Avenger (Fate/Grand Order - Edmond Dantès)

Avenger (アヴェンジャー) an Avenger-class Servant able to be summoned by the Protagonist in the Grand Orders of Fate/Grand Order.

Identity
Avenger's True Name is Edomon Dantesu (エドモン・ダンテス), known popularly as Monte Kurisuto-haku (モンテ・クリスト伯) and the Gankutsuō (巌窟王). Treated as a literary creation by Alexandre Dumas, he came to be known as the individual who "possesses the world's greatest popularity as an avenger."

History
Living as a seaman in, Edmond was torn away from his love Mercédès after being imprisoned in the hellish on a false charge derived from an unscrupulous conspiracy. Through possessing a mind of steel, he did not fall into despair during his imprisonment and met the similarly imprisoned, who guided Edmond and was later confirmed in modern times to have really existed.

After escaping his prison, Edmond obtained the treasure of the island, learned that his love and covetous affection towards Mercédès had been trampled upon and snatched away from him, and began a tragic revenge plot while concealing his identity. He soon came through Paris while dragging those who deceived him, now leading figures reigning over France, into hell. At the end of his journey, he was reformed through his anguish and regret, leaving with his mistress Haydée – an Albanian princess who had been sold into slavery by Fernand de Morcerf (formerly Mondego), who had also betrayed Edmond, before Monte Cristo rescued her and eventually fell in love with her.

Through his stern way of life, tragic revenge, his trampled love towards Mercédès, and his journey of reform, Edmond has been applauded by the people from not only France but worldwide, and remembered as "the most famous avenger in the world."

Personality
"My name is the . Unknown to love, unknown to compassion, established as the black flame of grudge that blazes itself dazzlingly only by means of hatred and revenge; nothing but an Avenger who rages until he turns everything to ashes. My favorite mistress, Haydée, is nowhere in this world, so this body shall remain a nemesis for eternity—"

- Avenger

While his True Name is Edmond Dantès, Avenger perceives himself to be a different person from the seaman from Marseille. While in life he had abandoned his dark nature at the end of his gruesome and tragic revenge in Paris, his powerful and vengeful Monte Cristo persona has manifested as a Servant and is still acting as the "image of a nemesis", so he claims, "In that case, I am not Edmond." His catchphrase is "Wait and Hope" (in French, "Attendre, Esperer"), which is a direct quotation from the ending of The Count of Monte Cristo in his farewell letter to his friend Maximilien Morrel.

"One of my names is enough to strike terror into your heart, but I don't have to tell you what it is, do I? You've already guessed it, haven't you? Or rather, you remember it, for despite all my years of sorrow and torment, the joy of vengeance has made my face young again!"

- Monte Cristo to Fernand de Morcerf, from Chapter 54 of "The Count of Monte Cristo"

An avenger to fate and reality. Avenger always hates the irrationality and malice that is all over the world. At a first glance, it appears that his hatred is projected towards the whole world except on himself, but he is never a demon that hates innocent people. He hates and continues to deny reality itself that continues to reign while it is still full of atrocities and immoralities. Avenger defines himself as a “demon of eternal vengeance”. He is full of tyranny, releasing every kind of wounds to all people who approaches him.

To the Master who do battle to rescue human history from incineration, Avenger has two forms to select from. Namely, the form as “himself that trifles with reality and vicious fate (Edmond Dantès)“ that represents his current self, and the form as “a person that is close to who he was before (King of the Cavern) as the materialized idol of hatred.”

Regarding the latter form in particular, before long, it seems Avenger will surely recognize the profile of his Master who continues to struggle, seemingly at first remembering the person as the princess of a ruined country, Haydée, or his benefactor Abbe Faria.

"He is not Abbe Faria."

"She is not Haydée."

Of course, Avenger himself (in this form) does not represent his current self. The Master who walks together with him is merely one person in his past, present and future. The others should not be here. If that’s the case, the feelings embraced there is also the sole thing that must be there, and not here.

Relationships
Amakusa Shirou

Edmond highly appreciates his way of life. "That greed that saves the world is unquestionably the embodiment of human nature!"

Jeanne d’Arc

Edmond doubts her current state of life. There is no reason to believe that she does not harbour the flames of vengeance as if she was betrayed by the world…

Nightingale

Even though he cannot so as far as recognize this particular case as a Heroic Spirit, this vengeful demon caught a glimpse of her who holds to herself an unwavering conviction, something that is dazzlingly beautiful, of which the current state of her soul have reached the domain of an idol.

Angra Mainyu

Edmond respects him, for it is possible to say that this person is the original Avenger.

Jeanne d’Arc (Alter) / Jeanne Alter Santa Lily

Edmond is quietly observing the fate of some girls for the materialization of a new Avenger.

Heroic Spirit Lore Strange Tales ～ King of the Cavern Edmond Dantès ～
October 1837. One year before enacting his vengeance, the Count of Monte Cristo carried out another tale of revenge as he had to avenge Abbe Faria, who he considered a second father. Faria was falsely accused as a rebel plotting the Italian unification and was imprisoned in the Chateau d'If by the "Three Wise Men" who desired the treasure of Monte Cristo.

