Fate Averruncus

"If you try to save everything, you will merely end up losing everything."

- Fate Averruncus (to Negi).

Tertium Averruncus, best known as Fate Averruncus, is a mysterious and extremely powerful child mage, who serves as the central antagonist of the manga, ''Negima! Magister Negi Magi''. He was created by the ominous Mage of the Beginning as the second in command of the secret society Cosmo Entelecheia. During the course of the story, he becomes the foremost rival of the primary protagonist, Negi Springfield.

Fate reappears in the sequel UQ Holder, serving as an anti-hero who is at odds with the titular organization gathering immortals, but still opposes his former master.

Nature
Fate looks like a ten-year-old albino boy with snow-white hair, ice-blue eyes and pale skin, clad in a greyish-blue school uniform, but he is in fact a construct akin to a homunculus, with a magical core instead of a heart and white fluid instead of blood. He was created from scratch by the Mage of the Beginning and never ages, though he can use transformation magic to appear as a young adult. (He sometimes has silvery hair under this aspect.)

Fate is the third unit of the Averruncus series of construct-mages meant to be the Mage of the Beginning’s right-hand-men. Given that he has the memories and experiences of his deceased predecessors, he is as much a continuation of them as another unit.

Personality
"I am quite aware of the morality and the significance of my actions."

- Fate Averruncus

Fate Averruncus appears to be calm, honest, and collected, and scrupulous, but he is in fact distant to the point of being mostly emotionless. Even in the rare moments when he is seen smiling, his eyes still express nothing. As such, he regards things with cold logic and finds difficult to understand those who follow their heart. He has a rather nihilistic view of the world, dismissing the magical beings of the Mundus Magicus as "illusions". He does not hold himself in higher regards, as he calls himself a "mere doll" devised to enact his master's plan.

He seems to value destiny very much (hence the name he chose) and he frequently states that those whom he calls "puppets" (including himself), cannot escape their fate, as opposed to "real people" who ought to live in peace. Fate has no qualms about getting rid of people dangerous (or useless) to him, turning people into stone forever, coercing people or taking hostages (though he does not enjoy it), and he fights without mercy; but he will never kill anyone when he can avoid it. He is indifferent and he acts out of a strong sense of duty rather than malevolence or ambition. He is very devoted to his creator's objective, which he describes as his only reason to exist, and his ultimate motivation is to save the population of the Mundus Magicus from its upcoming collapse.

Fate lacks real emotions but not personality and tastes. He enjoys having a nice cup of coffee (he drinks about seven cups a day), relaxing in peaceful landscapes and more than everything, fighting with the few people able to match his immense power. He also prefers direct confrontation over coercion. He openly disdains incomplete and biased points of view and never hesitates to harshly point the contradiction in someone's reasoning.

Though monomaniacal, ambitious, serious, driven, and quite rash, Fate is very polite and considerate. He respects his opponents and recognizes all qualities to their rightful worth. He is also very generous and philanthropic, having provided orphans with shelter and education, and gentle towards his followers, taking responsibility for their failures and praising their efforts. His love for coffee is linked to his fond memories of the mind-reading girl who helped him in a time of need in his earliest days of life.

If he first resents people who managed to strike him (or to best him in any way), he soon develops an interest in them, hoping that they will grow strong enough to fight on par with him. He states that opposing Negi is the only enjoyment he has left, and in spite of his fierce dedication to his mission, the child prodigy interests him even more than his own goals.

It is stated that Fate is way more human than the two Averruncus units before him. Indeed, given that his personality was not set, he is able to make his mind on his own and he is slowly learning to listen to himself and to develop emotions. After the conflict with Negi is solved, he learns to enjoy himself and sets out to discover the world, demonstrating a strong curiosity for anything he never experienced. However, he has yet to learn how to relax his efforts, pushing himself to the maximum no matter the task, even when others have trouble keeping up with him; and retains his no-nonsense, slightly disdainful disposition, much to his comrades' and students' dismay.

Powers and Abilities
Fate is one of the most powerful characters in the series. Without even needing to train, he was made highly proficient in both Western Magic (chanting spells) and Eastern Magic (using paper talismans). He mostly uses spells chanted in Ancient Greek, more powerful than the common spells in Latin. Having seemingly trained very hard for decades, he has become even mightier in the sequel and can now fight evenly against foes he could not beat in the original.

