Chapter 1183 - 1183 – No Distractions (1/2)

Mortis found himself in the body of a mortal bird. The mortal bird was simply sitting on a tree, looking at five different eggs on the ground in the middle of a forest.

For a bit, Mortis had to get used to these new sensations. Not being able to control his own perception felt strange and alien. It was like he was only a spectator to someone else's actions. He had no control over anything.

After a while, Mortis saw a grey snake come out of one of the eggs, and Mortis saw the snake how the bird saw it.

Not food.

Possible danger.

These were the only two things the bird thought of the snake.

After a while, the newborn snake simply moved away and crawled into the thicket of the forest.

That's when Mortis' perspective changed to another animal.

Mortis had already known what would wait for him thanks to Gravis' experiences in Samsara, but it felt different than Mortis had expected.

For some reason, Mortis felt more nervous than he had believed.

Time passed, and the snake eventually grew up and became a Spirit Forming beast.

By now, Mortis had gotten used to his new situation. He focused on keeping his emotions isolated with the Law of Emotions so that he wouldn't get invested. Because of that, he felt quite relaxed in all of this.

However, there was one problem.

There was nothing Mortis could do.

He couldn't fight, comprehend Laws, or talk with anyone.

He couldn't even close his eyes.

In essence, he was forced to simply watch.

Some years passed, and Mortis managed to dissociate from what was happening in front of him. Now, whatever happened to the snake didn't concern Mortis. To him, it made no difference if something was happening around him or not. It had nothing to do with him.

Mortis only focused on himself.

However, Mortis couldn't lose himself like Gravis.

He tried to, but something was stopping him, and he knew exactly why.

Whenever Mortis had lost his sense of time, he had been focused on comprehending something. So, in a sense, 100% of his mind had been immersed in this one thing. These things had been Laws.

But this time, Mortis couldn't immerse himself in anything.

He also couldn't just deactivate his mind.

His mind could be suppressed for a short time, but then, he would involuntarily start thinking about something.

Mortis would start thinking about his past, about his future, about his present, about the things he had done, about the things he wanted to do, about past decisions, about hypothetical decisions in hypothetical scenarios, about everything.

One thought jumped to the forefront in one of these random spurts of thoughts. 'Is this what Orthar meant?' Mortis asked himself in his mind.

'I've always been distracted my entire life. If I hadn't been distracted by Laws, I was distracted by others or by fighting for my life.'

'I've actually never had time to think about myself.'

'I've never been forced to just wait around like this.'

'Yet, this is exactly what Gravis had gone through several times by now. There have been no distractions, and nothing interesting happened. It has only been me and my thoughts.'

Of course, saying that there were no distractions wasn't exactly correct. After all, Mortis was watching the life of someone unfold right before him, and he was also assaulted by all the different emotions of the onlookers.

Just due to the emotions, any other person in Mortis' position would be intrigued by what was happening.

However, for Mortis, this entire thing might as well not exist.

Why?

Because he had control over the Law of Emotions, which allowed him to isolate himself. Additionally, Mortis was more coldhearted than Gravis anyway, which meant that he generally cared less about the lives of beings he perceived as weaker.

Of course, the isolation wasn't perfect. If it were perfect, Mortis wouldn't know the Major Law of Emotions, but the True Law of Emotions.

The isolation would let some emotions pass, and they might accumulate into something dangerous. However, that would take a very, very long time.

Yet, even if the isolation wasn't perfect, it was still good enough to make everything Mortis saw incredibly boring.