Artoria Pendragon (Alter)

Name

Artoria

Gender

female

alignments

lawful evil

Identity

Also called Artoria Alter and better known as Arthur Pendragon/King Arthur. In history, he/she is a different figure that may not have been known to others as possibly being the legendary King Arthur himself. Accompanied with her inversion, the holy sword Excalibur is also dyed in the attribute of evil, turning into a jet black sword. It seems that Excalibur, a sword gifted from the fairies, has the possibility of possessing both attributes of good and evil as well; there exists Vivian, the Fairy of the Lake who possesses the attribute of good, and Morgan, who exists as the antithesis to Vivian that possesses the attribute of evil. In addition, in Artoria Alter's Fate/Grand Order Interlude, Vortigern, who was criticized as the "look-alike of Vortigern, the late Vile King of ancient times" from a certain person (Servant), was a figure who usurped the throne of Britain and was the older brother of King Uther, the father of Arthur.

Appearance

Corrupted by Angra Mainyu, Artoria Alter is vastly different from her normal self. She is also called Black Saber. The results of her alteration is not only within Artoria Alter's interior but also extends to her outward appearance. The color of her skin becomes pale, and the pupil of her eyes that were at first concealed behind a black visor during the moment of her summoning becomes golden from her original green eye color as well. Because the armor she wears was dyed jet black and grew in weight due to changing into a heavier armor, its power has increased more than normally.

Height

1.54 meters

Personality part 1

A different aspect of the King of Knights devoted to cruelty, greatly unlike the case of the normal Artoria. She is referred to as Saber Alter. A behavior without futility, a cold-hearted personality that makes Artoria seem like a different person, but if one is to carefully come into contact with her, they might notice that what lies at the basis is still the same. Artoria Alter's personality changes vastly from her normal self upon being corrupted by Angra Mainyu, but she cannot be called a villain. She is more of a dark hero who is still an idealist clinging to her own values even after being blackened. After taking in by the hatred of the curse, Artoria Alter comes to the realization that the duty of a hero is to be hated and ostracized, that a hero's only duty is to cut down foes using all their strength. She believes that she was prepared for such an outcome upon drawing Caliburn, and decides to entrust her blade to All the World's Evils. While she still takes her duty as king seriously, believing it is her obligation to those whose lives were lost because of her, she no longer believes in the ideals set for herself and her people. The end was concluded long ago, after all her prayers and glory vanished on the hill in Camlann. While alive, Artoria did not fall into the path of evil even once, but she too had doubts, inner conflicts, hatred towards herself and grief towards the surroundings. This figure, influenced by the curse of the Holy Grail, is someone that had such issues hidden within her raised to the surface and caused her "policy" to go inverse.

Personality part 2

Because a section of her character's attributes has been inverted, the basis of Artoria Alter's character speak words and display deeds like those of a "tyrant's", which is the exact opposite of her usual character, but there is no change in her goals and ideals themselves, and it seems she shows a bit of her original self as her feelings towards the people who are close to her have been left behind and intact, although barely. The usual Artoria persisted in being chaste for the sake of her ideals, but this Artoria approves tyrannical rule for the sake of her ideals. Having been violated by the curse of the Holy Grail, this is a side of the King of Knights, a tyrant that persisted in being heartless. Maybe, the "ideal king" that King Arthur pursued was something like this after all. Maybe because her Magic Core goes outside the scale, but at any rate, Artoria Alter is a Servant that eats a lot. The dragon is a glutton. In addition, even her food preferences, which could be regarded as her identity, have changed: she spits out cooking with courteous, elaborate, abstruse tastes as bad and chews down large quantities of junk food. A new identity for Artoria who came into contact with the foundation of foreign cultures, as if food culture has become a Heroic Spirit. Concerning her who has an evil heart that is outside of the norm, meals become nothing but refreshing fuel, and it seems the manner of being able to eat food in a simple way is desirable for her. Awful eating habits, but she herself seems greatly satisfied, so maybe this can be called a form of happiness. Concerning her motive on what to wish for on the Holy Grail and what rouses her to pursue it, it is no different from Artoria's.