As the "Averruncus of Earth", Fate masters Rock Magic to the point of perfection. His attack spells conjure up to hundreds spears of stone of variable shape and size, huge stone stalagmites erupting from the ground for both offence and defence, tremendous barrages of Obsidian Stakes, and a wave of enormous Obsidian Stakes in a frontal shot or from above, all at once or one after another. Worse, he can conjure up to thousands of flying Obsidian Blades, which he uses in many different attacks. He can send them all from all sides, make them appear all around his foes, make them spin around him like a buzz saw in a continuous attack, and use them to slash everything way outside their reach, destroying everything in a defined area over hundreds yards within seconds.

Fate can also control Earth without spells: conjuring sand from the ground to form walls or beachcomber waves, hurling rocks, causing ground-shattering tremors, increasing the ground pressure, or creating stone replicas of himself as decoys to avoid attacks. The more Earth Spirits around, the more power he draws from them to increase his might.

Fate’s two signature attack spells generate a cloud of petrifying smoke, and a beam of light which destroys things and petrifies living beings in its wake, (which he can fire from one eye like a Basilisk). Finally, he can trap people into an almost inescapable sphere of rocks, fire huge waves of homing Petrification Darts, and even worse, cast a highly dangerous "Eternal Petrification" spell that can only be cancelled by healing-magic of the highest tier. His most powerful spells are, by order of magnitude, "Stone Snakes", that conjures many Stone Spirits shaped like of tentacle-looking stone pillars that attack as if they were alive; "Stone Pillars of the Underworld", which makes many skyscraper-sized, black stone pillars appear in the sky and plummet towards the ground at very high speed, crushing anything in their path; and last but not least "Tearing Earth" a gigantic and absolutely devastating onslaught of magma conjured from molten earth.

Fate can also use the Water Element to create replicas of himself, serving in battle as decoys, and he masters a very powerful yet seldom used lighting attack that strikes several targets at once. When he performs Eastern Magic, he creates demon-like monsters from paper talismans or calls forth many hand-shaped water spirits.

Moreover, Fate has incredible physical strength and skills in martial arts. (His technique looks like Chinese kempo.) He uses his magical power like Ki to perform teleport-like dashes, and infuse his fists with magical power to strengthen his blows and strike at distance. Also, he is sometimes seen wielding a huge stone sword or two of his Obsidian Blades like sabres with extreme proficiency. He has exceptional perception, being able to notice the faintest changes or presences hundreds of yards away. He can cast barrier-breaking spells on his attacks to make them bypass his foe’s defences. Finally, he is protected from all attacks and magic by a multi-layered, mandala-like barrier of magical pentagrams around him. One must bypass it, or take it down entirely to strike him before it reforms.

Fate almost always uses his magic for battle, but he has also displayed other powers, such as flight, walking on water, teleporting through portals of water, creating large pentagram-like portals to teleport many people or huge objects, warping people away at close range, altering his appearance, cancelling spells, and creating a field of Earth-Magic to capture people, which are described as very high-level magic. Finally, the first Averruncus invented a spell that copy someone with a bewitched bookmark, which he can then use to transform into the one he copied; perfectly imitating them both physically and psychically.

Fate owns several powerful magic artifacts. His most powerful weapon is a staff called the "Code of the Life-Maker" or the "Staff of the Beginning and End", which enables him to warp reality: by vastly magnifying his own attacks, making attacks disappear, sending people into another dimension and summon them back under his control, transforming the scenery around him, and bending no less than time and space. He has access to many models of this staff. He and his highest ranking followers use the most powerful of them, and their demon-like summons use the most basic ones. However, it must be noted that he loses his staff after the Mundus Magicus Arc.

Last but not least, Fate has extensive knowledge of magic, magical history and pretty much any subject. He has heard about anything and anyone that fits into these categories, and can recognize them at first glance. He also proves able to perform any action after a short analysis... and displays amazing singing talents.

Background
"It is a truth that would cause most to sink into despair and curse the gods. Indeed that is all whom I had previously observed reacted."

- Fate Averruncus (about the secret of the Mundus Magicus).

