Aldrich spent the next few hours of the plane ride doing nothing at all. In the Null Box, severed from ntally communicating with any of his units, he found himself being unsurprisingly bored. There was only so much ti he could devote to just constantly thinking about what he planned on doing, after all.
At a certain point, when Aldrich's boredom started to reach an appreciable mass, Volantis spoke out.
"I sense that you lack ntal stimulation," said Volantis. "I may offer you stimulation, Armored."
The idea of Volantis offering Aldrich any kind of 'stimulation' repulsed him, and that was sothing considering Aldrich had a very high tolerance for almost anything.
"Please don't ever use that phrase with again," said Aldrich.
"My apologies, Armored," said Volantis.
"But you're right, I do have nothing to do," said Aldrich. He paused for a mont, rembering his ti talking with the people at the shelter in Haven.
He rembered how much their trust for Aldrich seed to grow when he actually took the ti to sit down there and talk with them individually to hear their stories.
Aldrich figured the sa could work with Volantis.
Plus, it was a nice way to pass ti. And Aldrich was curious about so thing about Volantis.
"I'm a little curious, actually, Volantis," said Aldrich. "Why serve ? Is it because you're under my control?"
"No," said Volantis. "I call you my Armored for I deem you worthy."
"Worthy? In what way?"
"You wield power with purpose. Purpose that feels nostalgic to ."
"And what purpose would that be?"
"You have never stated your purpose to directly, but I can sense it. It is akin to world domination. You wish to mold this world into your own image."
"World domination?" Aldrich pondered this. His purpose for using his power was to try and bring order to this world. To minimize people like him that lived only to suffer and seek vengeance from being born.
To put it simply, he wanted to make the world a better place.
It was a relatively noble goal, and not one unique to Aldrich. Where it started to get unique, though, was in the lengths Aldrich was willing to go. He was willing to kill, to control minds, and sacrifice lives, even innocent ones, if he had to.
It was not that Aldrich did not care about innocent lives. No, he valued them, and if he could, he would try to preserve them. But his parents had died because they had surrendered after hostages were used against them.
Had his parents allowed the hostages to die, they might have survived and done far more good across their entire lives. They could have given Aldrich a proper and loving childhood.
Aldrich deeply respected the noble ideals his parents had been willing to uphold even to their deaths, but a part of him had felt resentnt as well, especially when he had been younger. Resentnt that his parents had been willing to sacrifice Aldrich's happiness for their ideals.
Over the years, Aldrich had co to terms with what his parents had done, and he no longer resented them. But it was engraved in him now that if he ever ca upon a similar situation, he would not make the sa mistakes his parents did.
On that note, when it ca to the lengths he was willing to go to, if it ever ca down to it that Aldrich had to beco so kind of ruler, so kind of emperor like authority over the whole world, then he would not hesitate.
In that sense, Aldrich could see where Volantis was coming from. Aldrich was willing to dominate the world to get what he wanted.
"I guess you could say that," said Aldrich. "You ntioned that my purpose felt nostalgic, though. Does that an you served soone else with a similar goal? The Death Lord, I assu, considering the fact that she wanted the entire realm to be part of her own realm of death?"
Aldrich actually had no idea what Volantis's backstory was like. In the ga, Volantis was not fleshed out too much. He was just one of the Death Lord's mini-bosses who appeared to thwart the player during the mid ga.
After getting defeated, Volantis then went on a warrior's journey to recover his honor, growing stronger and finally severing and integrating hand of the Blood God to beco a fully fledged late ga boss.
But aside from dialogue showcasing that Volantis was a dutiful warrior that served the Death Lord to the very end, there was very little about his actual past.
"The Death Lord also had a purpose to her power, yes, but she was never my Armored," said Volantis. "The nostalgia I feel seems to be from my past life, before I beca forged into armor. I served…soone with a strong vision.
Soone that wanted to dominate the world. However, I rember only faint pieces of them. I cannot even recall their appearance. When I try, all I perceive is shadow where they once were."
"So, not the Death Lord. Interesting," said Aldrich. He knew that Volantis did not have the best mory of his past life, but if Volantis could rember even a little bit, Aldrich thought it was possible to use his knowledge of the lore to find out who Volantis had been. "Do you rember more?"
Volantis's normally smooth, calm voice grew faintly warm, as if rembering fond mories. "…I rember marching with them across dry steppes.
I rember passing the steppes, into swamps, into desert, into forest, into snow, into fire.
I rember standing atop a great mountain. They stood at the precipice and waved their arms at the world unfolding before them, saying that it would all be theirs and they would make things right.
I rember being swept away by that grand dream, feeling as if my life had purpose.
Before then, I knew I had been a fighter. But I had fought only for the sake of the fight. My mind had been simple. I ate, slept, and sought only the next challenge to kill and take their bones to add to my collection."
"I get it now," said Aldrich as he ca to a realization. There was exactly on species in Elden World that lived in steppe like plains and took the bones of others as war trophies. "It's surprising, but all your mories hint to you having been an Orc in your past life."
Reviews
All reviews (0)