While waiting for the first one, Father Angelo Braga, to appear after inviting him to his home, Haydée warns Edmond that he should not have brought Angelo here, but Edmond tells her to go away as it is not yet time for the two of them to meet. When Concetta comes to his room to tell him that Angelo has arrived, she asks if he was talking to someone, and he says that it was just a phantom.

The Count and Angelo talk over dinner. The Count was investigating the church and Angelo went for him who knows the location of the treasure. Edmond reveals how through knowledge, he was taught everything, from knowing how to live to how to fight, by Abbe Faria and calls him his second father, while also revealing that this was all a trap to lure Angelo who is one of the Three Wise Men who got Faria imprisoned. The food was poisoned and Angelo has taken a lethal dose, but it doesn't work because of his special Assembly of the Eight Sacrament training and he attacks Edmond. The Count attacks him with a pistol, but it can't even scratch him, so he has Concetta activate a trap which blows Angelo up along with the whole mansion. Angelo does barely survive but the Count finishes him off with one of Angelo's Black Keys, piercing his chest while he was surprised that monsters also have hearts. Then, Edmond declared that one is down.

The Count of Monte Cristo moves to Rome to continue his revenge plot. While attending to an opera, the Count and Concetta discuss about their next objective. The target is a cardinal, and the plan is to lure him with money. After that, one of Edmond's informants, one of many he has all over Europe, is killed. While at first the killing was thought to be by bandits or pirates, Concetta says that it "went over the line". The second set of killings was of a man who started an investment company in Spain, and his wife and 5-year-old daughter. The Count's group are the only ones who realize that these killings are connected as the man who was killed was one of Morrel's associates. The killings continue, and some of the corpses are left without a drop of blood.

Edmond is sure that the killings are the doing of one of the Three Wise Men and is furious. The killer left behind a message by spelling out a word, letter by letter, with the organs of his victims: Tarantella. Edmond wonders if this is really how the Church works, if Tarantella is just crazy, if this is vengeance for Angelo, or if he's just playing around with people's lives. He tells Concetta to prepare, and they start a counterattack by spreading information that the Count of Monte Cristo would be holding a huge party as bait, and they rent the whole for this purpose.

Haydée shows again and warns Edmond that this is way too dangerous. She wants him to live, and says that Faria would have wanted the same. Edmond says nobody knows what the dead want, and all he's doing is ridding himself of his own sorrows. Haydée wishes she could heal him of his sorrows, but Edmond tells her to begone, and to wait for him on the other side beyond love and hate.

Tarantella shows up and notices that there is nobody else at the "party" besides him. He recognizes the Count by his white hair and explains that Faria turned his back on the Holy Church when he said that he wanted to save all life. Edmond says that those are the Church's teachings, but Tarantella explains that's just the Church's front, and the truth is different. Edmond says that they're a bunch of heretics, bloodstained murderers who themselves turned their backs on the Messiah and the Prophets, and activates a trap which fires spears at Tarantella, and then another trap which binds him with chains made to subdue tigers, but Tarantella breaks out easily. Edmond shoots him in the forehead but Tarantella gets back up and pulls out the spears.

Tarantella uses a white lightning that burns Edmond and defeats him instantly, but doesn't kill him because he still needs to interrogate him. The Count asks if the Church is all composed of monsters, and Tarantella says that not all members have this power. The cardinal is a mere weak human for example, who isn't even an Executor - an inquisitor of the Sacred Church who represents the Will of God - like Angelo or Tarantella. Edmond is enraged by the claim that they're doing God's work and gets up again, blocking Tarantella's vision with his coat and stabbing him in the heart with a knife. Tarantella says that he's not just a mere Executor either, and asks where that foolish criminal Faria's treasure is while hitting Edmond with more of his lightning Magecraft. Edmond answers that both Tarantella and Angelo are idiots as there is no such thing as a "treasure". Tarantella observes that Edmond is imprevious to torture, as he doesn't fear death, or pain, or damage to his body, thinking that time in the Chateau d'If made him strong, so he says that he'll have Edmond recall what pain is like by destroying one of his belongings, and leaves. Edmond regrets listening to Ali and Concetta and not using explosives in the traps and accepts it was his own loss. Haydée calls out to the Count again and he asks her to give him more power. She says he already has it within him.

The Count arrives to the inn where Concetta was waiting for him, but he is late and Tarantella finishes sucking Concetta's blood dry just as he arrives. Edmond realises that Tarantella is a Blood-Sucking Demon, a Vampire. Tarantella says that comparing him to makes sense, but that's not quite it as he is another thing, and presents himself by revealing his true name, Michael Roa Valdamjong, a being that devours humans.

Faria wasn't able to tell Edmond about Dead Apostles and Michael Roa Valdamjong, the Monster of Ego and the evil reincarnator who dwells inside the hidden side of the Church because the vampire put a curse on him. But Faria left Edmond "the treasure of darkness" he stole from the Church that would one day help Edmond out when he one day faces a non-human enemy that he would lose to - The Treasure of Monte Cristo, which has the power to remake a person anew.

