“Greetings sire, my name is Morph, I was told by Master Sevilles to come to this mansion to work as a page.” In order to not expose who he was, Dark Lord told him to introduce himself by name Morph, partially because Morphus was a mouthful to pronounce and it could pretty much expose him. Apparently Morphus ended up telling his name to some people he healed, so having him referred by another name would prevent people from realizing that miracle child was now in Sevilles Estate.

Greeting the child that just knocked on the door of Sevilles mansion was Landon Myers, a young androgynous man in butler uniform, who was looking confused, until his uncle Mordon confirmed that Runfar indeed was expecting a child to be hired as a page.

Just like that, the curiously polite child, dressed in rags entered the mansion. None knew who he was or where he came from, but maids couldn’t help but try pinch the child’s cheeks, apparently that is a natural reaction.

Obeying their master’s orders, maids washed the child and put appropriate clothing on him. Now, he no longer resembled a beggar from temple, but a young noble. The transformation was simply too jarring to describe, even if it was just a change of wardrobe.

In order to make sure none within the temple would search for Morphus, Dark Lord had used the demon eye in glass tube to erase every temple worker’s memory of Morphus, including that of Rainu. Of course, the people who were treated in temple recently might be suspicious about miracle child’s disappearance, but temple’s workers no longer knew anything about miracle child, which will eventually cause them to give up the search. They will just treat it like a fluke.

Dark Lord counted on that fact.

Apparently, Morphus always wore robes while healing people, in order to conceal his wings, so only few actually saw his face.

Considering that while his wings are hidden, he looked just like an ordinary child, after some time, people’s memories of him will fade away naturally. After all, even if Dark Lord could erase memories, he could not do so at such a large scale. There were simply too many people who witnessed miracle child’s actions. Now, only time can make those miracles fade into rumors, which shall then just be urban fairy tales for the young and naïve.

The very same day he arrived at the mansion, Morphus was given a single room. A room that had been soundproofed to make sure that none too curious would know what was going on in the inside. This is where his vessel would be kept to regenerate, too all those who did not know better, it would look like a corpse. So, keeping it under covers was necessary in order to not cause mass panic.

Apparently, now the staff in the mansion started to spread rumors that Runfar collected corpses, so finding a practically lifeless vessel in this room would only make things worse. Morphus’s vessel had to be kept a secret.

As soon as he entered the room, Morphus proceeded to exit the body of his vessel. The catatonic body of the child limply fell on the bed. Without the power of the angel within his body, he was still alive, albeit in a comatose state. It was as if the life force had left child’s body, it was now essentially a living piece of flesh and meat.

Had Morphus not needed that body for the future, Dark Lord wouldn’t have hesitated to feed the catatonic corpse to the goblins, at least that way nothing would go to waste.

The body needed some time before Morphus could safely occupy it again; otherwise, the body risked being completely destroyed if he occupied it for much longer. Apparently because human bodies have stronger willpower and the issues with soul rejecting the angel within, human vessels lasted far shorter than animal vessels.

Morphus used to occupy the body of a dog for years without problems, but occupying body of a human is much trickier, making it necessary to switch hosts every now and then in order to prevent his vessels from being destroyed. Once the vessel of the child recovered, it will be safe to occupy again. Human vessels had to be occupied for short ranges before switching vessels, to cool the vessels down after high pressure of hosting an angel, otherwise, the vessel would simply not be able to contain such power, bursting like a balloon.

Now standing on top of the motionless body, was a swirling mass of light, there were many lights of pure radiance and their sparkling brilliance was overwhelming; so that’s what Morphus’s true form was, living energy being. To say that Dark Lord was surprised would be an understatement.

The lights now started to condense together, taking on a humanoid shape. Now, it roughly started resembling a winged human being made of light. None of his features were clear except for his focused eyes.

As he floated forward, his form passed through the bed and furniture. So that’s what he meant by not having a physical form, even though he was right here, he could not touch anything in physical realm without a vessel. He was essentially a high energy ghost.

Now, the being made of light floated in front of Dark Lord, their eyes locking on each other. It was as if he was waiting Dark Lord’s command before proceeding. What a reasonable fellow!

“Go ahead.” Dark Lord opened his arms wide, calming his mind for the possession that was to come.

Now, Morphus proceeded to enter Dark Lord’s body.

Dark Lord felt surge of overwhelming power within his body, it was not mana, no, it was different type of energy; living energy that felt like it could crush him if he was not too careful.

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“Possession is complete.” Morphus’s voice sounded within Dark Lord’s mind, but no sound transmitted to the outside.

“Good, now then, show me what you can do.”

“Gladly”

From Dark Lord’s back emerged a pair of pure white wings, they were noticeably larger than when Morphus was occupying child’s body. However, that action alone placed a degree of strain on Dark Lord’s body and soul. It was as if he was being crushed by mountain.

So that’s why Morphus needed another vessel until his previous vessel recovered, the pressure was too much to take, under this kind of strain, any kind of body will eventually break. It was only a matter of time.

Yet, to Dark Lord, this kind of pain was nothing.

Making sure none was watching him; Dark Lord proceeded to jump out of the window and spread his wings, catching the drift of the night wind. With steady flaps, he now proceeded to rise higher and higher until the mansion was a mere speck underneath him.

He was now flying above the clouds, his mighty wings supporting his flight.

“Do not worry, I made sure to fly out when there was none watching us.”

