(A.N: so I'm planning on doing some other souls stuff, and I want to know if there's anything anyone wants to see, and I mean anything, whether it's Eygon x Irina to chosen undead x zoey the pyromancer, I really don't care, just want to know if there's anything specific, I won't promise I'll do it, but I'll think about it, I've got a bigger project with all the stories planned later, just gotta get some parrings, anyway, enjoy the intro of Maria)
"S-So this blade came from the great Ludwig?" The doll said after hearing his whole story.
"Pretty much." He said, it was the next day and he was revitalized and ready to continue this journey.
"I-I see, that place is strange indeed, meeting all these faces of the hunt out of their own time, I wonder if Laurence is there." She said in wonder, thinking of all the old hunters who started the art of hunting.
"Well I'll find out." He said standing up ready to make his way through the nightmare.
"Are you forgetting something." The doll says in a scolding voice.
"Oh yeah, sorry." He smiled and turned around embraced her tightly, kissing her gently on the lips until she took the reigns and started kissing more passionately, she missed her hunter lazing around with her, ever since he found out about the nightmare he stopped taking days off, really wanting to make it through to see what was at the end. After a long kiss the two said goodbye and the hunter made his way back to the nightmare, as he stepped back into the corpse pile he saw the whirligig saw sitting next to Ludwig's head. He picked it up and saw a note that said "here's my spare, use her well, she's my only extra." He smiled a little, he surely was racking up the arsenal. He made his way out the small door on the left of the back of the room, it leads to a narrow hallway with a man muttering nonsense and a church hunter and old wheelchair shooter, whom he easily disposed of. Although a lot harder of a fight were the two church huntresses just up ahead, though he still pushed through them. Making his way to the podium he saw someone drew in blood "Use this in the skull." It was a pendant with and eye shape in the middle. He inserted it in the hollow mans skull and the elevator podium went up like an elevator. Once he did so he saw a giant and tall room. He sighed and started working his way through the maze, hearing one constant name from all the patients, "Maria." Who this Maria was he was unsure, but the patients seemed to hold her in high regard.
It was practically the next day before he managed make his way through the maze and to the giant double doors, he pushed them open slowly, but instead of finding Maria who he assumed would be up here, he simply found more patients set almost as if they were important. Never the matter, he cut them down with ease, not thinking twice. And after taking a breather from the slaughter, he lit the lamp outside the two other giant double doors, again contemplating going back to say hi to his beloved, but he could almost taste the secret, he knew he was close. He used the key he got off he patients corpse to open the giant doors to the see a giant empty room with a huge clock dial, now realizing it was a clock tower, he walked in to see that right in front of the giant dial was a body, someone slumped over a chair, he walked over to it and expected her without touching her, when he saw her face he fell back. "H-how could it be, w-was she...? No, she was never... I don't think... no... no... WHAT?!?" He said, for the face of the woman was the exact same as his beloved, while her hair was blonde on the corpse, it's the face that matters, and they were identical. "H-how..." He said weakly before embracing the body, the sudden touch caused the woman to yelp and jump up, pushing him off.
"W-whats wrong with you? Who goes around hugging corpses." She said looking down at him, she was easily as tall as the doll as well, around 7 feet, although probably taller.
"I-I thought- you were- you're not- how could you- you're not her- you're not dead!" He said scurrying away from her in shock.
"No I'm not dead, and I'm certainly not 'her', I've never met you before." She said looking at him in shock, she'd always gotten a response from other hunters as if they'd known her, but none ever as weird or flippant as this man. "Oh but what does it matter, I shall now liberate you if your wild curiosities nonetheless." She smiled and pulled out her dual sided blades.
"H-hey, Wait, please, I've got so many questions." He said holding his hands out and dropping his three weapons, in a sign of peace. She simply smiled and dropped hers, taking one of her gloves off, revealing long, sharp looking blood red nails. She rushed him with more speed than lightning and picked him up by the collar with ease, holding him above her as all could do was simply grasp at her hands and look at her pleadingly.
"You must be pretty dumb to do something as stupid as put down your weapons, thinking I'd so easily listen to the peace treaty." She smiled, moving her nails to his stomach, looking like she was about to impale him.
"Please." He said, simply, and teary eyed, looking at the familiar face of his love, he felt betrayed in a weird way, though he didn't blame her. She scoffed simply dropped him.
"You're a new kind of pathetic, at least the others would attempt to fight me, but I'll listen to 3 questions, that is it, and then I expect you to leave me, do I make myself clear." She bent down to his height level.
"Transparently." He said smiling a little. "Ok, let's start simple." He said, thinking carefully. "You're Maria right?"
"Yes, I am, 2."
"How long have you been here?"
"Too long to tell, I am a vileblood, and more so royalty, our blood is meant to last."
"Oh, that explains the height, and claws. Now, can I have 2 more questions?"
"No, but since I'm nice, you can have ONE more." She giggled a little. He was pathetic, stupid, and out of her league, but there was a twinge of attraction she felt towards him.
"Ok, thanks." He sighed but understood. "Will you come back with me?" He said looking up. "I have something I want to show you that will clear up just why I reacted the way I did." He looked up hopefully at her. She recoiled and looked down at him.
