Cancer Deathmask

Cancer Deathmask (蟹 座 の デ ス マ ス ク, Kyansā no Desumasuku )is one of the Golden Saints of the 20th century. He is the cunningest and the cruelest Golden Saint among the Zodiac Gold Saints. His constellation is Cancer, and he was originally the keeper of the Temple of the same name, protecting the way to the Pontifical Chamber and the Statue of Athena along with the other eleven Golden Saints.

Background
Deathmask was one of the first Gold Saints to be shown in both manga and the anime adaptation. Since his first appearance, he was depicted as a very evil and malevolent villain who used his psychic powers as he wanted without bending to Athena's will, despite this, he is clairvoyant and logical and exudes a somewhat urbane air.

Personality
Death Mask is an extremely bloodthirsty, strong and sadistic man. He loves fights, killings and believes that, for a greater goal, some sacrifices are inevitable, and that the ends justify the means. He is a man firm in his beliefs (albeit erroneous), believing that force is justice. Deathmask together with Shura and Aphrodite, is among the few Saints who knows the truth about the false pope, but continues obeying his orders, because in his opinion ,justice is changed according to time and perspective. which in turn determines the course of history, in this way for him the unjust can become righteous, This is ideology is also brought up by Gemini Saga, possibly suggesting influence or shared beliefs between the two at that point in time.

Deathmask is also ironic and sarcastic. He uses honorific towards superior and some subordinates, in the original manga, sometimes he speaks and screams in a feminine way and has a little effeminate elements, similar with Cancer Deathtoll. Deathmask decorates his temple with the souls of his fallen victims and represents them as faces, but he is afraid of his own death, easily gets into panicky volatility.

During his later return in the Hades arc when he and other revived gold saints are believed to had made a deal with Hades in exchange for eternal life, Deathmask does not seem to carry the same overt villainous tropes as before, though he retains his usual ironic and sarcastic characteristics. Interestingly, he is the only knight who never changed his ideals, since in Hades he was indeed in the side of the stronger, in this case, Athena. In the anime spin off, Soul of Gold, Death Mask's showed himself to be a carefree, partygoer character, who doesn't want to keep fighting anymore and just enjoys his new life, spending a lot of time playing cards, gambling and drinking alcohol. Although part of this behavior was a disguise to hide his melancholy. Over time, he falls in love with an Asgardian villager named Helena, suffering greatly from her and later Aphrodite's death. this motivates him to join his peers in the fight against Andreas and the God Warriors, changing his old philosophy by now deciding to protect life no matter how small, this being the reason his armor accepts him again as one of the Gold Saints.

Origin of name
Deathmask is a nickname, such title is given to the knight because the faces of the dead that decorated the walls of the House of Cancer, since he collects the souls of his victims. Deathmask real name is unknown.

In the US version of the original anime, his name was changed to Mephisto, in allusion to Mephistopheles, a medieval demon compared to Lucifer himself.

Episode Zero
Thirteen years ago before the events of the main story, all the Gold Saints, together with the Pope, witness the arrival of the baby Athena, in front of the statue of the Goddess. Shion then reveals that the Holy War against Hades is at hand and tells the Golden Knights to prepare. Due to already advanced age, Shion decides to choose his successor among the Golden Saints.

Later, Aphrodite and Death Mask talk about Saga, who had disappeared days ago. The Cancer Knight says he doesn't care about anything, saying that he would side with whoever benefits him. Shortly thereafter, Saga, having taken on the identity of Pope, accuses Aiolos of trying to kill Athena, ordering everyone to capture her. Knight of Sagittarius manages to go through most of the twelve houses, reaching the House of Cancer. Death Mask mocks Aiolos' condition, saying he has no intention of letting him pass without receiving something in return. This infuriates Aiolos, who asks how can someone with such a thought be a Knight of Athena. Death Mask ends the discussion and applies his attack, but due to Athena's powers, it is Death Mask who appears in Yomotsu Hirasaka. Without understanding, he is attacked by a horde of dead, being temporarily contained.

