Frieren: Who Is the Demon King & What Happened to Him?

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 have decided to shift our focus a bit, as the main point of discussion of this article will be the main villain in the series’ past, the Demon King. The Demon King was the powerful evil overlord whom the original Hero Party defeated. In this article, we will tell you everything that happened to him in the series.

The Demon King was a powerful tyrant

We must say immediately that not much is known about the Demon King as a character in Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End. Interestingly enough, he was mentioned at the beginning of the story and has often been mentioned by the heroes over the course of the manga, but not much is known about him; he was seen only once in the background of a small panel, so we don’t even have a detailed description of him.

But, we do know that he had been alive for more than 1,000 years, suggesting that he was as old as some Elves and that he might even have something to do with them, as 1,000 years ago, he ordered his Demons to kill all Elves, which also resulted in Frieren’s village being attacked, and her parents being slaughtered. Ironically, Frieren survived and was taken in by Flamme, who made her her apprentice and turned her into a powerful mage. Why is this ironic? Frieren, alongside her friends from the Hero Party, will defeat the Demon King much later.

As for his personality, not much is known about it. He was certainly powerful and had a lot of authority, as all the powerful Demons and mages were exceptionally loyal to him, even the powerful Seven Sages of Destruction (Macht included); this was also evidenced when Qual was resurrected, as the first thing he asked was what had happened to the Demon King. He, like Macht, desired coexistence between humans and Demons, as he was willing to go to great lengths to achieve it. He killed numerous humans to reduce their numbers and ordered the eradication of Elves.

This was the gist of his plan, and after a while, his attempts at achieving it became more direct, and he went into the offensive, causing major problems, especially in the Northern Lands. This is why the original Hero Party was founded, as a way of defeating the Demon King. But, the task was not easy, as you might deduce, as the Demon King was the most powerful Demon and a truly formidable foe.

He was ultimately defeated by the original Hero Party

Now, at this moment, we don’t have too many details about the Demon King’s death. We know that he was incredibly powerful, but that is all we know. The series hasn’t provided any details about his powers and abilities, so we cannot really state what he was capable of doing and how strong he was. The original Hero Party ultimately defeated him, but the details about that epic clash are scarce as well, so we can only bring you the little information we have, and that is what we are going to do in this section of the article.

So, at one point, the original Hero Party was formed. It consisted of the human hero Himmel, the powerful Dwarf Eisen, the “corrupt priest” Heiter, and Frieren, the Elven mage whose past was heavily connected to the Demon King’s plans. The four of them ventured together on a 10-year-long adventure to the Demon King’s Castle in the north to defeat him. It was not an easy journey, as you might assume (well, it did last ten years, after all). Still, after facing many perils, tough opponents, and some of the Demon King’s most powerful underlings, the Hero Party managed to reach the Demon King’s Castle.

There, they fought him. And they won. How? We have no idea. The manga hasn’t really disclosed any of the details, and it remains to be seen whether Frieren’s new party will, through flashbacks, motivate her to revisit this battle. We certainly want to see the details, and we want to see how the Hero Party managed to defeat and kill such a powerful opponent, so we hope that the authors decide to reveal more information about this battle.

The Demon King is seemingly dead, but the remnants of his army are still present and are causing a lot of trouble for the people in the Northern Lands, as the current timeline reveals. In fact, his most powerful subordinate, Macht, is still alive and will be a major opponent in the series later, which proves that despite his death, the Demon King is still someone to be reckoned with.

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