Fate is the third existing Averruncus. He was created twelve years before the start of the series in the Mundus Magicus (Magical World): a world in a different dimensional plane, whose base in the real universe is the planet Mars, populated by mages, magic humanoids and mythological creatures.

Twenty years before the start of the series, Primum (the first) Averruncus, was leading Cosmo Entelecheia for the Mage of the Beginning. Cosmo Entelecheia planned to destroy the Mundus Magicus, following the same motivation as the present day Fate but acting in a much more sinister way. They staged a worldwide conflict known as the Great Mage War and manipulated it to kidnap Asuna, the princess of the kingdom of Vespertatia, to use her magic-cancelling power in a ritual to destroy the entire Mundus Magicus.

However, Ala Rubra (Crimson Wing), a team of extremely powerful mages led by Nagi Springfield, the legendary "Thousand Master", discovered the truth and reached the gloomy palace of Cosmo Entelecheia, where they defeated all the society's generals, including Averruncus himself. Nagi and his Master Filius Zect ultimately managed to defeat the Mage of the Beginning at the cost of Zect's life.

Eventually, the Mage of the Beginning returned through Filius Zect's body and created Secundum, and later Tertium to restart her goal. Tertium followed his older "sibling" all around the Mundus Magicus and assisted him in a battle against Nagi, whom he trapped in a magical field, but to no avail.

At some point, when he was flying around the Mundus Magicus and reflecting about his role, his core started to malfunction due to its unusual configuration and he fell to the ground. He was rescued and taken care of by Luna (who would later become his partner Shiori) and her older sister. He spent three days recovering in their house, where he learnt to enjoy coffee, before departing. When he came to see them again, he found out that the entire village was set ablaze by humans who had maimed Luna's sister.Secundum greeted him and told him what happened before relocating Luna's sister into the actual Cosmo Entelecheia: an edenic alternate reality. As he was about to do the same to Luna, Tertium killed him from behind, refusing to fulfil his duty in such a callously cruel way.

Ten years before the start of the series, Cosmo Entelecheia and Ala Rubra fought again in the city of Istanbul. Nagi defeated the Mage of the Beginning again, but sacrificed himself to seal her away and was reported dead.

Tertium named himself Fate and took command of the remnants of Cosmo Entelecheia, planning to fulfil his duty at last. He walked the Mundus Vetus (the real world), seemingly gaining contacts in the Istanbul Association of Magic, to which he pretends to belong. He also rescued 62 orphans, among whom five humanoid girls who willingly joined him and became his Pactio Partners. (Partners in battle bound to him by a magical contract called the Pactio, which grants them a powerful magical artifact.) These Partners go by the codenames of Shirabe, Shiori, Homura, Koyomi and Tamaki. They harbour a never-ending gratitude towards Fate and are totally devoted to him.

First encounter with Negi
Fate Averruncus first appears during the Kyoto Trip Arc. Negi Springfield (the ten-year-old primary protagonist, mage in training and English teacher of a class of female, middle-school students) goes to Kyoto with his class for a school trip. He also needs to give a letter to the Kansai Association of Magic. In Kyoto, a female Western mage named Chigusa Amagazaki tries to kidnap Konoka Konoe, one of Negi's pupils and close friends, as she is the daughter of the head of the Kansai Association of Magic (a former member of the Ala Rubra). Given this inheritance, Konoka wields an incredible magic potential that Chigusa covets.

Chigusa tries and fails several times to kidnap Konoka, until she recruits Fate, whose name has yet to be revealed. The "newcomer" first has one of his Eastern demon-summons hold Konoka hostage, but Negi thwarts him. He then sneaks into the Association Headquarters, in spite of its powerful magical wards, turns everyone into stone including Konoka's father and easily abducts the young girl, warning Negi that he cannot do anything against him before bringing his captive to Chigusa.

Chigusa uses Konoka's power to unseal the Ryomen Sukuna no Kami: an incredibly powerful Demon-God and gain complete control over it. Negi and his partners fail to prevent the summoning and must battle Fate, who effortlessly overwhelms them without even using half of his power. Hopefully, they are saved by Evangeline Mc Dowell: a dreaded vampire sorceress and Negi's former enemy, whose power surpasses Fate's. Evangeline defeats Fate, forcing him to flee, and seals the demon again, ending the threat for good. But what Fate was really looking for and why did he was hired by Chigusa Amagazaki remain unknown.

