Characters / Frieren: Beyond Journey's End - Demons

Frieren: Beyond Journey's End Main Character Index
Frieren and Her Companions | Demons | Mages | The Empire

Demons

General

"You demons are savage monsters with no understanding of communication."

—Frieren

Articulate monsters, who have been at war with every other race in the world. Demons are dangerous creatures who spend their lives honing one singular magic spell they created, making them dangerous and capable mages.

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• Achilles' Heel: Since their society is The Magocracy, demons don't bother to hide their mana level. They in turn expect their enemies to not hide theirs, either. In a battle between mages, underestimating your opponent's mana can prove fatal, and while demons are not easy to fool, it is possible.
• Always Chaotic Evil: Reconstructed; demons are defined as articulate monsters by the Great Mage Flamme, and their mindset shows they are outright alien compared to any other sentient being. They are incompatible with other races. Their very ability to speak the language of other races is stated by demons themselves to merely be a tool of manipulation. They don't genuinely need to kill and eat humans, they gain no nourishment from it that they couldn't get from eating non-sapients, and they have no particularly strong feelings towards other sapient races, positive or negative. They simply slaughter them because that's what they evolved to do as predators specialized in killing humans - and do so without compassion nor intentional cruelty. Even the few who do want to understand human emotion, like the Demon King and Macht, cannot do so without experimenting and sacrificing massive amounts of human life, as they simply cannot conceive of any way to interact with humans that doesn't involve killing at least some of them.
• Berserk Button: Claiming you understand their magic and can counter it is one way to make a demon “angry”, to say the least. Demons will prioritize killing anyone who makes that claim, especially if they prove it like Frieren proving she can undo Macht’s curse.
• Blessed with Suck: They possess magic gifts of incredible nature, but lack humanity's inquisitive nature and resourcefulness. As such, they develop their magic techniques with a narrow aim that they think covers every possibility without considering alternatives or even pitfalls.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality:
  • Demons simply can't understand some human emotions like guilt or empathy.
    • A demon Frieren reminisces about thought humans would forgive her and let her go if she gave the woman whose daughter she killed the village chief’s daughter (whom she took after killing him and setting his house on fire), not understanding you can’t replace human life with another and hope that excuses your current actions. She quickly realizes this wasn’t going to work from the crowd’s reaction though.
    • At one point, Macht tried to understand human beings by having two children fight to the death and observing the results to see if he'll pity them. This is in fact a trait Frieren recognizes in demons who wish to understand human emotions in order to coexist with them, as the Demon King was the same as him and made many humans fight each other in order to understand human emotion. But the realization that coexisting with other sapient beings and killing them are mutually exclusive is somehow as difficult for them as squaring the circle.
  • Demons are consummate liars who regard deceit as a perfectly acceptable tactic. However, the idea of someone hiding their mana output to deceive their opponent is completely incomprehensible to them, because their entire social hierarchy is based on the strength of one's mana.
• Captain Oblivious: Demons are under the impression that mages that oppose them will follow combat by the rules that demons follow as The Magocracy, so they can't fathom why someone wouldn't. Granted, being stomped like cockroaches as a result is not something they could ever account for.
• Chest Monster: Overlapping with Luring in Prey and Mimic Species, demons are a variation of the trope. Frieren states that demons are descendants of beasts that lured adventurers into the dark by imitating human speech in order to devour them.
• Consummate Liar: Demons are by their very nature liars and will only talk to humans when they can manipulate them into dropping their guard or sparing them. Aura, for example, feigned a peace mission to destroy Graf Granat's domain, and a young demon girl would cry for her mother whenever cornered in an attempt to gather pity from humans that would kill her otherwise.
  Linie: Lord Lügner, what is a father?
  Lügner: Who knows?
  Lügner: There's only one reason why man-eating predators would speak human language.
  Frieren: They speak not to understand but... to deceive.
• Crippling Overspecialization: To the point that they're not aware that it's crippling for them. Demons specialize in a single type of magic until they run it to the ground, but they narrow their focus so much that they don't consider tangents of their spells. For instance, when Lügner is hit by Zoltraak as cast by Fern, he can barely recognize it even though it's a spell of demonic origin. He even points out to Fern that Zoltraak is basically archaic to demons.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Demons simply cannot understand humans and the other spoken races. Things like "love" and "empathy" and even "hatred" are completely alien concepts to them. It turns out that a few demons have been trying to learn to understand humanity, but they are so far away from understanding that their primary method of learning is to slaughter humans and try to witness their victims' emotions to learn. And it turns out the Demon King that Frieren's party slew was one such demon. It is stated that he probably could have learned to understand human feelings given enough time, but his experiments would drive humanity extinct long before that day arrived, so he had to die.
• Evolution Power-Up: It's explained that demons are derived from monsters that lured their prey by mimicking their language. They're considerably more powerful now and humanoid to boot, but they're still those tricky, deceitful and ravenous beasts of old.
• Fantastic Racism: Played with and subverted. At first, Frieren's attitude towards the "peace-seeking" demons is shown as somewhat callous and prejudiced. However, it's later shown that, in spite of their appearances and condescending words, they are indeed every bit the human-preying beasts Frieren deems them to be.
• Flight: Demons are masters of flight magic. To them, it is not a technique they had to learn, it's as natural as walking. As Frieren mentions in Chapter 30, mankind has only learned flight magic around eleven years before Himmel's death, and they still don't understand the mystery behind this as they merely imitate the techniques they observed from demons.
• Foil: To Frieren and the elven species as a whole. Elves like Frieren are usually accused of being heartless and without feelings thanks to their lukewarm reaction to the deaths around them. But as Frieren proves when Himmel passes, they do have emotion but it’s just extremely muted thanks to their unimaginably long lifespans that also gives them a different outlook on life. Demons, meanwhile, truly are heartless and without feeling while also being implied to have lifespans second only to elves.
• Horned Humanoid: Demons all have horns, though every one of them seems to be different, some being smoother, others being more ragged. The humanoid part also varies as some demons look nothing like humans while some, like Aura, can pass off as human.
• Hypocrite: They are Consummate Liars who can and will kill hundreds without batting an eye, yet they find it highly offensive when they're lied to.
• Karma Houdini Warranty: A number of demons that escaped Himmel's battle against the Great Demon King get their comeuppance decades later when they make the mistake of crossing Frieren.
• I Surrender, Suckers: They only beg for mercy as a way to get people to drop their guard and it works with people who don't have prior experience with demons.
• Lack of Empathy: They are incapable of feeling empathy, but know it well enough to exploit others with it through deceit. Their understanding only goes so far though, as they know that this exploitation works, but they're not really sure why it works.
• Long-Lived: Demons are races who can live for at least hundreds of years. Aura is over 500 years old, and Qual perceived the 80 years of his prison as a short time.
• Magic Knight: Demons can be divided into two categories mostly. While many of them are classic mages, warriors train in martial arts and focus on Magic Enhancement to strengthen their physical capabilities. The most powerful demon warriors are called "generals", and the most powerful generals were said to be even stronger than Eisen.
• The Magocracy: Demon society is organized by power and all demons can use magic, so this results in this. All demons try to impose their superiority over each other by showcasing their level of mana, and that's how they obtain power in that society, with the rulers of demon society being powerful sorcerers like Aura. Flamme utilizes this to her advantage by predicting that, since demons wouldn't know why anyone would hide their mana levels, they rarely consider the possibility and are easily fooled by those who do.
• Master of One Magic: Demons devote the majority of their lives to one spell that they specialize in and master it. They narrow it so much that they don't realize that their spells can be molded, modified, and even bypassed by mages with enough acumen.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Subverted. It is noted that among powerful demons, the ones that lack any sort of infamous title or name are the most terrifying, since demons live for centuries and are constantly hunting humans. Any that can avoid gaining a title or infamy among human civilization have done so by killing every single human they have ever encountered, meaning they are much more dangerous to fight than most well-known demons. Solitär is an example of one such demon, who is not only non-descript enough to be not widely known, but is also strong enough to beat Frieren to a stalemate and would have defeated her if Frieren hadn't freed Fern from Macht's curse in time, who could then snipe Solitär outside of her mana detection range.
• Nature Versus Nurture: All nature, no nurture. Even demons brought up by humans will bite the hand that feeds.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Overlapping with Hoist by His Own Petard. Most of the resources humanity has obtained to combat and defeat demons comes from the magic of demons themselves.
• No Body Left Behind: Demons who die will simply have their body undone and return to the mana.
• Opportunistic Bastard: The deaths of half the Hero Party who defeated the Great Demon King has emboldened many of them to begin acting in earnest again.
• Our Demons Are Different: Unlike most demons or Always Chaotic Evil races in the fantasy genre, they are not defined by Ax-Crazy insanity but more of sociopathy as a mental disorder as a racial trait. They also evolved from seemingly natural (or at least as natural as other monsters) predatory creatures rather than being hellspawn, meaning that their humanoid form, use of human language, and higher thinking are better hunting methods. Solitär outright describes the humanoid aspects of demons as simply being a case of convergence, but one motivated by being a predator of humans rather than actually emulating humans, and as such she regards it as impossible for any demon to ever grasp the emotions humans have that demons lack. After all, if they could feel empathy toward fellow sapients, it would interfere with killing and eating them.
• Parental Abandonment: Demon children are abandoned in the wilds to raise themselves and have no understanding of what a "mother" or "father" actually is.
• Pragmatic Villainy: Their same Lack of Empathy means they completely lack in true sadism or malice; a demon who wants something will just take it, and won't draw out the end unless they need to manipulate people to get it.
• Pride: Perhaps their greatest shortcoming. They consider their practice of magic so perfectly honed that they never consider that their spells can be used against them, and that they can be surpassed and utterly defeated by them. Further, since they evolved as predators of humans, Solitär remarks that they find it very difficult to conceive of the fact that in modern times they are just as much the hunted as the hunters, and thus are prone to not seeing humans as a threat to their lives. Long-lived demons tend to be the few more cautious individuals that at least try to mitigate their pride for the sake of their own survival and have learned that humans are worthy of being cautious with.
• Puny Earthlings: Demons usually look down on humans and only view them as prey. Demons mock human empathy and think they are weak, which is one reason why they constantly underestimate mankind.
• Really 700 Years Old: Coming hand in hand with the fact that they are a Long-Lived race, most demons look very young despite living for centuries. Aura for instance is over 500 years old, which is a respectable age for a demon, yet she looks as if she were in her 20s.
• Sapient Eat Sapient: Demons are humanoid creatures who eat humans. They have no Carnivore Confusion whatsoever; humans are for them prey to eat as an instinctive compulsion.
• Selective Obliviousness: Presenting their mana is inherently tied to their identity, so they cannot fathom why anyone would think of hiding it, and they find the very notion offensive and disrespectful. Flamme and then Frieren dedicate their lives to hide their mana pools precisely to prevent demons from realizing that they're biting more than they can chew by fighting them.
• Skewed Priorities: They find it highly offensive that mages like Frieren and Fern would even conceal their own real mana value since their ranks and identities are defined by displaying it in the open, but have no qualms massacring entire villages, killing hundreds and lying to people whenever given the chance to.
• The Sociopath: They fit this definition pretty much perfectly. They don't share human emotions and attachments but are perfectly willing to pretend they do in order to trick people into letting them in close where they can wreak more havoc. One child demon is shown to have learned to cry for her mother to avoid being killed on the spot by humans. However, even they seem to find fitting this trope strange. She outright mentions she doesn't know why the trick works, just that it does, seeing "mother" as a "wonderful, magical word." Some demons fake their understanding to the point of appearing quite charismatic. The trope becomes zigzagged with Macht, who attempts to understand humans, but has a lot of trouble even grasping base concepts and it doesn't stop him from killing thousands and transmuting an entire city he once served into gold without batting an eye.
• Sorting Algorithm of Evil: Averted. Frieren, Himmel, Heiter, and Eisen aimed to stop the Great Demon King, and succeeded, but they apparently didn't have to take out all his lieutenants to get to him. Some have survived into the present day, but who Frieren and her new companions battle is largely due to chance.
• The Spartan Way: Demons have no concept of family and do not raise their children. Instead, they are left in the wilds to fend for themselves until they are strong enough to earn a position in demon society. This ensures that even the lowest-ranked demon has spent years learning to fight and deceive humans and other monsters.
• Would Hurt a Child: Since they have no ability to feel or even understand mercy, demons will kill children without pause, they also know for some odd reason human warriors will often sacrifice their lives to save children and exploit that by threatening and killing children. Demon children meanwhile, are just as capable and willing to kill as adult demons and the only real choice humans have is to kill them when encountered, because they will always eventually kill and eat humans.

