Long ago.. long before Shion's journey began, before the plates stirred, before whispers of crimson-eyed Pokémon troubled the world Golett opened its eyes.
It was not born in the way other Pokémon were.
There was no egg. No parents.
Only clay, shaped by calloused hands and ancient ritual.
The people of Ternstone, centuries ago, carved it from the sacred earth. Its body, etched with runes older than language, was imbued with two things:
A spark of power, taken from a distant shard buried in the deep earth.
And a command.
A singular, unwavering directive etched into the energy of its being:
Protect the Seal.
It had no name, no desire, no emotion.
Only duty.
The Seal was deep.
A cave, hidden beneath layers of earth and stone. Within it lay something vast, quiet, and incomprehensible: the Ground Plate, humming softly in slumber.
Golett was stationed not at the Plate itself but above it.
In the tunnels.
At the gate.
A sentinel. A signal.
For centuries, it waited.
It did not age. It did not hunger. The world moved on while it stood still.
Miners came and went, carving out stone around it. Some left it alone. Others joked it was broken.
But it never moved.
Not until it sensed something a pulse echoing through its carved chest one day, so many years later.
That day was quiet.
A sunny afternoon. Ternstone was bustling with trade.
But beneath the earth, something shifted.
A faint, subtle vibration through the rock.
A resonance.
The Plate was stirring.
The seal was weakening not through sabotage or accident, but because something had come near.
Something familiar.
And for the first time in decades, Golett's arms twitched.
Its head lifted.
Its eyes glowed brighter.
Because something was coming.
Not danger…
But the one its master had spoken of in sacred glyphs passed down long ago.
The Bearer of the Plates.
Golett did not understand what it felt. It could not form words for it.
But it knew.
As Shion stepped past it for the first time cloaked in mortal confusion, with a growling Lycanroc at his side and a round, grumbling Bidoof in his bag
Golett felt the echo of that divine spark.
It did not stop him.
It did not move.
Because its job was not to confront the Bearer.
Only to watch.
And to wait for a sign.
That sign came hours later.
A rumble. A crash. A tremor in the mine.
And then silence.
Too deep.
Too sudden.
It knew.
The Bearer had fallen.
The Guardian below would awaken.
And the path would be revealed.
Without hesitation, Golett turned away from its vigil.
Its mission had changed.
Not to protect the seal…
But to serve the one who would gather the fragments and restore the world.
It passed by the stunned man named Jareth without a word.
Stepped to the edge.
And, unafraid, it jumped.
Down, down, through layers of earth and darkness, until its stone body crashed into the chamber, dust rising in a plume around it.
And there, it saw him:
The boy with dirt-streaked cheeks.
The Bearer.
And at his side… the one Golett's creators spoke of only in whispers.
The God turned Beast.
Bidoof blinked awake as Golett stepped forward.
The sound of stone shifting broke the silence of the chamber.
Golett stepped forward its glowing eyes fixed on Shion, unwavering and strange.
Shion tensed instinctively, his boots scraping lightly against the pedestal floor. His hand brushed the edge of Kiba's Pokéball out of habit.
"Bidoof," he muttered quietly, "why is it looking at me like that?"
Bidoof, still lying lazily on his side, squinted one eye open and blinked up at the stone Pokémon.
"I… don't know," he replied.
"Helpful."
Golett stopped just a few steps away. It didn't raise its arms or glow menacingly. It simply stood there watching.
Then it turned away.
And walked straight toward the fallen Golurk.
"What's it doing now?" Shion whispered.
Even Kiba, usually the first to growl, was silent tense and curious.
Golett reached the ancient guardian's broken body and raised its hand. For a moment, nothing happened.
Then, light.
The Golurk's frame began to glow, its chest runes lighting up one last time with dim pulses of deep blue.
And then it crumbled.
Like sand pulled away by wind, the once-mighty golem began to disintegrate, its stone plates and ancient metal plates breaking apart into drifting, glowing motes. They didn't scatter into the air.
They flowed into Golett.
