Chapter Sixteen: Rocul has risen.

"Rocul, country of Primal-era Xlen that vanished long before the first ravaging. An ancient city of Homunculi, lost to the world and to time itself, its miniscule citizens drifting with it through the surreal paralell pan-dimensional antispace of 'Unreality' for millennia... until now."

-emperorwolf.

Zenef, Alpha and Beta stood on the edge of a cliff, the three of them observing the enigmatic landmass emerging from the waves out over open water miles out from the shoreline.
the brown wolf had a stoic expression, and his ruby red eyes were fixed upon the structures in the centre of the metropolis.
"so... that's it, huh? Rocul, the Homunculus society of this world from thousands of years ago?" he breathed, for some reason, there was a lot of respect in his voice as he spoke.
alpha, however, seemed indifferent 'my memory's a bit foggy... mind explaining?'
the brown wolf seemed nervous "Rocul... it's where Elzunace is supposed to have been born, where the Gliloutation was created... where the first G-Soldiers were built."
zenef scratched at his right ear "but... isn't it technology?"
"correct, Ancient technology combined with mysticism. bonding magic to DNA."
alpha gasped, his gold-light body flickering for a moment "so... you lied... the G-Soldiers weren't..."
beta sighed "no... they weren't immitations, every G-Soldier, including us, is truly a Herald," he looked back at the city "heralds of what was to be the new age; a society of fully anthropomorphic beasts with the power of the gods themselves... Gliloutation was originally called the 'Apotheosis formula'... i just gave it a new name when i found it."
zenef shot the wolf an accusing glare "you stole it?!"
"not completely, i improved it by adding the DSBIWO's qualities, they negated the negatives in each other, they disabled the DSBIWO's mind control, and stabilised the transformation, for example."
alpha snorted and crossed his arms 'still sounds like you're a thief to me.'
"alpha, you're me!"
zenef chuckled "and you're talking to yourself."
beta smirked at the canine "technically, so're you."

beta growled as he felt a tickling at his heel and looked down, seeing a tiny, beaming arctic fox wearing a toga and leaf circlet patting at his footpaw.
alpha followed beta's eyeline and saw the fox 'looks greek... or roman. i can't tell.'
the arctic fox kept smiling, his silvery eyes wide in wonderment, but he still said nothing.
he seemed to be looking in alpha's direction.
"Alpha, i think he can see you..."
'impossible, only another G-Soldier coul-- ...... ohh... you mean he's...?'
"yeah, i think he's a Roculite."
the arctic fox nodded fiercely, and hugged at beta's paw.
"uh... friendly, isn't he?" he added nervously, clearly uncomfortable at the tiny arctic fox's touching him and forwardness in his actions.
"please don't touch me."
zenef sighed "beta, he can't understand you."
nevertheless, the homunculus fox backed away, looking apologetic.
"okay... maybe he can understand you?"
beta thought about it logically, and a suitable reason came to mind.
"oh, of course! he's from the primal era! they don't have much of a verbal language, he's trying to communicate mentally, he's sensing our emotions!" he revealed his revelation "it's so obvious, guh, i can't believe i didn't realise sooner!" he crouched and offered his paws to the arctic fox, smiling kindly, winning a broad, toothy grin as the arctic fox excitedly leapt aboard.

---

the arctic fox didn't know how his city had returned to reality, or where the supercontinent he remembered was, or why these people were dressed so oddly, but he didn't stress over it, he could feel the good in their hearts radiating from them, and that was enough.
their vocalisations to each other seemed to be some kind of communication method, but it was utterly unintelligible to him, and they didn't seem to understand how to use his own method, either.
just how long had they been in unreality? weeks? months? a year? he did not know, time had been lost to them.
he desperately wanted answers, but with the communication gap between them, such information was beyond his grasp for now.
he wondered how they differentiated between each other, before they'd left, people had been assigning words to themselves, 'Names' they called the idea.
did these two have things they called themselves? what were their 'names'?
before he could think any further, the gold light-creature's voice became understandable as language in his head...

'I wonder why they waited so long to come back? they were gone for like, millennia...'
he looked up from the soft brown paws he sat in to the spiritual creature, and transmited a thought.
(you speak? please, tell me how long we've been gone for!)
the spirit recoiled and conversed with his two companions briefly in their own language before all three of them gazed at him in wonder.
he sensed curiousity, and rubbed at the gemstone imbedded in his forehead until it glowed.
he spoke in his own native tongue, now able to, since the knowledge had been accessed from the records.