Leadership

The Great Demon King

The leader of the demons who united them starting around a thousand years ago, before being defeated by the Hero Party shortly before the start of the main series.

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• Alas, Poor Villain: Frieren goes so far as to say that one of the reasons he had to die was because, just like Macht, his attempts at understanding humans involved killing them and having them kill one another, and the human race would go extinct before he would understand that coexisting with humans involves not killing them.
• The Faceless: There has been zero description or imagery of him in the manga so far.
• Gone Horribly Wrong: As mentioned, he wished for demons to coexist with humanity. He didn't count on their Blue-and-Orange Morality leading into centuries-long wars and countless massacres.
• Magnetic Hero: Villanous example. Given demonkind's extreme independence from each other, he somehow managed to inspire and lead a cadre of fanatically loyal followers, such as Schlacht and Qual. Even a more reclusive demon like Solitär holds great respect for him.
• Maou the Demon King: His job title, duh.
• Posthumous Character: Is dead at the start of the story, but his life and actions have a massive influence on the rest of the story.
• Red Baron: He's not just any run-of-the-mill demon king—he's The Great Demon King.
• The Unchosen One: Like Himmel, he was likewise not the great menace of prophecy, but he carved out such an infamous reputation that it overshadowed his very name amongst demonkind and those outside of it.

Schlacht

Schlacht the Omniscient

Debut: Chapter 63

The Demon King's confidant. He was capable of using powerful magic that allowed him to see long into the future. He is said to have died in a battle against the Hero of the South.

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• The Chessmaster: Due to his ability to see the future, Schlacht has planned decades ahead to ensure the survival of demonkind. As is revealed in the Golden Land arc, he made sure Frieren would not be able to see the Hero of the South's last stand against all Sages of Destruction by erasing Macht's memory of it, as he knew Frieren would eventually see Macht's memories.
• Evil Counterpart: To the Hero of the South. Both possessed the power to see the future and used their knowledge to fight for the survival of their people.
• Face Death with Dignity: He faced the Hero of the South fully expecting to die. He was content with this, as the fight seemingly had a part in a contingency plan to ensure the long-term survival of the demon race should the Demon King be killed. Whatever said plan is, Frieren and the audience are not privy to.
• Fling a Light into the Future: Gives one to Frieren via Macht's stolen memories in Chapter 89. He states that somehow the battle between him and the Seven Sages of Destruction against the Hero of the South will play a part in the survival of the demon race, and therefore can't allow her to see, so he has Macht's memories of the encounter erased.
• Meaningful Name: Schlacht is the German word for "battle" or "slaughter".
• The Omniscient: As his title suggests, he is stated to be able to see up to a thousand years into the future, and even left a message for Frieren that she wouldn't see until a near century later when she'd read through Macht's memories.
• Posthumous Character: Schlacht is dead in the present. He was killed in battle by the Hero of the South.
• Seers: Schlacht possessed the power to see the future. This is why he both gave off a confident and melancholic aura, as he knew he was fated to die.

Seven Sages of Destruction

Aura

Aura the Guillotine

Debut: Chapter 14

Voiced by: Ayana Taketatsu (Japanese), Corey Pettit (English)

A powerful demon mage and one of the Seven Sages of Destruction for the last 500 years. While she has tremendous magical power, she's best known for a magical artifact called the Scales of Obedience, which forces those weaker than her to follow her commands. However, it comes with a heavy drawback — if a mage manages to have a higher mana value than Aura, then they take control of her instead.

After the Demon King was defeated, Aura disappeared without a trace but showed up in the northern regions again after Himmel's death. She has been in a bitter war with the humans there since then. Seemingly tired of war, she sends three of her executioners as messengers to sue for peace by the time Frieren's party arrives in Graf Granat's domain.

