Chapter 22

Frieren and Aura hold their deadlock. Reasoning that only a demon drowning in power could treat the Scales of Obedience so lightly, Frieren ties that ease to Aura's five centuries of age. Aura then calls on Auserlese, a spell that sets two souls on a balance and gives the one with weaker mana over to the other's command; Frieren merely pities a demon shackled to its own strength.

Most of the chapter turns to the past. Apprenticed to Flamme, the young elf wonders aloud why such crafty creatures never hide their mana the way her teacher does. Flamme answers that demon society, individualist as it is, still ranks every member by raw mana alone, making that power their very identity and pride, so concealing it never occurs to them. The years roll on; Flamme grows old and dies, but first she asks the elf to ring her grave with blossoms and to stay unremarkable until the Demon King falls. Frieren keeps the promise, passing quiet centuries until Himmel's group comes looking and the hero, trusting instinct over the meager mana she shows, declares her the finest mage he has encountered and brings her aboard.

The present resumes as Auserlese kindles two flames for the dueling souls, and the scale leans Aura's way. The demon sneers that Frieren's reading betrays barely a century of training, yet as she steps in to take the head, the balance creeps even. Frieren thanks her for trusting the spell, then admits she has throttled her mana all her life. Naming herself a mage past a thousand years old, she lets it surge free; it swallows Aura's, the scale crashes to her side, and she bids the Sage of Destruction end her own life.

Aura brings out the Scales of Obedience and turns Auserlese on her opponent. Flashbacks lay out why demons cannot mask their mana and follow Frieren's long discipline of suppression up to the day Himmel enlists her. The demon's faith in her soul-weighing magic proves fatal: Frieren reveals more than a thousand years of hidden strength, seizes the balance, and orders Aura to take her own life, ending the Sage of Destruction.

The hamlet where Frieren first puts down roots seems to become the Royal Capital shown at the series' start. The figure enthroned above the heroes is taken for the Demon King. Flamme's most cherished spell, the one that coaxes up blossoms, came from her own parents and is what first drew her to magic. The confrontation plays out within Graf Granat's domain.