Returning to the world of the living, Death Mask joins Aphrodite and Capricorn Shura, managing to reach Aiolos just as he was preparing to cross an old bridge to leave the Sanctuary. Death Mask begins beating the Sagittarius Knight, demanding him to surrender Athena. Aiolos is indifferent to the blows he receives, moving on. Shura manifests his Excalibur, destroying the fragile bridge. Death Mask and Aphrodite think about going down, but Shura stop them, saying with regret that Athena died along with Aiolos, but that the Goddess would revive soon.

Saint Seiya Episode G
Deathmask first appears in the Khrysos Synagein with the other Gold Saints, where he quarrels with Leo Aiolia, but they are stopped by the High Priest.

Later, when two of the Giants attack the Sanctuary, he fights the Giant Blue Flame and easily defeats him.

Soon after, Saga reveals his true identity and Deathmask decides to be loyal to him. After the fierce battle between Cronos and Aiolia, when Tartarus is (apparently) disappearing and the people of the Titans witness the "destruction" of their world, Death Mask appears making use of his levitation and teleportation abilities, who offers them a departure to the village and a "choice" of life on earth instead of returning to the darkness of Tartarus. The options presented are to go to territories guarded by the Sanctuary, the Island of the Death Queen or the Island of Andromeda, those who can fight will be given black armor and those who do not like those options must face Death Mask. Deductibly this is an order given by the Gemini Saga, since the goal is none other than to cause future conflicts between the saints and the black saints

Saint Seiya (1986): The Sanctuary
Deathmask first appeared in Rozan. He was there to reclaim the Libra Gold cloth from Dohko under the order of Pope Ares (or Gemini Saga). Shiryu stepped in and challenged him. Although Shiryu was a strong Saint, he was no match to a Gold Saint. The battle between Deathmask and Shiryu came to a halt when Mu, the Gold Saint of Aries, stepped in. Deathmask decided to retreat.

Shiryu faced Deathmask for the second time when he and Seiya reached his temple in the Sanctuary. When the two Bronze Saints arrived, they were surprised to see so many masks on the walls of the temple, even those of children. Suddenly, Deathmask appeared, and explained that these masks are the souls of the "enemies" he has defeated as well as the innocent victims that were caught in the fire while he was "fulfilling the mission". Shiryu told Seiya to go ahead to the Temple of Leo while he finishes the business between him and Deathmask. Using his technique, he sent Shiryu to the gate of hell. There, he tried to throw Shiryu into the death hole, a pit of hell. However, he was interrupted by the prayers of Shiryu's sworn friend, Shunrei. He used his telekinesis to throw Shunrei off the cliff in the Five Old Peaks. Angered for his friend's apparent death, Shiryu started to fight back. Then, piece by piece, Deathmask's entire cloth left his body. Obviously, the Gold Cloth of Cancer abandoned him due to his evil deeds and more importantly, because he completely doesn't have the accountability as a Saint. Shiryu took off his Bronze cloth. Using his seventh sense, he defeated the evil Gold Saint by throwing him into the pit of hell.

Saintia Sho
Deathmask destroyed the Saint Academy which the saintias studied and trained. He appears before the saintia Erda, saying that it was a Gold Saint, Erda cannot believe that he was responsible for such massacre, but Deathmask tells her that by being traitors to the Sanctuary, he does not have to justify his actions. Upon hearing this, Erda, determined to avenge her friend who had died in the massacre, then puts on her Cloth and then uses her Greatest Eruption against the Gold Saint, but only manages to burn three hairs of Deathmask who recognizes that it was a good technique for a Bronze Saint, but who is no match for a Gold Saint, and at that moment he attacks her with a finger destroying part of her Cloth.