The Count of Monte Cristo laughs and says it doesn't matter what Roa is, as he, and not Roa, represents God's will, and then starts burning with black flames. He immediately understands how it works, and how it's a weapon for him to burn his enemies.

"To me belongeth Vengeance!"

- Edmond quotes the Holy Bible after proclaiming himself as the true Will of God.

Roa recognises the black fire as the Monte Cristo Mythologie, a legend hidden in the Mountain of the Messiah, the despair of those without God, the flames of Hell and the Void, and a power equal to that from the Age of Myths which forces a special Magic Circuit and Magic Crest into the user.

The Count tells him to shut up and blasts Roa through the inn's wall. Roa runs, but Edmond flies after him, so they fight in the skies of Rome. The Dead Apostle traps Edmond with magic and blasts him with a powerful lightning, and then uses the moves of his multiple reincarnations, including the curses of the Seventh and the barriers of the Fourth. Edmond calls upon the fires of vengeance to eat his soul and turn into black flames, breaking the magical barrier imprisoning him and then proceeds to grab and burn Roa while laughing, the vampire noticing that damage dealt by those flames is not regenerating. The Count then declares that they'll just have to see whose soul is incinerated first. Roa rabidly shouts that there can't be such a thing as a fire that can burn even souls, but Edmond says those flames are right here. Roa can't heal and Edmond asks him to just try and pretend to be the Messiah in front of God again. Roa starts shouting that this can't be possible and starts to say he is a reincarnator; even if his body is destroyed, he is infinite. But Roa's rambling is cut off short by Edmond's declaration.

"Despair. That... is Hell. I will not take pity upon you, rot away."

- The Count of Monte Cristo declares his victory.

When the Count realizes it, he is standing alone and nothing is left of Roa but cinders. He feels something vanishing from his body, and believes that it is the Treasure of Monte Cristo. He realizes that he was saved by Faria once more. His body will never be enveloped in black flames again, not unless he's someday reborn as something as inhuman as a vampire. He prays for Concetta to watch over his vengeance. He heads for the cathedral and is stopped by a guard who demands to know who he is. He laughs and says that the Count of Monte Cristo has come for the cardinal.

Some time later, the cardinal lost his position, and it's unknown if the Count of Monte Cristo ultimately killed him or not. Either way, his vengeance in Rome was over; but this was only the tale of the vengeance for Faria, the other vengeance. And so this is not the end but the beginning of the Count of Monte Cristo's story of vengeance in Paris.

Boundary of Emptiness: The Garden of Order
The Protagonist, Mash Kyrielight, Fou and Shiki Ryougi encounters Avenger in the woods outside Ogawa Apartment Complex, who is shrouded in darkness. He caused an unstable spiritron which caused the connection with Romani Archaman to be cut off. Shiki believes he is emitting a murderous aura; however, Avenger corrects Shiki, saying he is nothing but pure rage. Mash couldn't identify his Servant Class. Avenger was bewildered by the protagonist and Shiki's actions for killing the spirits of the dead. He believes the Ogawa Apartment Complex is a place of salvation for the spirits of the dead. His figure fades away as he says to "Wait and Hope", before something else appears, and screams.

The Vengeance Demon Howls in the Prison Tower
Avenger is the main protagonist in The Vengeance Demon Howls in the Prison Tower (監獄塔に復讐鬼は哭く).

The Temple of Time at the Station of the Crown: Salomon - The Final Singularity
Avenger shows up again during the Final Singularity to assist the protagonist once more, fighting the Demon Pillar Andromalius.

Abilities
Avenger attacks by projecting his magical power by means of his hatred via Monte Cristo Mythologie. A black grudge effect occurs, giving damage to his opponent. Fundamentally, it is a poisonous system, where it primarily gives direct damage in addition to persistent damage and an abnormal status effect. In addition to Monte Cristo Mythologie, he possesses the Noble Phantasms Enfer Château d'If, his mental power of steel, and Attendre, Espérer, an unbelievable recovery Noble Phantasm that is also the agglomeration of all human knowledge into the words "Wait and Hope".

Development
Rui Komatsuzaki is the character illustrator for Avenger, who also designed the characters for the. His meta title "Super High School Level Heroic Spirit" also referenced the Danganronpa Series, where the characters are all Super High School Level students. Hikaru Sakurai is the scenario writer for his character.

Rather than go for the traditional image of a "cool old Count" for Dantès' character that Nasu feels was "brought to utter perfection" by in their  anime, they wished to distance themselves from that characterization and instead went for a twist with a "younger count." He is a "Super High School-tier Heroic Spirit", developed with the idea of having a "cool dark hero" and out of Nasu's desire for having a Komatsuzaki-developed Servant. Nasu feels that Dantès' "true worth" is in his third stage ascension appearance, the "condensation of his chuuni essence."