"No chance bud, sorry."
"Why, please, just for a little, I want to show you something, it might clear up one of your questions." He said pleadingly. "And it also might clear up one of mine." He said.
"Yeah, but I have to guard this key, keep it from the eyes of prying hunters such as yourself." She sighed looking down at him, walking away.
"Well bring it with you, no one with find it." He said simply.
She stopped dead in her tracks eyes widened, amazed she didn't think of something so simple. "You know, that's the first smart thing you've said." She smiled.
"So... yes." He smiled weakly.
"Sure, why not." She smiled back at him.
"Thank you." He ran up to her and hugged her again, she was about to throw him off, but his touch was soothing, the only time she ever touched another person was when she was shoving her claws in them to rip their hearts out. So having someone touch her in such a kind way felt nice, she didn't dare return the sign of affection, but she didn't shove him off. After he let go, he brought her to the dream, she was in shock.
"I-I-I-it's the old workshop, I-i never thought I'd be back here again." She said with tears in her eyes. "I can't believe... is Ge..."
"Good hunter? Who is this." She was cut off by the dolls prying questions.
"Oh, this is Maria, and... well... just look at each other." He said. They started looking at each other, both of them gasping at their similarities.
"G-Good hunter, th-this Maria, why does she look like me?" She said in shock, her voice coming out a little choked.
"Boy, what kind of joke is this, what is this thing." The word stung the doll, she had gotten so used to being called and treated like a real woman, she forgot she really was just a thing. "She's just a life sized, life given, doll of me, what in Oedens name." Maria said sharply.
"Yeah I know, kind of freaky. I don't know how or why, but... well you're seeing it." He said looking at the doll.
"G-Good hunter?" The doll said, instinctively backing up, she felt like an animal in a caged, getting ogled and mocked. "I-I'm sorry but I don't know." She said sadly. He noticed how uncomfortable he was making her and immediately embraced her tightly.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry." He whispered in her ear. She suddenly felt warm again, his touch was her ultimate cure. "I know you don't know, none of us know, it's not your fault." He said kindly, giving her a kiss. Maria sneers at him, his affections for such a simple doll seemed so real. "But I think for now we should just settle down, maybe get Maria set in."
"Y-Yeah, we can do that." The doll simply said.
And so the three of them sat in the workshop, Maria pulled off her gloves, revealing her soft and slender hands, and then shoved off her boot, revealing her pale and slender feet, with painted red nails. The doll watched her every move, the way she seemed to flow, and the way her skin looked, so real, unlike her, she longed for what Maria has. An ample figure, fair breasts, a voluptuous posterior, and life. Maria continued to strip her overcoat, revealing a silk shirt, sleeveless and white. Her whole body was toned perfectly, the doll was envious and enraged, the hunter already had her, but then he had to go and find a better her. A single tearstone fell from her face before she stood up and ran towards the field with great tree, locking the gate and moving to a corner, sobbing to herself, tearstones quickly littering the ground. The hunter quickly got up but Maria stopped him.
"Let her be, she needs time." She said, she didn't really know what the doll wanted, but she didn't care, she just wanted alone time with him, the first person to not want to fight, the first man to give her real human interaction.
"How could you know." He said in response. "I should go apologize." He said.
"No, I know cause I'm her." Maria said, that got him to sit back down. "What would you apologize for."
"Well I've clearly distressed her, and I feel bad." He said looking down.
Maria sighed and walked behind him, wrapping her arms around his back and embracing him, touch, finally, skin to skin contact, it felt so blissful. "It's not your fault, nor is it mine, nor is it hers, it's just all confusing for her, it's confusing for all of us. And also I think she's envious." Maria smiled a little, resting her head atop his head.
"Why would she envious, I've given her my love for quite a while now." He looked down, was it not enough, he'd do more.
"No, not of that, of me, the fact that I'm human, of my good looks, she wants it, and I can't blame her, she's lived her whole life as something so far from real, and now seeing exactly what she lacks, it must be disheartening." Maria said sympathetically, she felt a little bad for the doll.
"Y-Yeah." The hunter said, relaxing, allowing himself to get swallowed by Maria's embrace, it felt kind, soft and caring, he could truly feel her lack of human interaction in her embrace, he could feel her century long isolation in a single embrace, he didn't know what to do, he didn't know how to act, should he talk to his love, or leave her be and give her time to feel better. He was unsure, but most of all he was tired, he couldn't make decisions like that with such a cluttered head, he almost out of habit put himself on Maria's lap, she giggled a little and pet his head gently, she was soft, really soft, as soft as the doll, they truly were two sides of the same coin, almost 16 hours with Maria and he already felt like he knew her. He lay there, gently falling asleep in her lap, and she sat there, perfectly content with petting him, she missed any interaction, and this was ecstasy incarnate to her, she already had a spark for this man in her heart, he freed her from isolation, and treated her kindly, she couldn't believe how lucky she was, but now she had competition. She sighed in complacency and decided to live the moment, and worry about her competition later. "Good night hunter, sweet dreams." She smiled and pet his head, just as the doll had done.