"please, can you help me?"

suddenly, the bright red eyes of the wolf holding him lit up, and he started speaking perfect Roculian, right down to the accent!
"A language! yes! this'll make things easier!"
"Y-YOU SPEAK ROCULIAN?!"
"no, but i have the power of omnilinguistics, i can speak any language because my words translate themselves automatically!"
this wolf had an amazing power! he was about to say this when the wolf offered his index finger in what seemed to resemble a human greeting, a 'handshake' as it was called.
"my name's Beta. what's yours?"
his ears folded "I have no name... they were only a new idea before we left... how long have we been gone?"
the wolf looked shocked "you don't know?! you've been gone for over six thousand years!!"
he must have heard wrong, he couldn't possibly have just been told that they'd been lost in unreality for over 6000 years... could he?!
and that was when he fainted.

---

beta cradled the KOed arctic fox carefully in his paws and sighed "guess he's just not used to this stuff, and he didn't even know how long Rocul was gone for... it musta overwhelmed him."
zenef peered at the toga-clad vulpine and whined with concern "is he okay?"
Alpha flew out a meter from the cliff edge and seemed to groan 'he needs to return to Rocul, he is not safe among Bukis and esspecially not among Gikis here on virada, as a Homunculus, he is in danger of ignorance.'
Beta nodded "well, we can't go to Rocul, we're too big... looks like i was right to keep this."
he dove his right paw into his pocket beneath the cloak and withdrew a glimmering black pearl that seemed to glow with a soft violet light.
Alpha grinned at his counterpart 'we need a suitable harness, and i think you're still wearing it, aren't you Beta?' he inquired, and the brown wolf opened out his cloak and lifted his shirt to reveal the cross-shaped harness on his chest with a hole in the centre over his heart.
"just needs a jumpstart." he chuckled as he inserted the pearl into the hole.
Alpha and Zenef put their paws out and Beta grabbed them, feeling the amazing sensation once again due to his contact with his now trilogised self; his old soul, his old body, and his new self.
golden embers danced in the air around them, quickly becoming sparks of electricity and coursing through them all as their attributes were shared.
Alpha coluld sense his memory becoming clearer, and soon began to recall finer details about himself.
Zenef sensed his body becoming stronger, he could practically see his muscles developing and feel new organs forming that he didn't know what purpose they had, but they seemed important.
Beta felt a wave of sensations surge through his heart and it could easily have been mistaken for pleasure had he not felt this current sensation before, he felt fire in his veins, energy permeated every part of his body.

the harness clicked as the pearl secured itself, frayed wiring that had been damaged for half a decade pulled itself back together and allowed the charge to flow, the curcuitry rewiring itself and the CPU initiating its core programming and molecular transmutative components activating for the first time in five years.
the G-Sizer was repaired.

and this was when they noticed that the Arctic Fox had reawakened.
"zip zep qui'kleck mornimosh drepneg?" he said with his odd french-like accent with a hint of germanic in it.
beta looked down at him and grinned as his vulpine passenger stood in his left paw with a look of awe on his face, making the wolf grin.
"cool, isn't it? i developed this to let me change my size."
"GI-GIFRECK?! togel vo GIFRECK?!"
"yes, my size, i can even become a homunculus like you."
"hiratel jallen!! vichhi agden yegga!"
beta turned to face Zenef "Zenef, the people will listen to the person who created gridnet, we need you to be the ambassador and representative for Rocul, keep people out and let the Roculians be safe, at least until they're ready to join Xlenian society, okay?"
the canine nodded with a determined expression "I will."

---

across the world and broadcast over to earth, zenef's interview in front of the imposingly flying island that was Rocul, and the viradan news crews listened eagerly at the information he provided on the natural Humonculi and their culture through Alpha's translation, although nobody else could see him, and Beta was fully cloaked and holding the Roculite for his own safety.
it was also here that they revealed the G-Sizer to the world as Beta demonstrated its capabilities by reducing himself to Humonculus size and strapping on a camera, ready for the arctic fox, the emmisary, as they had decided to refer to him as, happily prepared to give them a tour of Rocul's capital city, Vagajo.
"and, we'll see everything on this screen that Beta sees, and we've fitted a makeshift translator to beta's hardware, so we'll be able to understand the Roculite's dialouge." Zenef explained, gesturing to the levitating tiny wolf, and the arctic fox clinging to his back.
"agdali munpreta! agdali munpreta!"
beta smiled "he said: lets fly! let's fly!"
he then turned in midair, a bit of pressure built up around him, then he was rocketed towards Rocul at high speed, causing emmisary to cheer in excitement as if the wolf was some kind of carnival ride hurtling through the sky without safety belts.