Later, a Demon Lord named Count Wilhelm Josef Von Hermann appears in Mahora Academy (the city-like campus where Negi is teaching). He abducts almost every girl in Negi's class who know that he is a mage, and challenges him to a fight. Negi and Kotaro Inugami, a ten-year-old wolf boy and former associate of Chigusa, manage to defeat Hermann.

It is only revealed much later that Hermann was acting on Fate's order, to gather information about Negi, his Pactio Partners, and Asuna's mysterious ability to cancel magic. Before that, Fate went to the then-captive Kotaro and offered to free him if he were to fight Negi, but was turned down, prompting him to seek other means. Kotaro then broke free of his own to warn Negi.

Mundus Magicus Arc
"I cannot find any meaning in erasing them, but at the same time I also have no reason not to."

- Fate Averruncus (about Negi's Party)

Negi, his Pactio partners and friends form a team called Ala Alba (White Wing) and set out to the Mundus Magicus, searching for clues on Nagi Springfield’s whereabouts. Unfortunately, they enter the magical world at the very same moment and place than Fate Averruncus and his generals, who use magic to go undetected.

Negi inexplicably feels Fate's presence, prompting him to "come and say hello", nearly killing Negi with a spear of stone. Konoka, who is learning magic and developed immense healing abilities manages to save Negi's life, but Fate’s group destroys the Gate between the Mundus Magicus and the Mundus Vetus, before dispersing the Ala Alba (as well as several of Negi's normal pupils who followed them) all around the Mundus Magicus.

They then destroy the ten other gateports between the two worlds and frame Negi and the Ala Alba for these crimes, putting high bounties on their heads. As Negi and his friends struggle to earn their living in this new world and try to reunite with the others, Fate has them constantly watched over by one of his followers, the mercenary swordswoman Tsukuyomi.

Meanwhile, Negi, who reunited with many of his friends, becomes the apprentice of Jack Rakan (a former member of Ala Rubra whose power rivals that of Nagi himself), learning to master the "Magia Erebea" a forbidden technique by Evangeline Mc Dowell which considerably increases his power but puts a heavy strain on his body and mind and threatens to turn him into a demon.

The Ala Alba goes to the ruins of Ostia, the capital of the fallen kingdom of Vespertatia, where the last gateport to the Mundus Vetus is located and where a festival is held to celebrate the twenty year anniversary of the end of the Great Mage War. Negi learns that his friend and Pactio Partner Asuna Kagurazaka is in fact Asuna Vesperina Theotanasia Entheofushia: the former Imperial Princess of Twilight of Vespertatia, which explains her magic-cancelling power. The Ala Rubra took her to the Mundus Vetus after Vespertatia's destruction, and erased her memory to give her a peaceful normal life.

Fate later confronts Negi during the festival, organising "peaceful" negotiations around a cup of tea, threatening to attack every passer-by if Negi does not listen to him while his partner confront Negi's, keeping them from interfering. Fate offers to escort Negi and all his friends back to the real world, if Negi promises not to interfere with his plans. He tells Negi that he may be the son of the saviour of the Mundus Magicus, but that does not force him to bear this world's burden. He also confesses that he plans to destroy the Mundus Magicus, cryptically stating that he has a very good reason for doing this. While Negi hesitates, an outraged Asuna hit both boys and berates Negi, stating that he cannot forget what the denizens of the Mundus Magicus have done for them. Negi then discovers that Fate planned to use a powerful magical artifact to compel him to respect his words, should he have promised not to oppose Fate.

Fate laughs creepily, stating that he prefers this frank antagonism over an unsatisfying coerced truce. The two boys then engage a battle, but in spite of his huge progress Negi is still no match for Fate. Meanwhile, Asuna is captured by Fate's partner Shiori, who assumes her appearance and takes her place. Kotaro Inugami and Nodoka Myazaki (one of Negi's Pactio Partners with a mind-reading artifact) interrupt the fight and manage to learn Fate's real name: Tertium (which he intensely dislikes). Fate pursues them as they escape and very nearly cast "Eternal Petrification" on Nodoka when she reads his mind, but he is forced to flee when Negi, Konoka, the Fake Asuna and Jack Rakan barge in.

