if understanding something, the tone of the voice became more subservient as it replied to its own words.
"Understood, are you heading for the academy? The students should still be studying, it would take them one to two years before they could do anything.
Yet, despite this, James retained his silence as the elevator shook a few times before the door opened.
Interestingly, instead of a hallway or a parking lot, the image reflected beyond the elevator was a vast field of green. A singly path cut through the vibrant green fields, starting at the elevator's entrance leading to a distant castle.
Letting out a sigh, James left the elevator, as he exited, the doors began to close and as they did he turned around and said-
"I want Kingpin under control, if it's not possible, have it under the Magic Association, all of it"
James' words did not carry his usual lighthearted tone, instead, it now carried a strong oppressive air. Those that knew of James would find his current appearance quite off, his lighthearted and carefree tune gone, replaced by a sinister and brooding image.
It was as if a bright shonen protagonist suddenly turned into an evil Kaneki Ken, and as Kaneki is quite the dark and brooding character, a man plagued with countless mental troubles, an evil version of that madman would be something else.
At this moment, calling James a manifestation of evil and darkness itself would not be far off. All he lacked were the dark streams of energy all villains had.
Despite this, the voice inside the elevator did not seem to mind, instead, a hint of joy could be felt from the voice as it responded-
"Affirmative, My Lord"
As those words dropped, the elevator door closed and the square box at the center of the green fields vanished as if it had never existed in the first place. James did not linger in that spot, he did not even bother to look at the disappearing elevator.
By the time the reply was spoken, James had already begun his walk towards the distant castle.
On the way towards the castle, James looked over the fields, the past months had been quite a rush and it was only recently that he had found a few local witches and magic users.
James used his eyes to see a distant training field, in that space, various men and women of different ages were working hard to study and understand magecraft.
"This world's magic is quite straightforward and simple, energy blasts, a hex or two and teleportation…"
Thinking of the various spells he had observed, James was quite pleased that he had his homunculi look for traces of magic. After all, the way these idiotic magic users abuse their abilities and hide their traces were too-
"Brute force"
James commented as he watched one of the older magic users accidentally fire off another "magical energy blast".
It was nothing more than a beam of concentrated magical energy, James had used their methods to improve magecraft and through that he was able to increase the efficiency of his personal magecraft as well as the various common magecraft used by other magi.
"To think it took me so much time to notice"
James lamented, when he had arrived in this world, his mind was consumed by the "common knowledge" of the Nasuverse. Because of "jaded mentality" of his, he was unable to quickly discover the inconsistencies in magic between this world and the Nasuverse.
He "did" know of the inconsistencies related to Kamar-Taj, he knew of how broken and cheat-like the magic used by Kamar-Taj was. But that was his only recollection of the magical realm of marvel.
Even the few comics he could recall had magic users simply fire off blasts of energy.
It was only when his people stationed in the Main Headquarters of the Clock Tower at London discovered traces of magic users did he realize just how broken magecraft could be and how simple minded the mages in this world were.
The first time he truly discovered the true "system" of this world was when one of the magic users he was chasing tried to run away using teleportation. Space and time related spells that is believed to be only possible using True Magic.
Of course, James had made his own complicated method of replicating teleportation, but his own spell required "markers", sets of "destination points" he would even need to create an "opening" whenever he used it in combat.
Due to his nature, James was capable of utilizing complex magecraft with minimal preparation but for others, his spells were tedious and very "expensive" to set up.
In this world though, magic users were capable of teleporting with a simple thought and the consumption of magical energy.
If one were to make a comparison, James' method was like creating doors, these doors would open and close in various "points". Through these doors, James walks through a distorted space that allows "pseudo teleportation".
The mages in this world on the other hand were different, if James had to build doors, create an exit before he could create an entrance, the mages of this world simply walked through the distorted space whenever they liked.
Though this was not some godlike authority, its was akin to boring a huge tunnel through a mountain. The distorted space is the mountain and the spell they use creates the hole. The mage would quickly run through the hole as it collapses on itself.
The method utilized by mages in this world required them to use massive amounts of magical energy which ultimately forces them to "borrow" power from "higher existences".
Of course, the method of the Marvel Universe mages could be replicated in the Nasuverse, the only problem is that the magical energy required to do so would be a thousand times greater.
This difference is due primarily to the greater number of restrictions and protections that the World itself provides in the Nasuverse. To compare the two universes, the wall of reality, the laws that maintain "order" in the Nasuverse which limits and prevents the use of magic, is like a 50 meter thick steel wall. In contrast to the paper thin walls of glass that are the laws maintaining order in the Marvel universe.
Much like glass, the laws of the marvel universe shatters rapidly upon experiencing the smallest push. But because the wall is so thin, replacing it is quite easy.
Using that same thought, magecraft from the Nasuverse could be seen as a drill carefully boring through the laws. It does not break the laws, it simply creates holes, openings for magic to exist. This is possible only because the wall is so sturdy that it would be hard for the world to detect any breach.
The marvel universe's magic on the other hand focuses on brute force as any force applied on the laws of order would simply shatter the wall which would rapidly repair itself.
Magecraft is precise and needs to be calculated in order to show maximum efficiency, this led James on a week long quest to quickly "adjust" the various spells he had to adapt properly to this world.
This led to an even higher requirement for knowledge and a steeper learning curve for each spell.
But, what this added was a deeper complexity to the spells that allow them to exist perpetually.
