Avenger (Fate/hollow ataraxia)

Avenger is the eighth servant class, whose true identity is initially believed to be, the spirit of pure evil that was accidentally summoned during the 3rd Holy Grail War and had been imprisoned within the tainted Grail ever since.

In Fate/tiger Colosseum UPPER, he is voiced by.

Identity
Avenger was initially believed to be the Persian god of darkness, Angra Mainyu. In reality, he was no more than an ordinary villager. A human that was freed from the confines of Order by having his name expelled from the Avesta, The Universal Revelation of Inscribed Creation. One day, he was randomly chosen as the source of all evil in the world by his village and was tortured and sacrificed in the following rituals. The villagers believed that from the moment humans are born, there is evil in them. Since it was impossible to be freed from malice just through clean, righteous living, the only way to realize the true goodness of human beings was to force all the evils of the world onto one person and blame him as the true source of any human evil. If one person embodies all the evils of the world, the rest of the people cannot be evil, no matter what. This was the simple, child-like theory they all invested in.

So they continuously tortured him until he went insane. They captured him, beat him, carved every word that cursed mankind onto his body, forced every sin imaginable upon him, took out bits and pieces of him slowly, defiled his mind with absolute evil, and held him responsible for all of it in the world. They would not allow him to die until he succumbed to old age. He had a curse put on him as a result, one made of the great evil that he was to represent. He was shocked at first at the senselessness of it at all. Eventually he started wondering who it was he should hate. However, Avenger himself only felt anger and hatred towards the world and the people that mercilessly executed him. His forced sacrifice eased the confused minds of his people, which despite being unintentional, qualified him to become a Heroic Spirit.

He only despised mankind of his own accord during the first few years, but after that, the hate became a natural function for him rather than an emotion; hate was the state he was always in, so it was only natural for him to continue hating everything without any other reason. By that time, he forgave and tolerated humanity for whatever sins they may cause while hating them. The world is worth hating. The imbalances were evened out by his hatred, so the people could be absolved of all guilt and live freely. But that kind of "forgiveness" is also the same type that validates any evils that humans may perform.

Yet as the time passed by and he saw many rises and fall of generations, he realized that while he still hated humans for what they did, he still loved the world. Of course, the people that put him up there, his family, his loved ones, the people he hated, died long before he did. The village changed over the generations, expanding, declining; people reviled him, people feared him, people scorned him, and yet they revered him as the sign of their salvation. But he could do nothing but hate, since that was the only thing he could communicate to the world. In the end, he accepted his role for humanity, even if it meant to be the blame for their wrongdoings.

A helpless sacrifice—an ordinary person without any special talent—that transformed into exactly what they wanted, that was determined to be and came to represent all evils of the world. And thus, hated by everyone and losing his self, a hero was born.

Background
He was summoned during in the Third Grail war by the Einzbern family. The only Avenger Class Servant summoned was during the Third Holy Grail War, and rather than a true Heroic Spirit, an Anti-Hero was summoned.

Replacing the Berserker class for the War, the class was a special container created only for him, but he was extremely weak instead of something capable of slaughtering all other Masters and Servants. He was quickly killed and caused the corruption of the Grail system. Originally the Grail system can summon only "good" Heroic Spirits, however due to his corruption caused fourth and fifth war to summon irregular spirits.

Personality
Avenger in hollow ataraxia usually has a lazy and laid-back attitude, lacking any sense of justice.

In the form of All the World's Evil within the Grail, Avenger doesn't have a true sense of self. "It" can be said to be lost in an abyss of shallow slumber within darkness sealed in the bottomless earth. It only dreams of the endless "prayers", unreasonable and unattainable, that the human had long ago been entrusted. It only knows that some sort of sudden changes happened that placed it within the Grail that is "like a mother’s warm placenta." It is only waiting for the moment of its coming birth, so it seeks out chances to come into the world.

Role
Avenger was trapped in the wish-granting spiritual Holy Grail, and his influence was the one that tainted it. After falling during the 3rd Grail War, he was trapped in the Grail. Despite having been a normal, powerless being prior, the wish engraved in his soul by those who desired him to represent all the evils in the world was granted. Thus, the purpose of the 4th War was simply to gather vast amounts of mana to grant the wish.