Personality part 3

However, affirming her strength to the point of committing atrocities, she not only responds to the desires of a Master wishing for a strong Servant because of their objective to fight and save the world, but she responds to also do battle against the Master's more repulsive enemies and the more powerful adversaries, as well as to train the Master in improving their skills. Her methods surely differs, but her approach to guiding and understanding the Master is certainly Artoria Pendragon's. In addition, in the world of Fate/Grand Order, her existence as a Servant is separate from Artoria Pendragon's, and Artoria is no longer consumed by the blackening caused by the curse of the Holy Grail. Artoria Alter is mostly emotionless towards the situation of Shirou, Rin, and Sakura. While she seems to hold favor for Shirou and Rin coming out victorious, she is largely apathetic towards the entire situation. In the case of the battle going wrong, she doesn't care about the victor and can only hold a slight amount of pity towards those left alive. She feels a connection to Sakura as someone who has felt similar despair.

Abilities

After being blackened, her magic reactor grew outside the scale, greatly increasing her Magical Energy consumption. However, thanks to being Sakura's Servant, she was provided with her enormous magical energy supply. Whereas Artoria used to contain her own power, due to her past Masters usually being unable to provide her with sufficient Magical Energy, in this condition, she wields powerful energy without hesitation. As such, her destructive power has also been increased, becoming a fearful being, inflicting havoc and death upon the world. Although Artoria was able to make use of her original abilities without being affected by the Master after making a contract with Rin, and just seeing her standing in that state without moving a single finger was enough to make Shirou believe that there seemed to be no end to her overwhelming power and that she wouldn't lose even to Heracles, in a sense, Saber Alter is even more powerful than she was in life, and none can deny that she is the strongest servant. In straightforward attack power, she is the strongest.

Combat part 1

Having been released from Shirou and having access to a great source of magical energy, Shirou claims that Saber Alter is literally invincible and that not even Sakura, who had an extraordinary amount of magical energy, would be able to beat her. The disparity in strength between Saber Alter and the Saber prior to her darkening is such that, whereas Artoria was greatly outmatched by Heracles and gravely injured in their first fight, Saber Alter was able to easily corner and overwhelm him even in a direct battle. Although Heracles smashed the ground with an attack powerful enough to destroy a mountain, even the flying rubble did not cause her to faulter, and she simply made her way through Berserker's sword and the flying clods to attack his defenseless body. Every single of her strikes is massive, and anyone fighting her without paying attention will have the top half of their body sent flying. Their power is equivalent to an A rank attack, and as such, she sliced through Heracles' harder than steel body, killing him like it was nothing. Although Berserker gained resistance to her attacks after being healed thanks to God Hand, Saber Alter was capable of killing him more times by increasing the power of her attacks with her Mana Burst skill, to the point where each of them looked like a Noble Phantasm. The only time she invoked the True Name of her sword to fire her Noble Phantasm is at the end of their fight when her lips are shown muted. In the Fuyuki Singularity, Cú Chulainn noted that Saber had trouble defeating Berserker. In this state, Artoria's Luck has been greatly decreased. Although Cú Chulainn agrees that as Caster he wouldn't stand a chance against Saber Alter, he claims that he could have finished her off with just one strike had he been summoned as a Lancer. Due to Saber Alter having lost "the protagonist’s compensation or the glimmer of the stars", a fight between Gilgamesh and her would be just a measure of their abilities.

