Aldrich felt magical energy rising around Volantis, rising up in blood colored

steam from all the red runes around his metal body.

As a being of innate mystical power, Aldrich could immediately tell through

sheer instinct that the amount of magic emanating from Volantis was

considerable. He briefly worried whether it could be sensed by even those that

were not magically sensitive, but he pushed that concern away.

If nobody had been able to perceive Aldrich's mana up to this point, then

nobody would sense this now.

Still, Aldrich prepared his own magic, green strands curling around his skeletal

fingers. Just in case something happened that required him to defend himself.

But nothing more happened.

Instead, the steam-like magical energy around Volantis suddenly dissipated.

The glowing red runes lost their light and faded away. Volantis reformed back

to his full self, but instead of his eye dot being red, it was now a simple blank

white.

"Volantis?" said Aldrich cautiously.

"This armor is undergoing forced repair to correct internal issues" said Volantis

in his usual smooth, controlled tone, though it was very evident to Aldrich now

that this voice was not actually his.

It was a voice that the demons had implanted within him. "It will still be

operational, but some functions will be compromised until repairs are finished.

Sensing Armored in vicinity."

Volantis opened up again, and Aldrich asked a question. "How long until this

armor is repaired? What does a repair entail?"

"Estimated time of repair completion: unknown," said the voice. "Query: repair

function registered. Answering: A repair indicates a full return of internal

systems to their most recent state before corruption in order to preserve

accumulated battle experience and Armored compatibility."

"I see," said Aldrich. So it was basically like a computer rebooting itself to its

Jast known good configuration. In this case, Volantis would return to how he

was exactly before he had started to remember his past fully.

"It is recommended that the Armored still wear the unit," said the armor.

"Repair functions are greatly enhanced and stabilized by anchoring to an

Armored."

Aldrich tentatively stepped back into the armor. It was not that he was not

cautious about Volantis's sudden shift and the possibility that something

might go wrong wearing him.

But Aldrich did not want to reveal his true form or even his Materius human

appearance.

So, Aldrich took the risk. Volantis's metal strands closed in around Aldrich,

knitting back into a full, regal armor.

Aldrich felt nothing was off. He sensed no danger. The only issue was, as

whatever runic mechanism present in Volantis had said, some functions were

unavailable. Aldrich could access the enhanced stats that Volantis offered, but

not any of Volantis's stitching or anything really that Volantis himself

operated.

It felt similar to working with a Frame that had it's A.l. shut down.

Well, this had been utterly surprising.

Aldrich sighed as he leaned back against the wall of the Null Box again. He was

not an omniscient being. He could not predict everything, but usually, if he

planned or thought hard enough, he could expect what kind of surprises he

would face.

But this was completely out of his grasp. Aldrich's lore knowledge about

demons was good but not perfect. Legion Necromancers had very little reason

to travel to Helith. He did not know all the tiny details that went into forging a

Living Armor. Had he done a playthrough as a Warlock, then he might have

known more, but there was no use thinking about what ifs.

All Aldrich could really do was wait and see if Volantis returned back to normal

in time. If not, he could still go to the Nexus and reach out to the Death Lord

or, if the Trial Quests were still there, kill and raise Deimos the warlock who

probably knew more about this than Aldrich did.

The biggest thing that annoyed Aldrich was that he lost his talking partner for

the rest of his trip.

It took a total of roughly twelve hours for Aldrich's transport to arrive to its

location. He did not know exactly when the transport moved or stopped

because of the isolating nature of the Null Box, but he figured that when the

box's door opened up, revealing Colonel Davos again, that it was time to get

out.

Aldrich had put the High Threat Null Restraints, or, more easily known as null

cuffs, back on to remove any hint of suspicion from himself. The null cuffs,

thankfully, did not have any complicated tech in them that could track whether

they had been taken on or off.

"We're here," said Colonel Davos.

"My cell, I assume?" said Aldrich.

"Consider it protective custody," said Colonel Davos. He narrowed his eyes at

Aldrich's helmet. "What happened to your face? I heard you mentioned to the

Guardians that this armor of yours functions as a life support system of some

kind.

Has anything changed about your condition?"

"You try weathering a twelve-hour plane ride with nothing to do, Colonel," said

Aldrich. "Don't worry about it. The color of the dot on my helmet doesn't mean

much. This just represents my boredom."

"Well, you better get prepared for more of that," said Colonel Davos. "Where

you're going, it'll be pretty much the same. Now step out of the Null Box."

Aldrich did as asked and stepped out, and when he stood by Colonel Davos, he

stood a full head taller than the man.

"Hold out those cuffs for me," said Colonel Davos. He took out a baton froma

sheathe on his hip, and with the press of a button on the handle, it glowed a

bright white, humming with energy.

Aldrich held out his cuffed arms, and Colonel Davos struck the center part of

the cuffs linking Aldrich's arms together with the baton. A burst of electricity

ran through the metal, and the metal of the cuffs dissolved away, breaking

apart into countless little rice grain sized particles.

All that was left of the cuffs on Aldrich were two large, surprisingly thin rings

that emanated blacklight. This was the Null Ore. They loosely clattered against

Aldrich's wrists, giving him ample space to just slip out of them.

Colonel Davos took the baton, pressed another button on the handle, turning it

purple, and hovered it above the ground. The little grains of metal that the

cuffs had dissolved into all drew towards the baton like it was a magnet,

merging together into a metal case around the structure.

Nanotech, Aldrich noted. Specifically, memory metal. Advanced nanotech that

utilized any external connections or internal processing did not work in

proximity to Null Ore, but memory metal only required a specific charge to run

through it to fix itself into pre-determined shapes. In this case, that shape had

been cuffs.

"T'll take those." Colonel Davos took the Null Ore rings, fixing them to a utility

belt.

"You're not afraid, Colonel?" said Aldrich as he looked right down at Davos,

completely uncuffed. In Colonel Davos's eyes, Aldrich was now completely free

to use his powers.

It was possible that Davos was incredibly strong himself, but though

competent as a fighter, Aldrich could not feel the same amount of threat he

would feel from someone genuinely strong as, say, Seismic or Solomon Solar.

"If I was, I wouldn't have this job," said Colonel Davos. "I also do have some

backup.

22, show yourself.."