Warning: This post discusses implications of Kris' mental state, and discusses the possibility of them having suicidal and violent thoughts. This is purely speculation, please do not read as much into it as I have if you don't want to or if you are uncomfortable with it.
I feel like when people talk about Kris' mental state, I rarely ever see them use the sequence of events leading up to the Chapter 3 Egg Room which has been fucking rattling in my brain for months
If a Dark World reflects the users thoughts, hopes, and dreams, then it is fucking devastating that Kris' deepest thoughts about themself consist almost entirely of how they've been heading "Nowhere", and how it's better to go there alone.
To me this can be taken in two ways, one is the standard saying of someone going Nowhere in life and dragging others down with them, or one that I worry fits Kris more, which is that they don't intend to exist for much longer, and since they've come to care for Susie and Ralsei, it's better they disappear alone than with them.
When Tenna's influence on Chapter 3's Dark World is peeled back, and we get to see hints of what it was probably like before he was plugged back in,
it really does show the absolute lengths Kris' mind goes to escape from the reality they live in, delving deeper and deeper into realities separate from their own, from the Light into the Dark, and from the Dark, into games, and only when you reach the deepest part of their mind in Mancountry do they actually exist as their "Real"/Lightner self, which is something that never happens ONCE in any other Dark World. To me, this says that it's a place where they truly exist as themselves without the need for any escapism unlike other Lightners in Dark Worlds.
It's only when they see the Man they forgot that they return to anything close to "reality"
It's also important that they keep these parts of themselves far away from Susie and Ralsei, making sure that those 2 never see them do any of the things they do in the secret rooms. Which has especially dire implications when you take into account the last S-Rank Board, which has more of Undertale's DNA in it than maybe any other part of the game, specifically the No Mercy Route
They want to keep any evidence of these thoughts from Susie and Ralsei because of how ashamed they are. To the point where, the only time they try to wrench control from you in this chapter is when you force them to confront the deepest part of these parts of their mind.
Whether the Mantle Holder(I'll be calling them ERAM for clarity) is a manifestation of some part of Kris like some people believe Ralsei to be, or something else entirely, it's clear they know Kris, or at least know enough about them to get under their skin. Kris' thoughts are thrown into their face, that there's some part of them that gets enjoyment out of everything that's happened, that even if they stop, it'll just be the "knife growing dull".
Whether or not it's true, it's clear that it does affect Kris, to the point that Kris does far more damage to Tenna having beaten ERAM,
(credits to u/Correct-Pangolin-568 on reddit for the images)
Part of making this post made me appreciate chapter 3 more, honestly.
The development Susie and Ralsei get through the revelation of how Dark Worlds work seemed to just not have any impact on Kris' character when I first saw the chapter, but it's far clearer to me now that this chapters development for Kris was way more subtle than I thought it was, and much more in-depth than some of the others.
(Also, to clarify, I am not trying to villainize Kris for these thoughts at all, intrusive thoughts permeate the lives of a lot of people, and with how much Kris struggles in their daily life with their own identity as being a human raised by monsters along with their rocky family/personal life, it's totally natural for their mental state to be much more tumultuous than the average person, same with anyone going through extremely hard times)
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