Chloe von Einzbern (クロエ・フォン・アインツベルン, Kuroe fon Aintsuberun?), also known as Kuro (クロ?, lit. "Black"), is a twin existence formed from Illya's original self in Fate/kaleid liner PRISMA☆ILLYA. She also appears as Archer (アーチャー, Āchā?), an Archer-class Servant able to be summoned by Ritsuka Fujimaru in the Grand Orders of Fate/Grand Order.
Profile
Background
Illya was born to act as the key of the Holy Grail War system of Fuyuki, but it was never actualized in the Fate/kaleid liner world. Her parents, Kiritsugu Emiya and Irisviel von Einzbern, decided to abandon the ritual by Irisviel's choice, but Illya still had the knowledge granted to her to act out her purpose. She had been continually tuned during her first few months of life, given the ability to understand words and different types of knowledge. Irisviel believed that an eight month old existence outweighed the thousand year dream of the Einzberns, so she sealed Illya's faculties, knowledge, and memories in order to allow her to live as a normal girl.
Irisviel miscalculated the process, so the sealed memories grew up inside Illya and eventually became a second personality. Due to Illya's ability to "grant wishes" as the vessel of the Grail leaking from the seal, this personality became powerful enough to harness the Archer Class Card and create a body for itself, becoming Kuro. She refers to herself as Illyasviel von Einzbern even after being separated, but has her name changed to avoid confusion.
Appearance
Chloe is a young girl with tanned skin color and white-rose like hair. Her Archer form her clothing consists of a feminine version of EMIYA's servant clothing. While at school she wear the typical school uniform. Generally speaking she looks like a palette swapped version of Illya.
Personality
Kuro is generally much calmer and more nonchalant than Illya. She is devious and manipulative, picking up on subtleties about people and using them to her advantage, and she can be very brazen and unrestrained in her actions. She has experienced all of the same events as Illya, allowing her to recall events before she manifested.
Kuro is deeply bitter as a result of having been sealed, both towards her parents for sealing her, and toward Illya for wishing to be 'normal'. She believes Illya is indirectly wishing for her, the manifestation of her past as part of a Magus clan, to not exist. She places pride in the reason she was born, and wishes to follow it if she can. The idea of being called a second hand clone infuriates her, for the name 'Illya' originally belongs to her.
Kuro easily gets into conflicts with Illya, fighting over any minuscule insult. Funnily, when Illya is unable to stop Kuro in some of these conflicts, she uses the effect of a curse to inflict pain on Kuro by hurting herself. Due to Kuro's appearance and her tendency to drain energy through kissing, it creates certain comedic situations and misunderstandings.
Despite these problematic aspects of her personality, underneath it all is a caring, sweet, and even timid girl fitting of her age. This reflects her vulnerable side on how despite everything, what she truly desires is a family, a normal life, and above all, to live with a purpose. When she was finally granted these wishes, she becomes more well behave but still mischievous.
Kuro is straight-forward such as stating that one should face a problem instead of avoiding them, and immediately choosing her friend Miyu over saving the world. This also shows her deep devotion towards those she desires and deeply cares about.
Kuro also shares Illya's affection towards their brother. However, she is more forthright with Shirou, allowing herself to express the feelings Illya has not been able to express. Kuro became jubilant when learning that the identity of the Archer Class Card, that was used to manifest her body, is EMIYA.
Role
PRISMA☆ILLYA
Kuro's first sign of existence comes during the battle with Saber after the defeat of Illya, Miyu, Rin, and Luvia. Filled with despair upon seeing their last hope wiped out by Excalibur, the seal, a metaphorical lock inside Illya, comes undone, and she, who should know little about magic, displays a large amount of magical energy far beyond that of a normal person under the threat of death. Illya mostly loses consciousness, allowing an emotionless personality to emerge that quickly realizes the best way to gain power is from the Class Card. She takes the Archer Card and utilizes the Install ability for the first time. She emotionlessly defeats Saber by overpowering her with a projected Excalibur, returning to normal without any memory of the events, while the lock returns to normal.
The power is displayed again against the Assassins, when the team get raided and Illya is disabled. Though the team survive the raid, she is distressed by the power, because her attack also entangled her friends. Losing self-confidence, she attempts to forget everything related to magic and return to her normal life. Irisviel, the girl's mother who happens to come back home for the first time since the beginning of the story, notices her distress and talks to her. She mentions that the seal has been drained of power after ten years of weakening and two times of breaking, and that she did not expect it to loosen so early. She refuses to elaborate more on the topic, simply telling her that the power is neither good or evil and that, as a part of her, it is her will to use it that is the most important. Illya regains her confidence, helping Miyu defeat Berserker by utilizing the power for a third time and seemingly end the conflicts.