In fact, the hidden world he created was something that should have been impossible in the Nasuverse had become a reality in this world.
Tampering with the laws had become so easy that James believes that any mage in the Clock Tower would cause quite a disturbance if they come to this world.
The freedom of magecraft and the unknown limits would make those old men go crazy.
"I on the other hand- simply wish to enjoy myself~"
James whistles as he thought, walking through the huge castle gates and entering the main campus of the "Academy of Modern Magecraft".
This academy is a subsidiary of the Clock Tower, on paper, it aims to train magi to become researchers and members of the clock tower or enforcers responsible for taking care of world altering magical phenomena.
On that note, James had recreated the whole Mage Association, while in the Nasuverse, the task of the Mage association is the passing on of magecraft and the Clock Tower focuses on "hiding" it from the world.
The Mage's Association in this world was created to be a magical version of SHIELD- at least on paper.
With a false history, James had created a secret society and fooled quite the number of people.
Of course, some did not believe him but all he had to do was show the power of Magecraft. In this manner, James had secured himself a huge number of magic users who could transition to using magecraft.
"Though I do need to do something big… maybe start a Holy grail War someday… inviting some "special guests" should make it even more believable…"
James thought to himself as he entered the main castle building which was the main academic building in the whole castle compound.
Unlike the Hogwarts castle, this castle of James' creation was like an extremely large castletown. At the center of the whole town was a castle with multiple large structures interconnected to form a huge academic building. Around the castle were various houses, businesses and other installations created to simulate a bustling town.
"If Nick Fury saw this he would probably start a manhunt for mages"
James muttered under his breath as he recalled the two agents that chased him all the way to the Empire State Building.
Though his words should have been only for himself, a loud cry of shock echoed behind him.
"WITCH HUNT?! WHY! OH NO!"
Hearing the all too familiar voice, James turned around, smiling he addressed the individual behind him.
"Miss Storm, if I recall correctly, you should be in class right now"
Turning around, James gaze met with a young blonde woman. Her youthful face showed an expression of shock and panic as she tried to turn away, a futile attempt to hide her identity.
Unfortunately for her, she was already caught. Her body had lost control as she stood frozen staring at James who remained smiling.
"I went to… powder my nose?"
Despite her body being stuck, her face and mouth could still move allowing her to speak. She knew that she could not escape, but the fact that she was allowed to speak meant that James was waiting for her "excuse".
She tried to explain herself but her lie was easily seen through as-
"From the training ground?"
James asked as he pointed towards her feet.
The young teen realized that she had been caught, she didn't even need to look down at her own feet to realize that she had failed to erase all the "evidence", not that she could look down though-
Knowing that she was already seen through, Susan Storm did even try to make up any more lies as she simply said-
"Sorry?"
"Is that a question or a genuine apology?"
"..."
The two had a silent staring contest, Susan, unable to say anything and James who loved to see people try to get out of awkward situations. While others loved to mouth off and speak, James focused on short speeches and phrases, using concise statements to reduce the errors he says.
It was an occupational habit, most magi act that way, especially those from the clocktower and one would find that the older a magus is, the less they speak their minds or babble.
Though they will still ramble on endlessly when talking about magecraft or when their emotions are raised up, they would usually carry a very "professional" state.
After all, in a world where one's words could be used to create a curse that could kill them, most seasoned magi are truly cautious.
Unfortunately, this turns many long lived magi into, what many would call, shut-ins.
There was a good source for the rumors of 30 year old virgins without a life becoming wizards.
After all, most magi would not have lives, since having a "life" is basically having a "weakness", a weakness that others could easily exploit.
Fortunately, in this world, the only true Magus is James, even his homunculi are all categorized as spellcasters.
Much like Kiritsugu Emiya, specializing in a small set of spells mastered to absolute efficiency. They could do the same things as magi but their magecraft is more focused on practically than anything else.
At the moment, James was copying the method many magi in the nasuverse employ to pressure their students.
SIlence-
Susan was, of course heavily affected, the silent stare, the pleasant smile…
Although she "fell in love" with her teacher, James Barthomeloi the moment she saw him cast magecraft. As of this moment, the feeling of "love" she had was replaced by one of absolute dread.
James, upon seeing the change in Susan's expression, shook his head helplessly.
'I really thought I'd get someone like Yvette… who would have thought… she'd be more like Rin-'
James looked at the blonde woman who declared her love for him in the first day of class with an exasperated expression. He waved his hand, an action he did not need to do but one he did to mask his magecraft.
Susan, upon regaining control of her body turned her gaze up, her eyes still holding a deep expression of fear.
In response to this, James tried to calm down the blonde but-
"For today, I will forgive your actions Miss Storm, but-"
The moment Susan heard the words "Forgive" she quickly bolted forward as she exclaimed-
"Thanks professor!"
Upon realizing that he had been duped, James chose not to pursue the matter. He only shook his head helplessly as he continued to make his way towards his office.
The halls of the school were empty as it was currently the time for study. Most students were in their respective classrooms or at the training field. This is the reason why Susan was caught, James did not memorize the class schedule of every student.
He simply knew that the training field had its own bathrooms and those in the field would all be "cleansed" before entering the halls.
James stopped his steps, he turned around, seeing the dusty floor caused by the actions of a certain student, he could only call for the cleaning golem to handle the matter.
'Creating a good learning environment is my job after all'
He thought as he continued his steps towards the headmasters office.