Kayneth Archibald El-Melloi

Kayneth Archibald El-Melloi is a character from the Japanese novel Fate/Zero, the prequel to the game Fate/Stay Night.

He is the Master of a Lancer class servant in the 4th Holy Grail War.

Height: 181cm

Weight: 62kg

Blood Type: B

Birthday: 4.11

Character

A nobleman and a renowned mage from the Magus Association, Kayneth was a prodigy among magi, possessing exceptional magical potential and skills. He held the title of Euryphis lecturer within the Clock Tower, a notable mage academy, despite his young age. His magical lineage, going back nine generations, further enhanced his status. His magical abilities were attributed to wind and water, and he is proficient in the magical arts of summoning, alchemy, and spiritual evocation. He is also a teacher of Waver Velvet's, and was responsible for rejecting and tearing up Waver's radical thesis concerning magical potential. This act was in turn directly responsible for driving Waver to, in retaliation, enter the fourth Holy Grail War by stealing a valuable artifact from Kayneth.

Lord El-Melloi is, with regard to magical ability, arguably the most skilled Master in the Fourth Holy Grail War. He excels in magic involving mercury, which he employs to create a variety of attack and defence forms, such as barriers strong enough to resist point blank Claymore Mine blasts and flying blades capable of slicing through stone walls. Lord El-Melloi's mastery is great enough such that his enchanted mercury can react without his conscious control, automatically forming shields against surprise attacks. Kiritsugu Emiya initially regards Kayneth as one of the two most threatening magi involved in the war alongside Tokiomi Tōsaka, though neither are considered the most dangerous to be involved.

He was engaged to Sola-Ui Nuada-Re Sophia-Ri, the daughter of the head of the spiritual evocation division, through an arranged marriage. While Kayneth is in love with her, Sola-Ui despises Kayneth, considering him a coward for not attacking opposing Masters face to face.

Role

Kayneth was the Master of Lancer in the Fourth Holy Grail War. His participation in the War is merely a bid to increase his own prominence within the Magus Association. His initial base of operations was located at the Fuyuki Hyatt Hotel, and protected by twenty-four layers of barriers, numerous summoned monsters, various traps, and mystical spatial alterations in the lobby.

After Lancer's battle with Saber, Kayneth criticizes his Servant for holding back against her. He winds up arguing with Sola-Ui, who calls him a coward for hiding himself from the other Masters, and in turn criticizes him for his poor strategy of attacking Saber rather than the stronger Berserker. Though Lancer convinces her to stop arguing with Kayneth, her apparent submission to the Servant leads Kayneth to suspect Sola-Ui's developing affections for Lancer.

Before he can address the issue, the lower levels of hotel are attacked by Kiritsugu Emiya and Maiya Hisau. Kayneth and Sola-Ui interpret the attack as one of the Masters driving people out of the hotel in order to attack Kayneth without any civilian casualties. In reality, Kiritsugu and Maiya actually aim to destroy the hotel's foundation. Kayneth, Sola-Ui, and Lancer manage to survive the attack, thanks to Kayneth's enchanted mercury.

Following the loss of his base, Kayneth attempts to simultaneously kill off the rogue Servant Caster and the Master of Saber, with Lancer intervening in a battle between Caster and Saber, and Kayneth himself invading Einzbern castle in Saber's absence. The venture ends in disaster, with Emiya Kiritsugu outwitting Kayneth and shooting him with magical bullet that wreaks havoc with his magic circuits and nervous system. Lancer saves his Master, but allows Caster to escape in the process. Sola-Ui manages to repair most of the damage done by the bullet, saving Kayneth's life, but he is left with extensive nerve damage and his magic circuits completely burnt out. The latter is especially traumatising to Kayneth, as he is rendered completely unable to perform magic. To add insult to injury, the bedridden Kayneth is forced to hand over his Command Spells to Sola-Ui, under threat of torture.

After the battle to defeat Caster, Kayneth approaches Risei Kotomine to obtain the Command Spells as a reward for aiding in Caster's defeat. Kayneth then shoots Risei to prevent the regulator from giving out any more Command Spells. He then returns to his hideout, only to discover that Sola-Ui was captured during the battle against Caster.

While reprimanding Lancer for his failure, he is interrupted by the arrival of Saber and Irisviel von Einzbern. Watching Lancer and Saber duel from a hidden location, Kayneth is approached by Kiritsugu, who appears with Sola-Ui at gunpoint. He offers a mage's contract, the terms of which are that Kayneth and Sola-Ui would not be harmed by Kiritsugu's hand, in return for Kayneth forcing Lancer to kill himself. After examining the contract to determine its authenticity, and considering the attractive prospect of leaving Japan alive with Sola-Ui, Kayneth agrees. Using his last Command Spell, Lord El-Melloi orders Lancer to commit suicide.

However, Kayneth and Sola-Ui are then set upon by Maiya, who exploits a loophole in the mage's contract (only Kiritsugu promised not to attack) and attacks using a Steyr AUG. Kayneth survives the initial gunfire, and begs that Kiritsugu end his pain, only to have Kiritsugu refuse because of their contract. In the end, it is Saber, disgusted with her Master, who ends Kayneth's life by beheading him.

Servant

Kayneth originally intended to summon the powerful Iskander, but his artifact, the mantle of Alexander, had mistakenly been entrusted to his student Waver Velvet. Waver, who had entered into a dispute with Kayneth, stole the artifact and summoned Rider.

In order to participate in the fourth Holy Grail War, Kayneth summoned Lancer-class servant Diarmuid Ua Duibhne. He rationalised that his superiority as a Master compensated for his comparitively weaker Servant. Through the modification of the Master-Servant system, Kayneth has devised a method to allow two simulataneous connections to Lancer; while he held the command spells for Lancer, the energy to materialize the Servant was provided by Sola-Ui.