Negi and his team analyse the information they got about Fate's plan, and Rakan shows them a movie he made, which depicts the fights between Ala Rubra and Cosmo Entelecheia. Meanwhile, Fate and his followers are holding Asuna captive in their old lair, the Gravekeeper’s Palace. Fate agrees to explain his motivations to Asuna, but he first unlocks all the memories of her past, stating that it would be better for her to understand if she remembers everything. Unfortunately, recovering all her memories plunge Asuna into a coma of one week, during which she is taken care of by her fellow captive and Ala Alba member Anya.

Later, Negi and Kotaro are forced to fight against Jack Rakan himself, who states that if they cannot grow strong enough to defeat him, they cannot hope to stand a chance against Fate. They both ultimately manage to end the battle against Rakan in a draw through an important teamwork, in a match broadcasted in the entire Mundus Magicus, which Fate watched with the utmost attention.

Towards the end of the festival, Negi and his team are invited in a ball held by Kurt Godel: the Governor General of New Ostia and former member of Ala Rubra, who wants Negi to join him at any cost. Fate, under the shape of a young man, sneaks into the Governor's palace and prepares to join the ball, but he is found by Jack Rakan who challenges him into a fight. Fate is joined by his four Pactio Partners who attack Rakan, but they are effortlessly dispatched. Fate himself is no match for Rakan is forced to use the Code of the Life-Maker, which he uses to drag Rakan into another dimensional plane and gains the upper-hand.

Meanwhile, the Governor's palace is invaded by Cosmo Entelecheia's armies of shadow creatures as well as a monumental shadowy demon led by Dynamis, one of Fate's Generals. The creatures use lesser copies of the Code of the Life-Maker to make many of the protagonists' friends from the Magical World disappear. Dynamis then personally attacks Nodoka, whom Fate deems too dangerous.

In the ensuing skirmish, Nodoka manages to temporarily gain control of Dynamis' Code of the Life-Maker, gathering information about the divine artifact right from Dynamis' mind. As for Jack Rakan, he manages to escape Fate's dimension but he is ultimately defeated and he disappears right before Negi's eyes. Fate and Dynamis are then confronted by the Ala Alba, but they depart stating that the moment of the final confrontation has yet to come.

The Ala Alba later manages to destroy the monumental shadowy demon, and Nodoka reveals that if they find the original Grand Master Code of the Life-Maker, they will be able to bring back all the people who disappeared.

Invading the Gravekeeper's Palace
Later, the Ala Alba unmasks the fake Asuna, who reveals where the real princess is held captive. While the Ala Alba prepares to invade Cosmo Entelecheia's headquarters, Asuna awakes and attacks Fate, who swats her aside before revealing that the Mundus Magicus was artificially created, and that the magic that sustains it will sooner or later be depleted. When this happens, the Mundus Magicus will collapse and all its non-human (who are in fact products of the magic that sustains the Mundus Magicus) will vanish from existence, while its human population will be cast on the actual planet Mars where no-one can survive. This explains why Fate keeps calling the Mundus Magicus an "illusion".

Fate tells Asuna that he plans to combine her magic-cancelling ability with the power of the Grand Master Code of the Life-Maker to erase the Mundus Magicus and relocate its entire population into the "Cosmo Entelecheia". It is later revealed that Fate’s group destroyed the gateports that link both worlds to gather the magical energy used in them, in order to use it for their plan.

Shortly after, Fate is seen reflecting upon Jack Rakan's words about dismissing destiny and having fun, which seem to have made an impression on him. Tsukuyomi notices it and challenges him into a sparring battle, during which she tells him that he is more human than he believes to be, and that he should stop denying his own feelings. Later, Fate admits that he wants to fight Negi more than everything else, given that fighting is his only way to truly interact with people.

The Ala Alba eventually manages to sneak into the Gravekeeper's Palace. There, they are greeted by (what seems to be) Zazie Rainyday, the least talkative and most mysterious student in Negi's class. Fate and his partners are puzzled by "Zazie's" appearance, as they never saw her before, but Fate's comrade, the Master of the Grave reveals that she brought her here as they are old friends.

