The Old Cleric, who personally instructed Shard not to kill anyone here, certainly wouldn't kill Joey Barton.
This deformed middle-aged man, with a penetrating hole in his forehead, tremulously stood up surrounded by thousands of white shadows. Iluna squinted at them, seeing large swathes of white mist emerging above the water surface:
"Look, it's the Maze Lock, finally someone's going to use the Maze Lock!"
This is not the Interstice of Life and Death, no matter how resilient Joey Barton's condition is, using the Maze Lock means he's going for a desperate fight.
Noticing the spatial anomaly, Shard stood on the water, unpanicked. Several months ago, after ascending from Second Ring to Third Ring, he could even unseal Human Pus with the Maze Lock, so of course he could do it again this time.
The Kiss of the Tree didn't have much killing power, and the Matchstick Girl might reveal to the Old Cleric and Sister Delphine that he was the God Summoner, so:
"Sleeping Princess!"
