[Diavolo's priorities are centered around himself, now just as much as they did in his human life. "Justice", as a concept, inherently revolves around him. What is just is what benefits him. His enemies are unjust by virtue of their existence; all that they do is tainted because of it. The morality of killing another and eating their soul is not always black and white. When Diavolo does it, it is a virtuous act — he guides the soul to where it belongs, to where it has always belonged, long before Diavolo arrived, his from the moment it burst into existence. But when someone kills and consumes him — or, for that matter, anyone in the small circle he has slowly grown protective feelings for — then it is abhorrent, a vile deed that deserves due punishment.

Steven, in Diavolo's mind, is gently nudged towards that tiny category of people he feels some vague urge to nurture. Steven is like him — he ought to be living to his fullest. How he copes with daily life when eating is distressing is beyond Diavolo.]

Don't misunderstand me. You can devour the flesh of others and not lose yourself completely. Resorting to such base instincts is demeaning, but, at the end of the day, it is still you in control. But ... it is easier said than done. As a human, when desperation forced me into action I would never otherwise take, it wasn't nearly so hard to stop and return to normal. As a monster, with a monster's drive to consume ... it can feel as though someone else is in control entirely.

[He remembers, months ago, blinking awake from a nap he was not taking, so far from home, lost and amid a pile of corpses bearing gashes from his own bloodied claws. He remembers the terror he felt then, the thought that it was not him.]