- Flamme. - Call me Master.
What is it?
Do you really think it's a dirty trick?
Frieren, do you remember Basalt's last words?
I don't.
They use words to deceive humans.
That's right. They are nothing but monsters who can speak.
That is the reality of those beings that I call demons.
They play dirty tricks.
And so we have to play even dirtier tricks.
If that's what it takes to eliminate the demons,
I will gladly accept a bad reputation.
ORIGINAL STORY BY KANEHITO YAMADA / TSUKASA ABE
I can't stop bleeding.
So this is it, huh?
With this, your plan has failed.
I guess so.
But Frieren won't be left unharmed.
She must be fighting Mistress Aura by now.
Last time, we had to retreat because of the party of heroes,
but now there are no heroes to protect Frieren.
Frieren is no doubt a threat to us.
But her level of mana is nothing compared to Mistress Aura.
If she fights her head-on,
Frieren will definitely lose.
If that's the case, Mistress Frieren will win.
She's not the type of person who would ever fight a demon head-on.
She will kill Aura by deceiving her.
What nonsense... As far as I can remember,
Frieren the Slayer has always fought us head-on...
Why do I feel like I'm missing something?
This girl's mana is weak...
But I was overpowered by the amount of magic that she fired at great speed.
So how was she able to do that without running out of mana?
I see!
I can't believe it...
So Frieren is the same as you?
How dirty.
You two should be ashamed to even call yourselves mages.
Mistress Frieren knows that all too well.
How horrible...
A village of elves, huh?
Basalt the Throne,
one of the Demon Generals of the Demon King's army.
I'm guessing he led his troops to destroy the village.
Are you the one who killed him?
You half-dying girl.
What immense mana.
I bet you're strong.
Did you fight the demons head-on?
How ridiculous. That's so stupid.
Why do people try to fight them head-on?
You can run, hide, or catch them by surprise.
There are so many other options.
I don't understand what it feels like to be a powerful mage.
You should know.
Huh?
You should know how I feel.
Because you are
a much more powerful mage than me.
What made you think so?
It's a hunch.
What's your name?
- What happened to the village? - Completely annihilated.
The women and children were killed too.
I couldn't protect them.
Even though I was the strongest.
You really are stupid.
If I were you, I would've run away without even thinking.
- Let me down. - I won't.
You have talent, so I'm taking you in as my apprentice.
And I'm sure you're aware of it,
but if I hadn't passed by, you would've died.
On top of failing to protect the village,
you were about to die.
That's what you call dying in vain.
We're being followed.
They're stronger than the general you killed.
Aren't they funny?
They concealed their mana until the last minute
and were obviously trying to ambush us,
but as soon as they saw that we were mages,
they proudly showed themselves.
They play dirty tricks and are cunning,
but they all have a ridiculous sense of pride when it comes to magic.
Human mage,
leave that elf behind.
Will you let me go if I do?
The Demon King's orders were to massacre
all of the elves.
I don't care about your life.
Is that right?
Frieren,
it's true that I know too well how powerful mages feel.
And I know exactly how these demons feel too.
They have pride and confidence
in the magic that they've devoted their lives to studying.
In other words, it's worthless arrogance and carelessness.
Frieren, unlike you, these demons
assumed that I was weak.
They were excellent mages of a higher caliber,
but they died because they let their guard down.
You limit the amount of mana that emits from your body to hide your strength?
That's right.
I take advantage of their misconception of my mana to deceive and kill them.
It's a dirty and despicable method
that makes a mockery of honorable magic.
Your wounds are looking much better.
Shall we start training soon?
- Flamme. - Call me Master.
Demons took everything away from me.
Me too.
I hate them so much I want to eliminate all of them.
Me too.
But I like magic.
I do too.
So we don't need anyone else to play dirty tricks that
make a mockery of magic.
What do I have to do to train?
Try to let out less than a tenth of the amount of mana you usually emit.
As I expected, you're suppressing it well.
Any elf can do this much.
Now keep that up while learning the basics.
We'll increase your fundamental mana.
- That's all? - It's easy, right?
By the way, for how long do I have to suppress my mana?
It's tiring to do it for too long.
For as long as me.
Your entire life.
You will deceive demons for as long as you live.
Lügner died.
Now all of your executioners are gone.
You failed, Aura.
Yes, that's too bad.
But if I can defeat you here,
that'd be a worthy achievement.
In this battle, you released
many of my immortal soldiers from my control.
Was it really wise to
expend that much mana in front of me?
The Scales of Obedience.
You place both souls on the scale
and the being with greater mana subjugates the other.
Aura is able to use this risky spell because of her
tremendous amount of mana.
Generally, mana increases
according to the amount of time you have trained.
I can tell from the mana that Aura emits
that she is a greater demon that has lived over 500 years,
and that she has dedicated most of her life to training.
500 years, huh?
That's a very long time, even for a demon.
She must've been invincible up until now.
I can get this much information just from the mana emitting from her body.
