"The other two..." Roselle put away his teasing expression, glanced at his children, who had already become angels, and continued, "One is outward divinity. When you have to devote most of your energy and emotions to resisting the true divinity constantly eroding you from within, it manifests in different ways.
"Some remain gentle but lack variation, some become colder and more heartless than before, and some become incredibly stubborn, pursuing a particular goal with unwavering determination...
"That is outward divinity."
Outward... Angel looked at Roselle thoughtfully, realizing that while he was explaining "divinity," he was also offering some justification for the changes in his personality during his later years.
Of course, he could blame everything on the Mother Goddess of Depravity's corruption. His desperate desire to reach the moon, his obsessive insistence on becoming emperor and colonizing other lands, his transformation into an emperor whose reputation was equally praised and condemned, his break with the Churches of Steam and the Sun, and his switch to the non-neighboring Black Emperor pathway to become a god could all be attributed to that "newborn" personality...
But that would undoubtedly lead Bernadette and Bornova to misjudge divinity's influence on them, leaving them unprepared for the dangers deep within their Beyonder characteristics when they had the opportunity to advance further.
Besides, getting this prideful fellow countryman to admit that corruption alone made him do all those things would probably be difficult. Blaming divinity's influence feels more natural... No, I'm different. I really was affected... Angel thought with some embarrassment, then pressed on:
"Is this why most natural mythical creatures and Beyonders who have become angels seem so indifferent?"
To her surprise, Roselle shook his head.
"That only accounts for some of them. Most true gods and their angels, for instance, have enough anchors to stabilize