History NightmareFuel / SaintSeiya

** In ''[[Manga/SaintSeiyaEpisodeG Episode G]]'', the masks ''scare the crap out of a giant''. The giant was effectively a low-powered god who believed himself invincible. ''That'' is how nightmarish Deathmask is.
** And to make things ''worse''... This guy is a Gold Saint, meaning he has immense destructive power, can actually take some of what he dishes even without his near-indestructible Gold Cloth, and, most importantly, ''moves at the speed of light''.

* Megrez Alberich's "Amethyst Sealed" technique: Oh sure, it merely looks like it turns you in a HumanPopsicle like [[HarmlessFreezing what Camus did to Hyoga]], right? WRONG.
** You will get drained of your LifeEnergy at a FAST pace, while Camus' Freezing Coffin merely puts you in SuspendedAnimation. Also, the shards of amethyst keep on growing, most likely eating in your body, as these crystals holding skeletons are completely full.
** The kicker? [[AndIMustScream You will be conscious the whole time, and in visible agony from the outside.]]
** And to make it worse, Alberich lies about the NoOntologicalInertia aspect of this technique. Meaning, he knows that if he dies the spell will be broken, and he also knows he is a physical pushover in close quarters who could not win in a fair fight, so he pulls that card every time he is at a disadvantage. This means after getting in a lucky hit on Marin and trapping her, he plays Seiya and Hyoga like fiddles, [[ManipulativeBastard tugging at their heart strings by pulling the "If you kill me, they're doomed!" card]].
* And when you thought Alberich could not top that? He can command the very forces of nature to give a trouncing to his opponent. Only Shiryu got around it successfully because he had the [[LuckilyMyShieldWillProtectMe right equipment to deal with the job]], AND the mental discipline to force a stalemate and block that technique, THEN pull a ISurrenderSuckers forcing Alberich to use "Amethyst Sealed" one time too many, when Shiryu could take it on safely enough without his shield.
* Benetnasch Mime, aka DissonantSerenity incarnate. Master of illusions, capable of giving even Gold Saints a run for their money with lightspeed blows, and to top it off, a MusicalAssassin with RazorFloss. The DissonantSerenity part? Shun's Andromeda Chain is capable of sensing hostility and killing intent, YET it did not react at ALL to Mime using RazorFloss to entrap and very nearly END Shun.
** The very fact it took MindRape to release his repressed rage and for the Andromeda Chain to acknowledge his killing intent. [[IronWoobie HOW broken is that poor man that he could nearly KILL someone, yet not register as ACTIVELY WANTING to?]]
* Siren Sorento. A MusicalAssassin who can pull a BrownNote on you going per the legend of sirens and their bewitching song.
** The effect? It can either prevent you from using your full powers (see Taurus Aldebaran in the manga), or it can outright turn your brain into mush if Sorento decides to be serious with you. Basically, he can decide to nerf you at will, and you won't realize it until it's too late.
** Another very nasty problem? Three people, Aldebaran, Siegfried (depending on the medium), and Shun assume the attack is sound-based since Sorento ostensibly uses his flute and his melody to attack. WRONG. It's something beyond sound that directly attacks the opponent, and blocking sound propagation either by punching out your eardrums or by creating a vacuum will NOT protect you.
* Lymnades Kasa. A very creepy MasterOfIllusion and telepath specialized in plucking the memories of your dearest person, and mimicking their appearance to lead you to bring down your guard, becoming ripe for the killing, basically weaponizing a HeartwarmingMoment. Seiya and Hyoga fall prey to it, and Shun narrowly escapes it thanks to his chain sensing murderous intent.
** However, the man is still so skilled and adept at his mimicry, that Shun still falls prey even as Kasa impersonates Ikki ''[[WhatAnIdiot IN FRONT OF HIM]]'', in part due to an AdaptationInducedPlotHole : in the anime Ikki had survived Asgard just fine, but in the manga, Ikki was supposedly dead from having been blasted to smithereens by Saga and gone missing ever since, so at least this version makes it more credible that Shun would desperately want to cling on the hope that his brother was alive.
** As for the effectiveness of his powers and his level of mastery in mimicking others, including personality? When Kasa finally found the memories of Esmeralda, he was near death and could not deal the killing blow, but Ikki concedes that if he had pulled that card sooner, he'd have been completely screwed.
* Sea Dragon Kanon. At the very least, he gives Ikki the mother of OhCrap moments upon their encounter, and you know that anything capable of scaring Ikki means BUSINESS.
** And also, Ikki does give something back in kind with his illusion upon browsing through Kanon's memories.

