Caster (Fate/Crossover - Nine the Phantom)

**Caster** (キャスター, *Kyasutā*) is the servant of ??? in the ??? Holy Grail War.

"Show me. Your dreams... You don't think you're earned the right to fight me, do you? You poor things... You can't even see how outclassed you are." - Nine the Phantom

## Profile

### Identity

Caster's true identity is **Konoe Ayatsuki Mercury** formerly known as **Nine the Phantom**, and historically known as the Great Magister Nine, was one of the Six Heroes, the creator of Ars Magus, the Nox Nyctores and a hailed figure across the world. She was the older sister of Celica A. Mercury, wife to Jubei and mother of Kokonoe. Nine was known for her incredible talent with both magic and sorcery which she used in great efforts to keep her family safe. After her supposed death by the hands of Yūki Terumi, Konoe mysteriously came back as the servant of Hades: Izanami, as Phantom.

### Appearance

Nine is a woman with a voluptuous figure, yellow eyes, and long vibrant pink hair that covers her left eye. As a child, her hair was in a side ponytail, and as Nine the Phantom, her sclera turns black.

As a child, Nine wore a white button up shirt with purple cuffs along with a purple vest dress with gold accents and two black braces that hung from the bottom. Along with this uniform she wore brown tights and purple shoes. As an adult, she wore a big purple witch hat and a Mage's Guild uniform, while during the Dark War, she wore a white button up sleeveless top with a purple tie, a black coat which was loosened at the shoulders and had one green strap on each sleeve, and black and gold stockings with black high heels.

As Phantom, she wore a high collar purple cloak with a red zig-zag pattern, a white to red gradient scarf, and a new designed purple witch hat that concealed any immediately recognizable feature of her. Finally, as Nine the Phantom, she wore a witch hat similar to that of her hat as Phantom, but with a magenta accented slit in it, a purple, magenta, and pink dress with detatched sleeves, a purple cloak with red on the inner side, black tights, and black heels. Also, her fingers are longer and her nails have become sharper.

### Personality

Belligerent, openly hostile to anyone except those closest to her. Nine is an openly rebellious woman who defies authority while expecting others to recognize hers. Her temper is always on the verge of exploding, and she is ready to let anyone know her feelings, unable to hide her explosive rage and sharp tongue. Nine has a habit of letting others know her superiority, and she openly demonstrates her power without thinking of the consequences.

Yet despite her temper, Nine has a mind sharper than many would initially believe. She is a thorough academic who has dedicated her life to sorcery, magic, Ars Magus, alchemy, and the creation of the Nox Nyctores'. Few can match both her intellect and cunning, and she is a revolutionary scientist whose discoveries, theories, and techniques have had a permanent change on the world. As a child, Nine was already considered a genius. She demonstrated a lot of patience and kindness towards Nobody and Es, going far out of her way to make their lives better even though they had not known each other for long.

Nine feels as if the world is wrong because of the Amaterasu Unit and The Origin resetting time. Everything that Nine and her comrades fought for in the Dark War means nothing because it will all be reset. Upon learning this truth, she went so far as to begin creating a replacement "God". Knowing that Celica would meet her fate at the hands of Yuuki Terumi, her father unleashing the Black Beast, and the suffering of her family and humanity would all be repeated for eternity sent Nine on her mission to destroy The Origin and create a new world. Although her methods were questionable, Nine was ultimately trying to save the world once more, even though her true reasons were to save Celica, and she did not care much for the rest of humanity.

Prior to her descent into madness as Phantom, Konoe was a person who liked to do things her own way, a trait shared by her daughter. She is a kind-hearted individual who cares about her friends, especially her younger sister Celica. However, she was not easy on Kazuma. Although she seems to have a mature and serious personality, she can be somewhat impulsive and violent when angered, as shown when she attempted to use a fire spell on Bloodedge for annoying her. She was this way even with her lover, Jūbei, before falling in love with him as well as rash, headstrong and independent.

Before having her daughter, Konoe had more time on her hands to delve into magical legerdemain. This was likely due to the fact that she was the best in her field of expertise. Unlike her daughter who was a whiz with science, Konoe had an ability, charm and prowess with the magical arts. Being the best in her field and from her expertise and leadership, it was easy to see why she responded to others the way she had. These would psychologically determine her to be right-brained and eccentric, if not at least eclectic. Konoe also displays a poor sense of direction similar to her sister, seen when they walk together in the wrong direction during the search for their father.

As Phantom, however, all of her personality has seemingly vanished. She no longer speaks nor has any signs of any emotions whatsoever; becoming an empty shell in comparison to what she was before. While as Phantom, she attacks anyone who is deemed as the Emperor’s foe, going so far to attack Trinity Glassfille, one of her closest comrades, and her lover Jūbei and even punishing her own daughter Kokonoe for using Celica. When her restrictions as Phantom are released, Nine retains her same arrogant tone and confidence in her abilities; however, she no longer has concern for the well-being of her former comrades and family. Despite this, she still retains her memories, taunting Jūbei about their former relationship before engaging him in battle.

