Title: Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End Vol. 14
Author: Kanehito Yamada (Story), Tsukasa Abe (Art)
Publisher: Viz Media
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 195
Genre: Fantasy
Publication Date: February 10, 2026
The Story
We rejoin Ubel and Land as they are attempting to escape; however, they run into Neu from the magic special forces. They are eventually captured; however, those as skilled as they cannot be contained so easily! In the meantime, Frieren, Stark, and Fern are patrolling the city in the guise of tourists, and in typical Frieren fashion, she takes the whole tourism thing a bit too seriously. Of course, she isn’t unaware of things happening around her, and when she purchases a vase from a street merchant, she has already planted the seeds for a bit of reconnaissance.
Meanwhile, we are introduced to a group of Shadow Warriors, who are charged with causing distractions during the festival while one of their members, Lowe, carries out the assassination attempt on Serie. While we don’t see Lowe in person, we do get several members of the shadow warriors talking about how powerful he is, building him up to be a credible threat and someone who could actually take Serie down. Before either side can finalize their plans, Frieren’s tracking spell that she put on the silver coins was traced back to her by Lore, someone who can use the Magic of the Goddess.
This results in a battle between three of the shadow warriors and Frieren’s party; however, she has some support as well in the form of Sein! Sein uses his holy magic to trace back the trace on her to find Lore! With the battle coming to an end, the magic special forces are aware of the scuffle happening in the city and plan to make their move. Meanwhile, we get a piece of information that reveals who is behind the assassination plot!
Characters
We have a LOT of characters to cover.
First off… the shadow warriors. I’ll just list them off and then talk about some of the ones that were featured.
Schritt: A mercenary
Wolf: A barkeep
Iris: A barmaid
Routine: A librarian
Wehrlos: A vagabond
Gazelle: A street vendor
Clematis: A priest
Lore: A nun
Lowe: The Governor-General of the Lorbeer Domain
During this volume, we learn how Wolf is also a sniper who specializes in poison-tipped arrows. He, himself, is mostly immune to poison, stating that the worst that would happen to him would be that he would get a stomachache. He has incredible sniping skills and can hit almost any target in any situation. Definitely someone very dangerous.
Wehrlos is an interesting one. Now posing as a vagabond, he used to be known as Rasen, the former Hero of the Far North. He has a bit of a sense of humor when interacting with Gazelle, but we don’t know much about why he changed his name.
Lore may appear to be a simple nun, but she can use the Magic of the Goddess. Because of this, she has become the cornerstone of their attack on Frieren and her party. She can track down and pinpoint their location with extreme accuracy, and even cancel out magic, as we see her attempt to do with Fern. She also relays information to Wolf and Gazelle, making her a vital part of their communication and coordination.
Gazelle may be a skilled fighter, but he seems rather overly cautious during battle. He’s also not very perceptive, as he was unaware that the silver coins he received from Frieren were laced with tracing magic, but he was perceptive enough to recognize her and Stark when they approached him to buy the vase. He was mainly used as a distraction in their attack against Frieren.
With them out of the way, there were Neu, Weg, and Kanone from the magic special forces. Weg was the one who confronted Land and Ubel. He is extremely perceptive when it comes to deciphering a mage’s abilities and spells. Also, he’s not afraid to go all out in an attempt to take someone’s life. This makes him very dangerous; however, he has a mind of his own and a fear of their leader, Frase. While he will stop at nothing to complete a mission, he fears punishment and removal from the magic special forces… that’s quite the duality of a personality!
Kanone seems to be the voice of reason that keeps Weg in line. She thinks things through, keeps a level head, and always talks about grounded outcomes to their actions. She’s wise, but she also has a soft spot, as we saw when she interacted with Lord Gluck and Denken. Due to the entire Weiss incident, Lord Gluck wishes to be persecuted, and Kanone seems to be willing to accept that, but there’s value in his continuing to serve as the head of Weiss in the imperial capital’s eyes. She’s understand of that, so she postpones things for now. She even informs Denken that he is to return to Weiss and remain there for the time being for his role in the matter. So, she has shown herself to be extremely reasonable and logical, and not just jumping to conclusions. She seems to always favor the most widely beneficial outcome.
Final Thoughts
Wow… a lot has happened in this volume. Between Land and Ubel’s attempt to flee, the tensions between the shadow warriors and Frieren’s party, learning about Serie’s assassination attempt and how the shadow warriors are involved, and a follow-up on the Weiss arc with Gluck and Denken, and more, there were so many different stories converging here in one single volume. While I was skeptical of introducing all of the shadow warriors at the same time, it was a case of controlled chaos. By only focusing on a couple of them at a time, it made learning about them very manageable.
One thing that I like is how they interact with one another. We’ve seen this before, but they are just carrying out an ordinary life while waiting for the day when their orders come. When they speak to one another, it’s just normal, everyday banter; however, with the way they interact, one would think that they are speaking in code to one another. This is apparent when Schritt drinks herself stupid and is approached by Lowe. Their conversation is rather casual; however, they both understand that they are speaking about the upcoming mission to assassinate Serie. Then again, it could just be normal banter, and I’m reading too much into things because there are times when they are discussing the mission and plans in the open and other times where it’s just friendly conversation that doesn’t seem to be coded. What makes me wonder about that is when Wehrlos led Sein to the bar, and Schritt told them that the bar was closed for business. There seemed to be a look on Wehrlos’ face that understood exactly what that meant, so who knows?
The battle between Frieren/Stark/Fern/Sein and the Shadow Warriors was a nice game of cat and mouse that was quite enjoyable. Plus, their plan to conceal Fern from Wolf’s sniping capabilities was pretty clever, too. Now that they know the shadow warriors are engaged and stand in their way, that means the assassination attempt draws closer, but with that last piece of information that was revealed at the end of the volume, I wonder if this serves as an indirect way to thwart it? We’ll see what happens next time, but things just got pretty interesting!
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This item was provided for review by VIZ Media