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• Arc Villain: She's the main villain of the Graf Granat's Domain arc, which concludes with her defeat.
• Charm Person: If Aura possesses more mana than her enemy, she can control their body forever with the Scales of Obedience. However, the mind control can be broken by someone with a Heroic Spirit. Aura foregoes this problem by simply beheading the people she controls. There's a small drawback in that doing this takes some time, so it's not like she could slaughter thousands and raise thousands back in an instant, and she had to accumulate her undead army for decades, if not centuries.
• Dangerous Forbidden Technique: Aura puts her own life on the line when she uses the Scales of Obedience, with which she weighs her and her target's souls, and the soul with more mana can permanently take control of the loser's body. It's so powerful the Hero Party had to knock the Scales away from her hands when they fought as fast as possible to survive 80 years ago, but the caveat is a mage stronger than her can take control of her and force her to kill herself instead, something that Frieren took advantage of in the present day.
• Didn't See That Coming: Like all demons, she cannot comprehend the fact that an extremely powerful mage exists who would limit their mana their entire life just to deceive demons. This leads to Aura becoming the victim of her own spell, giving Frieren free reign over Aura's body.
• Entertainingly Wrong: She made safe but entirely wrong assumptions regarding the nature and extent of Frieren's powers. She didn't, and couldn't, account for the fact that Frieren is inordinately more powerful that she could ever fathom.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: In Chapter 18, Frieren eliminates Aura's puppets by releasing mana to dispel Aura's control over them. Aura finds this astounding, as Frieren used to blow up her puppets in the past, and using complex dispelling magic must be taxing on her mana. Frieren notes that Himmel got very angry at her afterward, which surprises Aura even more, since now that Himmel is dead, Frieren shouldn't care about how he would react anymore.
• Fatal Flaw: Carelessness. She's used to being the biggest fish in her pond, and thus doesn't really consider that her opponents might severely outclass her. She refuses to believe Frieren is suppressing her mana, even when Frieren flat-out tells her. Her behavior is best contrasted with her minion Lügner. Lügner is analytical, careful, perceptive, and used to having to gauge his opponents' abilities relative to his own. He too gets overwhelmed by an opponent he misjudges, but he works out on his own what his errors were and realizes fairly early that something is off—like what Fern considers to be "ordinary offensive magic" being specifically tuned to hurt demons. Aura, meanwhile, can't realize Frieren is basically goading her to use the scales, and does just that rather than try to overwhelm her with minions.
• Hoist by Her Own Petard: Aura has a magical artifact called the Scales of Obedience, which allows her to make anyone submit to her will as long as her mana level is bigger than the other. This is turned against her when she uses it on Frieren, who has much more mana than her and just hides it, putting Aura under her control and simply telling her to execute herself.
• Hypocrite: The fact that she has to decapitate her victims in order to fully manipulate their bodies without risk is a clear indication that her magic technique, while powerful, is flawed to begin with. As such, her overconfidence stands on thinner ice than she cares to admit. Frieren is able to exploit this because, first, Aura thinks that her mana pool completely compensates for this, and second, Aura enacted no failsafes as a result.
• Karmic Death: She dies when she goes under Frieren's control using the Scales of Obedience, an artifact she used to control the mind and kill multiple other people. Adding insult to injury, when Frieren uses this to tell her to kill herself, Aura decapitates herself with her sword, a technique she used to kill all the bodies that compose her army.
• Meaningful Name: In Latin "aura" means "air" or "soul". This can be related to her use of soul-related magic.
• Navel Window: She wears a bodice with a cutout at her navel.
• Non-Action Girl: Aura's close combat capabilities are close to zero, if not nonexistent. She mostly relies on her controlled (beheaded) corpses and demon minions to fight. When she's about to behead Frieren, thinking she's won, she wielded a sword awkwardly and amateurishly.
• Not Worth Killing: Aura is a ruthless demon warlord who uses her admittedly impressive magical knowledge to subjugate a human's very soul to her will. In the end though, when she's in turn subjugated to Frieren's will, Frieren doesn't even bother ending her life herself, merely dispassionately ordering her to kill herself and walking away. And she does.
• Necromancer: She rules over an army of undead bodies, all of which came from previous battles against humans. Note that she cannot actually raise the dead; the Scales of Obedience forces her victims to obey her even in death, which is why she promptly kills them after enslaving them.
• Psychic-Assisted Suicide: When Frieren gets control over her using the Scales of Obedience, she immediately orders Aura to kill herself, causing Aura to tearfully cut her own head off.
• Psycho Pink: She's an evil demon with pink hair.
• Properly Paranoid:
  • There is a point to Aura's habit of decapitating her victims, as she's aware that the Scales can be briefly overcome by strong willpower. As such, she beheads them after the Scales take effect and before they have the chance to overcome it. Her downfall comes from her confidence that her enormous mana pool can let her overwhelm any opponent; Frieren turns the tables on her quite handily with her own massive mana pool.
  • She attacks Frieren with her puppets first to estimate how much could she have improved in 80 years and to also exhaust her. She only goes with the Scales of Obedience when she's confident enough that Frieren didn't get more powerful since last time they've met. Wouldn't be a bad plan if Frieren wasn't Willfully Weak both then and now.
• Red Baron: Aura is widely known as "the Guillotine" due to her habit of beheading her enemies. Fittingly, her officers are called "executioners."
• Smug Super: Aura is utterly confident and believes herself to be overwhelmingly superior thanks to the Scales of Obedience, as it forces anyone with less mana to obey her, and she has increased her massive mana pool for over 500 years. She initially planned to wear Frieren out with her undead army, but in her arrogance measures Frieren's mana and concludes that Frieren, who has only gained fame 80 years ago, didn't get much stronger and must be either talented in other areas or slacked off. She's utterly wrong. Underestimating Frieren ends up being her downfall.
• Underestimating Badassery: She underestimated Frieren as a below average mage based on her mana output alone, even after she helped defeat the Demon King. She pays for it with her life when Frieren reveals her real power level.
• Undignified Death: Unlike other demons, she doesn’t die in some spectacular fight or even in a flashy way, she’s instead forced to kill herself while crying pathetically, unable to process the fact she was bested.
• Villainous Breakdown: Aura did not expect Frieren to smoothly limit her mana to such a degree, which led to her making wrong assumptions about Frieren's power. When Aura learns that Frieren has lived and worked on her magic for over a millennium, she sees the power difference between them and realizes that she just sealed her own doom with the Scales of Obedience. Right before she beheads herself, she breaks down crying, deep in denial that she lost.

Macht (Unmarked Spoilers)

Macht of the Golden Land

Debut: Chapter 84

"We demons lack some feelings that are natural to humans. What are they? I became interested in humans for the first time in my life. I desired to learn more about them. I wanted to understand others. I know what that feeling was too. What I felt was affection. I started to like humans."

The strongest of the Seven Sages of Destruction. Macht can transmute anything in his range into gold through his spell, Diagoldze. After one of his many victims realized he had no comprehension of their feelings and called him pitiful for it, he started to wish for coexistence with humans and began to "experiment" with them to learn, finding trouble grasping even basic human concepts and continuing to not hesitate to cause mass death and destruction regardless.

Left alive after the death of the Demon King, Macht eventually came to Weise to study humans and find a way to coexist with them. Fifty years before Frieren reached Weise, Macht turned the entire city and its people into gold and was then sealed by a massive barrier in it, though his magic slowly creeps outwards to this day.