* Megrez Alberich's "Amethyst Sealed" technique: Oh sure, it merely looks like it turns you in a HumanPopsicle like what Camus did to Hyoga, right? WRONG.

** And to make it worse, Alberich lies about the NoOntologicalInertia aspect of this technique. This means, he knows if he dies the spell will be broken, and he also knows he is a physical pushover in close quarters who could not win in a fair fight, so he pulls that card every time he is at a disadvantage. This means he plays Seiya and Hyoga like fiddles, tugging at their heart strings by pulling the "If you kill me, they're doomed!" card.
* And when you thought Alberich could not top that? He can command the very forces of nature to give a trouncing to his opponent. Only Shiryu got around it successfully because he had the [[LuckilyMyShieldWillProtectMe right equipment to deal with the job]], AND the mental discipline to force a stalemate and block that technique, THEN pull a ISurrenderSuckers forcing Alberich to use "Amethyst Sealed" one time too many, when Shiryu could take it on without dying without his shield.

** In their third fight Seiya has decisively defeated her. She's not a threat anymore, right? Nope: next time she attacks she almost kills Hyoga and Shun at the same time, before they throw her down a cliff. There's a reason Seiya preferred throwing himself down that cliff rather than fighting her again: he had better chances against the cliff than against Shaina... That, like him, survived the cliff. And next time she appears, she's trying to kill Seiya in his sleep in a hospital room.

* During the Twelve Temples arc, when the Sagittarius Gold Cloth makes its return, he starts doubting whether he actually [[NeverFoundTheBody really managed to off Aiolos or not]]. Saga is sitting in his throne room when all of Saori's ten Bronze Saints barge in to attack. The Gold Saints, all twelve of them and fully armored, jump out of nowhere and put themselves between the invaders and Saga... And then, before Saga can realize there's something wrong in the situation, ''the Gold Saints turn toward him and come close to kill him themselves''. And there's ''all'' the Gold Saints in the group, including ''[[CardCarryingVillain Deathmask]]'' (who by this point was already killed), ''[[PhysicalGod Shaka]]'' (presumed dead), ''Aiolos'' (who is long dead), Aphrodite ([[TheDreaded described as the most terrifying of the Gold Saints]] by ''Saga himself''), and ''Saga himself''. [[AllJustADream That's when Saga wakes up in terror]]... But this literal nightmare left him so shaken he can't help but look around in fear.

** If you realize what kind of monster you're fighting, don't bother run: you cannot escape him, and if you try the moment you stop to breath you'll find yourself on Buddha's palm as he compares you to [[Literature/JourneyToTheWest Sun Wukong's equally fruitless attempt to escape from there]]. At least he won't drop a mountain on your head before imprisoning you for 500 years...
** And finally, there's what happens when he gets serious and opens his eyes: Tenbu Hōrin, with which he takes away his enemy's senses [[ToThePain one by one, describing what is doing]], and there's nothing they can do about it, not even run. Worse, if they ''still'' won't go down when he has taken all the five senses, he goes for the sixth-that is, the ability to ''think''.