"Zazie" (in fact her older sister Poyo Rainyday) traps Negi’s party into a replica of the Cosmo Entelecheia but Negi manages to break free from the spell, driven by his desire to speak to Fate, whom he no longer regards as an enemy. Negi directly addresses Fate, knowing that he is watching them, and tells him about a plan he hatched to prevent the collapse of the Mundus Magicus. Hearing this, Fate (who does not believe it at all) angrily remarks that Negi is disappointing him.

Meanwhile, an infiltration squad led by Kotaro Inugami and his partner Natsumi (whose artifact turns people invisible and unnoticeable) encounters Fate himself. Kotaro attempts to take down the white-haired mage but only to realise that this would automatically fail and put them in danger.

Negi and many of his Pactio Partners then engage an all-out battle against Dynamis, backed up by three of Fate's Pactio Partners. Negi succumbs to the "Magia Erebea" and transforms into a demon, easily defeating the powerful Shadow-Wielder. His allies manage to stop his transformation as he is about to finish Dynamis off, but he faints shortly after. With the only one able to oppose Fate unconscious, the members of Ala Alba engage a stealthy approach to reach and rescue Asuna without fighting Fate, but they need to hurry, as the white-haired boy has begun the ritual to rewrite the Mundus Magicus.

The Final Showdown
Kotaro's infiltration squad, joined by all of Negi's allies able to fight, manages to sneak to the place where the ritual is being held. (Fate almost notices their intrusion and launches a preventive attack without seeing them.) Then Chachamaru, a robot-girl and another one of Negi's partners, uses her artifact (a devastating Laser Satellite) to fire a tremendous blast that bypasses the magical energy protecting the palace.

Fate blocks the attack but cannot prevent Kotaro's squad to storm into the scene. Fate recognises Natsumi's artifact of invisibility and angrily launches a wave of petrifying darts, before being locked in combat against Kotaro's mightiest beast form. Three of Negi's allies are turned to stone but the others manage to steal the Grand Master Code of the Life-Maker and to rescue Asuna. Irked, Fate pierces Kotaro with a huge stone stalagmite, but Chachamaru fires her Satellite at him again and Nodoka relocates the whole group so that they avoid the blast.

Just as Negi's allies think that they are safe, Quartum, the Averruncus of Fire, appears and blows Chachamaru in half. Quintum, the Averruncus of Wind attacks Nodoka with a bolt of lightning, just as she's about to relocate the group again, and retrieves the Grand Master Code of the Life-Maker. Dynamis reveals to Chisame (another one of Negi’s partners) that that Fate, the Third Averruncus, is not their only trump card. Sextum, the (female) Averruncus of Water then appears behind the bewildered Chisame and regenerates Dynamis.

Each group of the Ala Alba is overwhelmed by the Averruncus they fight, who incapacitate several of them. But Negi recovers and helped by the Master of the Grave who restrains Sextum, he defeats the overconfident Quartum with surprising ease. Meanwhile, Fate himself re-enters the fray and stands against Quintum, stating that he would not allow him to harm his prey's comrades. He first gets pummelled by his "sibling" but, reflecting again on Rakan’s words, he manages to take him down and proceeds to complete the plan by his own hands.

Nodoka pleads for Negi's offer of friendship and insists that they could all get along, but while touched by her words, he angrily silences her with a slap. Fortunately, before he can start the ritual, Negi appears to settle their score once and for all. After Fate refuses to negotiate, they engage their long-awaited decisive battle. Now that Negi has assimilated the "Magia Erebea", he has grown powerful enough to fight Fate on equal footing, much to Fate’s delight. Meanwhile, Shirabe manages to bring Asuna back to the altar in spite of Negi's comrades.

Negi and Fate fight evenly until Negi assumes his powered-up lightning form and manages to drive him into a corner, and Fate finally understands what it is to have fun. He praises Negi for having reached his level before asking if he is fully aware of the risks of the "Magia Erebea", which he states to be the exact same as the Mage of the Beginning’s power. At this point of the battle, both realities begin to merge and the Gravekeeper's Palace appears upside down in the sky above Mahora Academy. After a small talk in which Negi tries to work out their differences, Fate tricks him into a handshake to hold him in place and both boys unleash their most powerful spell, resulting in an apocalyptic blast which levels their entire surroundings.