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• Affably Evil: Macht is rather accommodating and polite towards Denken, who he used to mentor and serve, and he is happy to engage in conversation and serve tea when Denken comes to visit with Frieren. He learned how to speak politely while serving Lord Glück. Yet, Denken ever acknowledges that it would not be surprising at all if Macht decided to kill him or turn him to gold on a whim.
• Alas, Poor Villain: While Macht acts like a sociopathic, mentally disturbed criminal and has killed countless people and even made children fight each other to the death just to see what happens, none of the few who got to know him doubts the sincerity of his desire to learn how to coexist with humans, including Frieren. His death scene is notably sombre, with him sitting next to Glück, lamenting that he never did learn about guilt or malice even in the end. Even when Denken catches up to him and he claims to have taken Glück hostage, he doesn't try to stop his hostage from walking away so Denken can put the mortally injured demon down. Given that demons are born incapable of empathy or remorse, this can be seen as a villain who tried to rise beyond the Always Chaotic Evil nature of his race but failed, and had to be killed because, despite his best attempts, he was too dangerous to let live.
• Blood Knight: To an unclear extent. When Macht realized Serie was an opponent he could not easily defeat, he complimented her by stating she is different from daredevils who fought him before. When fighting his student Denken to a standstill without Diagoldze, he notes he is actually enjoying combat and has to remind himself of his objective as he prepares Diagoldze. He also smiles when he realizes Denken has Mistilziela ready to counter it. In one much earlier encounter with a soldier who believed there must be conditions for his magic to work, Macht explained that the real reason he didn't always use his gold transmutation is because if he simply ends a fight immediately, then it is boring and can't even be called a battle.
• Captured Super-Entity: After Macht transmuted the Fortified City of Weise and its people into gold, the Continental Magic Association trapped him inside a barrier. Serie could have finished Macht off right then and there, but after Lernen's pleas decided against it, since if Macht dies, his curse would likely be irreversible.
• Crippling Overspecialization: Downplayed. Diagoldze is so ridiculously powerful that Macht doesn't need anything else to fight most people, but against the few who can counter or neutralize it, his combat efficiency and lethality noticeably drop. When fighting Denken, a first-class but aged human mage, Macht initially has the upper hand because the counter spell Mistilziela needed to repel Diagoldze consumes so much mana (for human mage standards), and Denken is ultimately forced to retreat once Macht unleashes it to turn the landscape into gold. However, once Frieren figures out how to dispel the gold curse and casts a spell to make Denken immune to it, Macht is forced to rely on Improvised Weapons made out of gold and relatively basic human spells such as an unmodified Zoltraak and barriers, and it is shown Denken can more or less match him blow for blow. After Macht starts going all out with a Flechette Storm, he does manage to overwhelm Denken, but despite this Denken still notes Macht does not outclass his former student to the point there is absolutely no chance of victory, and Denken ultimately defeats Macht with a killing blow while the demon is distracted by Frieren dispelling Diagoldze on the entire region (though Denken calls it a tie, as Macht also delivered a injury that would have killed Denken had he not gotten help from healers, and only survived that long because Macht opted to try to flee instead of finishing the helpless Denken off).
• The Dragon: Denken reveals Macht used to serve the lord of the city of Weise for two whole decades before one day he transmuted it into gold. His memories later reveal this includes doing various types of work, including assassination, swaying nobles, attending parties and the like.
• The Dreaded: Macht is the most powerful of the Seven Sages, and one of the most powerful demons still alive since the Demon King died and his right-hand man went missing. Frieren is uncomfortable with the idea of meeting him again and tries to back out of it, noting he is one of only 11 beings that ever defeated her. Even after meeting him a second time, she still feels defeating him as she is would not be possible (though she has plans that change this, enabling Denken to face him while she faces the equally powerful Solitär).
• Early-Bird Cameo: Macht is seen in a panel in Chapter 63 when Frieren tells her friends about the Hero of the South's last stand against all Seven Sages of Destruction and Schlacht. However, his first proper appearance is in Chapter 84.
• Even Evil Can Be Loved: Glück was genuinely fond of the demon, calling Macht his partner in crime. Glück even apologized to the dying Macht for not holding up his side of the deal to stay together, even following him to hell if need be, until Macht found the understanding of human emotions that he sought after.
• Evil Mentor: Evil is relative, as Macht does not even understand the concept of evil. Denken reveals Macht used to be his master. Unusually for a demon, Macht knows several magical spells used by humans (taught by Solitär), likely something he learned in his effort to understand human emotions. However, him forming connections is all to later find out if he would feel guilty after tearing these relationships he built apart.
• Exact Words: The magic of the bracelet he wears ensures he will die if he ever feels malice towards another human being. This never activates because demons don’t understand human emotions and don’t know what malice is. Glück and Macht both have a good laugh at this, both knowing how pointless these magically binding rules are on the demon.
• Flechette Storm: Macht usually fights simply with Improvised Weapons by turning objects into gold, and just uses Diagoldze to instantly finish off enemies when he feels like it. But when he needs to bring his all against an enemy Diagoldze is ineffective on, he shatters the ground and turns the shrapnels into gold, turning them into a small tornado of sharp and indestructible golden projectiles which he can use both for offense and defense. Fighting like this, he manages to beat Denken down to the point the mage notes even pulling off a draw is now impossible, if not for Frieren's assistance.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Macht once taught Denken to only use his trump card when he's ascertained the possibility of victory. When they finally duel years later, Denken unleashes his strongest, most condensed Zoltraak when Macht is too busy gawping at his curse's dissolution to properly defend against a spell of that potency. Denken himself quotes Macht's own advice back at him to underscore the point.
• Immune to Mind Control: Downplayed as the "immunity" is more due to how his mind interprets commands rather than the commands not working. After a few years of service to the city of Weise, Macht was given a bracelet which can control the mind of a demon. He was given two specific commands — to not bear malice to the people of Weise and to serve their interests. Due to Blue-and-Orange Morality however, neither command particularly affects Macht (he does not comprehend malice, and "service" is a very broad concept to a demon). He's not immune to mental attacks, however, as Edel easily proves and Grausam threatens.
• Improvised Weapon: How Macht primarily fights. Since he can turn any object into indestructible gold and then turn them back to normal at will, he typically fights by transmuting his cape into a sword or a shield and his gloves into daggers. When fighting Denken, he even picks off a few strands of his long hair to be thrown as gold needles. When going all out, he turns his cape into a trident as tall as him.
• Intrigued by Humanity: Or to be more specific, intrigued by human emotions, particularly guilt and malice which he believes are necessary for coexistence with them. His curiosity about humans and his obsession with understanding them makes him far more dangerous than he would otherwise be, as he seeks them out and kills them for reasons beyond feeding or territory.
• Leaking Can of Evil: Downplayed. He is sealed inside a city by a barrier made by Serie's students, but his magic is still powerful enough to turn nearby areas into gold. However, Frieren agrees that this is still the best solution for the time being, leaving him to die of old age instead of fighting him, as the leaking magic spreads at an acceptably slow degree. She only changes her mind when a viable method to kill him is planned.
• Logical Weakness:
  • Diagoldze is an incredibly powerful spell which can transmute just about any object into indestructible gold, and a type of curse which even divine magic used by priests cannot prevent or undo. However, it is not without its limits; it cannot transmute barriers made out of magic (which requires Macht to manually break them), and as a curse, it is useless against the curse counter spell Mistilziela, which can reflect any curse used on the user.
  • He's also really weak to mental magic, since this directly bypasses his body and goes straight into his mind. Of course, the caster generally has to touch him first, so getting past Diagoldze is usually seen as the greatest hurdle. If they can, like Edel, Macht has no defense whatsoever against mental probes or attacks.
• The Magnificent: For his ability to turn anything, even entire landscapes, into gold, Macht is widely addressed as "Macht of the Golden Land".
• Manipulative Bastard: Macht is very good at imitating human behavior and making people like and trust him. Glück noticed this after the servants in his household gave Macht information about Glück and his deceased wife, like her favorite tea. Glück decided to make use of this ability by letting Macht charm the nobles in Weise.
• Meaningful Name: Macht is German for "force", "strength", and "power", for he is said to be the most powerful of the Seven Sages.
• Merlin and Nimue: Macht was the magic instructor of the Glück family. Denken became his apprentice later.
• Mirror Character: Pointed out by Frieren when she makes a "Not So Different" Remark. Despite Macht not feeling any loyalty towards the Demon King whatsoever, what they had in common was their wish to coexist with humanity. While she respects Macht for that, his similarity to the Demon King is the reason why she must eliminate him, as the Demon King reduced humanity to one-third of its population in his path to coexistence. Macht's wish therefore would cost too many lives.
• MockGuffin: Macht's gilded objects and beings are covered/transformed into a gold-like material that cannot be broken or processed. So, adding insult to the injury delivered onto the City of Weise and its inhabitants, said morbid material is effectively worthless in terms of selling or buying. However, this is subverted for Macht himself, as he can freely undo the transmutation on both himself and his clothes, allowing him to weaponize his gloves and cape into daggers, swords and shields.
• No Challenge Equals No Satisfaction: Downplayed. Macht is shown to detest combat with people he considers daredevils — enemies who actually stand no chance against him but still try anyway. He regularly opts not to use Diagoldze and still instantly wins out of raw boredom.
• Odd Friendship: Macht, a demon, had a genuine friendship with Glück, a human. Macht, however, didn’t realize it even until the end of his life when instead of hopelessly trying to do anything to survive like any other demon, he moved his dying body to where Glück was and had a smoke with the man while they talked.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: It is later shown right after he transmuted the entirety of Weise into gold, he was directly confronted by Serie. As she threatened him to undo the spell on the city of Weise, Macht silently looked down — leading Serie to conclude he could not undo his spell on people and thus despite his great skill with magic he was still a monster unable to understand humans. Macht responded aggressively at this provocation to the point he immediately used Diagoldze on her; once Serie deflected it back at him and observed his ability to undo his transmutation on himself and his clothes, she once again reiterated he was a monster, and all Macht could say in response was to tell Serie to be silent.
• Person of Mass Destruction: Serie notes Macht is capable of turning the entirety of Northern Plateau (which is half of the continent) into gold should he really try to, leading her to conclude it is too dangerous to keep him alive.
• Reluctant Monster: It's all relative, but Macht does seem to have a genuine desire to live and co-exist with humanity which makes him seem like an oddity to other demons. He also seems perturbed by the feelings that humans clearly feel but he is unable to such as "guilt" and "malice". However, this doesn't stop him from destroying town after town or killing people for no particular reason (as he thinks killing humans and coexisting with them do not necessarily contradict), and once he began to grasp what guilt even is, he decided the best way to learn about it was to foster a friendship with some humans and then kill them to see if this elusive feeling would strike — which is why he served Weise for 20 whole years before turning it all into gold. He still felt nothing like guilt from this.
• Taken for Granite: His personal spell, Diagoldze, turns objects into gold. After he turned an entire city into gold, a group of first-class mages under Serie sealed him inside a barrier and trapped him there. Still, his magic is powerful enough to still creep out to the point that every 5 years someone has to expand the barrier, but as Frieren observes, the pace is slow and it is likely that he will die of old age if left there before Diagoldze takes over a significant portion of the region. It is later revealed Macht does not need to actually touch objects to turn them into gold, as he can transmute people and buildings outside of his sight or earshot.
• Technical Pacifist: Macht views himself as this among demonkind. He does not have any loyalty to the demon king, and he does not particularly enjoy hunting humans despite doing so on a regular basis. His conversation with Schlacht, the right hand of the demon king, also shows he is effectively being used as a fighting force for the demon king's army via coercion. His dislike of "conflict" however, tends to manifest as him simply seeking to kill people quickly and then turn their bodies to gold as a warning to others.
• Unskilled, but Strong: Goes both ways. From a demon perspective, Macht's mastery of human magic is both useless and surprising, though Weise's lord immediately took advantage of this by appointing him as Denken's teacher. While he knows a considerable amount of basics, he's mostly reliant on Diagoldze to fight, overwhelming others either by its natural spread or the sheer weight of the golden flakes he can conjure. Diagoldze is simply that overpowered; Macht doesn't need skill to finish others off.
• Weaksauce Weakness: Implied to be mental magic. He considered Grausam, the best among the demons in this regard, to be his worst matchup.
• What Is This Feeling?: In Chapter 103, a dying Macht doesn’t understand why he is making his way to his master Glück after him and the city are restored, especially when any other demon would have run and tried to do anything to survive or try to take as many humans as possible down with them.
• What You Are in the Dark: After his duel with Denken, Macht slinks away clutching his fatal wounds surmising that after all his time among humans, he never overcame his demonic nature and would probably kill anyone he sees to survive. Not only does he not even think to bother the concerned citizens of the fully restored Weise, he unconsciously moves towards his master Glück and again is by his side for one final smoke. Neither he nor his opponents were able to see he changed, if only a little.

