Berserk Part 4: Falcon of the Millenium Empire (Full)

[Applause] don't look at me i'm such love hatred pleasure and pain life death here before our eyes this is to be human mess is to be evil [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] here we are friends part four the next step in our journey to cover the dark fantasy epic berserk and it has been a long road to get here almost nine hours just to get to this point alone we covered the first three arcs the black swordsman the golden age conviction we were introduced to our complicated anti-hero protagonist guts a traumatized man torn between finding inner peace and seeking revenge on the incomprehensibly powerful demons known as the godhand the ones who killed the only true family guts has ever known and turned the woman he loves into a hollow shell of her former self even his unborn child was corrupted into being a demon turned to evil after his lover was raped by his former best friend griffith through our protagonist journey we have seen many different layers of the man we've seen him turn into a murderous lunatic that will kill anyone that gets in his way only to realize he still has people in his life to protect that he might still have a chance at peace if he just stays with koska so he forced himself away from the edge starting a new quest to find and save koska who we saw was still insane but under the protection of a small group of prostitutes and this isn't even talking about the introduction of farnese serpico and isidro people whose lives were impacted by guts to say the least we saw sort of a ripple effect take place in conviction small almost one note interactions guts had with these people turned into much larger consequences down the line for once in a very long time guts was able to find allies who wanted to help him it wasn't all just carnage and trauma and because guts was so focused on saving koska he wasn't pushing people away anymore they were able to do the things he couldn't do guts wasn't the only one carrying the weight there was a lot that happened in part three hell the video was like four and a half hours long alone it definitely went crazy i don't even want to bring up how the goddamn manipulated reality itself to push midland into a borderline apocalypse just so they can have the conditions necessary to bring about the resurrection of griffith and now him and nosferatu zod are off to do something we have no clue what and all we have to go off of is that everyone in the world had a dream prophesizing his arrival but the big question is if guts actually cares we had that panel towards the end of conviction once griffith is fully brought into the physical world at first he seemed like he was about to lunge at griffith almost by reflex but koska's cries stopped him in his tracks skull knight himself told guts the deal he can't chase revenge and save the woman he loves guts has to make a choice so things have gotten a lot more complicated than before in earlier arcs guts simply wandered around killing and torturing demons to find out how he can find the god hand and it was only once he stopped looking did griffith himself appear on earth almost like a cruel joke but now guts has a new path to protect koska and never abandon her again and her condition means that his previous lifestyle of never-ending violence simply can't work anymore if guts really meant what he said in godo's cabin then the only thing he can do is stay with koska in the makeshift sanctuary they have the only logical way they'd be safe from demons to basically forget about griffith but that's also easier said than done because well how do you forget something like this especially when you have a living breathing reminder always there with you and part 4 completely focuses on this conflict the ark referred to as the falcon of the millennium empire also known as the millennium falcon war at least to fans this is probably my all-time favorite arc in berserk because holy [ __ ] does it kick all the best parts into high gear mainly exploring guts as a character and bringing some seriously emotional moments it also serves as the conclusion to guts's ultimate character arc this is where you really see the man change to a degree that has to be seen to be believed but i really can't say much for now trust me we've got time to cover it in full yet this is actually a pretty controversial arc to people too not out of subject matter at least not the way you're thinking instead there's some elements that crop up in this arc that some fans see as almost antithetical to what berserk should actually be and i'd be lying if i didn't say they actually do have a point it's just one of those subjective matters that nobody will ever 100 agree with i still absolutely love this arc in almost everything it does almost but once again that's stuff to talk about when it's actually covered now this arc is actually the second most adapted for the series right behind golden age only instead of getting anime adaptations it took the second season of berserk 2016 to actually do that it was instead turned into video games berserk ps2 and the more famous sword of the berserk for dreamcast i'm gonna hold off on talking about these for now because they actually do fit into the series even if events of berserk ps2 are not completely canon but sword of the berserk is widely considered an actual part of the story since the script for the game was written by miora himself and with its sort of being a standalone adventure we have the luxury of placing it anywhere we want in the first quarter millennium falcon war but i do think there's a perfect place to address it just not the moment berserk ps2 doesn't really