134 A Powerful Pretender

With his coat and the Gemini mask on, Graham left his apartment for the second time that night. The second-floor corridor of the building was lit only by three lightbulbs and one of them was flickering. The wooden floor beneath him looked old and frail and they would notoriously creak whenever someone walked on it.

"I order you to stop creaking!"

Graham said shortly and after that, he walked leisurely on the wooden floor panels. Somehow, they had stopped making the noise as if something was dampening them. Graham quickly made his way downstairs and left the building.

The street that night was just like other nights; quiet. However, the difference this time was it was littered with food wrappings and other rubbish from the parade earlier in the day. The city's cleaning service would usually get to work at around four in the morning before the rest of the population got up. That was why it was still very dirty.

Graham felt like doing some good deeds today, so he walked up to a nearby trash bin and focused on it.

"I order you to clean the trash nearby!"

As he finished saying that, the orange trash bin started moving as if it was a robot and started gathering the litters with its body. However, it didn't have any ability to suck the trash into its body, so it just pushed the trash to one spot, creating a pile of trash that would be easier to clean.

"Well, that's the best that I can do. It's a shame there is no broom around, Val," muttered Graham.

A section of the street was now relatively cleaner. However, his Order only affected a small area, not the whole street, and he didn't want to spend his time doing the cleaning on his own.

Graham walked to a spot behind a tree and took out his lighter. He quickly lit a fire and then focused on it.

"I ask you to float," he said.

The flame on the lighter magically rose up to the air and then he put the lighter back inside his pocket. He did so to save fuel because the fire was now burning his stamina instead. He focused on the floating tiny blaze and asked thought of a question in his mind. He didn't need to repeat the question now because the moment he decided on a question, an image already began to form.

Graham was trying to divine where he could get a transformation target that would be useful to him. In the flame in front of him, an image was showing a woman who was walking all alone wearing a thick black coat. Graham didn't know who that woman was, but he knew where she was currently at. Judging from the buildings nearby, it was the way to Tuinstraat North, not far from there. After that, the image disappeared as slowly as it formed.

"Val, I don't know who that is, but let's trust my divination. It's never failed us until now after all,"

He then concentrated on the tiny floating flame in front of him.

"I ask that you follow me!"

Not even five minutes later, Graham was already in the street that was shown in his divination. There were several people there, mostly walking north towards the residential street of Tuinstraat North. He observed the people carefully and located his target not long after. It was a woman with long, curly hair wearing a thick coat. Her face was not very beautiful, but she wasn't ugly either.

He hid in the shadows and approached his target carefully, without alerting the other people there. Once he was close enough, he quickly issued an Order.

"I order you to stop moving!"

The woman wearing a thick coat suddenly stopped moving. She wanted to move her body but she couldn't go against the Order; she couldn't even look back. Fear struck her heart and cold sweat ran her forehead down to her cheeks.

Staying in the target's blind sport, Graham began chanting his Deity's name quietly while concentrating on the kind of information he wished to get.

"I, in the name of the Deity of Cunningness and Transformation, ask to read the memory of this woman!"

The woman heard Graham's voice and became even more scared. However, anything she did to break free was futile. She couldn't even scream for help.

Meanwhile, Graham was now looking at a scene through the girl's point of view. Everything was hazy and only a man's figure in front of her was clearly visible. He could somehow make out that he was in the Police headquarters and the man he was looking at was the Police officer with a scar on his face. He was the man that had interrogated him for Naomi Bakker's case and one of the Denuder targets that showed up in his divination!

He felt like being underwater in that condition and was looking through a glass window at the scene outside without being able to interact with the objects. Through the woman's eyes, he was watching scenes after scenes of her interaction with the scarred Police officer. They didn't seem to be very close, but she knew the man enough to remember a lot about him.

Graham observed the Police officer's mannerisms and physical appearance carefully, remembering every single detail about him. His boosted memory from being a Fire Divinator helped him tremendously for this task. Besides that, the information about the man all according to the woman's own knowledge had also entered his brain.

Once he got the information that he needed, Graham severed his connection with the woman's memory and the sight in front of him became normal. The woman was still unable to move and the other people in the street didn't seem to notice anything. Before the effect of his first Order wear out, he quickly issued another one.

"I order you to forget what has just happened!"

The woman's expression became blank. She still couldn't move but her fear had disappeared. She just looked confused and lost. Graham quickly canceled his first Order and with that, the woman was free to move again. She continued what she was doing as nothing had happened at all.

Meanwhile, Graham Hymes had retreated to a safe location and was now analyzing the information he just got about the Police officer with a scar. The tiny flame was floating by his side all this time.

"Hmm, Val. That guy is apparently a Sergeant. The woman from before doesn't seem to know about his Contractbound status, but she knows quite a lot about him. I think she has a crush on the guy."