However, in BlazBlue: Continuum Shift and BlazBlue: Chronophantasma, she shows signs of resisting, indicating that she is regaining her original sentience. In BlazBlue: Centralfiction, Nine is confirmed to have regained her original sentience from the beginning, but she has acquired a bleak view of the world from being driven mad through all the time she spent in the Boundary. She wishes to destroy it so she could recreate it with her desires in mind and is not above using those around her to achieve her goals. Fiercely determined and viciously vindictive, Nine wants to exact vengeance on the people who caused her so much pain and suffering. Despite her vendetta against Izanami and Terumi, Nine purposely worked for them for her own ends. She retains her characteristic condescension and arrogance, though taken to new and alarming levels, along with a stoic but nevertheless volatile disposition.

It seemed she had completely detached herself from both her family and her former comrades, save for her sister, Celica, an attachment which led to her own undoing and defeat. Some examples include undermining Hakumen for his attempts to stop her in achieving her plans and punishing her own daughter, Kokonoe, for using her younger sister in the events of the previous game. However, there are instances where she acts differently depending on the person she is interacting with. For example, she blames Ragna for everything that’s terrible with the world and would not hesitate to punish him relentlessly. In another instance, she shows sympathy toward Tsubaki Yayoi, who she relates to with regards to being a helpless victim of circumstance. She has even expressed reluctance in harming children, as seen when faced against Carl and Nirvana, but would do so if necessary.

However, underneath all the immense indignation, Nine never lost her humanity. Everything she had done throughout the events of the fourth game was all for the sake of granting everyone’s wishes, most especially that of the people she loves and not just Celica and herself. She was simply so determined to bring her plans to fruition that she would not let even the people she wants to save intervene, even to the point of openly antagonizing them. Even her affection towards her husband never truly wavered as she was very much pleased that she got the chance to be protected by him one last time before she passed. In the end, while her intentions were indeed selfless and noble, her methods were quite extreme, going to the point where she sacrificed herself to grant her loved ones enough time to stop Izanami, proving that deep down inside, she is still a hero and she loves those that are not only close to her, but the ones who also care about her.

## Abilities

Arguably not just one of the most powerful witches of her time, but one of the strongest sorcerers in history. Nine's sorcery is as aggressive as her personality as she focuses on delivering powerful spells with little casting time. Her arsenal of spells is vast, only being limited by her imagination. Nine furthermore has a unique yet deadly ability which she has no control over: she attracts seithr. This ability is only suppressed by her imitation of the Origin of the Grimoire which is her left eye, and absorbs the seithr around her.

In combat, Nine is able to rapidly deploy spells with casting time so tiny it almost seems like an instinctive reflex. She can fire a ball of light that explodes into a rain of bullets or fire gusts of wind so powerful that they can rend bone. If an opponent comes too close, Nine can generate lightning around her body to prevent them from coming closer. Teleportation is one of Nine's signature abilities although she initially struggled with using it at first, eventually mastering it over time and being able to teleport herself and others great distances. One of her other spells allows her to heighten her senses to the levels of beastkin, giving her excellent hearing and vision which far surpasses most humans. Although she seldom fights physically, Nine has enough strength to break doors with single kicks and lift fully grown men by their collars.

Mastery over many spells is not just Nine's only strength in sorcery. She is keenly aware of its application in combat and outside of it. Freezing her opponent's legs, ricocheting spells off multiple surfaces to meet a target, and even using electricity to fry circuits in electric locks.

Although famously known for her belligerent sorcery, Nine is also an extremely capable scientist who created Ars Magus, Ars Armegis, and the Nox Nyctores class weapons. She was on the verge of creating the Burning Red Grimoire which would have allowed humanity access to sorcery, but it was never completed in her lifetime. Alongside her gifts with sorcery and science, Nine was accomplished with alchemy and magic, both being required for her recognition into the Ten Sages. The only Art which Nine is stated to have no mastery over is a Drive. This is reflected in gameplay where her Drive is The Abyss Diver but is not a reflection of her soul, instead being another way for her to cast numerous spells. In gameplay her spell arsenal gives her the most options of any playable character. Her spells here include summoning water, fire, and wind at basic levels, but her advanced spells include gravity manipulation, creating balls of electricity, creating reflecting mirrors, and summoning large tree roots to name only a few.

Nine's willpower has allowed her to endure the agonizing nature of the Boundary and still retain her sanity. On top of her myriad of offensive spells, Nine is capable of others such as the Mind Eater, giving her complete control over a person's free will, something she used in great effect over Yuuki Terumi in the Dark War. She also has a contract with a demonic being called Hino Kagutsuchi which is seemingly under her complete dominion. Kagutsuchi is capable of being summoned to throw powerful kicks, punches, and generate large beams of energy.

Yet despite her incredible strengths, Nine is not immortal. Her love of Celica means that she is easily manipulated whenever her sister is involved, and can be distracted by Celica's presence; she is also easily irritable, and her rage can lead to mistakes. Furthermore, Nine's strength in her body created by Relius Clover severely restricts the magical and sorcery based abilities she possesses, and pales in comparison with her original body's power.

### Noble Phantasm

#### **Colorless Void; "Shower of Flames of the Abyss"**

Nine summons Hi no Kagutsuchi, who devours the opponent and traps them in a cage of fire. Nine then rises into the air and creates a giant portal with a pentagram, raining down several meteors to finish the opponent off.

### Gallery

1st Ascension2nd Ascension3rd AscensionFinal AscensionNine's Servant Card
## References

https://blazblue.fandom.com/wiki/Konoe\_Ayatsuki\_Mercury

https://blazbluextag.fandom.com/wiki/Nine\_the\_Phantom

https://blazblue.wiki/wiki/Nine\_the\_Phantom