have much that actually deviates beyond moving certain events different areas and not addressing the presence of some characters during said moments the only real addition it has is a new apostle guts fights which is a segment of the game that sort of bridges two plot points together but after that it vanishes and it's mainly just adapting the arc as normal still i stated there's a time and a place before we get started i just want to warn you guys this video is going to be [ __ ] long falcon of the millennium empire is the longest arc of berserk hands down and there's a lot to talk about to say the least so this time i'm really going to encourage you guys to use the time stamps down below if you just want to get to certain parts you want to hear or what have you this is going to be a leviathan of a video so make sure you got some pizza and beer ready [Music] we start off the ark with some cryptic narration saying that the children were first to notice something about the world changed after the resurrection of griffith we see a group of village boys going hunting in the woods an older brother trying to keep his younger sibling from rushing on ahead and getting lost despite how annoyed the older boy is the small child insists he saw fairies deeper in the woods some of their friends actually do admit that something in the woods feels different they can't really explain it just that the woods feel wrong like it was a forest from a dream they all had at the mention of their shared discomfort a strange noise echoes in the woods one of the children says it sounds like someone was laughing the laughter gets louder completely surrounding the boys until it goes dead quiet then replaced by a strong gust of wind all the kids looking up to see nosferatu's zod flying just above the children panic and run out of the forest trying to get as far away from the monster as fast as they can and as they do we see zod hovering above the tree line a narration confirming that something about the world did change that maybe there was a presence in the forest all along and for some reason it's becoming more and more obvious to people across the world we even see the outline of some goblin-like creature laughing as it hides under the stump of a tree now this is the first step towards explaining the actual magic system of berserk i said before in part three that there was a sort of kind of explanation that wasn't completely accurate it had to do with people trying to perceive magic and how close-minded perception made puck invisible to people like the holy iron chain knights up until he wasn't but this arc is where it all gets completely explained and it's definitely crazy to say the least can't say too much right now just know that things get downright cosmic by the end moving on from that we transition over to a pretty sad scene erica is clearing the snow off a gravestone go to his gravestone unfortunately the old man died not long after guts left to save costco the trio returned but it's a bittersweet reunion erica is relieved to see koska back safe but guts is clearly upset he wasn't able to be there before the old man passed though she says that goto was just happy to see him one last time before he died and that he wouldn't want guts to see his face once he was gone anyway but now that everyone is back home safe the big question pops up what's the plan now erica wants them all to live together but is that what gutz really wants even after she promises that they can spruce up the cave into an actual home and if they keep koska happy then she won't run away again gut seems to agree but he's still torn up inside right as he changed course to let go of his old obsession and focus on the little good he has left in his life griffith came back he's back on earth somewhere guts could reach him and he came back just like the old days a sight so impossible and powerful that guts forgot he wanted to kill him and that is [ __ ] all of the horrible unspeakable things guts had to go through just to find the god hand again all the pain all the violence all the people guts had to kill and now he shows up well at least he flew off to some place far away that temptation to chase after griffith vanished along with him and knows brought to zod who knows what the guy is doing guts has this new chance at a life at godos he should really just take it and live a peaceful life i guess a friend of rickard showed up oh that [ __ ] yeah he's there he's there standing chatting with rickard at the sword cemetery the memorial for the people he murdered erica innocently describing the old friend with long silver hair a man so pretty you can hardly tell his gender as though he was pulled out of a fairy tale rickard is completely ignorant to what actually happened guts never told him and kaska can't talk all he knows is that one day nobody came back he's just happy to see griffith again oh and guts is here too it really is a big happy reunion wait why is he trying to kill him yep this time gutz is operating off pure reflex he's going straight for griffith rickard in complete shock at what's going on the boy latches onto guts to get him to stop but the big guy assures him that's not griffith his brand is bleeding like crazy too this is the real deal while guts and record argue griffith chimes in saying guts never changes he always swings first and talks later griffith seems cheerful for their meeting but guts is insulted at how he's talking so casually as if nothing happened gutz demands to know why griffith even came here and he admits he wanted to see guts they couldn't speak at the tower of conviction but now they have plenty of time in a way it's also a more fitting place