Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End vol. 9

There’s a city of gold up in the northern regions that has lured many an adventurer seeking their fortune.  The Continental Magic Association, however, has sealed this city behind a magical barrier not just to keep adventurers out, but to keep something sealed in.  That would be Macht, who is not just one of the Seven Sages of Destruction that once served the Demon King, but one of eleven mages to have beaten Frieren in combat.  600 years later, the title character isn’t looking for a rematch, but she finds herself drawn back to Macht after the Association requests her assistance.  She won’t be alone in this, however, as newly-minted First-Class Mage Denken will also be working alongside her, Fern, and Stark, as he has his own reasons to see the mage dealt with.

Vol. 9 opens with three one-off stories that continue to illustrate the gulf in quality between “Frieren’s” short-form and long-form storytelling.  Where those stories serve up more bog-standard sentiments about how the passage of time makes every little thing feel so consequential, what we see of this latest arc sets up a formidable and complex foe.  We get to find out some interesting things about the nature of the spell that Macht has cast, and a surprisingly decent bit of combat between him and First-Class Mage Lerned and hypnosis magic specialist Edel.  What’s how we learn Macht has actually been “collared” by humans a while back and should have been prevented from turning them all to gold.

We learn a little bit about the reasons why he was able to do that, and what led him to be put under the humans’ control in the first place.  While Frieren herself maintains her “All Demons Are Liars” stance, there’s a decent amount of evidence here to suggest that Macht may be on the level here.  In fact, he may be the one demon who actually has what they could call affection for humanity, even if he’s going about expressing it in a very warped fashion.  Seeing this fleshed out in the volume(s) to come, as well as the inevitable(?) battle against him are ideas that come off promisingly here.  Which indicates that we’re likely in for another good time with this latest extended story in “Frieren.”