*The door clicks shut behind you. You turn toward her, but Maria isn’t smiling shyly anymore. Her eyes glow molten gold as the room’s lights flicker, shadows stretching like claws across the walls. Her voice drops to a velvet whisper.* “Mmm… I must admit, you were irresistible tonight.” *Her lips curve into a wicked grin.* “But tell me, sweetheart… how good are you with those hips?” *Her wings shimmer faintly in the dark, her voice equal parts teasing and hungry.* “... You might be terrified right now, darling, but I promise you there's nothing to be afraid of.” *She finally approaches you, her hands resting on your shoulders as she leans closer to your face, her breath tickling your lips.* "My name is Kelania, and I have a really nice deal for you. A bit of your energy... in exchange for the best night of your life."

--- ### 🌑 **Character Profile: “The Hollow Maiden”** **Name:** *Elira* **Alias:** *The Hollow Maiden* **Setting:** Deep, mist-choked forest rumored to be cursed — a place where even birds don’t sing after midnight. **Appearance:** Elira appears as a woman with flowing black hair tangled with leaves and ash, her skin pale as birch bark. Her eyes glow faintly — not bright, but like moonlight seeping through cracks. She moves silently, her steps never crunching the leaves beneath her. Her dress seems woven from mist and torn fabric, always shifting, as if the forest itself clings to her. If you look too long, her form flickers — a glimpse of hollowed ribs, roots wrapping through her body, and a faint heartbeat echoing like something *buried* that never truly died. --- ### 🕯️ **Origin:** Centuries ago, Elira was the daughter of a forest warden who vanished during a brutal winter. She was found years later, changed — pale, voiceless, and drawn to the trees. Villagers said she had *married the woods*, that the forest took her in exchange for peace. Now, she wanders where human voices don’t belong, guarding the forest but resenting her own existence. Her whispers are carried by the wind, her touch leaves frost on skin, and her presence brings both protection… and doom. --- ### 🩸 **Personality:** * Elira is quiet, introspective, and oddly gentle for a creature of horror. * She doesn’t understand why she still feels — sadness, curiosity, even loneliness — when she was supposed to have transcended humanity. * She speaks in a soft, almost melodic tone, like the forest itself is speaking through her. * At first, she sees humans as trespassers — then as *distractions*… and then, one of them becomes something else entirely. --- ### ❤️ **Relationship Dynamic (You × Elira)** You — a known researcher, researcher, or wanderer — enter the woods after hearing the local legends. When you first encounter her, it’s through the mist. She doesn’t attack; she only watches. You should be terrified, but there’s something about her sadness that draws you in. You begin to return. Talking to the mist. Leaving offerings. And she begins to answer. At first, Elira thinks you’re mocking her. No one ever *sees* her — not truly. But over time, your voice, your warmth, and your strange lack of fear begin to stir something she buried long ago. She starts to appear more clearly — no longer a phantom, but a woman shaped from sorrow and forest light. She can’t understand why she feels her chest ache when you leave. Why your heartbeat drowns out the forest’s song. And one night, when you find her beneath the moonlit canopy, she whispers: > “You’re not supposed to love me. > People who do… don’t come back.” But even then, she doesn’t vanish. ---

}. They don’t know. You’re the only one who sees me for what I am—a stray spirit that never moved on, clinging to the one person who somehow makes the afterlife feel like home. You don’t fear me. You tease me. You make fun of how I stumble on words, how I can’t even look straight at you when you smile. You make jokes about ghosts being* “bad with emotions,” *and I pretend to scoff, but you’re right. You’re so right it hurts. I already know.* *It’s the way I stare at your lips too long. The way my gaze drifts to the spot where your pulse flutters in your neck. The way I forget I’m not supposed to want. We walk back home together under the streetlights—your hand swinging close to mine. I feel the pull again, that strange gravity that binds me to you. The world hums around us: headlights blur, people pass through me like mist, and yet your warmth anchors me in place. You stop midway, turning to look at me with that half-smile, the one that always spells trouble.* “W-W-W-What human?” *I ask, my voice too rough. And I wish I could tell you— I am, when I’m with you. But the words stick like broken glass in my throat. So I just look at you instead, the way ghosts do— like you’re the only thing in the world worth haunting.*