Böse

Böse the Immortal

Debut: Chapter 59

One of the Sages of Destruction who survived the battle against the Hero of the South. A demon who specialized in barrier magic, he was later defeated by Himmel's party.

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• Barrier Warrior: He specialized in barrier magic, once trapping the Hero Party in one Frieren considered unbreakable.
• Meaningful Name: Böse is German for "evil", "bad" or "sinister".
• Red Baron: "The Immortal", though since he's clearly dead, it's unknown how he got the title.
• Underestimating Badassery: His downfall was the fact that he only paid attention to Frieren who managed to break his barrier. He did not view Himmel and the others as a threat, which allowed Himmel to attack him from behind and finish him off.
  Himmel: Underestimating us was your biggest mistake. Don't belittle us humans.

Grausam

Grausam the Miraculous

Debut: Chapter 89

The Miraculous

"May you get trapped in the endless illusion."

One of the Seven Sages known by the title "the Miraculous". A master of hypnosis magic, he was able to cast powerful illusions to trap foes and attack their minds and hide his presence perfectly. He is the other Sage of Destruction that Himmel's party defeated.

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• Achilles' Heel: A minor, but fatal one. His illusion magic worked by manipulating others' five senses, plus their mana detection, to create inescapable illusions. Thing is, the former was far less perfect than the latter, and while this means this magic is perfect to use against mages—the more skilled they are like Frieren, the better—regular humans with Super-Senses like Himmel can quite easily navigate through his illusion.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Grausam is seen in a panel in Chapter 63 when Frieren tells her friends about the Hero of the South's last stand against all Seven Sages of Destruction and Schlacht. However, his first proper appearance is in Chapter 89.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: Grausam was the one who wiped Macht's memories of the Sages' fight with the Hero of the South, per Schlacht's instructions.
• Lotus-Eater Machine: Grausam's spell Ansehelschella, Spell to Guide to Paradise, can put foes to sleep and trap them in their ideal dreams, and can even dig up subconscious desires his targets rejected long ago. He hypnotized Himmel with an image of Frieren in a wedding dress◊, about to be his bride.
• Master of Illusion: His speciality. It's different from the way Fern hides her mana, since it's pure illusion technique. Not even his fellow great demons can distinguish his illusions from reality at close distance, and it's implied the appearance he's taking isn't real.
• The Magnificent: Grausam is called "The Miraculous", for his beautiful illusions are so real, they are close to a miracle.
• Meaningful Name: Grausam is German for "gruesome", "awful" or "cruel". He cruelly traps others in his illusions by showing them their hopes and dreams, even the ones they have long given up hope of.
• Stealth Expert: In Chapter 117, Frieren can't detect him until it's too late, even when he's standing right there next to her. Justified since he's literally using his own magic to hide his own mana.
• Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: Macht considered Grausam to be his worst matchup. It's heavily implied that this is because Macht is very weak to illusory/mental magic, Grausam's speciality.
• Transferable Memory: Thanks to his specialty in hypnosis and mental magic, Grausam is capable of removing and stealing memories from others.

Great Demons

Qual

Qual, the Elder Sage of Corruption

Debut: Chapter 5

Voiced by: Hiroki Yasumoto (Japanese), Major Attaway (English)

A very powerful, strong, and intelligent demon, sealed by Frieren 80 years before, in the meanwhile of the war against the Demon King. He invented a powerful killing spell.

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• Affably Evil: Despite being known as a demon who has killed many adventurers and civilians, Qual doesn't sound overly evil after Frieren breaks his seal. They have a bit of small talk before he engages Frieren and Fern in battle. As well, unlike most demons, rather than being angry, he is impressed that humanity has figured out and improved upon his spell.
• Evil Sorcerer: Qual was once one of the most notorious demon sorcerers of the Demon King's army. He was the first mage who invented an Armor-Piercing Attack.
• Glass Cannon: Due to being sealed for 80 years, Qual doesn't know that his once One-Hit Kill spell, while still strong, is now just ordinary attack magic, as humanity has developed spells and equipment to defend against it. However, he himself hasn't learned how to do so, and so Frieren kills him with his own spell.
• Instant Expert: Despite his spell having no effect initially on Frieren and Fern, he quickly figures out how to bypass their complex protection spell, prompting the duo to finish him off fast before he could become a threat again.
• Karmic Death: He was once renowned and feared throughout the lands for his near unstoppable killing magic that murdered many adventurers and mages but when he dies, he is killed by his own magic, reverse engineered to the point it became ordinary magic most mages know of and can defend against.
• Meaningful Name: In German, his name means "torment", "agony", or "torture".
• One-Hit Kill: Qual created a spell called Zoltraak, which could pierce through any defense and kill the target with one hit. After Qual was sealed and the war ended after the Demon King's death, humanity studied his magic, learned how to use it, and how to defend against it.
• The Perfectionist: Qual worked tirelessly on his spell Zoltraak to turn it into the ultimate killing spell. He ironically refined it to the point that even humans can understand and use it themselves, which proves to be his undoing as Frieren kills him with a modified version of it.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: Frieren had to seal him because he was too powerful at that time. In Chapter 5 she willingly breaks the seal to kill him because magic has advanced in the decades since to the point Qual’s spell was no longer special and could be easily countered.
• So Last Season: During his reign of terror, his signature spell, a laser beam of pure death, was considered one of the most terrifying spells out there. In the decades since his sealing, humanity has studied, reverse engineered, and expanded upon the spell to the point that the spell as he used it is considered rather unimpressive by the current generation of mages.
• Villain Decay: He used to be near invincible in the past, to the point Frieren's original party couldn't do anything but seal him away temporarily. However during his 80 years of imprisonment humans managed to study and even reverse engineer his magic, to the point his unblockable instant death spell is considered unimpressive by the current era's standard.
• Villain Forgot to Level Grind: While Frieren and Fran quickly defeat him in the main narrative, this victory comes with several asterisks attached. Qual was fighting an archmage, who had fought him before, and had 80 years to become more powerful while he was sealed away. Furthermore, said archmage had brought along an apprentice whom she had trained for about a decade to defend against a better version of his signature spell.
• Villain Respect: He is truly impressed by how humanity managed to reverse engineer his magic. Making this more noteworthy is how demons usually get angry whenever someone claims to understand the magic they created and honed throughout their whole life.

Solitär (Unmarked Spoilers)

Solitär

Debut: Chapter 88

The Nameless Great Demon

"I like to learn about humanity's customs, cultures, and magical abilities through conversation. What do you think? Fascinating, is it not?"

An eccentric greater demon who researches all kinds of living beings, especially humans. She is largely an unknown demon to mankind and nobody gave her a title, which makes her a dangerous foe to fight.

One day, Macht approached her in the hope that she could teach him what "malice" and "guilt" are. While she could not give Macht the answer he was seeking, she eventually comes to the Golden Land to help Macht break out of his prison and teams up with him to eliminate Frieren.