Fate/Zero
Avenger, in its pure form as All the World's Evil, reacts to Kiritsugu Emiya's statement "For that, even if I am to carry ‘all the evils of this world’ – it won’t matter. If that can save the world, then I’d gladly accept it.” while he is arguing with Saber after the deaths of Lancer and Kayneth Archibald El-Melloi. Hearing that it has been called by someone, it wishes to answer him as soon as possible. While waiting for the "birth canal", the Holy Grail, to open, it dreams of the cries that will dye the world crimson red.

After Irisviel von Einzbern's death, Avenger records her personality in order to use it as a shell to communicate with Kiritsugu. She claims that the record is unmistakably genuine, as the last thing that Irisviel touched before her demise was All the World's Evil. She inherited Irisviel's last desire by personifying her wish to "remain this way." Despite hollow ataraxia not having been completely worked out at the time of Fate/Zero's development period, Gen Urobuchi was able to get the mechanics behind Avenger's method of "possession" by chance. "

During in the final battle between Kiritsugu and Kirei Kotomine, the Grail gushes out black mud which engulfed both of them. Though both of them entered in a dream like state, the Grail recognizes Kiritsugu as the victor. Avenger uses Irisviel to confront Kiritsugu in his mind and asks his wish, however it comes with a heavy price. In his mind, he was forced to confront the fact that his methods will eventually lead to him becoming the ultimate enemy of humanity, equal to Angra Mainyu itself - and, 'Irisviel' proclaimed, this path is correct.

Kiritsugu, now realizing that the Grail is corrupted, he shoots down all his love ones including the illusions of his wife and daughter. As he rejected 'Irisviel', Avenger placed a curse on him - to never be free of regret until his painful death.

Kirei, having went through the same experience, asked Kiritsugu why he rejected the Grail; Kiritsugu's answer was that it sacrifices too many things for what it gives. Kirei says that he wanted it even so and Kiritsugu, admitting that he didn't understand Kirei, shot him in the heart.

In Kirei's last moments, the Holy Grail appeared to him; filled with hatred and envy for Kiritsugu, Kirei reached out and touched the cursed artifact. He prayed for an end to humanity; his wish was granted in the form of fire. Meanwhile Avenger's emergence was prevented by Kiritsugu, who commanded his servant, Saber, to destroy the Grail upon recognizing the evil presence emanating from it. However she destroyed only the vessel and not the contents, the 'black mud', which spilled out from its core onto the streets below which caused a fire that eventually destroyed a large part of Shinto.

The black ichor managed to soak Kirei's lifeless body, resurrecting him with an artificial, black heart. Gilgamesh was covered in the black mud when it poured out when Saber destroyed the Grail's vessel. Kirei wakes up and finds Gilgamesh near him. He seemed to have gained a flesh body from something that flowed to his body through the Master and Servant connection.

At the end of the Fourth War, Zouken Matou acquired the fragments of the Grail. He synthesized it with his Crest worms, which he put inside the body of Sakura Matou. Though she was incomplete, this turned her into a second Lesser Grail.

Fate
Shirou Emiya confronts Kirei Kotomine who already has access to the Holy Grail. Kirei reveals that Avenger is inside the Holy Grail cursing on the human world. Due to having his heart replaced by Angra Mainyu, he has an affinity with it and the black mud from the Grail which he uses in an attempt to curse Shirou. Shirou demonstrates his mental strength by resisting the curse at close range and projecting Avalon to shield himself from the corruption. After Kotomine and Gilgamesh are killed, Shirou orders Saber to destroy the contents of the Grail, ensuring the malice within it will never be used again.

Unlimited Blade Works
When Saber used Excalibur to destory the deformed grail, Avenger lost his incomplete vessel and created a black hole. The black hole was able to disrupt Shirou's Reality Marble and absorbs Gilgamesh. However Gilgamesh used his Enkidu chain to attach Shirou, Gilgamesh claims that Avenger intentionally came after him to use him as his core. He added that he cannot be used as a core because they are both servants, Archer told Shirou to duck and aimed at Gilgamesh killing him with a copied sword as a projectile. The black hole perished when Avenger consumed Gilgamesh.

Heaven's Feel
Avenger emerges during the Fifth Holy Grail War in the Heaven's Feel route in an attempt to be born into the world as an incarnation of All the World's Evils. He forms a contract with Sakura Matou, who has been made to act as the vessel for the Grail. She is confronted by Rin in the chamber of the Greater Holy Grail beneath Mount Enzō, her power equally matched by The Jeweled Sword of Zelretch. Rendering Sakura's shadows useless, Rin makes her way to Sakura, but is unable to give the finishing blow due to her love of her sister. Rin embraces Sakura even after Sakura has stabbed her in panic. Realizing Rin's love, Sakura again starts resisting her evil long enough for Shirou to dispel Angra Mainyu's grip on her soul with Rule Breaker. In the Normal ending, Shirou does trace Excalibur and destroys the Grail, but his life extinguishes soon after. Sakura, refusing to accept Shirou's death, continues to live in Emiya house, forever waiting for Shirou. However in True ending, Ilya intervenes, closes the gate for good, and performs the Heaven's Feel on Shirou to keep him alive.

