Macht/Synopsis

## Synopsis

### History

Macht of El Dorado is one of the Seven Sages of Destruction - powerful demon subordinates of the human kings who occupied important territories in the demon war against other races. His unbeatable magic and overwhelming battle prowess earned him the reputation of being the most powerful Sage of Destruction. As a servant of the Demon King, he occasionally carried out attacks on human settlements under the latter's orders, though he detested conflict and seemed dismayed when the Omniscient Schlacht forced him to fight against his will. During his tenure as a Sage of Destruction, he had made acquaintances with other figures in the Demon King Army despite claiming little interest in the Army's survival, such as Shogun Shräg and Qual.

He is one of the eleven mages who have defeated Frieren in battle, one of the four demons to have done so. According to Frieren, they had fought about six hundred years ago.

Coincidentally, during one of his routine destruction of human settlements, Macht realized that he lacked certain human emotions which humans naturally possess and began on his journey to try understanding them. To do this, he massacred countless humans meaninglessly in an attempt to feel malice and guilt, with little success. At one point, he encountered Solitär, a demon who researched people, to ask about the emotions he was trying to find, and learned human magic from her in the process.

Before the battle between the Hero and the South and the Seven Sages of Destruction, Macht was approached by Schlacht and solicitated to fight. Macht was reluctant to cooperate but was compelled to lend his aid with the presence of Miraculous Grausam, a fellow Sage of Destruction and his worst match. Under Schlacht's directions, his memories of the battle was later erased, leaving him with no recollection of the event.

During one of his massacres, as he forced a couple of childhood friends kill each other with the promise to let the survivor live. Macht witnessed a human boy demonstrating what he deemed to be "guilt" after killing his childhood friend. He concluded that it was a step closer to the answer he was looking for, and thought he might be able to experience "guilt" as well after killing someone "close" to him. To that end, he set out to find human acquaintances whom he could call "close" after spending a long time together.

As he approached the Fortified City of Weise, he attacked a nobleman's carriage out of a whim, killing all of the noble's subordinates. This noble was Glück, the feudal lord of the Fortified City of Weise. Glück offered to teach Macht about the emotions he lacked in exchange for the demon's service to help him deal with his political opponents and take control of the Fortified City of Weise. Intrigued by the noble's machinations, Macht agreed to the deal. He began working for Glück, first by assassinating all of his corrupt political opponents. When the Demon King was defeated by Himmel, Glück introduced him publicly to the people of Weise as a mage of the feudal lord's family. In his new position, he befriended the nobles of Weise according to Glück's commands and eventually gained most of the townspeople's trust.

He was put in charge as the magic instructor to Denken, the child of Gluck's deceased relative, after appealing his capacity in magic to Glück. Under his tutelage, Denken became a competent mage. Denken joined in the military and achieved great feats, securing his marriage to Glück's daughter, Lektüre.

About twenty years after the beginning of his contract with Glück, a demon attack destroyed the northmost Fortified City, rumored to be done by a single demon. This heightened the anxiety towards demons, which the nobility of Weise made good use to cause political instability. They pressured Glück to bind Macht was equipped with the Stone Bracelet of Sovereignty, the only magical item in the world capable of controlling a demon's mind, in order to control him. Macht accepted the conditions, knowing full well that the commands they chose were useless against him. Glück thus bound him with three commands, which were:

1. To serve the people of the Fortified City of Weise and all their descendants.
2. To never commit any malicious act against [the people of Weise].
3. To sever his own life the instant he bears even the slightest malice [towards the people of Weise].

Macht continued to serve Glück afterwards, as the lord grew old. He witnessed the death of Glück's daughter and the departure of Denken from his hometown. One day, as he accompanied Glück back from a visit to his daughter's grave, the feudal lord commented on how old he had gotten and how little Macht had changed in such time. Macht found that this was the impetus to test out what he had set out to do at the beginning: to destroy something "close" to him in order to find guilt and malice. After declaring his intention to Glück, he transformed the entirety of the Fortified City of Weise into gold. Yet the Bracelet of Sovereignty did not activate, and he had once again failed to gain any new emotion.

Disappointed by his failure, Macht spent several days in the destroyed city of Weise, languishing his lack of discovery before deciding he needed to move on. However, it was enough time for Great Mage Serie to show up to eliminate him. Serie revealed she had a magic which reflects all curses back to the casters, effectively countering Macht's specialized magic. She taunted Macht about his inability to return Weise to normal, which seemed to affect him greatly. They engaged in battle, where Serie had the upper hand and was able to neutralize all of Macht's attacks. However, in the midst of battle, Serie's disciples intervened, Lernen being one of them. He begged Serie not to kill Macht and let Di Agölze be lost forever, proposing instead that they seal Macht inside the Fortified City of Weise until they could find a cure to the curse. Serie was incredibly skeptical at this prospect, but she acceded to Lernen's request regardless and departed from the battle.

With Serie's approval, Macht was subsequently sealed by the First class mages inside a powerful barrier, but every year his magic continued to spread outside of its range. The Magic Association continued to manage the barrier and adjust it every year to cover the expansion. During his imprisonment, he continued to kill trespassers of the barrier, although interestingly he did leave some survivors. In an attempt to deter humans from venturing further, he would impale the corpses of intruders he killed and put them on display before transmuting them into gold.