As he is caught in the onslaught of magic, Fate remembers his first months of existence and his meeting with Shiori and her sister. As Fate stands seemingly unscathed in the aftermath of the battle, he is confronted by manifestations of Nagi Springfield and Jack Rakan who appear through Negi's body due to the reflux of the Cosmo Entelecheia and berate him about his choices. (It is later revealed that an awakening Asuna subconsciously used her power to save them from their spells blast, resulting in said reflux.)

Then, Negi offers to have a decisive attack and that the winner would gain his foe's allegiance, but Fate admits defeat and, with his first real smile, agrees to help Negi in his plan to save the Mundus Magicus, under the absolute condition that if he were to make the slightest mistake he would then reactivate Cosmo Entelecheia.

Negi enthusiastically starts speaking about his plan when they are both pierced by a dark beam, exactly as Nagi and Primum were twenty years ago. The ominous figure of the Mage of the Beginning then appears soon followed by all the past members of Cosmo Entelecheia, Dynamis, Quartum, Quintum and Sextum. They label Fate as a traitor to be disposed of and viciously attack the two exhausted children, who are saved at the last second by Evangeline McDowell and the remaining Ala Rubra members. (Including Rakan, who resurrected thanks to Asuna's power.)

After Negi and Asuna manage to destroy the Mage of the Beginning's projection, he is seen watching the victory celebrations from the side-lines.

Aftermath
"There is nothing I can't perform, as long as it is installed."

- Fate Averruncus (speaking of his new job with his usual detached outlook)

As Negi and Asuna are busy working on the alternate plan “Project Blue Mars” (which happens to be terraforming Mars to sustain the Mundus Magicus), they cannot yet return to Mahora, so Fate asks to replace Negi as the English teacher, in order to better understand humanity. There, he is quick to discourage the students who harbour crushes on Negi, stating that Negi has not enough time to deal with it since he has to work (with him) to save the Mundus Magicus. He also states that Negi already belongs with him, creating a double entendre. He is highly strict as a teacher, giving too many tests and extra lessons and striking those who talk in class with chalks, and is as such not liked at all by his students. Once he met with Negi and Kotaro under teenage forms and ended up in a funny misunderstanding with some students getting crushes on them.

Distant Finale
The final chapter of the story mentions a tremendous battle which involved Fate and everyone in Negi's class, during which the Mage of the Beginning's forces besieged Mahora Academy. Negi managed to defeat the frightful archmage once and for all, and was able to free Nagi from her control. However, none of this is seen for real, due to the abrupt ending of the manga (caused by a dispute between the author and the editor), and most of the mysteries surrounding the Life-Maker are left unexplained.

Role in UQ Holder
The story unfolds 75 years after the end of Negima!. It is set in the previous series' second timeline, in which Asuna Kagurazaka was sealed for over a century to power the process to save the Mundus Magicus. However, the original manga truly ended after Asuna travelled back to her era after awakening. This created a third and final timeline that saw the battle mentioned at the end of the previous series, during which the Mage of the Beginning was defeated for good and Nagi was saved.

Negi's project to terraform Mars and sustain the Mundus Magicus was accomplished, and giant towers leading into space are now serving as bridges between the three worlds. Magic was revealed to the world ten years before the start of the story and has begun to spread, with expensive applications enabling non-magic people who can afford it to spell-cast. Evangeline Mc Dowell has become the founding leader of UQ Holder (Eternity Holder): a group of immortals tasked to protect the population from supernatural threats, and took under her wing the primary protagonist, Tōta Konoe, a clone of Negi whom she turned into a vampire to save his life.

Fate Averruncus and his Pactio Partners worked with Ala Alba to terraform Mars, fighting many conflicts and saving many regions. Twenty years before the start of the story, they fought against the Mage of the Beginning herself, who had resurfaced and was about to destroy the entire solar system. Negi killed the archmage, only to fall victim of her power, and disappeared. Fate later had a fallout with UQ Holder, which sets out to kill Negi before he becomes the Life-Maker’s new vessel, according to his wishes, while Fate is determined to save Negi.