** Almost forgetting... Even if you kill him, ''he won't stay dead''. Ikki used a suicide attack to take him down, all he got was to teleport both in AnotherDimension Shaka could have ''still'' come out but Ikki couldn't (Shaka decided to spare Ikki's life and had him teleport both of them back to the Sanctuary). And when he ''does'' die in the Hades Saga, [[spoiler:something that happened only because he threw the fight and even had to instruct his opponents on what to do because he was just that superior]], the end result was that [[spoiler:[[StormingTheCastle he had finally found a way to invade Hades' realm and wipe out his army in their base before attacking Hades himself]]]].

** During the Hades saga he reveals a new attack, Tenkūhaja Chimimōryō-with which he summons evil spirits and sicks them on his victims. The Specters facing it, who usually live into hell itself, were ''terrified'' by it.

** Anyone invading his Temple is shown a beatiful illusion of a magnificent land... Than can turn into hell at a moment's notice.
*** He can also use his illusions, or just plain allucinations, to MindRape an enemy and summon horrifying visions.
** During the Twelve Temples Arc, Shun attacked him with the Nebula Chain. This is when the AttackReflector trope makes its debut, as the chain stops, ''turns on Shun, and nearly strangles him to death'' before Shaka decides to just throw him on Seiya. That's terrifying enough that Seiya and Shiryu were ''stunned in horror''.
** During Tenma Kōfuku, an illusion of paradise appears... Then Shaka appears, you hear the screams, and that's when you see the poor guys he just blasted with his Cosmo and that Shaka is levitating over a vision of hell. Until the Sanctuary Arc, nobody had survived this attack unless he wanted them.

* During the Twelve Temples arc, Saga is sitting in his throne room when all of Saori's ten Bronze Saints barge in to attack. The Gold Saints, all twelve of them and fully armored, jump out of nowhere and put themselves between the invaders and Saga... And then, before Saga can realize there's something wrong in the situation, ''the Gold Saints turn toward him and come close to kill him themselves''. And there's ''all'' the Gold Saints in the group, including ''[[CardCarryingVillain Deathmask]]'' (who by this point was already killed), ''[[PhysicalGod Shaka]]'' (presumed dead), ''Aiolos'' (who is long dead), Aphrodite ([[TheDreaded described as the most terrifying of the Gold Saints]] by ''Saga himself'']]), and ''Saga himself''. [[AllJustADream That's when Saga wakes up in terror]]... But this literal nightmare left him so shaken he can't help but look around in fear.

** In their third fight Seiya has decisively defeated her. She's not a threat anymore, right? Nope: next time she attacks she mauls Hyoga and Shun at the same time. There's a reason Seiya preferred throwing himself down a cliff rather than fighting her again: the cliff he could survive, Shaina, not so much.

** And finally, there's what happens when he gets serious and opens his eyes: he takes away his enemy's senses [[ToThePain one by one, describing what is doing]], and there's nothing they can do about it, not even run. Worse, if they ''still'' won't go down when he has taken all the five senses, he goes for the sixth-that is, the ability to ''think''.

* When he gets serious and opens his eyes, Shaka starts taking away his enemy's senses [[ToThePain one by one, describing what is doing]], and there's nothing they can do about it. Worse, if they ''still'' won't go down when he has taken all the five senses, he goes for the sixth-that is, the ability to ''think''.

* Ikki is already the bringer of MindRape and horribly bloody fights, but he actually tops himself in one memorable fight against Capella, a Silver Saint who threatened Seiya and Saori. Capella's WeaponOfChoice is [[LuckilyMyShieldWillProtectMe a part of shields attatched to his armor]], which can be also thrown as projectiles - so far so good, huh? Well, Ikki uses his powers to trick the guy into believing he cut off his own hands with said disks/shields (no GoryDiscretionShot here), and goes further when the guy ends up HoistByHisOwnPetard by having said shields fatally injure him in the chest and stomach before he is shown unharmed but with his mind broken and falls off the cliff they're fighting in.
** The manga rendition of his attack against Wolf Nachi in his first appearance is even worse. In the anime, his illusion punches shatter Nachi's cloth. In the manga? They shatter his ''body'', ripping off his arms when he tries to defend himself and eventually ''blowing open his torso,'' spilling his guts and leaving only the spine. Ick.
** His attack against Virtue Eligor in the Lucifer movie is not slouch either. The illusion starts with Eligor ''decapitating'' Ikki, only for his headless body to walk towards Eligor while the head is taunting him. Then said head screams maniacally about sending him to hell while a swarm of locusts comes flying out of it's mouth towards Eligor, only for the head to ''melt'' afterwards, while Eligor is pierced through the chest and falls dead. Jeez!
* Anything that [[BloodKnight Cancer Deathmask]] ever does [[spoiler: until his HeelFaceTurn in the Hades Saga and the ''Soul of Gold'' series.]] Specially the little matter of [[AndIMustScream these "masks" in the Cancer Temple.]] And how he can summon a really scary UncannyValley as a fighting field.

