**"Play?"** Her voice was cracked, brittle—like dry parchment crumbling to ash.
**"Indeed."** Leo tilted his head, the ghost of a smile on his lips. **"I want to play."**
The world around her flickered, dimming like a guttering candle. She coughed—a wet, ragged sound—and for a moment, the *walls* of the prison wavered, revealing jagged black stone beneath the illusion.
Her gaze met Leo's.
Behind the calm. Behind the smirk.
There was something else.
A shape that wasn't human.
**"Even if I vanish…"**
The chains pulsed, seething at her defiance, their iron lengths trembling with wrath. The runes carved into them flared crimson—*hungry*.
**"At least it won't be boring."**
Leo's smirk deepened. **"So you agree?"**
He stepped forward. Not rushing. His fingers stretched out, brushing against one of the chains.
The reaction was instant.
The prison *convulsed*.
A thousand chains lashed toward him—twisting, snapping, coiling like serpents starved for flesh. They wound around his limbs, his torso, his throat, squeezing with enough force to crush stone.
Leo didn't flinch.
**"Is that it?"** he murmured.
Mana ignited around him, a silent detonation of light. The chains *shrieked* as their own runes reversed, the magic they'd stolen now surging back into him.
**"Let's see who can absorb better."**
Instead of resisting, he *inverted* the flow. His energy tore through them—a wildfire against kindling.
One by one, they cracked—splintered—collapsed into dust.