In the following decades, Fate became known as the greatest mage of the Solar System. He now appears under his aspect of a young man clad in a white suit, but this is likely an age-up magic like Evangeline is using. He is the immensely wealthy and influential supervisor of the ongoing terraforming project and seems in charge of the International Solar System Development Agency that links the three worlds. He now leads the Ala Alba in Negi's place, but without Negi's soothing influence, he somehow reverted to his ruthless ways, though still a far cry from what he was while leading Cosmo Entelecheia.

First Story Arcs
After Tōta and his closest friend Kuromaru Tokisaka join the ranks of UQ Holder, they are tasked to protect a slum against attackers, and must battle very powerful Immortal Hunters, revealed to work for someone who is watching them through a camera robot. The man calls their leader mid-fight and orders them to capture Tōta in exchange for a huge reward. After the hunters' defeat, their mysterious boss is seen reflecting on the situation. He is revealed to be Fate himself, but his name has yet to be uttered. He ominously states that he shall soon enter the fray.

Later, Kirie Sakurame, a member of UQ Holder with the power to reset time from a defined "Save Point" whenever she gets killed reveals that in a few hours, Fate will take the matter in hand and effortlessly wreck their team to abduct Tōta. She committed suicide second before falling victim to his Eternal Petrification spell and came back to warn them. She devises a plan to capture Fate before he can make his move. However, they cannot enact it because Tōta's childhood friends happen to be near him.

Fate takes Tōta's friends hostages and threatens to turn them to stone and kill everyone around if Tōta does not follow him, while his subordinates of the Ala Alba deal with the other immortals. Tōta stands no chance against Fate, who petrifies Kirie and comes close to petrify him, but Kirie fortunately used a delayed anti-petrification magic beforehand and sends Fate and all her comrades back into time, to UQ Holder's headquarters.

There, Fate meets Evangeline and engages a fight despite her reluctance, but neither can gain a real advantage over the other. Just as he surrounds her with Obsidian Blades, she surrounds him with Ice Spears. Noting that an all-out battle would be pointless, she convinces him to leave for now. Acknowledging the worth of Tōta's team, Fate agrees to truthfully answer one question for each one of them before departing. Fate admits that Tōta is orphan because of him, but refuses to explain more, prompting the young vampire to swear to defeat him. Fate welcomes the prospect and tells him that he will be waiting for him atop the Space Tower before flying away.

Training Tōta
Tōta registers for the Mahora Tournament sets to take place soon, and learns that someone filled a registration under Negi's name. Having heard of this, Fate barges in shortly before Evangeline identifies Negi’s signature. Evangeline reading the form triggers a spell that casts a projection of some sort of Negi and Nagi, whom they find trapped in the Mage of the Beginning's grasp. Upon seeing this, Evangeline and Fate resolve to take part in the tournament and forbid Tōta from entering. After Tōta is attacked and nearly killed by Cutlass, a strange girl who calls him "brother", Evangeline’s own master, the Vampire Queen Dana Ananga Jagannatha takes Tōta and his friends to her castle outside the time-and-space continuum, in order to train them. As Negi’s clone, Tōta wields both the Life-Maker's powers of the "White of Mars" and the "Black of Venus" (source of the "Magia Erebea") powers, and Dana teaches him to combine them.

A few months later, Evangeline takes Tōta to Amano-Mihashira Academy City, the former Mahora Academy, to meet Negi’s surviving students: The now elderly Ayaka Yukihiro, Chachamaru, the ghost girl Sayo Aisaka, the half-demon sniper Mana Tastsumiya (still a teenager and now Dean of Mahora), and Zazie Rainyday. They explain the situation with Negi and the Mage of the Beginning, but two of Fate’s students, Isana and Honoka Konoe (a swordfighter girl and an Eastern-mage girl, descendants of Konoka and her partner Setsuna Sakurazaki) barge in.

They subdue Tōta and bring him to Fate (who did not order this). Fate reveals that he can use Tōta’s power to save Negi, and that Tōta will one day ally with him on his own free will, but Evangeline, Mana and Zazie drive him away. Tōta then resolves to save Negi without having to choose between UQ Holder and Ala Alba.

Negi Reappears
Fate is next seen when Negi and his comrades from both the Ala Rubra and the Ala Alba reappear, all under his former master's direct or indirect control, set on taking Tōta with them, dead or alive. Fate joins UQ Holder in the fight against them, and attacks Rakan, who commands him for reaching his level.