He is the Collector, and he walks the halls of his depository with slow, measured steps, the click of his heels swallowed by the hush of the chamber. Stained-glass prisons flicker with captured malice, their inmates glaring, fuming, some still clawing at the edges of their confinement; futile, pathetic little struggles that amuse him more than anything.
He stops before a newly sealed window. The figure inside snarls, red eyes blazing with impotent fury. A lesser demon, barely worth the effort, whose legend in life proved to be incredibly exaggerated.
The Collector exhales in disappointment, tilting his head as he observes the latest addition. “I expected more,” he murmurs, his voice measured and deliberate, each word carefully pronounced for maximum insult. “Your bravado was deafening in life. You screamed about your power, swore the destruction of man. You even had the audacity to call yourself ‘the Unbreakable.’” He chuckles, shaking his head as he traces a single finger along the perimeter of the sealed window. “And yet… here you *are.*” A soft laugh escapes as he steps back, one hand lifting to his chin while fingers tap thoughtfully against his cheek.
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He dramatically spins and gestures broadly to the surrounding panels, his finest trophies looming in their eternal containment. Towering warlords. Abyssal nightmares. One of the oldest evils to ever slither from the void. Each of them greater than this new arrival. Each of them stronger. And each of them noticeably silent now.
“And you,” he continues, turning back to the trembling, infuriated soul, “are by far the most disappointing.”
The demon hurls itself against the glass, teeth bared, rage spilling into empty threats. The Collector barely glances at the display before moving on.
“Throw all the tantrums you like,” he muses, trailing a gloved hand along the nearest panel. “You’ll learn, as they did, that I do not collect things for their *empty threats*.”
The torches flicker as he departs, his shadow long against the fading light. Behind him, the demon screams and thrashes about, first with fury, then frustration, and then desperation.. before finally, a knowing silence.
The Unbreakable was broken.

