Lightning Is the Only Way

Mortis had already expected something like this, but he still became nervous when he heard the words.

Break up with Joyce.

It sounded like the right decision, but for some reason, Mortis didn't want to.

Mortis had seen Joyce's Emotional Laws.

He knew that she could recover.

He knew that there was a good core inside of her.

He only had to find a way to make that core resurface.

"You saw her Emotional Laws," Mortis said to Gravis and Arc. "You know that there is a good core inside of her. You know that she is actually a good person. The way she acts, this isn't her."

Arc and Gravis nodded. "You're right," Gravis said. "There is a genuinely good core inside of her, but that core is suppressed under an avalanche of murky chaos."

"Yes, so we should search for a method to help her return to her true self," Mortis said.

Gravis sighed.

"Mortis," he said slowly. "It doesn't matter if she has a good core or not. Right now, she lacks the ability to have a normal relationship."

"Elaborate," Mortis said absentmindedly. He wanted to absorb Gravis' words while thinking about the information.

"You could say that Joyce has a good heart. However, she wears a mask," Arc said. "You could say that everyone has a real personality and a mask. Everyone puts up their mask when they are with others. After all, if we wear our emotions on our sleeve, we would constantly explode on everyone that says something that could annoy us."

Mortis nodded.

"Yet, that is only that, a mask. It is not our true personality," Arc continued. "Joyce's case is a bit special. Usually, people put on a mask to seem more likable and friendlier than they actually are, but in Joyce's case, she does the opposite. She tries to appear as cold and aggressive as possible."

"Another problem is the fact that Joyce has never taken off her mask in her entire life. Ever since she reached the Unity Realm, she tried to become ruthless and cold-hearted. It was definitely very difficult for her to prove to herself that she could be cruel."

"It has probably happened several times that she committed an act of cruelty simply for the fact to prove to herself that she could do it. I'm sure that, during all of these acts, Joyce felt immense pain inside of herself. Her Emotions were running rampant with guilt, self-loathing, pity, and several other kinds of empathetic emotions."

"However, if a person tries to change into someone else for long enough, they will be able to make the unfitting fit. Joyce's desired personality is incompatible with her real personality, but after hundreds of thousands of years, she managed to basically weld her mask onto her face."

"Joyce hasn't seen her true face in many, many years, and by now, she probably truly believes that the mask she sees every day is her genuine face."

real personality. The old

and darker the more he listened

made a lot of sense, and

say that

this change would definitely make it very difficult

only thing that could wake Joyce's old core was

was impossible for Joyce to survive

about

"Mortis," Gravis said slowly.

Mortis looked at Gravis.

is not your responsibility,"

to the side

together," Gravis continued. "What was the thing that you wanted to do when you saw

Mortis didn't say anything.

make her happy," Gravis continued. "You are very attracted to her. So, it's only natural that you want to make her happy. Maybe give

about how she feels. You don't want her to be miserable since that would also make you miserable. You want her to feel great! When

Mortis," Gravis said. "I want Stella to have the best life imaginable, and I would do anything for her, and I know for a fact that Stella

and I know that she also feels these same feelings when she feels my

you want to make Joyce happy in a similar

want to make

Silence.

to his time

wanted nothing more than to be dominated

to feel

incredibly important

did she think

Mortis was great!

able to make Joyce feel things she had

said that he wouldn't want to do

What would Joyce think?

In Joyce's

only someone with

boils down to

care

about how he

he couldn't make her