"Hm? Why am I like this? What the hell is going on?"
While I asked myself these questions, I started to feel my body improving, allowing me to move and get out of that position. I could feel something different—it felt heavier than the body I used to have, which gave me a strange sensation.
After calming down a bit due to the situation, I looked at my hands with a calmer tone and observed them for a few seconds.
It seemed like I was wearing some kind of gauntlet because my hands looked so white, while my fingers looked like bone pieces forming pointy fingertips. When I closed my left hand, I felt something odd—it wasn't fluid like normal fingers. I felt stiffness, like I was wearing gloves.
With that simple gesture of closing my hand, I could feel the hardness of my fingers. I could still feel touch sensitivity, like a normal hand with no protection.
Surprised by how vivid my senses were, and shifting my attention a bit from my hand, I looked at my forearm more clearly. It didn't seem human, yet it had smooth white skin.
Thinking more about my hands, I could only remember scales, but only my hands had that shape—my arm still looked "normal", something close to human.
Getting a better sense of what was going on, I couldn't help but think, "Am I in another world or something?"
With emotions seeming like they were about to take over, I felt the usual calmness that always dominated me. I glanced around, not moving my head much but turning my eyes to the corners, and realized where I was.
"This... if it's really what I think... this is the throne room where I always closed the program after sitting on the throne." That was a habit I had because I liked doing those roleplays and disconnecting here instead of just logging out in a boring way.
With that in mind, I rested my hands on the throne and try pushed myself up. As I did, I felt a dizziness as if the ground was collapsing.
Feeling that sensation, I froze in place, holding the throne more firmly with my hands, leaning my back forward like an old man with a stiff spine. It lasted only a few seconds until my senses returned to normal.
Getting back to normal, I stood up, feeling better. I walked forward a bit and looked down. I could see the stairs to the throne, and in the middle of them was a carpet—not red, but purple.
Walking down the few steps—there were only five—I heard the sound of my feet hitting the ground. There was no carpet on the throne platform, making the sound of something solid hitting the floor, like I was wearing iron boots.
The sound of my steps lasted only until I stepped on the carpets laid out for walking.
There was no sound in the room, at least not louder than my steps. I could only feel the lightness of my clothes and their scent—which was absent—as I walked toward my only exit, the giant gate stretching before me.
"How much strength will I need to open that thing?" I thought as I walked.
From the corner of my eye, I saw something in the darkness at the edge of the room. I stopped and looked in that direction. I saw a giant suit of armor—around 8 meters tall. The armor had purple designs that stood out, while the rest was a whitish gray. The weapon in its right hand was a halberd, a bit taller than the armor itself, with the same color scheme.
"This is incredible." I couldn't help but marvel at the scene—it looked like something straight out of a fantasy.
Regaining my composure, I remembered asking a colleague to help model this being for a freelance project. If I remember right, it was my first paid project when I moved to Japan. At that time, I was learning to model, so I had his help.
"Now that I think about it, this place has shadows." That was weird. I never cared much about shadows since they didn't change much and just ruined performance. Honestly, I needed every bit of performance I could get because of the many scattered projects. To be fair, I'd only turn them on to take screenshots.
Looking a bit to the side, I saw a single pillar slightly ahead of the armor's position. Looking more to the left of the pillar, I spotted another giant suit of armor, this one holding a spear.
Seeing that, I remembered there were supposed to be twelve of them in the hall—six on each side, positioned symmetrically.
"I remember using this hall for a photo for my design portfolio, that's why I set it up this way." After recalling that, I started walking again toward the giant door.
Just as I was about to move, I heard the sound of the door being pushed.
I stopped in place, wondering who it could be. Only the images of the creations I made came to mind.
When the door opened just a bit, I saw the upper half of a little girl slipping through the crack.
With her whole body inside the hall—without closing the door—she started walking toward me.
As I looked at her from a distance of just over 30 meters, I realized who she was.
Holding a plush shark, wearing a knee-length dress in shades of blue and white, white shoes that contrasted with her pale but not ghostly skin, deep blue eyes like the ocean, and a large, flowing mass of white hair. From under her skirt, a shark tail extended, slightly bent to avoid dragging on the ground.
Seeing all those features, I confirmed it was exactly who I imagined: Shubniggurath. I just called her Gurath or Nigura. I had other nicknames for her, but those were the ones I used most, given the length of her name.
As I watched her walk, I noticed her empty and cold expression—just as I designed her. I admit I got excited seeing something I worked so hard on coming to life, now right in front of me.
"Gurath?" I asked as calmly as I could. Just as I expected, my voice was different—deeper and less hoarse than my original one.
She just stopped in front of me and looked up—she had to raise her head because of her short height, around 160cm, at least that's how I remembered it. Realizing her height, I noticed I was much taller than before. I used to be 180cm, but from this perspective, I'd say I'm almost 2 meters now—maybe?
