Mystic Lock: Life and Death Limbo

The middle-aged man, who looked like a deformed youth, lowered his eyelids slightly and exhaled deeply through his nose.

"Yes. There has never been any happiness in my life worth remembering. I only had her. I have seen so much death and gone through so much... it all seems fated."

Black ichor flowed from Shade's right palm.

"Mortal Men Must Die. You should understand that too."

Joey Barton's eyes seemed to shine at that moment. Shade was determined to witness the epic of the Sixth Epoch, and he too was determined to reclaim the one he loved.

"Yes, mortals must eventually die, and all things must eventually perish. So if Middlesburg is destroyed because of this, then it is what fate decreed. If tens of millions die here, then that is their Fated Death."

"Then, Joey Barton, we are no longer friends. I will stop you."

"Mr. Watson, yes. If you intend to stop me, then we are enemies! I truly admire you, but the paths we walk are not the same."

Before his words had faded, a black streak of light slashed down from the fog. At some unknown moment, a gigantic figure in a black robe had appeared within the dense mist behind Joey Barton. The God of Death Scythe descended with the bearing of bringing all things to their end, even thinning the surrounding fog.

He had held nothing back in that strike. Yet the black radiance that seemed capable of cleaving through anything failed to touch the cold, solid ground of the Interstice.

Shade raised his black arm, now wrapped in ichor, high above his head and gripped the descending scythe tightly.

"Sorry, I'm immune to instant-death attacks."

The demon's power slowly dissolved from contact with the scythe. In the end, Shade was holding the enormous