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Description
The son of an Italian footballer and a Japanese woman, Deathmask was left orphaned when Pope Arles personally slew his parents along with his aunt and uncle. The mother and the aunt were not sisters by blood, but bound to the vows of the Sainthood and unmasked for their husbands while off-duty. When they refused to answer the Pope's call to return to Sanctuary, having already been warned of the new Pope's duplicity, Arles killed them all.

The pre-teen Deathmask, back then under a name he has long since forsaken, and his "cousin" attacked the Pope as their parents breathed their last, but nothing they did had any effect. Despite their outrage, the Pope was impressed by their resolve and adopted them as his wards. With the Pope being their direct teacher in the ways of manipulating their Cosmo, the boy grew into a man, and that man grew into the Cancer Gold Saint.

The name "Deathmask" was earned due to his propensity for husking the faces off of his victims upon their death during his time in the Gladiator Pits. Years later he learned how to snatch the souls of his victims and place them in clay masks that he molded for the corpses and mounted on his temple. As the Cancer Saint, he can draw strength from the souls trapped in those masks, making him nearly invincible within the confines of the Cancer Temple.

Deathmask was tasked by Pope Arles to join Shaina's forces in Japan to capture Athena and return her to Sanctuary, and kill anyone who stood in their way. While he initially balked at having to take orders from a Silver Saint, Deathmask soon embraced his role as the field commander of Sanctuary's forces. During his battles with the Zodiac Knights, he was able to multiply his collection of souls with the "collateral victims" that Tokyo spread before him. Anyone who wasn't wise enough to run was ripped apart by Deathmask's rampages, and anyone who did run was chased down and subsequently run down until the Zodiac Knights came to counterattak.

At first Deathmask had little trouble dealing with the five Bronze Saints within the Zodiac Knights, only being denied their heads when their teacher Aries Mu stepped in and protected them while the Knights completed their own objectives in the battle. But within months, the Bronze Saints started giving Deathmask trouble in battle where their heads became less of a demand from his leader and more of a coveted prize that would be bragged about for years to come once he claimed it. By the time the Japan Campaign was called off, the five Bronze Saints were able to drive Deathmask into retreat without any help from Mu.

Deathmask realized at that point that the only way he would claim their heads was if he was able to lure them into Sanctuary, something that Pope Arles agreed with. In order to weaken the spirit of a particularly troublesome prey among the Knights, Deathmask ambushed Dragon Shiryu while he said his farewells to his master Libra Dohko. By threatening Shiryu's companion Shunrei, Deathmask was able to not only strong-arm Dohko into returning to his post in the Libra Temple, but completely sever the deep bond he and Shiryu had.
During the battle of the Cancer Temple, as the Zodiac Knights fought a gauntlet of the 12 Gold Saints in order to reach the summit of Star Hill before Athena succumbed to a cursed arrow, Deathmask confronted Shiryu in a fateful duel. With the full extent of his power now at his disposal, Deathmask transported Shiryu to a rickety drawbridge swinging precariously over the mouth of the Underworld, where his victims' souls would uncontrollably walk and fall to their final resting place once he had finished leeching that soul of its will. Unfortunately for Shiryu, Deathmask wasn't there for a fight: he was there for a funeral. Using Spectre Pures that were hidden at the Lushan Peaks, Deathmask used Shunrei once more to make Shiryu submit.

Sadly for him, he didn't count on Guanyu Ohko, another pupil of Dohko that survived his battle with Shiryu weeks prior, to rise up and save Shunrei. This gave Shiryu the final push needed to send Deathmask plummeting into his own death trap.

As the Cancer Saint, Deathmask is closely attuned with the border that separates life and death, as the books previous Cancer Saints wrote about the techniques expected of them were instrumental in Pope Shion and Arles' studies on potentially curing Specterism. He can summon the souls of the dead to attack enemies either as bombarding projectiles or paralyzing bonds, at which point Deathmask closes in for the kill using a pincer created from his Cosmo. This technique, learned form his comrade Capricorn Shura, is not as unstoppable as the famed Excalibur but nevertheless adequate for threatening unruly Saints that don't bend to the will of his adopted father.

Because he is able to manipulate the unique environment of the Underworld so freely, and because he is a Gold Saint who has awakened enough of his Cosmo to retain his will even after his physically body completely passes, there is no guarantee that falling into his own trap will be enough to keep Deathmask placated for long...