"Hm?" She let out a sound—the kind you understand as "what?" or "huh?"
With just that, I could tell she was really alive. It sounded more natural than the voice I had originally given her. Her current voice sounded cuter, which filled me with joy. Then I was quickly overtaken by my usual calmness. I didn't know what caused it—maybe the antidepressants I used to take? Or my past traumas?
"Is it really you, Gurath?" I asked, still in disbelief because of the surreal situation.
She nodded slightly and answered in a soft, low voice, just loud enough to hear, "Yes, your Shubniggurath."
Those words overwhelmed me with a strange mix of fulfillment and emotion—like when I run a piece of code with no errors.
Returning to my usual calm, I replied in a soft tone, "I see. So this is how it is." Not knowing what else to say. Gurath was always a quiet one—because of her losses and traumas—a being of few words and many actions. That's how I wrote her.
With a gesture I hadn't noticed until I felt my right arm being pulled slightly, I saw her tugging on my sleeve—a signal for me to pay attention.
When I looked into her eyes, she turned away, letting go of my sleeve, and began walking down the carpet. I followed her. She was leading me in the same direction I had planned to go.
Approaching the massive doors, I got a sense of how grand they were. Seeing them now, made in real scale instead of just a computer model, they looked magnificently unreal.
Touching the slightly cold door and pulling it open more, I realized it wasn't that heavy for me.
As the door opened wider, Gurath went through, and I followed behind. Worried about how I'd close it, I glanced back at the door—just as I heard the loud creaking of metal. My eyes landed on Gurath, who looked indifferent as always.
Seeing that, I asked in a calm tone—which even I found strange for the situation—"What was that?"
Right after I finished asking, I heard something massive hitting the ground.
"It's just the guards closing the door," she said in her usual calm tone.
"I see," I replied. Then another step echoed. I could only think, "That's loud."
"Shall we?" she asked, her head slightly turned toward me.
"Let's go." When I said that, she returned her attention to the massive corridor ahead of us.
Walking down the hallway to the left, I could see what was outside through the large glass windows on my right. There was a green courtyard full of life, with more white walls in the background. I couldn't help but think how everything now had larger forms and sunlight casting all kinds of shadows. The sun—an artificial one—was placed above the island to simulate day and night.
Seeing that, I wondered if there was another sun—because the sky was blue. If there was another sun, that would mean this wasn't the Vazio anymore. That made me question if I was still in the "workspace" or in a different world entirely.
As we walked on the purple carpet down the hallway, we eventually reached some stairs. We went down.
At the bottom, we found a large area that looked like a guest reception hall. I didn't really remember what I had designed or planned for this part of the castle—too long since I last touched anything here.
Gurath stopped at the door to a hall and gave a small sigh as if satisfied. Then she said, "We're here. This is the place we agreed to meet."
My mind wandered at her words, and when my thoughts abruptly stopped, I finally understood what she meant. A wave of anxious emotion hit me at the thought of meeting the rest of my creations.
Looking more closely, it seemed like another throne room, but smaller. There were no doors at the entrance, allowing a full view of the area. A throne stood nearly in the center, with a red carpet—this time thinner than the previous one—stretching out from it.
Seeing the room, I couldn't quite understand why this place specifically.
After glancing around, curiosity hit me. I asked, "Where are the others?"
She stared at me with her beautiful yet empty dark blue eyes before saying, "They're busy, because of the unexpected events."
I wondered what she meant by "unexpected events", so I asked, "What do you mean by 'unexpected events'?" while staring into her eyes.
She looked away slightly, as if recalling something, and then said, "It seems we're in a strange place—with a sky, a sun, and gravity—like the dimensions you created out of boredom. Since it's unfamiliar, some of them went out to investigate, while Azath went to stabilize the island since we were falling." She said all of this in a tone that sounded like she was reciting it—not natural because of how rigid she was with long dialogue.
I understood. So there really is another sun, a blue sky, and gravity. That explains the strange feeling in the throne room—as if the ground was falling. Seems like we're not floating anymore. At least it looks like that's been resolved, since I don't feel that sensation anymore.
Up to that point, it made sense. But then she mentioned "dimensions you created out of boredom", and I could only think back to the times I programmed or created something random.
Thinking more about it, I asked myself, "How does she know that? Was she conscious before we came here?" With those questions in mind, I saw Gurath walking again, and I let it go for now.
As I followed her, I noticed we were heading straight toward the throne in the room. As we approached, she stopped, turned left, then took a few steps back—giving me space to go ahead.
I walked up to the throne, which had two steps and no carpet. As I stepped on the platform, I heard my footsteps again—unlike Gurath, who hadn't made any noise.
Turning around and sitting down, I saw Gurath now kneeling, her head bowed while holding her plush toy. Taking my eyes off her, I looked toward the entrance.
"Now we just have to wait for everyone to arrive," I thought silently.