"Now let's see. He goes by the name public name Rood, and his real name is Cornelis Haring. That's a powerful name right there, Val. I wonder if his real name if public knowledge within the Police or our woman here is a stalker," he said while resting his chin on his right hand, rubbing it gently.

"Anyway, let's try to transform into him. His identity could come in handy for our missions in the future, so I'd better brush up my acting as the man,"

Graham began concentrating on the image of the man in his mind and all the related information about him.

"I, in the name of the Deity of Cunningness and Transformation, hereby change my whole being to that of Cornelis Haring!"

Once he finished chanting, his skin suddenly felt itchi. He didn't mind the itch because it was nothing compared to the pain of being skinned alive that he had felt earlier. His skin streched here and shrunk there to match that of his target. His body also streched to match his target's height. His original height of 182 cm had gone up to about 185 cm.

The whole transformation process took less than thirty seconds, and once it was finished, he analyzed the differences between the man and himself. Besides his height, a lot of other things were also different. The loafers that he was wearing were originally one size bigger, but now they felt too small. His ankle was also showing now because his pants had become too short.

Besides the physical differences, he also noticed that the man's smell was different from his own. He only noticed that because it was a kind of new smell for him. He was sure that it wouldn't take long for him to start being desensitized to the new smell.

"Val, this is a very strange sensation. It feels awkward to be wearing someone else's skin. Now I wonder how I look," he said curiously and then took off the Gemini mask that he was wearing.

There was no mirror around and Graham wasn't carrying one in his pocket. However, for him that was not a problem at all. He focused on the tiny flame that was still floating beside him and ask a question in his mind.

'How do I look?'

An image slowly formed from within the flame and got bigger and bigger with each passing moment. It was an image of him standing in a secluded alley. In the image, he could see now that he was taller than before and his hair color was now darker. His green eyes had turned the color deep brown and his gaze became more intimidating. On his face, there was a scar running from his cheek across his nose, emphasizing the man's rough look. After that, the image gradually disappeared and the tiny flame returned to normal.

"I look exactly just like him. I just hope the information that she had about him is accurate, given how distorted someone's memory of people sometimes is. I think the memory is also supernaturally corrected by my ability, seeing as I look perfectly the same as the guy from my own memory," said Graham. His voice had also changed to match that of the owner of the appearance.

"This disguise is almost perfect, Val. The rest is just up to my acting ability. Now let's see," said Graham. He tried to mimic the way Rood would think; by crossing his arms in front of him.

"The duration of the Transformation is two hours, but I can return to my original appearance at any time by using Order. Now, I wonder if we will retain this looks if we switch over," said Graham.

He then walked over to the wall and sat there with his back against it. Graham closed his eyes and focused on his breathing.

"I order myself to fall asleep!"

Once he finished saying that, he suddenly felt very sleepy and went to sleep not long after. Valentine woke up just within seconds and got up from the spot. He looked at himself carefully and felt the difference in sensation from his usual self. He tried to jump and move around to feel how it would be.

"G, I wake up!" he said.

Once he felt something inside him waking up, he started muttering.

"G, I am still in the appearance of this ugly man. I have your Order ability stored in Purloin, so I can also return to our original handsome self, but I'm sure you still want to do more experiment, don't you?" he said thoughtfully.

After that Valentine sat back down and quickly went back to sleep. It was something only Valentine could do without even using any ability. Graham woke up not long after and stood up on the spot. All the while, the tiny flame was still burning. It used so little stamina that he barely noticed it.

"The result of the experiment is satisfactory, Val. We can make use of this loophole in my ability to our advantage," he said meaningfully.

"Now, we don't know what abilities that this man has, but we at least know he is a Denuder. I wonder if I can use divination to find out since I am basically this guy right now. And I know his full name on top of that," he said, crossing his arms.

Graham focused on the tiny flame again and asked another question.

'What are Cornelis Haring's Contractbound abilities?'

The tiny flame burned brighter and an image gradually appeared in it. There, he saw the man with a floating text made out of fire above him. Graham read the text carefully.

'Cornelis Haring aka Rood. Currently in a contract with the Deity of Wit and Blood and the Deity of Illnesses and Shape-shifting. He was previously in a contract with the Deity of War and the Deity of Uncovering.'

Once Graham finished reading the text, it slowly disappeared and the flame returned to normal.

"Hmm... this guy is stronger than us. If we want to make our disguise even more belieable, we'll need to copy a Gore's ability, Val. But for now it isn't a concern unless we need to infiltrate the Police. We'll just be borrowing this appearance when we need a disguise," Graham said casually in the man's voice.

Graham tried to walk and jump around to get used to his new height. It felt clanky at first, but he got used to it in no time. Now he was also able to mimic Rood's manner of walking according to the woman's memory.

"Val, since I already look like this, what do you say we do some Police work?" he said mischievously.