Combat part 2

Back when they were alive, both had extraordinary magical energy output, so it would be a measure of their firepower, where Gilgamesh would gain a slight advantage due to his "omnipotence and cunning". Should they fight as Servants, Saber Alter could win due to Gilgamesh not having any assistance from his Master as he usually fights relying only on his own power, regardless of his master being a first-rate or third-rate Mage. Gilgamesh could defeat her if his “Master’s charm as a human” is high. Artoria is strong enough to block a strike from full power Cú Chulainn Alter without much difficulty, whereas even while weakened by Semiramis' poison he had been shown to be strong enough to kill Karna with one blow. After recieving Cú Alter's attack she decided to join Heracles in his battle against the Celtic warrior, to which he responded by releasing all his curses in the form of his Noble Phantasm Curruid Coinchenn. With it, he defeated them both. Since the fight took place offscreen, it is unknown whether Saber Alter used her own Noble Phantasm against him or not. Since right before their fight began Saber Alter said "Prepare to taste the steel of my scacred sword", it is implied that she wasn't actually planning on using the beam attack function of her sword but rather fighting him directly in close range combat. In exchange for her power having been increased more than normally, the armor Artoria wears was dyed jet black and grew in weight changing into a heavier armor.[1][2] Due to her armor having been reinforced, granting her more defensive ability than in her original state,[5] it seems like her agility has decreased as a result.[2] Whereas Saber Alter overwhelms Medusa in technique, vitality, and magical energy, Medusa was able to fight her thanks to her superior speed and her Mystic Eyes.

Combat part 3

Even though they weren't able to petrify Saber due to her having greater magical energy, it still forced a great pressure on her, reducing her abilities by one rank and stunning her, allowing Medusa to keep her occupied by using her full strength for over twelve minutes. Even in this weakened state, Saber was strong enough to repel Caladbolg II with one strike, and to swing her sword at the speed of light. As such, Saber Alter still overwhelmed Rider, and no matter how quickly Medusa leapt to attack her blind spots, Saber still deflected all of her attacks, without suffering a single scratch or showing any fatigue. Shirou Emiya claims that even with Archer's arm and if he were in perfect shape he wouldn't be able to beat Saber since he can't project any Noble Phantasm exceeding hers. However, in their actual fight, whether it was in fear of breaking the ceiling of the cave they were on if she used it, or maybe because of some other reason, Saber Alter fought him using only her sword technique and not her Noble Phantasm, giving Shirou a slight chance of victory. The power gap between the two is still too great, so Shirou is forced to reach deep down into Archer's arm to pull out his ultimate tactic and use Kanshou and Bakuya's full capabilities. With the Triple-Linked Crane Wings, Shirou attacks her with the method he couldn't come up with, the stance that guarantees a sure kill. Targeting the enemy's neck, the two blades are thrown drawing an arc so they intersect right on the enemy. Although no hero can come out unscathed after being trapped between steel-penetrating Noble Phantasms, Saber Alter blocks them like nothing. By projecting the swords a second time, he blocks her attack, and before she has time to unleash a fatal strike, another surprise attack comes from behind her which she dodges thanks to her godlike cognition-like Instincts.

Combat part 4

Although Shirou attacks multiple times over her unguarded body by making use of the magnetlike properties of Kanshou and Bakuya, Saber Alter even blocks the simultaneous attack from four blades, destroying them in the process at the cost of leaving herself open. Although the battle would have ended with a stalemate, Shirou surpasses his limits by creating a third pair of swords with which he slashes her exposed body with a perfect attack, defeating her. Having blocked the two earlier surprise attacks from the enemy, her limbs were occupied for the briefest of moments, and thus, she wasn't able to block his final attack, which shattered her organs and crushed her spine. The battle would have ended there if Shirou had simply finished her off by destroying her brain or heart, however, it had taken everything he had to defeat her and as such, his mind had been destroyed in the process, leaving him motionless on the ground. Compared to her regular state's already superb regeneration, Artoria Alter's regeneration is bolstered by the almost infinite source of magical energy from Sakura, allowing her to heal those wounds in ten minutes and requiring the destruction of her head or heart for immediate death. As such, Saber Alter proclaimed her victory.