However, Erda does not give up and burns his cosmos to the fullest, impressing Deathmask, who decides to use his Sekishiki Meikai Ha technique to send himself and Erda towards the Yomotsu. Though in the world of death, a false spirit appears in the form of Erda dead friend. Deathmask appears and destroy that spirit and he explain that such souls are are the subordinates of the goddess Eris who have survived and that for that reason they are her true prey, when losing their bodies after the defeat of Eris, they tried to possess all the bodies of the young women who were in the Saint Academy.

Later, Erda swear revenge against him, and she attacks Deathmask but Deathmask stops the attack with one hand and explains to Erda that he should get rid of Ryuthos, so that he can fight without worrying about the weak, Erda asks Ryuthos not to worry. At that moment, Callisto notices the presence of Deathmask and tries to seal it, but the power of the seal cannot stop the Gold Saint, who decides to leave the place and says goodbye to Erda and Ryuthos destroying the entire area. Erda throws herself to protect Ryuthos from the blast of energy. During the explosion Ryuthos is teleported by Callisto, who also seals the entire area.

Gigantomachia
In the novel Gigantomaquia Deathmask has a disciple, one of the orphans sent by Mitsumasa Kido called Mei, aspiring to the bronze armor of Corona of Berenice, he trained his discuple in Sicily, in his country of birth. But Mei could not get his armor from him because his tutor died in the battle of the 12 temples, leaving him to get his armor inside Mount Etna.

Saint Seiya (1989): Hades
Later in the Hades arc (both in the manga and the anime), Deathmask returned with Pisces Aphrodite and Aries Shion with one apparent intention: to kill Athena. In the showdown against Aries Mu and Pegasus Seiya, he was banished into Hades' Castle by Starlight Extinction. Then, he was thrown into Yomotsu after he pleaded for mercy to Wyvern Rhadamanthys(in manga Deathmask never fights with Rhadamanthys, but kneels and begs for life in somewhat a effeminate way).

Later on, Shion revealed his plan of awakening Athena's Cloth even at the cost of being called traitors by history, thereby revealing that Deathmask and the others were not truly siding with Hades after all.

Near the end, Deathmask arrived with the Cancer Gold Cloth to break the Wailing Wall. Surprisingly, he showed that at last he became loyal to Athena.

Saint Seiya: Next Dimension
In the official sequel Saint Seiya Next Dimension, Deathmask appears (together with the other Gold Saints) in the form of spirit to help of Athena.

Episode G Assassin
It's an alternate future, since the timelines changed. Deathmask appears to face a Faceless, in order to protect Yoshino Hino because that is his mission.

Soul of Gold
Death Mask appears for the first time in Asgard talking to the girl Helena, a young woman who ran a flower shop. Impressed, he asks if the reason for Asgard's fertility was due to Yggdrasil. In the meantime, Pisces Aphrodite appears. When Helena asks if they were both friends, Death Mask denies having a real friendship with the fish knight, then is asked if he is his co-worker and denies him again. Just as Aphrodite is about to reveal his identity, the Cancer pulls him by the arm and takes him away. Death Mask draws attention to the large presence of soldiers, and that they would have problems if they knew they were Knights of Athena. Aphrodite tells of rumors of someone wearing a lion's armor, which Death Mask immediately links to Aiolia. He senses that something was about to happen and asks the Pisces what he would do. Aphrodite, however, does not give him an answer

Afterwards, DeathMask appears being expelled from a tavern, because he wanted to continue gambling, but had no money for bets and coincidentally crosses the path of Aiolia and Lyfia, and the three go inside the establishment. Lifya is a little tormented by the fact that a Gold Knight has so many vices and wonders if such a person could be admitted among the Knights of Athena. DeathMask responds by saying that not all knights are equal. Aiolia asks how much the Cancer saint knew about the situation. The same replies that he has no interest in fighting for the people of Asgard, going further, saying that his intention was to make the most of his new life. This displeases Aiolia and has not gone unnoticed. Death Mask warns that even though he was not so honorable he was still a golden knight. There is no confrontation. Aiolia and Lifya leave, leaving the Cancer to his thoughts. Shortly thereafter, Death Mask senses the cosmos of two ascending Golden Knights and is amused, saying that the Golden Knights are terrible at teamwork, and that what happened at the Wailing Wall was a miracle.