Despite that, demons don't hide their mana.
They can't hide it.
How pitiful.
Auserlese.
Master,
demons are cunning, right?
Why don't they suppress their mana at all times, like you do?
They just can't.
Although demons are all about individualism,
in order to fight humans,
they need at least some sort of social structure.
What do you think is necessary in a society?
- Order? - That's right.
In other words, you need an important person to lead the society.
For humans...
In this country, for example,
status and wealth decide who is important.
That well-dressed person who came out of the palace is important.
It's hard to tell who is important,
so people dress up like that in order to make it obvious.
Demons are different?
They haven't changed ever since they were monsters.
Strength equals importance.
It's much easier to tell than humans.
You can see how strong they are.
Mana, right?
To them, mana means the same thing
that status and wealth mean to humans.
You can even say it's their dignity.
They may temporarily hide
their mana as a way to go under the radar,
but no one is stupid enough to limit their mana on a daily basis.
There's a big difference between a noble going incognito to visit the castle town
and a noble relinquishing their status and wealth, right?
And demon society is not kind enough to give those with little mana
any sense of dignity.
That's why the stronger the demon is,
the more they flaunt their mana.
To them, nothing good comes from constantly limiting their mana.
The thought doesn't even cross their minds.
It's pitiful, isn't it?
Just as humans are bound by status and wealth,
demons are bound by mana.
They take pride in magic
and love magic more than anyone,
but they don't have freedom over their own mana.
Frieren, you're lucky you weren't a demon.
Yeah. Thanks to that, I can deceive demons.
It's been three years since you began suppressing your mana, huh?
I knew I could expect a lot from you.
You look the part now.
Frieren, do you still like magic?
What's this all of a sudden?
So-so, I guess.
In the past,
you said you liked magic without hesitation.
That was only 50 years ago.
That's true.
In the end,
I could only teach you how to fight.
Spells to get revenge.
- Do you regret it? - No.
I'm glad that I entrusted my spells to you.
With your long lifespan,
you'll be able to reach a level where you can defeat the Demon King.
Frieren, I have one favor to ask you.
What is it?
Make the area around my grave a field of flowers.
- That's unlike you. - I know.
Frieren,
my favorite spell
is the spell to create a field of flowers.
My parents taught that to me when I was small.
It's the reason why I started to like magic.
Teach me that spell.
Listen, Frieren.
Don't think about leaving your mark on history.
Live modestly.
You will leave your mark on history when you kill the Demon King.
I heard there was a mage that has been living in this forest for ages.
Is that you?
I've been living for a long time,
but I've just been killing time.
It's not like I'm talented.
- What do you think, Heiter? - Yeah.
Her mana level is about a fifth of mine.
- It's so-so. - Who is he? How annoying.
Go home.
You don't have any business with a so-so mage, do you?
No, you're stronger than any other mage I've ever met.
What makes you think so?
It's a hunch.
Auserlese.
You look happy, Aura.
Are you sure of your victory?
You'll see.
Frieren the Slayer.
People came to know her for the first time about 80 years ago.
She defeated the Demon King with the party of heroes.
A mysterious elf mage whose age is unknown.
But I couldn't care less about how long you've been living.
Your mana says it all.
I can read you like a book.
You may be a talented mage,
but your mana is nothing special.
You've trained for maybe a total of 100 years.
Not just that, it hasn't even changed since 80 years ago.
Maybe you were training in areas other than mana,
or maybe you were just killing time?
Either way,
you are nothing compared to me.
I win.
Now I will chop off your head myself.
I didn't even have to go out of my way to exhaust her mana.
I was a little too cautious.
My immortal army suffered quite a bit of damage,
so I have to replenish them.
What?
The scale is tipping toward Frieren.
You put my soul on the scale, Aura?
Honestly, I would've had a hard time if you kept attacking with your army.
I'm glad you have so much confidence in your mana.
I can finally defeat you.
What do you mean?
You should have noticed by now.
I was suppressing my mana.
You judged incorrectly, Aura.
That can't be true.
There's no way I would fail to notice that.
Your mana was not
unstable or wavering, which are characteristics of suppressed mana.
I'm surprised.
Demons are able to observe mana in such detail, huh?
I guess Master's method was right.
I have spent most of my life suppressing my mana.
Long enough for it to become natural.
Are you stupid?
Why would you do something so pointless?
Yes, it's stupid.
But I can beat you.
Don't be ridiculous!
I'm a greater demon who has lived over 500 years.
Aura, you are standing in front of
a mage who has lived more than 1,000 years.
Frieren,
just as demons deceive people with words,
you must deceive demons with your mana.
Aura, kill yourself.
This can't be...
How can I...?
- Is there someone who commends you? - A journey to heaven, huh?
- You're in great shape. - The Largest Magical City.
- What is that? - It's Äußerst.
It means we're elves.
"Winter in the Northern Lands."
Subtitle translation by: Kiko Morita