Chapter 9: Phantoms of the Dead

Twenty-eight years on from the hero Himmel's death, Frieren and Fern pass through the Wille Region of the Central Lands. A village there has been losing people who attempt the mountain road, with the disappearances blamed on ghosts of the dead. The pair investigate and trace the vanishings to an Einsam, a phantom monster that snares travelers with illusions of those they hold dear. After destroying it, they press on toward Aureole.

A market woman warns the travelers away from the pass, and the villagers describe seeing departed relatives walking as if alive. Frieren rules out the undead, which would appear as corpses, and identifies a phantom monster instead, recalling how she once had to fire on an apparition of her own master pleading for mercy. As the two enter the fog, Fern freezes when a false Heiter praises her for growing into a fine mage, while a phantom Himmel rises behind Frieren and tells her simply to shoot. Frieren remarks that the line rings true to him and fires, and the blast snaps Fern free in time to scatter both the fake Heiter and the Einsam lurking behind it into black dust.

Released July 1, 2020 in volume two, the chapter is titled Phantoms of the Dead within the Beyond Journey's End arc and was adapted as the fifth episode of the anime. The Einsam are classed as monsters rather than the humanlike demons, and their illusions disperse when struck with a dense burst of mana. Fern had read about the creature in a text on magical ecology, and the destination ahead, Aureole, is described as the resting place of souls where the group hopes to meet Heiter once more.