Frieren: Who Is Qual & How Powerful Is He?

Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End has perfectly combined Japanese fiction’s artistry with Western fiction’s tropes to create a wonderful fantasy work that is extremely popular worldwide, and for a good reason. While the protagonists are the story’s focus, in this article, we will discuss a villain that appeared early on in the story and connected both the original Hero Party and the present group. The villain in question is Qual, the Elder Sage of Corruption, and in this article, you will find out everything you need to know about him.

Qual was a very powerful Demon back in the day

Qual’s story in Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End began early, during the Hero Party’s first adventure, which took place 70+ years before the current timeline. He was, at the time, known as the Elder Sage of Corruption and was one of the Demon King’s most loyal servants, which – in turn – made him a notorious and obviously powerful Demon. Qual inhabited the area of the Größe Forest, and from there, he terrorized the nearby village and all the passersby.

The details of his terror are not really known, but the villagers have described it as “terrible atrocities,” and he was portrayed as walking a path of flames with visible destruction. His terror seemingly began 80 years before the present timeline, and soon after, Himmel and his party arrived there. Before their arrival, Qual had murdered about 40% of the adventurers that passed by the forest and about 70% of mages, which speaks for itself. What he did to civilians is unknown, and seeing how destructive he was, maybe it is for the better.

When Himmel and his party arrived, the four of them fought him but were powerless against his Zoltraak, the first piercing spell in the world. Realizing that Qual could not be defeated due to his power and that he was about to kill the four of them, Frieren decided to seal him for several decades. While he was sealed, he was not a threat, but the seal would, of course, break at one point, and that is why Himmel kept checking on it each year and told the villagers that Frieren would definitely come in time to check on it before it was broken, so the villagers didn’t have to worry.

When Frieren and Fern came to the village, Frieren observed the seal and said that it had become unstable; the plan was to unseal Qual the day after, and then Frieren said, with confidence, that they would defeat him for good. Later that night, Frieren admitted to Fern that Qual was too powerful for them at the time but that she would be able to defeat him now.

The next day, Frieren unsealed Qual, and he asked how much time had passed and what had happened to the Demon King; when Frieren revealed that they had killed him, Qual immediately attacked them, but Fern blocked his Zoltraak, which surprised the Demon. Frieren then explained that since his sealing, mages from all over the world gathered and studied Zoltraak, deciphering it and incorporating it into their system, which also enabled the development of defensive spells, which meant that Zoltraak was not fatal anymore.

While that surprised the Demon, he realized that defending against Zoltraak also consumed a lot of mana, which meant that if he attacked them long enough, they would succumb to his spell. But Frieren then tricked him, and while his attack was focused on Fern, she flew up and used Qual’s own spell, Zoltraak, against him and killed him, thereby ending the danger he posed. Now that we have explained his story, we will tell you about his powers and abilities.

What kind of powers & abilities does Qual have?

What we’ve written above is Qual’s story. We know who he was, whom he served, how he was sealed, and how he was ultimately defeated. While it was unavoidable for us to talk about his powers and abilities there, in this section, we will give you a more detailed overview of the issue at hand. This is where you will find out just how powerful Qual was and why exactly he was such a danger.

In terms of Qual’s effect on the plot, we can only reiterate that he was, indeed, a powerful Demon. At the time of the original Hero Party’s adventure, he was a real threat, and the numbers speak for themselves, which is why we will repeat them again.

During the time he terrorized the Größe Forest, he was able to kill 40% of the adventurers and about 70% of the sorcerers that passed through the forest, and all of this alongside terrorizing the nearby village, whose inhabitants were afraid of his unsealing.

Qual was a physically imposing Demon, and while we don’t know much about his physical strengths or speed, it can be assumed that he was strong and powerful. Still, as far as we could understand, he rarely resorted to physical combat.

He used his magic often, and since he was obviously well-versed in it, he even developed a special spell known as Zoltraak. And while Zoltraak will be analyzed in a separate article, we still have to tell you something about it. Namely, Zoltraak was a highly destructive spell that breached through every known defense of the time, which is why it was so fatal. Of course, many years later, it has been analyzed and surpassed, but the Demon was a true threat at the time, and he wasn’t even one of the strongest Demons of his time.

Qual was, we can conclude, powerful, but he was never the most powerful Demon in Frieren. We don’t know how well he fared compared to other servants of the Demon King, as there isn’t enough data to work with, but based on his status in the series and his notoriety, we understand that he was quite powerful and definitely above the average level; even Frieren confirmed that he was an exceptional mage.

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