Fate/Hollow Ataraxia
However, during the 5th, he was finally reborn as the Grail, thanks to its immense mana. Yet the physical vessel for the Grail was destroyed by Shirou Emiya to prevent the disaster to be brought by the presence of Avenger. After finally being able to grant a wish, the Grail was left to expire without accomplishing its role. In order to do what it was born to do, Avenger/the Grail sought a wish. In the process, he found Bazett, who after being left to die, wished hard that she did not want to die. Therefore, they made a contract: Avenger, to continue to exist and accomplish its new role of granting a wish, and Bazett, to stay alive even in a vegetative state.

However, 6 months after the 5th war, Caren came to Fuyuki city, found and nursed the dying Bazett. Unlike before, when Avenger just had to keep her physical signs alive, now he had to keep both Bazett's now awake consciousness and body alive. In order to accomplish that, he created the four-day temporal loop.

To keep Bazett thinking that she was alive, Avenger recreated the 5th Grail War. The problem, however, was that he never personally experienced the 5th war. He only knew of the 3rd war. So he just took the participants of 5th war and used them to create the characters in the 3rd war to play the 5th war events.

While he was Bazett's Servant Avenger by night, he took on the form of Shirou by day. As Shirou, he comes to care for other people, especially the mysterious Caren Hortensia. In this form, he has no idea of his own identity and thinks and acts like Shirou. He later explains that this is because Avenger himself is 0, and no matter how much you add 0 to 1, it is still 1.

The problem starts when (1) Shirou, in truth Avenger, realizes the temporal loop and tries to solve the anomaly, and (2) Avenger himself begins to keep "filling up" the Grail to see more and more new events. Since Shirou is someone who cannot let the wrong stay wrong, he had to fix the abnormal temporal loop. Also, even though he knew that by seeking new events he would complete the Grail thus ending the loop, which would ultimately mean his return to void, Avenger could not stop enjoying the happy daily life as Shirou.

Later Bazett realizes the false reality of the temporal loop, but refuses to finish it. She thinks that she would die once the loop is over, but she also knew that would permanently take Avenger to nothingness. In her hope to stay alive, and her wish to keep Avenger from his ultimate fate, she tries to continue the loop, even if it means going against Avenger himself.

With help from Caren, the only one whom Shirou has never met and thus Avenger reveals his true self, Shirou/Avenger finally realizes that he himself is the cause of all the problem, and decides to put the end to it. He finally reaches the Grail as the other Servants and Masters prevent the monsters (which are actually leftover parts of Avenger) from stopping him. In the end, Avenger frees Bazett from the loop and returns to the void. During the loop, Bazett uses a Command Spell to make Avenger 'become her left arm' in order to keep him from contacting Shirou directly. After obtaining an artificial arm to replace her missing one, both she and Caren speak of the arm as if it is still Avenger.

Abilities
As a combatant, he seems to be the weakest of all Servants in every parameter, although he can be quite agile and relentless. His fang-like twin daggers Tawrich and Zarich can be used as sword breakers, yet are unreliable as they sometimes break themselves, and his skill in manipulating them as melee weapons is only average compared to other servants.

His battle-oriented Noble Phantasm is Verg Avesta; from the Book of Zoraster. It is described by Saber as a "Wound-Sharing Primal Curse", as it causes the inflicter to feel the physical effects of the wounds that Avenger takes in battle once he recites its name. Avenger states that the wound is written on the soul of whomever he casts the curse on, so regular healing is rendered useless as it won't disappear until either the wound on Avenger heals or Avenger succumbs to them. This Noble Phantasm isn't considered fatal in most cases, although it can severely cripple Servants, and can likely kill weaker humans. In addition, Avenger must recite the name of the curse each time he wants to apply its effect, and this can only be done when he is wounded, and only once per person (per loop). Avenger uses it as a chance to weaken and push Saber towards using Excalibur, so that Bazett could have a more even match and finish her off with a counter attack from Fragarach.