Description
The son of an Italian footballer and a Japanese woman, Deathmask was left orphaned when Pope Arles personally slew his parents along with his aunt and uncle. The mother and the aunt were not sisters by blood, but bound to the vows of the Sainthood and unmasked for their husbands while off-duty. When they refused to answer the Pope's call to return to Sanctuary, having already been warned of the new Pope's duplicity, Arles killed them all.

The pre-teen Deathmask, back then under a name he has long since forsaken, and his "cousin" attacked the Pope as their parents breathed their last, but nothing they did had any effect. Despite their outrage, the Pope was impressed by their resolve and adopted them as his wards. With the Pope being their direct teacher in the ways of manipulating their Cosmo, the boy grew into a man, and that man grew into the Cancer Gold Saint.

The name "Deathmask" was earned due to his propensity for husking the faces off of his victims upon their death during his time in the Gladiator Pits. Years later he learned how to snatch the souls of his victims and place them in clay masks that he molded for the corpses and mounted on his temple. As the Cancer Saint, he can draw strength from the souls trapped in those masks, making him nearly invincible within the confines of the Cancer Temple.

Deathmask was tasked by Pope Arles to join Shaina's forces in Japan to capture Athena and return her to Sanctuary, and kill anyone who stood in their way. While he initially balked at having to take orders from a Silver Saint, Deathmask soon embraced his role as the field commander of Sanctuary's forces. During his battles with the Zodiac Knights, he was able to multiply his collection of souls with the "collateral victims" that Tokyo spread before him. Anyone who wasn't wise enough to run was ripped apart by Deathmask's rampages, and anyone who did run was chased down and subsequently run down until the Zodiac Knights came to counterattak.

At first Deathmask had little trouble dealing with the five Bronze Saints within the Zodiac Knights, only being denied their heads when their teacher Aries Mu stepped in and protected them while the Knights completed their own objectives in the battle. But within months, the Bronze Saints started giving Deathmask trouble in battle where their heads became less of a demand from his leader and more of a coveted prize that would be bragged about for years to come once he claimed it. By the time the Japan Campaign was called off, the five Bronze Saints were able to drive Deathmask into retreat without any help from Mu.

Deathmask realized at that point that the only way he would claim their heads was if he was able to lure them into Sanctuary, something that Pope Arles agreed with. In order to weaken the spirit of a particularly troublesome prey among the Knights, Deathmask ambushed Dragon Shiryu while he said his farewells to his master Libra Dohko. By threatening Shiryu's companion Shunrei, Deathmask was able to not only strong-arm Dohko into returning to his post in the Libra Temple, but completely sever the deep bond he and Shiryu had.
During the battle of the Cancer Temple, as the Zodiac Knights fought a gauntlet of the 12 Gold Saints in order to reach the summit of Star Hill before Athena succumbed to a cursed arrow, Deathmask confronted Shiryu in a fateful duel. With the full extent of his power now at his disposal, Deathmask transported Shiryu to a rickety drawbridge swinging precariously over the mouth of the Underworld, where his victims' souls would uncontrollably walk and fall to their final resting place once he had finished leeching that soul of its will. Unfortunately for Shiryu, Deathmask wasn't there for a fight: he was there for a funeral. Using Spectre Pures that were hidden at the Lushan Peaks, Deathmask used Shunrei once more to make Shiryu submit.

Sadly for him, he didn't count on Guanyu Ohko, another pupil of Dohko that survived his battle with Shiryu weeks prior, to rise up and save Shunrei. This gave Shiryu the final push needed to send Deathmask plummeting into his own death trap.

As the Cancer Saint, Deathmask is closely attuned with the border that separates life and death, as the books previous Cancer Saints wrote about the techniques expected of them were instrumental in Pope Shion and Arles' studies on potentially curing Specterism. He can summon the souls of the dead to attack enemies either as bombarding projectiles or paralyzing bonds, at which point Deathmask closes in for the kill using a pincer created from his Cosmo. This technique, learned form his comrade Capricorn Shura, is not as unstoppable as the famed Excalibur but nevertheless adequate for threatening unruly Saints that don't bend to the will of his adopted father.

Because he is able to manipulate the unique environment of the Underworld so freely, and because he is a Gold Saint who has awakened enough of his Cosmo to retain his will even after his physically body completely passes, there is no guarantee that falling into his own trap will be enough to keep Deathmask placated for long...