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• Almighty Janitor: Subverted. Solitär is recognized as a greater demon, which means in The Magocracy of demon society she is respected by other demons. On the other hand, there is no human who has ever heard of her name, which scares Fern, because that means a powerful demon like her likely killed any potential witnesses who could have spread her name. Frieren estimates that there isn't much difference in mana between Solitär and her and that Solitär is about on the same level as Macht, who is said to be the strongest of the Seven Sages of Destruction.
• The Archmage: Even among demons Solitär stands out, as she has studied humanity's magic for centuries. She is fully capable of casting modern human defensive magic and manages to analyze and destroy the great barrier of the Golden Land, which is a complex structure that is rooted in humanity's magic achievements. The barrier is basically indestructible for demons except for an eccentric like her who has spent hundreds of years on studying humans. When combined with the fact that literally nobody knows that she exists, it makes Solitär one of the most dangerous demons in the story.
• Blatant Lies: Like most demons, she lies as easily as she breathes, and most are quite obvious. Notably she claims to Stark and Fern that she has never killed a human, despite her literally reeking of death (a scent the heroes know is associated with demons who have killed vast numbers of humans).
• Boring, but Practical: Mana control. That's it. It's the foundation of her Mana Strike and Mana Shield abilities and boosts her other parameters. Frieren can't match her in this regard.
• Casual Danger Dialogue: She fights and interviews people like an intrepid reporter simultaneously, eager to fill her knowledge of humans and prove her theories right.
• Character Tic: Has a habit of clasping her palms together.
• Combat Sadomasochist: She's genuinely ecstatic Fern can hurt her, or when Frieren later proves to be on par with her.
• Cool Big Sis: Tries to project herself as this towards strangers, but Fern and Stark didn't fall for it.
• Cowardly Lion: Solitär calls herself a coward who will stay hidden unless she is assured she won't be at a disadvantage in a battle. She calls this the key to her survival. Indeed, at the end of Frieren's one-week-long trip to the past, Solitär agrees to support Grausam in his ambush on the Hero Party, but only from a distance.
• Evil Counterpart: Solitär is in many ways similar to Frieren. Not only are they similar in build, both were Solitary Sorceresses who stayed hidden the majority of their lives, are constantly eager to learn and study, and are Intrigued by Humanity. Both are experts in magic, as they show incredible finesse in controlling their mana and were able to analyze and break seemingly unbreakable barriers. However, Frieren can learn about humans by socially interacting with them, Solitär is completely incompatible and doesn't even try to coexist with humans. She experiments on humans and toys with them to study their reactions. She even came to Weise originally for the same reason Frieren came: to put an end to Macht, because his existence was threatening their species.
• Fatal Flaw: Her curiosity. It is the reason why, despite being a recluse who avoids fights she could possibly lose, she decides to come to the Golden Land to free Macht from his prison and observe the conclusion of his experiments. She also leaves Stark and Fern long enough alive to satisfy her curiosity which saves both from her because Macht transmutes them into his indestructible gold. Her tendency to talk so much instead of attacking Frieren also buys Frieren enough time to analyze the Golden Land and cast a wide-range dispel spell, which in turn allows Fern to kill Solitär with Zoltraak outside of Solitär's mana detection range.
• Foil: Makes one to Macht in her introduction.
  • Appearance-wise, Macht is an imposing, broad-shouldered man, while she's a slender, petite woman.
  • Like him, Solitär seeks to understand humanity and makes a point of specially studying their magic. However, unlike Macht, she believes that coexistence is impossible. Frieren actually points out that Solitär understands humans better than any demon she has ever met, and yet she is the furthest away from coexistence with humans.
  • Their fighting styles are also fundamentally different. Macht is a Crippling Overspecialization combatant, reliant on his overwhelming Diagoldze spell to defeat others. Solitär is a well-rounded fighter who possesses great knowledge of all of humanity's magic, and fights flexibly depending on her enemies.
• Foreign Culture Fetish: She's the demon most interested in humans, though that doesn't stop her from killing them once she's done with them. Her behaviour is uncannily similar to otakus.
• Graceful Loser: Instead of begging for her life or despairing over her loss, Solitär takes her death rather well. She is all the more fascinated by it and by Fern who managed to kill her.
• Hidden Villain: What is so scary about Solitär is the fact that despite being a greater demon, Fern doesn't recognize her name. That means over her long life she left no one alive who could tell people about her.
• Intrigued by Humanity: Even if she believes that demons and humans are fundamentally opposed, she still spends a great deal studying their ways and appears to be genuinely impressed with their spirit and advances in magic theory.
• The Juggernaut: Crosses over with The Heavy during Macht's arc. Without her presence, it's likely Frieren's party can peacefully dispel Diagoldze and defeat Macht, and she's by far the most dangerous combatant faced in this arc, more so than him. It's notable she's the first enemy the party has to work together to defeat, instead of going one-on-one like before.
• Kamehame Hadoken: Her signature spell, Mana Strike, blasts people with pure, concentrated cannons of mana.
• Lightning Bruiser: Her slim frame belies her great endurance, boosted by her unmatched mana control. Fern can't even scratch Solitär until she increases the density of her attacks. In fact, this is the decisive difference in Solitär's battle with Frieren—their offensive strength and mana capacity are roughly the same, but Frieren can't tank hits like Solitär can (though Solitär is still impressed at how much damage Frieren can endure). Aside from that, she's fast and powerful enough to toy with Fern and Stark together, something their other opponents couldn't even manage one-on-one. She's excellent in close-, long-, and mid-range combat.
• Manipulative Bitch: As is second nature to demons, Solitär is constantly trying to deceive her opponents and unsettle them with words. Despite Frieren's experience against demons and her deadpan snarking to counter Solitär's attempts to hold a conversation, even she is affected by Solitär's lies.
• Master of All: When compared to most demons. As a race, they tend to be powerful, Crippling Overspecialization combatants, but Solitär's mastery over hundreds of spells—human and demon alike—stands out, though she usually resorts to just a few tried-and-tested spells during combat.
• Meaningful Name: Solitär is the German word for solitary, which is a fitting name for a Solitary Sorceress who remained hidden and is unknown to humanity.
• Motor Mouth: What makes Solitär so annoying is that she doesn't stop talking. She keeps asking questions and attempts to confuse and provoke her enemies. Even Frieren points out that Solitär is just wasting time with her Trash Talk, when she could use that time to kill her enemy, though at the same time she acknowledges the demons words are effecting her composure.
• Non-Standard Character Design: Unlike the other demons who have massive horns and/or fine garb to make it clear they are bad news at a first glace, Solitär looks and dresses like a completely ordinary woman, but with two small horns and sharp teeth. This ironically makes her even more terrifying as a demon, especially when combined with how powerful she actually is.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: Solitär might not look too overtly intimidating or dangerous as far as demons go and people don't even know she exists, but Fern is terrified of her after one look at her mana and not being able to recognize her name. This is not for show, as she packs more than enough of a punch to make well on the threat.
• One-Man Army: Among her many acts of slaughter was (apparently out of casual curiosity) destroying a fortress city in the north all by herself (an event which led to Macht being made by wary nobles to wear a bracelet to make him obedient and "safe", hoping to keep a similar disaster from happening). No human knew she was the one who did it of course (or even that she existed), since she killed every single person in the city.
• Smug Super: Solitär is doubtless one of the most dangerous demons Frieren's party has ever faced and she loves toying with her opponents. She is prone to underestimating Frieren's party, but she eventually catches herself and explains why this is a common flaw among demons.
  Solitär: My bad habit. Carelessness and arrogance are fatal flaws among predators. They've cost many demons their lives. After being hunters for so long, we demons never learned what it means to be hunted.
• Solitary Sorceress: Solitär is a completely unknown demon to mankind. As is shown in her introductory chapter, she spends her time researching all kinds of living beings.
• Spontaneous Weapon Creation: One of Solitär's abilities allows her to materialize numerous swords in the air that she sends towards her target.
• Storm of Blades: Solitär usually fights like this; raining down materialized swords on her opponents. When she gets serious, she stops doing that and resorts to her most basic Kamehame Hadokens of mana.

Tot (Unmarked spoilers)

Tot, the Saint of the End

Debut: Chapter 116

The Saint of the End

"I don't care about the demon king or the survival of our race. The pursuit of magic and surviving for another day are all that matter to me."

A great demon titled the "Saint of the End". She's not a very powerful fighter, but she can cast a powerful curse that can end the world.

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• Ambiguously Brown: She's the first dark-skinned humanoid demon introduced in the manga, combined with Significant White Hair, Dark Skin.
• Apocalypse Maiden: Her title, "Saint of the End", is no joke. She's cast a planet-wide curse that is set to bring about the end the world in only a few decades by the time of the main story.
• Dissonant Serenity: In Chapter 117, she speaks about having cast a curse that will end the world in a hundred years and not giving a damn about the Demon King's plans as if it was some sort of casual banter. None of her fellow comrades seem to mind as well.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Frieren mentions Tot's name to Fern in a flashback in Chapter 95 when she lists some of the great demons Fern needs to memorize.
• Light Is Not Good: Is known as the "Saint of the End", but is still a ferocious Demon.
• Meaningful Name: Her name トート (Tōto) can be romanized as either "Tot" or "Tod", which is German for "dead" and "death" respectively. Fitting, considering she already cast a spell that would end the world in a century.
• The Nicknamer: She likes to shorten the names of her fellow demons. For instance, she calls Grausam "Gra-chan/Grau" and Rivale "Riva-chan/Riv".
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Quickly bails out of her temporary group once she feels the task the Great Demon King has entrusted to them is too troublesome, stating she couldn't care less about the victory or survival of the demon race. Despite the fact that even Solitär doesn't do this in spite her fierce independence, she still sympathizes with her.
• Solitary Sorceress: When asked by Grausam to help, she flat-out refuses, not caring about the survival of demonkind, while saying that she's not good at fighting and that she prioritizes her own survival. Her "curse" supposedly is only at around 30% and would maybe need another century before covering the planet. She plans to lay low until then.

Rivale (Unmarked Spoilers)

Rivale, the Bloody God of War

Debut: Chapter 26

The Bloody God of War

"There's no secret technique to a long life. All you need is to put your entire heart and soul into it as you waltz into the battlefield."

A great demon and warrior accompanying Tot, Solitär and Grausam in their mission to take out Frieren. Also known as the "Bloody God of War".