** And to make things ''worse''... This guy is a Gold Saint, meaning he has immense destructive powers, can actually take some of what he dishes even without his near-indestructible Gold Cloth, and, most importantly, ''moves at the speed of light''.

** Sphinx Pharaoh is a Specter from Egypt. He can perform the infamous Test of Osiris to see if you're a pure-hearted person by literally putting your heart in a scale. ''While you're still alive.''

* When he gets serious and opens his eyes, Shaka starts taking away his enemy's senses one by one describing what is doing, and there's nothing they can do about it. Worse, if they ''still'' won't go down when he has taken all the five senses, he goes for the sixth-that is, the ability to ''think''.

* In the Hades Saga, Sphinx Pharaoh is a Specter from Egypt. He can perform the infamous Test of Osiris to see if you're a pure-hearted person by literally putting your heart in a scale. ''While you're still alive.''

** The eerie [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7L75kGJxcY 108 masei]], and the downright disturbing [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QufX5iKnfFc Greatest Eclipse]], from the Hades Arc.

** His attack against Virtue Eligor in the Lucifer movie is not slouch either. The illusion starts with Eligor ''decapitating'' Ikki, only for his headless body to walk towards Eligor while the head is taunting him. Then said head screams maniacally about sending him to hell while a swarm of locusts comes out of it's mouth, only to ''melt'' afterwards, while Eligor is pierced through the chest and falls dead. Jeez!

* Anything that [[BloodKnight Cancer Deathmask]] ever does. Specially the little matter of [[AndIMustScream these "masks" in the Cancer Temple.]] And how he can summon a really scary UncannyValley as a fighting field.

* Ikki is already the bringer of MindRape and horribly bloody fights, but he actually tops himself in one memorable fight against Capella, a Silver Saint who threatened Seiya and Saori. Capella's WeaponOfChoice is [[LuckilyMyShieldWillProtectMe a part of shields attatched to his armor]], which can be also thrown as projectiles - so far so good, huh? Well, Ikki uses his powers to trick the guy into cutting off his own hands with said disks/shields (no GoryDiscretionShot here), and goes further when the guy ends up HoistByHisOwnPetard by having said shields fatally injure him in the chest and stomach before he falls off the cliff they're fighting in.

* Ikki actually tops himself in one memorable fight against a Capella, Silver Saint who threatened Seiya and Saori. Capella's WeaponOfChoice is [[LuckilyMyShieldWillProtectMe a part of shields attatched to his armor]], which can be also thrown as projectiles - so far so good, huh? Well, Ikki uses his powers to trick the guy into cutting off his own hands with said disks/shields (no GoryDiscretionShot here), and goes further when the guy ends up HoistByHisOwnPetard by having said shields fatally injure him in the chest and stomach before he falls off the cliff they're fighting in.

* In the Hades Saga, Sphinx Pharaoh is a Specter from Egypt. He can perform the infamous Test of Osiris to see if you're a pure-hearted person by literally putting your heart in a scale. While you're still alive.
* With all the HighPressureBlood and the {{Cruel and Unusual Death}}s, ''Saint Seiya'' is chock full of this. Kurumada and Co. can come up with such things...