PRISMA☆ILLYA 2wei!
Kuro after being separated from Illya
While attempting to fix the Earth's Pulse that has been disrupted by the Class Cards, a reflux causes the cavern to begin to collapse. Utilizing the power for the fourth time to Install the Archer Class Card, Illya protects them from the falling rocks, but feels a strange disruption. After everything has cleared, they are all shocked to find two Illya next to each other and the Archer Class Card missing. The duplicate, with the exception of dark skin and the Archer outfit, quickly runs away during the confusion.
Kuro makes various attempts on Illya's life the next day, stating that they cannot both freely exist. Illya and Miyu try to fight her, but Illya has lost most of her power and Miyu is dispatched by having her energy drained. Illya manages to damage Kuro clothes with her most powerfull attack which leaves Kuro naked after seeing this she leaves naked to town to get more energy. Rin decides to deal with the problem by catching Kuro, utilizing Illya as bait. She still arrives even though the trap is obvious, and manages to foil their attempts. She easily dispatches Rin, Luvia, and Miyu, but gets tricked by Illya into stepping into the original trap that seals her magic.
Upon interrogation, she simply states that her only goal is to kill Illya, while refusing to divulge any new information. Rin decides to nickname her Kuro to avoid confusion between the two Illya's, and utilizes Illya's blood to create a seal on her. It makes it so that she shares all sensations with Illya, including injuries and pain. Unable to fulfill her original goal, she uses her appearance to try to sabotage Illya's relationships, her normal life, because said normal life is what she would rather have than magic, essentially denying Kuro's existence.
Appearing at school, she drains several people, causing Illya grief. They are exposed afterward, causing Kuro to introduce herself as Illya's who will be transferring to the school the next week. She claims she wishes to try living a normal life, so they allow it as long as she does not harm anyone and acts out the role of Illya's cousin. She interacts with the students the following week, and plays a dodge ball against those whose first kisses she stole from them with the losing team acting as servants to the winners. Ruby believes her true goal is to take Illya's place, so Illya duels her to protect her normal life.
The fight results in a double knockout after Kuro injures Illya, and herself, after being insulted. They discuss the missing Archer Card later on, and ask Illya about her motivation to fight, which is to return to her normal life. This angers Kuro, causing he to ask what becomes of her in that normal life, and reveals the location of the Archer Card inside her. She then decides to end the "farce", using a powerful attack to escape. She leaves a message for Miyu the next day, asking her to come alone.
She eventually comes to terms with her anger after Illya finally accepts her, only to begin breaking down shortly after. Although on the verge of death, Illya is able to convince her to fight for her new life, making her admit that what she wants most is not to be a Magus, nor to kill anyone, nor even to be accepted: most of all, she just wants the chance to live. This admission is enough for her powers as an incomplete Grail to activate, granting her wish to live and stabilizing her body. She is then formally adopted into the extended Einzbern family, being introduced to Shirou as Illya's cousin Chloe von Einzbern
PRISMA☆ILLYA 3rei!
After being transferred to another world, she is first seen with Bazett while meeting with Illya, Tanaka, and Gilgamesh. They would go to an abandon school grounds and discuss a battle strategy in saving Miyu. When Illya was in turmoil over how she wants to save Miyu, but was in turmoil over being sent to another world and fighting strong enemies, Kuro decides to take Illya to the school roof and fight her. Through this battle, Illya Installed with Lancer (Kuro was able to identify Lancer's true identity), and Rider for the first time. When Illya throws her complaints at Kuro, Kuro points how Miyu went through the same thing after coming to their world but never said anything. Kuro continues that if they are truly Miyu's friends, they have no right to complain until they save Miyu and hear it from her too. To further test and strengthen Illya's resolve, the fight continues where Kuro traces Excalibur but is overpowered by the power of the Saber Class Card Illya Installed herself and because she was running out of magical energy. Kuro then identifies Saber's true identity, complimenting how its Noble Phantasm is the embodiment of people's hopes and prayers woven by the stars. This is elaborated by Kuro on how Illya should show no fear as people's prayers can even reach the gods, cheering Illya up to move forward. She was able to replenish her mana by kissing Illya and then made up with her when Illya requests that Kuro will stay by her side since she can't do it alone. Kuro thinks back on Illya's accomplishments regarding the subject, stating that no one can fight alone.
