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He wanted to see how his normal iron armor truly compared to the dark suit in this particular scenario. It seemed to him that it wouldn’t make much difference at all, since the aforementioned g-forces that his body was being subjected to would be the same.

But again, he didn’t know much about g-forces to begin with. So maybe it would have made a difference? Or maybe the suit had some other component to its protective capabilities that he did not yet fully understand?

It did give him a strange sort of feeling in that regard. An extra layer of comfort--in his mind, at least. But that very well could have just been his own messed up head playing tricks on him. In fact, that was quite probably the case, Hector thought. Even his iron armor often made him feel more comfortable than normal clothes did.

There was just something so calming about wearing armor. He didn’t know how to explain it. Maybe there simply wasn’t a way to.

Regardless, the iron suit worked about as well he’d expected it to. Which was to say: not very.

It didn’t take them very long to reach the Carthrace Nature Reserve, wherein stood Rathmore’s Gate, but by the end of the trip, Hector felt like his whole body had turned to jelly. It didn’t hurt, thanks to Garovel numbing the pain for him, but he’d experienced this type of wobbly sensation many times before, and it always meant that he had a lot of broken bones. Hell, maybe all of them.

That seemed rather unlikely, though, knowing what he now did about how many bones there were in just the hands and feet.

Eh, he was letting these spare thought processes go off in weird directions. Time to focus, he decided.

After being gently set on the ground by Abbas, Hector immediately did his best impression of an unfolded pile of laundry, crumpling into an iron heap. His foremost thought process was disoriented beyond all recognition, but thanks to the others, he was at least able to observe as Abbas moved toward the Gate on his own.

The man seemed to be taking his time in his approach, walking slowly around it before finally getting close enough to touch it. By the time he actually made physical contact, Hector had regenerated enough to walk again.

He double-checked everything he was carrying. Shard. Scarf. Core. Phone. Oh, that was broken. Of course it was. Dammit.