saying that this is where the band of the hawk can assemble once again referencing the graveyard guts screams that griffith better never use that name again not after what he did but griffith admits that he came to the graveyard for another reason he wanted to know if the sight would evoke any emotional reaction now that he's in a physical body he wants to be sure that his humanity is well and truly gone the way he puts it he's free gutz throws rickard aside and lunges again screaming out in disbelief that griffith doesn't feel anything he betrayed all these men sentence them to death and eternal torment and griffith simply doesn't give a [ __ ] the way he sees it he's still got his mind on the prize he's going to have his own kingdom no matter what guts takes a swing but no spratu zod rushes in to protect griffith it seems like the two are completely allied now and zod respects the god hand enough to protect him from danger and to make matters worse koska feels a twinge in her own brand even puck notices something is off feeling a strong presence nearby and here comes probably one of the best fights of the series the fight on the hill of swords guts and sod try to kill each other in a duel just like the old days only this time guts has way more experience so instead of being a one-sided ass whooping where guts gets thrown around like a toy these two beat the [ __ ] out of each other it's absolute chaos zod is proud to see guts become such a powerful warrior who's confused to see the two together in the first place even demands zod and move to give him a shot at griffith but zod says he has to force his way through even if he went back on his word that he doesn't give a [ __ ] about the god hand zod is still zod he's a warrior at heart so he's not one to step down without a fight they continue their duel and it seems like zod managed to put guts on the defensive even starts to worry that it's going to end exactly like last time but it won't because this time he can fight he's killed countless demons and zod is no different from the rest of them he's just another monster and griffith is right there all he needs is for zod to get out of the way rickard is still very confused for some reason nosferatu zod showed up and guts can actually push him back all because he really wants to kill griffith so much so that he actually started to cut through zod's sword it starts to chip and guts broke through his blade just enough for zod to worry so the infamous warrior starts grabbing the swords around him to dual-wield against guts absolute dick move on multiple levels for one they're gravestones and two rickert worked really hard on those the positive side to this is that guts can tell that zod wants to end the fight he's not enjoying the battle anymore he's actually trying to kill guts at full force but guts is just as desperate to kill him kicking up a sword into zod's abdomen it's a true stalemate zod and guts are on equal ground now and considering how he started that's saying quite a [ __ ] lot but this is where something weird happens despite griffith feeling nothing as he stood over the graves of the men he murdered confident he was free of his humanity he feels a twinge in his chest at the sight of guts and danger it turns out griffith and the demon infant have completely merged into one being so he must simply be feeling some leftover emotions and i guess that guts is technically his dad now this this is weird like do they play catch or something the duel between guts and zod is still going but we've officially reached phase two zod is frustrated that his sword doesn't quite match up to the dragon slayer so he decides to transform into his demonic form fully intent on finishing the fight once and for all the sight of the monster that traumatized the band of the hawk all those years ago blows rickard's mind remember he is aware of demons and apostles but he doesn't know the full story guts remained very vague and skull knight himself never sat down and explained what was going on but this time it seems to finally hit rickard that something is very wrong here despite zod's transformation gutz keeps himself steady during the battle in fact he's able to get a good hit against zod in a way turning into a violent monster might have actually made zod weaker than guts the guy has been fighting nothing but violent monsters for two years straight that's not to say guts completely dominates the duel from here on out in fact zod is still a force to be reckoned with even slamming straight into the side of the mountain that contained the orca crashing through their safe area and ruining the only sanctuary guts and koska had left and this situation is only made worse by koska showing up mindlessly stumbling her way towards the scene still unaware of what's going on she spots griffith and calls out to him just in time for zod to explode out of the mountain sending stones running down towards her guts tries to save her but zod throws him out of the way against a nearby boulder the only thing that saved kaska from being crushed was griffith diving in to save her it's not exactly clear why he did this until you remember that he's feeling the faint emotions of the demon infant inside of him it seems like it influenced griffith to go save his mother which kind of raises the question of why it didn't do the same for guts i mean i guess their relationship hasn't exactly been the most positive so guts's son is a mama's boy koska tries to touch griffith's face but the agony from her brand is too much sending her to the ground the side of the two together especially koski collapsing in pain distracts guts who is almost begging for griffith to get away