“That is good to know.” Dark Lord nodded.

To Morphus, flying was not such a big deal, every angel possessed wings, but to Dark Lord, this was a completely new experience.

Bird’s eye view, to think such simple creatures could see something so precious every time they take flight. Maybe if he were to be reborn he would chose to be a bird.

“Sky is vast, with so many stars above and clouds below me. It’s truly beautiful.”

“I guess it is.” Morphus’s meek reply made it clear that this kind of sight was nothing special to him.

With the wings spread wide, Dark Lord’s body now proceeded to fly downwards, but he still was far up high, watching everyone from bird’s eye view.

To everyone below, he would just look like a bird, but his view seemed to be limitless.

After flying, Dark Lord and Morphus proceeded to land back within the mansion, carefully making sure none saw the wings, and otherwise another memory erasure would be necessary.

“That was amazing.”

“Thank you, master.”

Now that Dark Lord had Morphus within his body, their mental conversation rendered talking obsolete. But in a sense, it still felt like having a conversation, albeit nonverbal one.

“For how long you will be occupying my body?”

“I think about two weeks, three at most. I ended up staying inside that vessel for too long; it needs some time to recover.”

“I see. While you are within this body, can you demonstrate healing to me?”

“I need someone to be injured to do that, though.”

“No problem, I will just grab this and have Camilla come with…” as soon as Dark Lord grabbed the crystal knife, he heard Morphus’s shocked voice cry out within his mind.

“That dagger! No way, it can’t be!”

He was examining the dagger with extreme anxiety, almost as if he saw something from his past.

“What’s the matter Morph?”

“Master, where did you get this dagger?”

“It is a long story.”

“This dagger….it is craved from the Mother Tree. How did such an object end up here…?”

“Mother Tree? What do you mean? Would you please explain?”

“Angels, like myself are not from this world, not originally, all of us ended up here one way or another, stranded with no way to come back. Our home realm, the place where angels are born, is a place where Mother Trees bloom, and from their flowers, angels are born.”

“Are you saying that dagger was made from your mother?”

“No, it is a Mother Tree, but not the one I spawned from. However, it still should react to angel’s energy…”

Morphus transmitted some of his energy into the dagger and then the dagger elongated, now it was no longer a dagger, but a full on longsword.

“How did you do that?”

“This dagger is made from Mother Tree, it still retains the properties of it. One of the properties is that it reacts to angel energy, as you have just seen. But the dagger is not so simple; it absorbs any energy within its surroundings into itself, though I am not sure what happens afterwards.”

When he stopped transmitting energy into the sword, it transformed back into the form of a dagger.

“Mother Tree absorbed the energy of my home reality into itself in order to bloom flowers that would become future angels.” Morphus explained.

“However, making Mother Tree into a weapon is rather brutally effective. Not only can it absorb all energy, it is also capable of cutting through anything, permanently damaging anything it cuts through. I don’t know how it ended up in this realm, but with such a weapon at our side, even gods can be slain.”

“That is exactly why I have it.”

His primary purpose was to use it to kill Chronos when she shows up, however, it seems like she is taking her time.

“I suppose you already knew of its powers, then.”

“Not exactly, I knew it could kill gods and cut through anything, but I did not know it could absorb energy.”

“Mother Tree is a natural conductor of energy, no matter what power, mana, or even power of god, if used correctly, it can absorb it into itself, trapping the energy within. In a sense, it is an empty vessel, waiting to be filled with energy.”

“Sounds similar to how angels occupy mortal vessels.”

“Exactly.” Morphus affirmed. “Though it is rather nostalgic to see a piece of Mother Tree, even if is not the one I was born from.”

“So if angels bloom from flowers of the Mother Tree, where do Mother Trees come from?”

“That is simple, master. Once an angel plants himself, then a new Mother Tree would be born. Angels are essentially seeds of the Mother Tree, those who choose to can become a Mother Tree, but they will lose many things, including their senses. Imagine yourself being turned into a statue and being left in one place for eternity. That is why many angels left my world, not wishing to eventually end up as motionless plants. Though, in retrospective, if we knew we couldn’t come back home, many of us wouldn’t have come here.”

“I see, I guess both of us are away from home.” Dark Lord now understood why he seemed to sympathize with Morphus; both of them were alike in more ways than one. Both were strangers stranded in a cruel world.

“Indeed. But you are lucky to have this weapon on you, even if deities were to attack us, we would at least be able to leave some permanent damage.”

“Speaking of damage, we will be doing some tonight. Camilla, you can come in now.”

Camilla, who was the one who cast the spell of silence on the room, was the only one who could hear his master’s command.

He now proceeded to enter.

“Master, I await your orders.”

“Splendid. However, there is one thing I wish to show you. Ta-da!”

Dark Lord sprouted pure white wings from his back.

Camilla’s reaction was priceless. He freaked out, screamed and run to hide underneath the bed covers. Apparently having his master grow wings out of nowhere was frightening to say the least, even someone as composed as him took it rather badly.

It took about half an hour for Dark Lord to explain to Camilla that he let Morphus possess his body, even after an explanation, Camilla looked a little shaken after seeing his master suddenly gain wings. Camilla could only nod as he gulped. His master never failed to surprise him.

As such, partnership between Dark Lord and Morphus was forged, with Morphus staying dormant within Dark Lord’s body, for the time being.