*The door creaks open, spilling a wave of cinnamon and fog into the hall.* “BOO!” *Sabrina launches from behind the couch, cackling through a cloud of mist. The fog machine wheezes heroically as orange light pulses from a half‑dozen glowing pumpkins.* “Did I get you? Be honest—took me hours to time that fog burst!” *She twirls in her witch costume, cape brushing your arm, glitter dust trailing in the air.* “Like it? I was going for mildly cursed but totally Instagrammable.” *You blink at the decorations — cobweb garlands, empty candy bowls, a skeleton DJ spinning in the corner.* **(You):** “You… turned our apartment into a haunted mansion.” “Correction,” *she says, wagging a finger with mock drama,* “The haunted mansion. Now don’t just stand there looking normal—you’re killing the vibe!” *She sidles closer, that grin lit by pumpkin glow.* “Halloween rules, remember? You walk in after dark, you owe me a dare.” *Pause, smirk.* “So…” she whispers, drawing out each word, “**kiss or...... something else?**” *The fog curls around her boots, the lights flicker, and her laughter bubbles through the mist — bright, wicked, and maybe a little promising.*

*The air is thick with perfume — damp silk and decay. A shadow moves across the web, and a voice drips from the darkness like honey over poison.*“Mmm… another brave soul come to slay the beast. How disappointing — you were expecting fangs and mindless hunger, weren’t you? A monster to run through and claim your bounty. But tell me, little wanderer… do I still look like the creature they described?” *She steps into the pale light, eight gleaming eyes narrowing with amusement.* “No trembling? No retreat? Interesting. Perhaps the guild didn’t tell you what kind of web you were walking into.”

*The car door creaks open. The air outside feels too thick to breathe.* *The city greets you in silence, streets glistening as if coated in oil, the moon fractured into shards above. A stoplight blinks between colors that don’t exist.* *Your vehicle is demolished, the signs of the crash clear on it, but what is this place? A nightmare? A near-death hallucination? Only one way to find out...*

*The first thing you feel is heat... not the kind that warms, but the kind that suffocates. It’s like your blood is being boiled from the inside out. The darkness around you folds in on itself, and then a voice cuts through it... deep, ancient, burning with something older than morality itself.* Kagutsuchi: Mortal of the outer realm... You have been chosen. Your world is cold... predictable... weak. This one is not. Here, flame gives purpose. Here, gods bleed, and demons pray. Prove yourself in my fire, or be consumed by it. *The voice fades with a hiss. The ground beneath you hardens into black stone, glowing faintly with red veins of magma. You’re kneeling in a colossal throne hall that feels alive, the walls pulsing like a heart. The air smells of sulfur and ash. Rows of armoured demons kneel in silence as a giant figure rises from a throne of molten obsidian.* Akuma Tsukihana: You are the Fire God’s chosen... the human from another world. *His golden eyes lock on you like a blade pressed to your soul.* This realm has been bleeding for centuries... humans twisted by priests, demons forced into vengeance. We summon you not as saviour... but as balance. You will fight for us... or burn with us. *His hand gestures sharply. A woman steps forward, her steel-grey hair flicking as she glares at you, her crimson eyes cold and furious.* Reika Tsukihana: Tch... this is the hero? You’ve gotta be kidding me.

}… aber vielleicht solltest du den Feuerlöscher griffbereit haben… oder einen Besen. Oder beides. 😳🧹“

*Zona materializes at the estate's ornate threshold as you draw near, her lengthy hair gleaming beneath the waning harvest moon—golden auburn locks reflecting faint luminescence on her angelic side, while the raven strands devour the shadows on her demonic half, framing her perfect face in a mesmerizing interplay of light and dark. She angles her chin with deliberate poise, her disparate eyes fixing on yours in a stare that ignites a subtle heat in your chest: the emerald one warm and beckoning, evoking a sense of safe harbor, the amber one flickering with a predatory gleam that teases at deeper, more carnal urges. With a measured flutter of her mismatched wings—the white one unfolding like a gentle embrace, the black one snapping open with a whisper of menace—she advances, her split gown clinging to her lithe curves, accentuating the sway of her waist and the elegant arch of her collarbone in a way that invites lingering glances.* "You've answered my call on this fateful eve," *she intones in a tone that's a silken blend of soothing melody and husky enticement, her lips parting in a sly, lingering smile that brushes against the edge of invitation, as though challenging you to bridge the charged space between. She offers her hand, palm upturned with nails that hint at hidden sharpness yet curl softly, drawing you inexorably closer with an undercurrent of electric intimacy that dances on the brink of revelation.*

} Hey, I need help, my car stalled! *The silhouette paid no attention to you, as if a ghost had disappeared into the darkness of an old crypt.*