Avenger (Fate/stay night)

Avenger (アヴェンジャー) is the Avenger-class Servant of Sakura Matou‎‎ in the Fifth Holy Grail War in the Fate/stay night Heaven's Feel route.

Identity
Avenger's True Name is Anrimayu (アンリマユ), the realization of the zoroastrian god through the induction of the sacrificial pawn into the Greater Grail.

Personality
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 searches for opportunities to manifest into the world.

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, Kayneth Archibald El-Melloi and Sola-Ui Nuada-Re Sophia-Ri. 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 at the time that the soul and conscience of Irisviel merged with the Greater Grail in order to use it as a shell to communicate with Kiritsugu. Avenger, now as Irisviel, claims that the record is unmistakably genuine, as the last thing that she touched before her demise was All the World's Evil. It inherited Irisviel's last desire by personifying her wish to "remain this way."

During 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 who practiced in all his life will eventually lead to him becoming the ultimate enemy of all humanity, equal to Angra Mainyu itself - and, 'Irisviel' proclaimed, this path is correct.

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

Kirei, having went through the same experience, questioned 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 did not understand Kirei, shot him in the heart.

In Kirei's last moments, the Holy Grail appeared to him in his mind. Filled with hatred and envy for Kiritsugu, Kirei reached out and touched the cursed artifact. He prayed for an end to humanity before of his death and 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 and 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 and absorbed into the black mud that poured out when Saber destroyed the Grail's vessel.

In the original novel, there was a scene where Gilgamesh contacted Avenger inside of black mud that came out of the Grail. Avenger reveals the ugliness and hatred of the world, but to his surprise Gilgamesh accepts this and acknowledges his role in carrying the burden of the world. Gilgamesh's strong ego helps him fight off Avenger's influence and the black mud ejects Gilgamesh.

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.

Fate/stay night
At the end of the Fourth Holy Grail 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 and Saber destroy the contents of the Grail, ensuring the malice within it will never be used again.

Unlimited Blade Works
When Saber used Excalibur to destroy 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 with an arrow. 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 the Emiya household, forever waiting for Shirou; when she herself had passed away Shirou finally arrives amidst the sakura trees waving to her. However, in True ending, Ilya intervenes, closes the gate for good, and performs the Heaven's Feel on Shirou to keep him alive.

Other appearances
Avenger makes a brief cameo appearance in the last episode of Carnival Phantasm, he also appears in a glimpse in the EX season episode.

In the Fate/Apocrypha universe, the Einzbern during in the Third Holy Grail War had two options to pick their Servant. The first option was to alter the system of the Greater Grail itself and summon Angra Mainyu to a unique Avenger-class Servant. The second option was to abuse one of the systems installed in the Greater Grail by summoning Amakusa Shirou Tokisada as the ultimate Ruler-class Servant, meant to be an impartial authority whom regulated the progress of the War. They would then make use of the great privilege possessed by Ruler: its Command Spells for the other Servants. They were in conflict between choosing brawn or brains. After much contemplation, the Einzberns chose Ruler. One could say that they picked the safer option; perhaps their previous defeat had robbed them of their confidence in powers higher than they. Unlike Avenger, Ruler was the last servant to survive in the Third Holy Grail War and he survived for the next sixty years. Ruler wished for humanity salvation and wished the happiness of all mankind, for innate goodness to be found in the heart of all humanity and the annihilation of Angra Mainyu: All the Evils of the World.

In the Fate/Extra universe, Angra Mainyu/CCC is the anti-planetary Noble Phantasm of the demon-transformed Kiara Sessyoin. Her existence is similar to Avenger who had once been demonized and celebrated as a sacrifice to prove the evil of mankind.

Abilities
The alignment of being Angra Mainyu: All the World's Evil is a curse that had put all of the evils in the world on one person, that who became Angra Mainyu. It is not a very useful ability, as it only grants the Servant's soul an alignment directed towards killing people even after when it takes on the form of directionless and alignmentless magical energy after losing the shell of its class. Normally it would not affect anything, but with the way the Great Grail is set up to take the Servant's souls means placing "All the World's Evil" into a wish granting machine.

After Avenger is absorbed during the Third Holy Grail War, the Grail is transformed into an incarnation of Angra Mainyu that materializes as black mud and later a large humanoid under certain conditions. The materialization of Angra Mainyu brought forth by truly opening the Holy Grail is an ichor that will consume every human being, 6 billion curses flowing out from the gate to hell. Gilgamesh specifically mentions 5.6 billion curses for an unknown reason. It is a reaper that will strike down all humans equally, an endless darkness that is born from humans and massacres them.

Ichor leaks from the Grail when it is first being established. Its nature is a curse so strong that it is visible, so it can be called magical energy specialized for destroying people. It can not be practically used in any way, as it cannot be reshaped or anything of the sort. It stains anybody it touches with a strong curse and melts them as if they were being digested. The pain and fear felt before death remains as magical energy and becomes the next curse to seek out living people. It will kill anyone it touches unless they can remove it from their body before they are melted away. Those who are not dissolved will be assaulted mentally by "All the World's Evil", eventually going insane or left cursed by its after effects, such as Kiritsugu Emiya, who lives for a number of years while suffering under the curse until it causes his death.

If fully submerged in the curse, it paints space itself around the person, surrounding them in darkness and imprinting hell upon their brain by showing them unseeable darkness, ugliness that can't be acknowledged, and all the crimes of the people in the world that make them want to run away from it all. Those trapped with the darkness will eat themselves to death from pain and hatred, and they will be swallowed by it like the painted space. Avoiding such a curse and the very concept of blocking it are nearly impossible. Escaping should be impossible, so Kirei Kotomine is shocked that Shirou manages to do just that through only willpower.

Servant affected by the mud can be blackened.