She, along with Bazett, later helps Illya and Gil free Rin and Luvia from the Ainsworth's control, and she later helps the now-freed Shirou fight off Angelica at the Ainsworth castle and delay the plans of Julian Ainsworth, and force him to retreat for the time being.
Fate/Grand Order
Magical Girl Travel Diaries ~Prisma Corps~
When Illya and Miyu accidentally travelled to First Lady's Reality Marble, Chloe, angry at being left out, jumped in as well. However, unlike the two, she ended up arriving at an earlier time period due to an unstable jump. Alone, surrounded by warring magical girls and running low on magical energy, she feared that she might disappear. At this point, she was contacted by a familiar of the First Lady. She was stunned after being asked if she was only an accessory to Illya, allowing First Lady to possess her.
Chloe/First Lady sent her familiars to abduct Miyu, bringing her back to her castle and slowly draining her magical energy, with the ultimate goal of absorbing her and using her wish-granting power to give all of the Echoes physical bodies, allowing them to enter the real world and save countless people in the parallel worlds.
While Illya, Ritsuka Fujimaru, and Mash Kyrielight attempted to save Miyu, First Lady held her hostage and gradually drained magical energy from her, while Chloe continued to resist the attempts to assimilate her. After reaching the First Lady's throne room, Illya duelled Chloe, and was able to defeat her due to their shared pain perception. After Miyu complained that being alone with Chloe was awkward, First Lady overwhelmed Chloe's mental defenses and fully possessed her, allowing her to fight at full strength. However, she was defeated once again.
After Helena took over the Reality Marble, First Lady left Chloe's body, and Chloe pretended that she lost all memories of when she was possessed so she could not be held responsible, accidentally letting it slip that she created an imaginary world using the First Lady's power where she was the main character and lived a lovey-dovey life with Shiro.
In the end, Illya, Miyu, and Chloe returned to their world. However, as Ritsuka and Mash returned to Chaldea, they find Chloe there as well. This Chloe split from the original, possibly done by the First Lady as an apology, and joined Chaldea as an Archer class servant.
Abilities
Kuro originally did not know the identity of the Heroic Spirit whose form she has borrowed, but later learned of it after meeting Miyu's brother. She has only inherited the fighting skills that he refined. She wields her formidable combat powers with reckless abandon. Rin saw this as a threat, and inflicted on Kuro a curse of shared pain perception. Kuro’s shared pain with Illya was meant to deter her from targeting her twin, but the trifling curse meant nothing to the little devil.[1]
Having received most of Illya's magical power, Kuro is extremely powerful, capable of using all of the Archer class' abilities to a high degree, and easily able to overpower magical girls and even Miyu's Saber class change. She has physical strength equal to that of a magical girl, allowing her to damage a wall with a towel. She is much more analytical than Illya, allowing her to read her opponent's strategy. She can utilize basic magic like a ball of magical energy that breaks apart the ground and reversing binding magic on the caster.
Kuro also possesses the ability to teleport as shown when she escaped being locked up by Luvia and Rin, fighting Miyu Installed with Saber, and fighting Angelica with Shirou (Miyu's brother). The range of this is still unknown. Kuro explains this comes from the ability into achieving the result/answer while bypassing the process. This ability is how she was able to Install Archer for the first time.
She generally fights with Kanshou and Bakuya in close combat, and makes use of metastasis and Projection to create other Noble Phantasms. She can create mundane objects like a chair, or more powerful objects like Fake Nine Lives, Berserker's axe-sword, using it as a shield in front of her and running at the opponent. She fires Caladbolg II as an arrow.
She has the ability to drain people of their natural energy through the act of kissing, leaving them weakened and unable to act. As a result it makes her seem a succubus. She has to replenish herself often, but normal people are not enough . While draining several normal people still leaves her weakened, as demonstrated when she drains the entire school of their mana, magi like Rin and Luvia or someone powerful like Miyu or Illya can provide her with enough energy alone through kissing.
She mentioned she has other ways to get mana but she prefered kissing Illya because was more effective and Illya would prefer that instead of Kuro going to town and recover mana with unknown persons,normally she can replenish mana through sexual intercourse or swallowing semen which Illya was against,she learned this after the fight with Illya when she dissapeared into town naked.
She was given a seal formed from Illya's blood that connects replicates all physical sensations caused to Illya onto her. It replicates all injuries caused to Illya of them, no matter how slight the sensation, and reproduces even effects like having a cheek pulled. If Illya, her "master", were to die, the same would happen to her. Kuro has analyzed the curse for a long time and can easily dispel it, but she still kept it until she needed to teach Illya a lesson.