Chapter 96

With Fern and Stark breaking off to occupy Solitar, Denken settles on staying behind as well. He sends the fleeing townsfolk onward with Frieren toward the Empire, a place even Macht would struggle to enter, then goes hunting for the demon himself. Macht admits that he means to erase everyone who knows of him so he can start over elsewhere, which marks Frieren as an obstacle he plans to chase. Denken refuses to permit it, judging his former pupil far too dangerous to humanity to leave loose.

Their fight echoes the practice bouts of their shared past, and Macht openly remarks on how much sharper Denken's craft has grown. Just as the demon moves to end matters with Diagoldze, his own body begins hardening into gold, the work of Denken's Curse Reversal Magic, Mistilziela, a spell once handed to him by Serie. Knowing Macht can simply reverse the change, Denken keeps his guard up while the demon works himself free, both braced to continue.

Before the clash, Denken tells the evacuating villagers to guide Frieren to the Empire's protection while he handles Macht. He explains that he stayed away from this reckoning not out of fear but out of a faint wish that things might resolve more gently, and that he has trained precisely for this day. Once Macht unleashes his mana, Denken feels the gulf between their strength and admits it has been ages since he last brushed against death, yet he insists a future where he wins still exists.

A memory returns from the privilege ceremony following the First-Class Mage Exam. Serie offers Denken any spell he desires, and he requests the Curse Reversal Magic, Mistilziela. She finds the choice dull yet sound, observing that it would otherwise demand a hundred years of study, all but impossible for a human. With a transfer spell she locks the magic and the century she spent learning it into a grimoire and gives it to him, in effect surrendering a sliver of her own lifespan. When Sense warns that Serie will lose her own curse defense, Serie brushes it aside, sure she can relearn it and that anything she bestows is absolute. She cautions that the spell burns mana on the scale of a full defensive barrier, so its timing must be exact.

In the present, Denken reveals that years spent observing his master taught him to sense the very instant the curse will be cast, even while it stays invisible. He points out that Macht can revert from gold no matter how complete the transformation, and squares up again as the demon cracks loose from the metal.

Titled Master and Apprentice, the installment was written by Kanehito Yamada and drawn by Abe Tsukasa as part of The Golden Land storyline. The confrontation plays out within the Fortress City of Weise, now remade into the Golden Land. Magic seen across the pages includes Diagoldze, the Curse Reversal Spell Mistilziela, and the spell-transfer magic Furwehrer glimpsed in flashback.