In Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End, the eponymous character journeys the world after saving it with her party. The series is streaming on Crunchyroll.
Plot summary:
The Hero’s party consisted of Himmel the hero, Heiter the priest, Eisen the dwarven warrior, and Frieren the elven mage.
Together, they defeated the Demon Lord and brought about an era of peace in the land. While the others are content with what they have achieved, Frieren seeks out more.
Her lifespan is almost endless so she decides to travel. She promises to return in 50 years to show her party a great spot to view the Era meteor shower.
Time passes and eventually, Himmel passes away from old age. Frieren feels sadness because she realizes she didn’t get to know Himmel well enough.
She decides to learn as much as she can about humans during her travels. She visits Heiter, who is close to the end as well.
He introduces her to a young girl named Fern and asks Frieren to train her as a mage. Freiren reluctantly agrees because Fern has an incredible affinity for magic.
Heiter passes on and Freiren and Fern travel together to visit all the places she visited with her party.
They meet Eisen, who wants to look for one of Flamme’s original grimoires. Flamme was a legendary human mage who taught Frieren 1000 years ago.
She learns about a place called Aureole where one can speak with the dead. Eisen suggests that Freiren go there to speak with Himmel one more time.
It is at the Northernmost point of the continent where the Demon Lord’s castle is situated. She asks Eisen to join them but he says that he’s too old to go on a journey.
Instead, they recruit Stark. He’s a young warrior and one of Eisen’s most prodigious students.
The trio travels towards Aureole and encounters many places that Frieren visited before with the Hero’s party.
Frieren enjoys collecting spells and discovering magic and Fern finds her approach quite confusing. Nonetheless, she is a model student who picks things up quickly.
Despite being an accomplished mage, Frieren often behaves very childlike and this annoys Fern and Stark who have to get her back on track.
Along their travels, the party encounters many demons and allies alike. They meet Kraft, the elven monk, Qual, a demon that Frieren had sealed many years ago, and Sein, a genius priest who joins the party.
Sein has many vices that annoy Frieren, and she cannot co-exist with another genius so she behaves coldly with him.
He joins them to search for his best friend, Gorilla Warrior, who had ventured out on a journey many years ago but never returned.
The party learns that to get deeper into the Northern lands, they must have a first-class mage among them, but Frieren has never been certified and Fern is only a third-class mage.
They head toward Äußerst where the next first-class mage exam is being held. Sein departs in the opposite direction after discovering that his friend had gone that way.
He hopes that their paths converge once again in the future. The party sans Sein arrives in Äußerst and learns that the next exam is in two months.
Frieren convinces Fern to take the exam with her, and they begin preparing.
Ending explained:
Bird-watching
The mages are split up into teams of three for the first test where their goal is to capture a Stille, a small bird that moves at exceptional speeds and is sensitive to mana.
Fern is paired up with Ubel and Land, two differing personalities, each with their specialties in magic.
Frieren is in a team with Kanne and Lawine, childhood frenemies who are constantly bickering but still have good skills.
Fern’s party captures a Stille but has to fight off another party, and Frieren comes up with a plan for her party to capture a Stille.
They are also ambushed by another party but they manage to prevail after Frieren destroys the barrier protecting the examination area.
Old connections
The first-class mage exam is held by the Continental Magic Association established by the legendary elven mage, Serie.
She is said to possess the knowledge of every spell known and grants the privilege of one spell to every mage that reaches first class.
Serie had taken on Flamme as her apprentice a thousand years ago and then met Frieren while she was studying under Flamme.
Serie is frustrated by Flamme and Frieren’s approach to magic and doesn’t want to see Frieren become a first-class mage.
Dungeon crawling
In the second test, all the remaining mages are tasked with getting to the bottom of the Ruins of the King’s Tomb, a dungeon that no one has ever completed.
Denken, an imperial mage and one of the most experienced participants, urges that they all work together but his pleas fall on deaf ears.
The mages split up and get through various levels until only a few remain. That is when they decide to work together and conquer the dungeon.
Moving on in their journey
Serie arrives in Äußerst because she is unhappy with the number of mages that have made it to the final round.
She says that a test that forced them to work together actually hindered the test’s ability to thin out the herd appropriately.
She states that she will be conducting interviews to determine who becomes a first-class mage.
Frieren is certain that she will fail because Serie despises Freiren’s peaceful and inquisitive attitude toward magic.
So she decides to coach Fern because she is certain that Serie will pass Fern thanks to her potent ability.
Serie is impressed with Fern and asks her to become Serie’s apprentice, but Fern says that she is Frieren’s student.
Serie passes her and the party moves ahead to Aureole with a first-class mage in their party.
Also Read: How strong is Stark in Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End?