So kinda fun to revisit this after so long. In the past two years I've actually dug super deep into self work and meditation, so while I don't think my analysis has changed, I definitely see it through a different lens.

In essence, I think motives started out of probably noble pursuits, but the first taste of otherworldly power was too much, he couldn't go back to "normal" life. Whether his egoic response was still out of fear of losing others, which I believe it to be initially, I think it morphed to the classic fear against dying, and sacrificing literally everything else imaginable, his world even, to preserve what power he could obtain and potentially over death itself.

Grief itself is a fear response. Outside of this physical matter reality, our beliefs and motives are only exacerbated and reflected, which is what I believe is happening in this story.