"you can fly, this is incredible! your version of our formula is incredibly more developed than we could have ever hoped for! truly beyond belief in its evolution from our original variation!" emmisary cheered
"well, thanks for the praise, but about half the improvements are because of the DSBIWO, not through what i actually added myself." Beta admitted, embarrased.
"nevertheless, none but yourself thought to combine the Apotheosis formula with this weapon body of yours, that in itself is impressive."
Beta blushed beneath his light brown fur, and his ebony coloured aura began to glow dimly, and he gave an embarrassed smile.
"sh-shit, you're making me blush..."
he slowed himself as he came within distance of the city, and touched down on the main street, where thousands of assorted hominculi were gathered, all wearing the same greco-roman attire as emmisary was, and all overjoyed to see the modern wolf in their city.
Beta shuffled and fidgeted shyly, being in front of large crowds had always done this to him because of his stage-fright, and now he was getting nervous again.
emmisary chuckled "be calm, you are new and interesting to us, not to mention that you perfected our formula, let us admire this, please."
"i... i can't handle all this attention..."
"please, you are like a celebrity to us!"
Beta breathed deeply, trying to calm himself "o-okay... the tour?" he asked shyly.
emmisary beamed a vulpine smile, and gestured towards a huge olympian-esque structure "how about we start with the emperor's palace? you are an emperor as well, are you not?"
"sorta..."

a portly coyote stepped out of the crowd with his arms spread, and his leaf circlet was gold.
"then welcome!" the coyote thrust out his paws and enthusiastically shook Beta's, startling the wolf "I am Emperor Haggard of Rocul, i am overjoyed to meet such an interesting modern-day wolf!"
Beta blushed "thank you... but i know a few wolves more interesting than i am, esspecially a grey wolf who's pretty cool, instead of a wierd brown one like me."
"no, no, we want you! you're the one who developed this size changing device and improved our formula!"
Beta was lead inside, the camera strapped to a collar on his forehead capturing the sheer magesty of his surroundings, it looked like a vision of heaven, of Olympus, everything made from gleaming white pearl and ivory, he could only imagine how difficult it would have been to construct it.

after touring the galleries and halls, he was shown the emperor's quarters, which looked exactly like a sanctuary in the sky, esspecially with the heavenly clouds in the room.
"welcome to my throneroom, Paradisio." emperor Haggard announced, one of his servants offerring Beta a wowl of fruit.
"no thanks, i don't feel like fruit right now..."
the servant bowed out with a blissful expression.
"um, i'm sorry, emperor Haggard, i'm just... not used to this kind of treatment..."
the coyote laughed "you will get used to it. now," he smiled ominously "where should we put you up for residence, soon-to-be-lord Beta?"
Beta frowned "what?"
"you are not leaving Rocul, i don't want you to leave, and *I* am a true emperor, if i want to own something as amazing as you, i *will* own it."
Beta snarled "I am NOT your pet, Haggard."
"no, but you will be my son's."
Beta looked at emmisary, who avoided eye contact "you are not gods. you're just as mortal as anyone else. slavery was abolished decades ago." he turned back to Haggard "you're obselite, you fatass coyote."
Haggard looked absolutely insulted "KILL HIM!"
emmisary barked "Disregard that order."
everyone turned to emmisary, as he began walking up to the throne and the Roculites bowed down.
"emmisary?" Beta asked the arctic fox, confused.
"my father's rule is over, by shouting in Paradisio, he has forasken his vows as emperor."
Haggard's circlet turned to a wilted grey, while emmisary's became verdant and gold.
"as emperor, i must take a new name, i will be called Emmett."
the Roculites chanted the name, and Beta smirked "and that, Xlen and Earth, is the very confusing culture of Rocul, and it's newest emperor, Emmett."
Emmett pointed at Beta, and the wolf stepped back "oh, uh... am i supposed to bow, too?"
"no, you do not have to bow, but i think you should tell them who you are."
the wolf backed up further "n-no, it has to stay a secret..."
"they should know, so you can be properly respected."
Beta's blood boiled, and the red in his eyes filled his pupils and sclerae, and he could feel the G-Sizer preparing to go on standby mode, so he gripped his sides and breathed, trying to calm down before the Full form overtook him "ugh, not now... not now..."
emmett understood "please escort our good friend outside so he can leave, i think they've seen enough of the tour for now... and he looks unwell..."

after being escorted outside, Beta lifted off and flew back over to virada, deactivating the G-Sizer once he was a safe distance away from Rocul, and waved back to all the homunculi amassed on the rim of the airborne continent who were waving back.
if he could adapt the G-Sizer to work on more than just heralds and G-Soldiers, it would be easier to interact with the Roculites.

one can only hope.

(Next Chapter: Parents Day and Lupus Festivus.)