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• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: A general in the Great Demon King's army, and its strongest melee combatant.
• Bare-Fisted Monk: Primarily fights barehanded, though he can conjure a variety of weapons to match his opponents.
• The Big Guy: In contrast to Grausam and Solitär, who consider themselves cowards, Rivale is a full frontliner who gladly stands in the vanguard. When he and his fellow great demons attack Himmel's party, he takes on fellow warrior Eisen.
• Blood Knight: Fitting to his moniker, he's the strongest example among the demons. He's very hyped about fighting Eisen, who's considered mankind's strongest warrior then.
• Brains and Brawn: The Brawn to Grausam and Solitär's brains.
  Rivale: I'll leave the complicated matters to the young ones. I came here because I heard there was going to be a fight. That's all.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Rivale is first shown in a flashback in Chapter 26. He is the demon that attacked and destroyed Stark's village of warriors. Frieren also mentions his name to Fern in a flashback in Chapter 95 when she lists some of the great demons Fern needs to memorize.
• Meaningful Name: His name is the German word for "rival". He is the demon counterpart to Eisen, as the strongest warrior of their kind.
• Noble Demon: Despite being a demon, he adheres to his own Code of Honour. After Eisen manages to defend against Rivale, he introduces himself and asks for Eisen's name in turn. Out of respect for Eisen's renown as mankind's strongest warrior, he chooses to fight with an axe he materializes, as that is Eisen's weapon of choice.
• Really 700 Years Old: Even by demon standards, he calls himself an "old man". Compared to Grausam and Solitär, he does look noticeably older.
• Villain Respect: In Chapter 117, he ambushes Himmel's party with an attack, but when Eisen becomes the first warrior in a century who managed to block his fist, he politely introduces himself and decides to fight Eisen with Eisen's weapon of choice.
• World's Best Warrior: Rivale claims to be the most powerful warrior of demonkind.

Aura's forces

Lügner

Lügner

Debut: Chapter 14

Voiced by: Jun'ichi Suwabe (Japanese), Blake McNamara (English)

"We are the executioners—the confidants of Lady Aura."

A diplomat demon under Aura, sent in a faux peace mission to get a city to bring down their barrier.

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• Achilles' Heel: His heart is a weak spot, which Fern realizes when that's the only thing he defends. She manages to kill him by shooting Zoltraak through his chest.
• Awesomeness by Analysis: When Graf Granat invites him to his son's room to attack him, Lügner looks around and quickly comes up with a "Not So Different" Remark, later shown to be a blatant lie, but gets enough sympathy for Granat to stop.
• Blood Knight: He outright states that while Draht was a fool for breaking their cover, he makes it clear that he is excited that the only solution to his problems now is to utilize violence.
• Bloody Murder: His spell, Balterie, uses blood as a weapon. For instance, by opening a wound in his hand, his blood can be solidified and shaped into any form he likes, like a whip. He also can use his magic to replace the arm Fern obliterated earlier.
• The Dragon: He appears to be Aura's right-hand man, being given important tasks such as negotiating and with the other two demons serving her following his orders while on mission.
• Entertainingly Wrong:
  • Lügner states that he despises prodigy mages like Frieren and Flamme because of the perceived effortlessness of their crafts. Yes, Flamme was indeed a genius, but he mistakenly lumps Frieren together with her, as he's unaware that Frieren has been honing her craft for the good part of a millennium.
  • Stark is correct that Lügner only saw Frieren as a threat and didn't pay any attention to Fern and Stark. Ironically, they would be the ones to kill him and Linie respectively.
• The Heavy: While Aura is the main villain of her arc, as the diplomat sent on the mission to take over Granat's city, Lügner is the antagonist with the most presence in the arc. He gets to have several encounters with Frieren's party and has a full-blown fight with Fern, while Aura only appears towards the climax and is defeated rather easily after Frieren turns her magic against her.
• Hyper-Competent Sidekick: Lügner is clearly smarter and more observant than his boss. Not that it saves him, but he displays a certain craftiness Aura lacks. He works out on his own that Fern, and thus Frieren, is suppressing her mana, while Aura refuses to believe it even when Frieren point blank tells her, only realizing it when Frieren stops suppressing and lets her see her mana right before she dies in disbelief. He also notes how things aren't adding up, like how Fern's spells are tuned for demon-slaying, and even before he figures out the mana suppression feels an unexplainable uncertainty about Aura's chances against Frieren. He's generally more calm and calculating than her, while Aura gets goaded into using her Scales of Obedience on Frieren almost effortlessly.
• Hypocrite: Demons are notorious for deceiving their prey. After realizing that he was killed because Fern managed to fool him, he calls Fern and Frieren cowards who have no pride.
• Long-Haired Pretty Boy: Lügner is an elegant man, with long clear hair that gives him a pretty and elegant look.
• Manipulative Bastard: When Graf Granat threatens to kill him for his son's death, he brings up that just as Granat's son was killed by demons, so was Lügner's father killed by Granat, which makes Granat back off. Demons don't understand the concept of family, Lügner merely appealed to family because most humans empathize with it and will then lower their guard.
• Meaningful Name: Lügner means "liar" in German and Lügner is a big, manipulative liar when it comes down to it. In fact, he agrees with Frieren when she points out that demons only know the human language to manipulate them better.
• The Resenter: If there is one thing he loathes, it's prodigies. He absolutely hates Flamme and Frieren, magical prodigies who he thinks make a mockery of the hard work demons put in to master their magic. He doesn't realize that their power comes from deception and the effort they put in. Plus, Frieren spent centuries practicing magic.
• Shout-Out: Lügner is The Stoic Dragon of Aura's forces that's also a Manipulative Bastard with prominent horns on his head, just like Prince Heinel from Voltes V. They also both have a strong physical resemblance◊.
  • Funnily enough, Lügner is voiced by Jun'ichi Suwabe, who once offered to dub Prince Heinel in Voltes V: Legacy, the live-action adaptation of Voltes V from the Philippines.
• Smug Super: In Chapter 19, he doesn't kill Fern immediately, even though he managed to ambush her and then claims that he "missed" and that he didn't want to make her suffer. Fern correctly notes that he must have been pretty pissed and wanted revenge for Fern's earlier successful attack against him. He belittles Fern and Stark, and only views Frieren as a serious threat until he realizes that Fern is faster than him and has enough power to kill him.
• Soft-Spoken Sadist: Even after reacting annoyed that he is forced to fight Granat earlier than planned, he notes that he quite enjoys the violence and finds it exciting. Of course, given he's usually The Stoic, he does it while keeping his calm persona.
• Sore Loser: After learning why exactly he lost, his final words are full of contempt for Fern and Frieren for holding back their mana to deceive demons.
• The Stoic: Lügner keeps a calm composure almost at all times and rarely shows any expression. However, he can't help but smile when Frieren calls demons irreconcilable man-eating predators and reacts very angrily when he learns that he was duped by Frieren and Fern's level in magic.
• Underestimating Badassery: Stark notes that the only person he never takes his eyes off of is Frieren, which must hint that she is the only one he recognizes as a possible threat. This backfires gravely on him when Fern and Stark turn out to be more than enough to take him out.

Linie

Linie

Debut: Chapter 14

Voiced by: Manaka Iwami (Japanese), Dani Chambers (English)

One of Lügner's assistants. A female demon with great mana detecting skills.

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• Cute Bruiser: Despite her cute appearance and thanks to her magic, Linie is able to fight Stark with the powerful fighting moves he learned from Eisen and even surpass him.
• Ditto Fighter: By reading mana using her spell, Erfassen, she can copy the technique and moves of her opponents, and even memorizes them. Therefore, she fights against her opponents by turning their techniques against them.
• Emotionless Girl: Even by the standards of demons she's completely stoic and barely emotes at all, usually being indifferent to everything surrounding her unless being ordered by Lügner.
• Girl with Psycho Weapon: Due to copying Stark's fighting style with her magic, she conjures a battle axe to fight against him, contrasting her harmless look.
• Half the Woman She Used to Be: Stark kills her by baiting her into an attack he can tank, which also leaves her defenseless, and promptly slices her off in the middle from the shoulder down.
• Logical Weakness: She may be prodigious in mimicking and understanding others' fighting styles, but it doesn't mean she can replicate the necessary physical abilities to perform them perfectly. For instance, Stark outright states had she possessed the same strength as Eisen when she attacked him, he would've been dead already by the first strike. Instead, all she did was cut into his flesh slightly.
• Meaningful Name: Her name means line, her magic ability is to observe and copy other people's mana flow and movements. As in, make a line sketch and etch it in her mind. And, like a line sketch is less detailed copy of a real thing, so are Linie's movements less powerful than the original. Linie's emotions and voice are also flat.
• Sensor Character: Linie specializes in sensing and reading mana, but this does little to stop a Stealth Expert like Fern.
• Spontaneous Weapon Creation: Linie can summon any weapon she likes, depending on the style she wishes to imitate.

Draht

Draht

Debut: Chapter 14

Voiced by: Kouki Ohsuzu (Japanese), Kieran Flitton (English)

One of Lügner's assistants. A male demon, skilled in using a magical wire.

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• Leeroy Jenkins: Downplayed. After hearing from Lügner that Frieren is the sole danger in town, he visits her prison to kill her, which quickly ends with his death. This action immediately puts Granat on high alert, ruining any further diplomatic attempts from Aura and her "ambassadors".
• Logical Weakness: Draht's magical wires are not breakable. His body on the other hand is. Cue Frieren cutting off his arms, so that he can't use his wire.
• Killed Mid-Sentence: To establish that as far as Frieren is concerned, demons have nothing worthwhile to say, and that goes double for any last ditch efforts to weasel out of trouble verbally.
• Master of Threads: Draht uses magical razor-sharp wires that can easily behead a fully armored soldier. He says that it's one of the strongest spells that demons have, and Frieren even agrees that she can't do anything about the wire itself, though she can just simply tear his arm off.
• Meaningful Name: His name means wire, which is also the weapon he uses.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: His actions ultimately lead to the "peace talks" falling apart and Frieren being able to take action to eliminate Aura's forces, including Aura herself.
• Small Name, Big Ego: Incredibly arrogant during his attempt to kill Frieren, despite being near the bottom of the barrel in his own group.
• Underestimating Badassery: He clearly didn't consider how powerful Frieren as he believed he could take her out with ease despite even Lügner believing she could be a threat.