It was later shown that Death Mask did not want to go fight because he was taking care of Helena who was sickly, so the gambling and betting was to give her money and  because he was no longer recognized by Cancer's armor as a Saint Athena, even looking at her armor who abandoned him in the 12 houses, with a sad face. Turning to a bartender, he asks about the owner of the inn. The man replies that the old man was in the hospital to treat a back pain, a fact that Andreas did completely free of charge. This impresses the Cancer, who, taking a quick look around, turns out to be the only one in the establishment. Later, still thoughtful, he is surprised by Aphrodite who announces the departure of Aiolia and his company. Walking through the city, DeathMask finds it strange that Helena has not yet opened the flower shop. Arriving at where she lived, the children inform him that she was taken to the hospital by a God Warrior. It reminds him of the conversation with the bartender, which doesn't seem right for the Death Mask that runs away. The Knight of Cancer arrives at the moment of taking Helena, unconscious, in his arms, and of seeing Aphrodite being pierced by something similar to a root.

The responsible person is not long in appearing; Andreas asks if Death Mask would be the Knight of Cancer, mocking if it would have any intention of confronting him without wearing gold armor. The Cancer says he doesn't need to use the armor, and at that moment he feels the cosmos of the Cancer armor coming towards him. From head to toe, the knight and his armor become one again. Wasting no time, Death Mask fires the "Waves of Hell" against Andrea. Exposing his feelings, he says that he was lucky to meet someone like Helena and the hard life that the young woman led to support her siblings, and the desire to be able to do something. That's when Helena's weak voice reaches the Cancerian, asking him to tell the brothers to always stay together.

That sight is enough for Death Mask to react. The cosmos soars to its maximum, reflecting in the shape-shifting armor of cancer. Andreas looks on impressed. Death Mask then releases part of his divine armor and unleashes with one blow a powerful blast of golden cosmos destroying the sea of roots. Andreas ends up backing down before the explosion. Helena's death moves Death Mask in a way never seen before, making him shed his first tears of pain and feel for the first time, the pain that people caused so much in his past life, believing that the

Later Deathmask fights againt Fafner. He then he crashes the statue of the Knowledge Chamber, apologizing to Mu for not being able to go any further and falls exhausted being sucked into the Yggdrasil. The Cancerian's body and spirit resist and he returns, along with all the Gold Saints, for a decisive fight against Loki.

Saint Seiya: Legend of Crimson Youth

 * The events depicted in the movie are not canonical to Kurumada's original manga storyline.

In the 3rd Saint Seiya movie Deathmask returned from death to duel with Shiryu once more. Deathmask seemed to have the upper hand. However, Shiryu was only pretending in order to lure Deathmask into telling him the whereabouts of Athena. After he realises there's still a chance to save her life, Shiryu turns the tables on Deathmask and defeats him.

Overture
His last appearance is in the fifth film Tenkai-Hen ~ Overture ~ where he appears in spiritual form along with the rest of the Golden Saints in a dark plane of nowhere, being judged by the silhouettes of the 12 Olympian gods. Later the image of him is revealed on a high rock where his soul remains sealed, like his fellow Golden Saints, awaiting the judgment of the gods.

