[It wasn't. He couldn't afford to be human. A human would hesitate to do what needed to be done. Would suffer through the sentiment tied up in making difficult choices.]
[Had suffered through it.]
[If he had been as cold and cruel as the people once thought, he would have felt nothing. Maybe that would have been better; to operate as an emotionless force of simply black and white justice for their sake. To remove all obstacles--daemon or otherwise. But he had not been that, and to cut down the one that stood in the path of protecting Lucis had been...]
[It had been right. It had been necessary. And yet that justification did nothing to make it ache any less. In that respect, becoming the Mystic had practically been divine mercy. The pain never left, but it was...lessened. A protective force did not need to feel anything. Simply exist in the cold steel coffin that was its body and act when needed. Judge the unworthy when they rose to claim what was not theirs.]
[Ardyn would never have been able to endure such a fate. Too kind, too compassionate, too human.]
[Somnus knew this was unsustainable, at least here. That the steel armor was cracking--had cracked, when he confronted Loki. It would break before long, and all that would be left in this place was a flawed, weak human. Prone to mistakes. Prone to weakness.]
no subject
[Had suffered through it.]
[If he had been as cold and cruel as the people once thought, he would have felt nothing. Maybe that would have been better; to operate as an emotionless force of simply black and white justice for their sake. To remove all obstacles--daemon or otherwise. But he had not been that, and to cut down the one that stood in the path of protecting Lucis had been...]
[It had been right. It had been necessary. And yet that justification did nothing to make it ache any less. In that respect, becoming the Mystic had practically been divine mercy. The pain never left, but it was...lessened. A protective force did not need to feel anything. Simply exist in the cold steel coffin that was its body and act when needed. Judge the unworthy when they rose to claim what was not theirs.]
[Ardyn would never have been able to endure such a fate. Too kind, too compassionate, too human.]
[Somnus knew this was unsustainable, at least here. That the steel armor was cracking--had cracked, when he confronted Loki. It would break before long, and all that would be left in this place was a flawed, weak human. Prone to mistakes. Prone to weakness.]
[Prone to caring about the people around him.]
Orthrus, I-
[Wait.]
[What was that sound?]