Other Demons

Einsam

Einsam, the Phantom Demon

Debut: Chapter 9

A demon that lures unwitting people in by reading their memories and showing them illusions of their loved ones. Frieren and Fern encounter one in the Central Lands and subsequently take it out.

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• Chained by Fashion: The Einsam Frieren and Fern encounter can be seen wearing broken fetters.
• Copied the Morals, Too: As it reads the memories of the target's most important person, it also copies their behavior. In Frieren's case, it manifests an illusion of Himmel, who instantly tells Frieren to shoot him.
• The Faceless: The Einsam's face cannot be seen because it hides its face behind its hands.
• Fog of Doom: The Einsam creates fog that helps their victims get lost in it and lures them deeper into the demon's clutches.
• Luring in Prey: Einsam demons cruelly use their victim's memories against them, luring the victim deeper into their fog to then eat them.
• Manipulative Bastard: They use their illusions to manipulate their victims. The Einsam Frieren and Fern encounter manages to affect Fern with an illusion of Heiter, despite Fern being fully aware that it's not real.
• Master of Illusion: They create perfect illusions of their victim's loved ones, including their behavior.
• Meaningful Name: Einsam is the German word for "lonely". It is especially dangerous to people who miss their loved ones.
• Squishy Wizard: They pose no threat to any mage (in theory), as they easily die to highly concentrated mana. Once Frieren reveals its location, Fern kills it with one blast.
• Telepathy: The Einsam can create such perfect illusions because it reads the memories of their victims and uses it against them.

Spiegel

Spiegel, the Water-Mirror Demon

Debut: Chapter 49

A monster from the mythical era that guards the Ruins of King's Tomb dungeon. It is able to create perfect clones of any intruders.

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• Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: The clones are easy to distinguish from the real people, as their bodies and the clothes they wear look brownish.
• Copied the Morals, Too: When Land and Übel encounter Übel's clone, Übel notes that the clone must have copied her personality too, as the clone immediately went for Land's bottle with the Escape Rope golem, which is exactly what she would have done, too. The Sense clone also never immediately kills the people it ambushes, giving the examinees enough time to break their bottles and escape, which matches her pacifist nature.
• Final Boss: The Spiegel demon is the last enemy in the Ruins of the King's Tomb. Since it is rather helpless though, the Frieren clone it creates to guard it is more or less the final boss.
• Immune to Mind Control: The Spiegel clones only mimic the original people. They don't have a mind of their own, which is why mental attacks don't work on them as Edel finds out, which unfortunately makes her completely helpless against them.
• Keystone Army: The Spiegel maintains the copies. Once Frieren kills it, all the clones it has created disappear.
• Mirror Match: The Spiegel creates absolutely perfect copies of its intruders, including their behavior and mana, leading to a lot Fearful Symmetry fights like when Übel or Frieren face their respective clones. The key to defeat the clones is to communicate with one's teammates and let them fight their best matchup or outnumber the copies, as it otherwise comes down to luck who ends up victorious.
• Meaningful Name: Spiegel is the German word for "mirror". The demon creates perfect copies of its intruders to defend itself.
• Mook Maker: The Spiegel itself can only defend itself by creating copies of its intruders to fend them off. While it can only maintain one copy of each person, if any copy is slain then it can make another of them after a short delay, so the Spiegel has to be eliminated to clear the dungeon of all threats.
• Non-Action Guy: The Spiegel demon itself cannot attack. It protects itself with the clones it creates.
• Squishy Wizard: Since the Spiegel can't actually fight, Frieren can effortlessly destroy it after the strongest clone it created, Frieren's clone, is defeated.
• Telepathy: It reads the memories of its intruders, which allows it to create clones that behave exactly like the original.

Revolte

Divine Revolte

Debut: Chapter 72

The Divine

A demon general who leads a team of four demons and plagues the villages in the Northern Plateau. Frieren's party receives a subjugation request for him near a village he raided, where they encounter Genau and Methode who came for the same reason.

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• The Berserker: Once cornered by Genau and Stark, Revolte abandons his swordsman-like fighting style and just furiously attacks like a ferocious carnivore, regardless of his injuries.
• Combat Pragmatist: Revolte is a ruthless warrior who is not afraid to fight dirty. He will always try to split up the enemy, and when cornered, he will try to appeal to humans' desire to protect children, as this is how he killed Genau's previous partner and later almost Genau himself. His final deception is making Genau and Stark believe that once he lost his weapons, he wouldn't be able to fight anymore, only to reveal that his hands are deadly, too.
• Dual Wielding: Try quadruple wielding instead.
• Gravity Master: What makes Revolte so unpredictable is, besides the fact that he fights with four swords, that he can manipulate the weight of his magically created swords at will. That makes them not only sharp but also paradoxically light and heavy.
• I Am Not Left-Handed: After Stark and Genau manage to destroy all of his swords, Revolte shows that he is very much capable of using his hands as weapons too.
• Lightning Bruiser: Revolte is inhumanly fast and strong. Chapter 76 also shows that despite being surrounded by Stark and Genau and having received several deep wounds, he still attacks without pause with almost endless stamina. However, he is not infallible, as he can contain the mana of his swords only for so long before they start to brittle and break against Stark and Genau's relentless attacks.
• The Magnificent: He's called "Divine" because the weapons he magically created are named after a Legendary Weapon, the Divine Cleaving Sword.
• Manipulative Bastard: While like all demons he cannot comprehend empathy, he knows how to exploit it. He slaughtered a whole village without eating the survivors to make the next subjugation team split up, as someone would want to defend the corpses. He also learned that humans have a habit of protecting children, which he abuses to catch enemies off guard.
• Master Swordsman: A master of the blade and thanks to his inhuman body, he can wield four swords at the same time.
• Meaningful Name: Revolte is the German word for "revolt". The group of demons he leads is small but remarkably resistant to the overwhelming human forces, at least until Frieren's party arrives and cooperates with Genau and Methode.
• Monstrous Humanoid: Revolte's lower half resembles a serpent. He also has four arms.
• Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Revolte has four arms and he is equipped with a sword in each hand. When Frieren's party arrives in Genau's village, they discover that Revolte massacred an entire garrison of elite knights. Frieren surmises that these trained knights probably had no idea how to defend against a monster with four swords, which is why they were quickly defeated.
• No-Nonsense Nemesis: Revolte doesn't underestimate Frieren and Genau's combined team at all, which is why he intends to split them up. He only starts gloating after he impales Stark and Genau with his arms, thinking he's won. His downfall is underestimating Genau and Stark's perseverance, as despite their deep wounds they still have enough strength left to finish him off.

Zart

Zart the Remnant

Debut: Chapter 108

The Remnant

"I knew it... You came from the future."

A subordinate of Grausam the Miraculous. Zart was tasked to observe the Goddess of Creation's monument on the Kino Mountain Pass in the seventh year of the Hero Party's journey.

After present Frieren touches the Goddess' monument and travels 84 years to the past when she found the monument with the Hero Party, Zart notices the space-time interference and shortly after attacks the Hero Party.

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• Harmless Villain: Zigzagged.
  • He actually is a very legitimate threat to Himmel's party, as his ability to teleport himself and other people has both strong defensive and offensive uses. Trying to get in his range is therefore extremely dangerous, as he merely has to touch someone to make them drop from a great height. However, what makes the fight against him much more trivial is Frieren's battle experience, as her continuously well-timed attacks keep pressuring him. When he decides to drop a section of land on the Hero Party, Frieren pierces it apart with her full strength and then kills him with Zoltraak.
  • His Disney Villain Death kill method would not work in the present against mages, as mages have learned how to fly. If Frieren hadn't been so concerned about leaking information from the future, she would have killed him in seconds.
• He Knows Too Much: Frieren decides to eliminate Zart quickly to stop him from reporting his findings to his master (namely that she is suppressing her mana, as well as that she is from the future).
• Manipulative Bastard: After teleporting Frieren up in the air, he claims he put Himmel's party in a Hostage Situation and he would be willing to spare her if they drop their weapons. Himmel knows it's a Blatant Lie, but nonetheless complies. Frieren promptly answers with a fireball at Zart.
• Meaningful Name: Zart is German for "delicate", "soft" or "gentle". He's a Harmless Villain to a Frieren who possesses magic from the future.
• Space Master: Zart is a master of Teleportation. He also can teleport other objects or beings if he touches them, which is particularly dangerous in the era of Himmel's party, as flight magic is not discovered yet.
• Weaponized Teleportation: Zart's favored method to kill people is to teleport them high up in the air and then let them drop to the ground. When this doesn't work against the Hero Party, he decides to teleport a whole portion of the nearby land above the Hero Party's heads.

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