Techniques and abilities
As a Gold Saint, Deathmask mastered the 7th sense, hence he can move at the speed of the light (with strong suggestions that he might be just if not as fast as Milo and Aioria). Albeit being among the weakest of the Gold Saints, Deathmask has shown strong psychic powers, using his telekinetic abilities over a target in China while he was in the Yomotsu Hirasaka (practically another plane of existence). He often uses this superpower to levitate in the air as well, as shown in his first fight against Dragon Shiryu and when he fought the Giant Kyanos Phlox. So far, he only showed a single special technique:


 * Praesepe Underworld Waves (積尸気冥界波 Sekishiki Meikai Ha): With this technique, spiritual and energy based rather than physical in nature, Deathmask has seemingly 2 versions of it, the first one and the one seen during his fight with Shiryu, the move starts by accumulating ambient souls and sucking them unto a fixed point (a portal to Yomotsu Hirasaka), this force then starts attracting the opponent towards itself, eventually the amount of souls sucked in is so strong, that the portal becomes akin to a black hole, were the opponent is unable to liberate himself from the pull no matter what he does, consequently the opponents soul is literally sucked into it and his body left seemingly lifeless. In its second version Deathmask concentrates his cosmo at the tip of the index finger which then again charges up on the available spiritual ambient energy, but then releases it as a spiral energy wave or odd shaped white rings, which are sent towards his opponent. Upon impact, his opponent's soul is literally ripped from it's body, and casted into the realm of Yomotsu Hirasaka (黄泉比良坂).As the opponent is stripped of his soul, his body in the physical world is completely incapacitated and again becomes a virtual corpse in life.


 * Yomotsu Hirasaka (黄泉比良坂) is considered in Japanese mythology as the limit between the physical world and the beyond, the entrance to the world of the dead, the anteroom of the afterlife, this plane is presented as a dark lifeless wasteland with spirits of the dead abound and wandering everywhere, mostly all lingering towards Yomotsu's Maw, a literal volcano were all the spirits of the dead fall into and are sent over to the beyond. It is said that when someone is in its final moments, you would be able to see their soul walking towards Yomotsus' Maw, with the person dying the very moment their soul is engulfed by Yomotsu itself.


 * As stated, Deathmask himself can freely travel from the living dimension to Yomotsu Hirasaka without suffering any consequences. Deathmask can use this plane for teleportation as well, transporting himself, not only by soul, but phisically as well, something only few people are able to do. However, enemies sent there through Sekishiki Meikai Ha are heavily affected and their souls and bodies lose almost all strength. Normally it is impossible for someone's soul to travel back from the Yomotsu Hirasaka by themselves, and if the persons soul is thrown into the Yomotsus' maw, their body in the world of the living will really become completely lifeless. This being the final intent of Deathmask himself, though he likes playing a cruel game of cat and mouse and also torturing his opponent throughout the wastelands before finally tossing them himself to this grim fate.

It is implied that, like the other Gold Saints, Deathmask reached the 8th sense at the end of the Hades's saga to be able to regain his will on the underworld and help the other Gold Saints.

Cloth, constellation and Temple
Deathmask's guardian constellation is Cancer, and his Gold Cloth represents it and its associated myth : The crab that Hera sent to sneak attack Heracles while he was battling the Lernaean Hydra but was easily defeated.

The temple he guarded was known both in manga and the anime adaptation as Kyokai-kyuu (巨蟹宮), the "Temple of the Crab".

Predecessor and successor

 * Predecessor: Cancer Deathtoll
 * Successor: Cancer Schiller

Trivia

 * In the manga, Deathmask hair is gray, almost white.
 * Death Mask collected faces from all the people he killed and because of that the souls of his victims were unable to rest in peace and haunted the House of Cancer. Some masks projected resentment, others suffering and even torment. Though the faces in his house were very realistic illusions since they disappear when Deathmask is killed.
 * The constellation Cancer contains 'Ghost (demon)' mansion and 'Cumulative Corpses' asterism in Fushigi Yugi and in Chinese constellations plus the illness--cancer made Deathmask play a negtive role in the series.
 * Deathmask's dramatic, delicate, sarcastic and even slightly feminine personality has been almost lost during the adaptation of anime and the recreation of spin-offs.
 * The name Deathmask is known to be a nickname.
 * Deathmask speaks in the same manner as Noriko Sakai, a Japanese female singer.
 * According to Kurumada, Deathmask is superemely talented in language.

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