Shion stepped forward unconsciously, eyes wide.
"What the heck… is happening?"
Bidoof had sat up now, fur standing slightly on end. "That's… energy transfer. Ancient constructs sometimes pass their core essence into successors. "
"Wait… it's getting stronger?"
"Looks like it's being called up."
The ground trembled lightly as a second surge of energy spiraled down from above a spectral stream from the tunnel ceiling. It was coming from the other Golurk that had gone still earlier, the one Jareth had fought.
Shion's jaw slackened.
"Is that…"
"Yep," Bidoof said, blinking. "They're both giving him their power."
The twin currents one from below, one from above coiled into Golett's body. The glyphs on its chest, arms, and shoulders began to glow brighter, shifting in color from dull gold to a brilliant, luminous blue.
And then light.
The chamber flooded with radiance.
Shion took a step back, shielding his eyes with his arm as Bidoof muttered, "Well, this is going to be dramatic."
The light expanded and Golett changed.
Its body elongated.
Its limbs thickened.
The runes on its form grew more intricate, more symmetrical.
And when the glow faded, standing in Golett's place was something taller, broader, and immense in presence.
A newly reborn Golurk.
But larger than either of the ones before.
Larger than any Shion had ever seen.
---
Shion stepped backward, eyes wide. "Oh no. Nope. This is bad."
The new Golurk turned its glowing eyes toward him.
Each step it took forward sent a subtle tremor through the ground. Dust fell from the cracked ceiling above. Its chest glyph pulsed with quiet light. It loomed over Shion like a moving fortress of forgotten stone.
Kiba growled faintly, rising from his crouch. His tail bristled.
Shion panicked.
"Please don't be mad we broke your friends. They were attacking first! Self-defense!"
Golurk stopped right in front of him.
Then, slowly, silently… it extended one massive, open hand.
Shion froze.
"…What is it doing now?"
Bidoof squinted. "Might want you to get on."
"What."
"You heard me."
"You're sure?"
"No."
Kiba sniffed at the hand warily, then sat down.
Shion, heart hammering, stepped cautiously onto the broad stone palm. Bidoof waddled up beside him like it was the most normal thing in the world.
"Have I mentioned how weird my life has become?"
"Yes," Bidoof said. "At least twice a day."
The moment all three were on the hand, Golurk lifted them easily, like pebbles. Then its feet pulsed with energy, and Shion felt a strange weightlessness.
"Wait… wait are we?"
The Golurk levitated. Its jets ignited.
It didn't just float upward.
It blasted through the air, straight toward the cavern ceiling.
"WHAT?!"
The roof was solid rock, thick with mineral layers and age-worn pillars.
But Golurk didn't slow down.
"No, wait, nonono—!!"
CRASH.
The stone roof shattered around them.
Golurk punched through the cavern ceiling, sending debris raining down behind them. Light poured in from the mine shaft above as the guardian climbed higher through support beams, broken tunnels, and hollow chambers.
Shion clung to Bidoof's fur as the wind whipped his scarf.
"I'M GOING TO GET BANNED FROM THIS TOWN!"
"You weren't exactly popular anyway!"
As they neared the surface, the cave behind them began to collapse, the structural damage from Golurk's ascent shaking the earth.
And then sunlight.
They broke free.
Golurk soared over the canyon edge and hovered above Ternstone, the town glittering in the early morning sun.
Dust rose below from the broken mine shaft. The distant sound of shouting reached Shion's ears.
"Oh no…-
Golurk began to descend toward the guild's outer edge, slow and deliberate, finally landing with a deep, echoing thud that sent a ripple through the street.
Shion slid off the stone hand and hit the ground with a groan.
Bidoof flopped down beside him. "We lived."
"That's what you call that?!"
People were starting to run toward them Dunlin, Fena, a few guild workers, and behind them, a pale and wide-eyed Jareth.
Shion looked at the broken, smoking remains of the old mining tunnel in the distance.
"…Am I going to get in trouble for that?"
Bidoof snorted. "Probably."