Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End (Episode 23) – Conquering the Labyrinth
The second part of the First-class mage exam has the remaining eighteen mages challenged with reaching the bottom of an unexplored dungeon. Denken suggests they all work together since everyone can pass, but not everyone is on board!
Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End (Episode 23) – Conquering the Labyrinth
What happened?
Sense has gathered the eighteen remaining mages at the entrance to the Ruins of the King’s Tomb. The test is simple. Every mage that makes it to the lowest level of the dungeon will pass. So, there is no need to fight with one another. Denken is quick to realise what that means – they should all work together and they would easily clear the dungeon. However, many are not so quick to forget the events of the first test. After several of the former groups wander into the dungeon together, Frieren and Fern make their move. Since there is no chance to all work together, they are going it alone… well, just the two of them. Well, just the two of them and Sense who has decided to follow them.
Eventually, five mages are left at the entrance – Denken, Laufen, Richter, Lange, and Methode. They enter the dungeon together and begin to make their descent. Meanwhile, Frieren and Fern come across a chest. Fern is certain that it’s a mimic, but since there is a one percent chance it could contain a grimoire, Frieren is taking that chance… It’s a mimic. After some fight, Frieren tells Fern to push her further in as it chokes the mimic, making it cough her up. She has got plenty of experience of escaping mimics. After a bit of exploring, Frieren has amassed a pile of magical junk. Fern is not impressed, however, Sense is curious more about Fern. She’s never met a mage so powerful and so young with absolutely no passion for it.
As the parties get closer to the bottom of the dungeon, they encounter copies of themselves made from magic. The copies have the same appearance, abilities, and mana as their target. Denken is glad that they have numbers so they can counter different copies. However, they enter the final room of the dungeon and find a copy of Frieren floating before them. Denken reveals that if this wasn’t a test, he would have used his escape Golem without hesitation. Can anyone defeat Frieren?
What did you think?
All right, we’re back to the action and I absolutely loved the mage fights in this episode. Of course, they were fighting golems and copies of themselves and not one another, but that didn’t make them any less spectacular. They really nailed the intensity of it and made an activity that is essentially standing around and pointing sticks at things to be thoroughly entertaining. I’ll admit that I forgot all about the escape Golems when Lange was trapped in the room with the spiked walls. I do wonder why she didn’t try to use magic to escape from the inside though.
Anyhow, as soon as I saw Wirbel, Ehre, and Scharf facing their copies, I was worrying that the dungeon may be able to copy anyone within, and that meant that Frieren was ripe for a copy. Does this make Frieren the dungeon boss? It certainly seems so. We just need her to catch up with the others and explain how she was defeated in the past because we know she lost to a couple of human mages. I do wonder what is powering the copies in this dungeon. Could it be Serie? It’s possible, but if it’s not then it’s going to be something incredibly strong if indeed the Frieren copy is perfect. I’m surprised there wasn’t more teaming up. I was sure that Lawine and Kanne would go with Frieren and Fern. I think the next episode is going to be a blast!
Episode highlights
Other posts in the series
- Season One
- Episode 1 – The Journey’s End
- Episode 2 – It Didn’t Have to Be Magic…
- Episode 3 – Killing Magic
- Episode 4 – The Land Where Souls Rest
- Episode 5 – Phantoms of the Dead
- Episode 6 – The Hero of the Village
- Episode 7 – Like a Fairy Tale
- Episode 8 – Frieren the Slayer
- Episode 9 – Aura the Guillotine
- Episode 10 – A Powerful Mage
- Episode 11 – Winter in the Northern Lands
- Episode 12 – A Real Hero
- Episode 13 – Aversion to One’s Own Kind
- Episode 14 – Privilege of the Young
- Episode 15 – Smells Like Trouble
- Episode 16 – Long-Lived Friends
- Episode 17 – Take Care
- Episode 18 – First-Class Mage Exam
- Episode 19 – Well-Laid Plans
- Episode 20 – Necessary Killing
- Episode 21 – The World of Magic
- Episode 22 – Future Enemies
- Episode 23 – Conquering the Labyrinth
- Episode 24 – Perfect Replicas
- Episode 25 – A Fatal Vulnerability
- Episode 26 – The Height of Magic
- Episode 27 – An Era of Humans
- Episode 28 – It Would Be Embarrassing When We Met Again
You might also like…
Frieren is having such a happy, joyful time, while everyone else is fighting for their lives. Heh.
The big question, of course, is: now that they’ve built Frieren up so much, how are they going to get past her double? Is Frieren herself going to need to step in? Are they going to find a mimic to lure her double into checking? 😉
Haha! The double getting caught in a mimic would be hilarious. There’s always the possibility that whatever is making the doubles isn’t as strong as Frieren and therefore her copy isn’t as strong as the original. I think they’re going to be in for the fight of their lives either way. I’m really looking forward to the next episode (not that I’ve said that before…)