Russell Barnes

Grey Mask is the main antagonist of the fourth Sapphirefoxx comic series, Maker's Game. He is a non-blood man who found out about sorcerers a long time ago and learned magic. However, he wished to become a real sorcerer himself.

History
Grey Mask first appeared in page 1, where it is set back in 1999, Grey Mask encounters a man who had been injured by a fire, and realizing he just found something valuable, he decides he can't let anyone else find out and shoots the injured man. Later, in pages 10-11, where the year is now 2016, Grey Mask breaks into Star Reach Studios, cause a brief blackout and uses that time to hack the Age of Adventures server directly to prevent players from logging out and giving himself total control of the game. In pages 47-48, it's revealed that Grey Mask has taken over the Source Zone, the spot for the admins to control the games, and has been holding the admins captive to prevent them from getting in his way. He reappears in pages 72-73, after Nick kills the Wanted Player CherryBlossom, Grey Mask and his minions arrive to take her away, and when Nick demands gold for the kill, Grey Mask divides the money equally between Nick, Yuzuki, Hikaru, and Leon, and afterwards, takes his leave with CherryBlossom as his prisoner.

He returns once again in pages 218-223, when he founds that the creator of AoA, Russell Barnes has logged into the game and Grey Mask is determined to capture the last threat in his plans. He orders his minions to destroy the town and kill anyone that tries to leave, when Yuzuki tries to attack him, she only manages to deal one damage and is killed by Grey Mask. He then proceeds to kill Leon and Hikaru for showing attitude towards him, and threatens to do the same with Chris, but he states he has nothing to say, which makes Grey Mask act merciful. When asked about his goals, he claims that after he gets what he wants, he'll let everyone go, and tricks Chris into working for him and upgrades his armor before taking his leave.

In pages 251-258, he appears after Chris kills the Wanted Player, Steelclaw. After capturing Steelclaw, Chris's party comes by and sees that he is working with Grey Mask. He watches as Chris fights his friends, Chris kills Hikaru, but Yuzuki and Leon manage to kill him, afterwards Grey Mask sarcastically applauds the two for killing Chris, because Chris will simply respawn, but then, Chris is marked as a Wanted Player, and it's revealed that the Wanted Players are all sorcerers. Chris tries to fight back against Grey Mask, but is overpowered and captured by Grey Mask. Grey Mask warns the party to not get in his way, but when Yuzuki shows him attitude, he shows how he can make things worse, by causing Yuzuki's Origin Mask model to turn into a male version of himself, and summons a rain in the area before taking his leave.

In pages 263-267, Grey Mask's true intentions are revealed, as he has been capturing sorcerers by marking them as Wanted Players and scanning their blood to find an Emerald bloodline, which is found through Chris. Grey Mask reveals his origin as a non-blood who found out about sorcerers and how he learned magic, but wanted to become a real sorcerer. So when AoA came out, he found the perfect opportunity to get his wish, and he revealed that he intends to accomplish his goal by soul transferring, and the fact that he never intended to let anyone leave AoA, and reveals that he intends to destroy the souls of everyone in AoA, with artificial souls replacing them in real life. Afterwards, he hooks Chris to a machine to extract his soul in 8 hours time.

In pages 275-284, he confronts Hikaru, Yuzuki, and Leon when they break into the Source Zone to rescue Chris. He reduces their healths to critical level, kills the dragon that brought them to the Source Zone, locks them up with the admins, and tells them to enjoy the last hour of their lives. However, Nick has also snuck into the Source Zone and frees his friends and the admins. When he hears that the admins escaped, he leaves the room Chris is in to recapture the admins, allowing Chris's friends to free him and give Chris a magebloom. When Grey Mask returns to see that Chris has been freed, Chris uses his regained magic to fight Grey Mask and successfully kill him. However, he respawns and summons five Level 100 Colossus to confront Chris's group and the freed sorcerers, killing Yuzuki and Leon; Chris tries to fight Grey Mask, but Grey Mask restrains Chris so that he can't use magic.

Personality
Grey Mask is a selfish and power hungry man who will do anything to get what he wants. He is also heartless and willing to commit murder, as seen in the first page, he killed an injured man to keep what he found a secret, and was willing to kill the souls of 250,000 people trapped in AoA once he got what he wanted, showing no remorse in the thought. He can deceptive and cunning, as he managed to trick Chris into working for him in exchange for freedom. He also shows no qualms of betraying those that work for him, as when Chris was revealed to be a wanted player, Grey Mask quickly turned on Chris.

Trivia

 * He is the first major antagonist in a Sapphirefoxx comic series.
 * He is one of the few non-bloods who know how to use magic.