from her and this window is enough for zod to come in for an attack only to be stopped by griffith he seems satisfied by his visit and wants to leave so that's exactly what they do zod's bloodlust is flipped off like a switch and he spreads his wings guts demands to know where the two are going and griffith simply says that he's going to get his kingdom nothing changed and just before he leaves he offers record to come along with him the dream never ended and if he learns the truth and hates griffith that's fine but if he still wants to come along and help griffith get his throne he'll be welcomed with open arms it'd be just like the old days also guts is still really angry firing his crossbow at griffith as he flies off rickard stops him and the conversation ends with guts calling [ __ ] that nothing changed everything changed the old band of the hawk was dead and gone it was griffith's fault that happened but the way he puts it guts should have known it would happen he was the one man that knew griffith more than anybody so none of this was out of character for him with that they're left alone on the hill record ordering guts to tell him exactly what happened that day in the tornado but guts is silent merely watching griffith fly away who by the way is thinking about how he dove in to save koska the woman he raped and treated as a bargaining chip the entire time he knew her all because the demon infant gave him that slight thump in the chest when all your emotions are cauterized in your mind even a tiny push in a direction can affect your thoughts and by golly does this plot point end up being important part 5 is going to be very interesting people trust me but before all that the truth is revealed guts tells rickard what actually happened he collapses to the ground in utter disbelief that griffith would actually murder the one family he's ever known puck also listened in on the conversation realizing that the flashes he saw before were of koska being raped during the eclipse and to make matters all the worse the sanctuary is completely buried under the rubble their only chance at escaping the demons is destroyed now they have no choice but to leave rickard then demands to travel with guts that he wouldn't be able to live with himself if guts was the only one trying to avenge the hawks it's too much for one man and they were his family too but guts tells him to stay rickard could never truly hate griffith not the way guts can and when erica overhears that record wants to leave she breaks down crying and runs away upset that so many people she grew to care about are leaving forever so rickard himself has to make a choice go with guts to hunt griffith or stay with erica and thankfully he does chase after the young girl now it's just down to our main trio puck asks guts what the plan is do they still keep chasing revenge but guts makes it clear that he refuses to leave koska ever again meaning chasing revenge is simply impossible he can't protect her and fight an entire legion of the damned to kill griffith and it seems that the two of them staying together means even more demons will come for them their only choice is to find another elf sanctuary but that simply means locking koska up like a prisoner again which is what caused her to run away in the first place then puck gets an idea why go to an elf sanctuary when they can go to the elf sanctuary his home the land of the elves and with that guts's new quest begins record begs them to stay one more night but it's impossible to only put rickert and erika in danger record makes one last attempt to join guts but he simply tells him not to abandon what he can't replace goto's last words to guts before he died guts puck and koska take their leave starting a new quest to find the homeland of the elves guts thinks about how it's snowing just like the day he left the band of the hawk only this time griffith was the one who deserted him the man said he's off to get his own kingdom that guts should know what he's going to do but he can't think about that now he wraps koska in his cloak promising to never abandon her again the falcon of the millennium empire arc has officially kicked off and this is the point where we can go ahead and take a step back for a second it's weird to do this in the middle of a chapter i'm not even kidding it's literally right in the middle but don't worry none of it after this is guts related for a while the next four and a half chapters to put things in perspective and the thing we're going to talk about happens before the next time we see guts and coska it's time to talk about sword of the berserk guts is rage [Music] an outcast warrior enters a land plagued by an evil fate he is not like ordinary men for he carries the dragon slayer a mighty blade of retribution whose fury knows no equal his enemies will know true fear once he starts to swing sword of the berserk is the 1999 dreamcast game based off the manga it was developed by uk's company published by idos interactive and it follows an original story written by meora and takes place some point after guts and koska leave godo's cabin now i mainly want to talk about the story since it's far and away the best part of the game but there's some other stuff that i want to mention for one susumu hirazawa also did the soundtrack to this game on top of the 97 anime and it kicks ass i really like the slower more melodic version of forces that serves as the main theme [Music] [Music] plus some other tracks mainly boss fight ones i'm not kidding when i say they really stand out as some serious ear worms i really like the one that plays during the fight with the mandrakora heart where the chorus sounds almost like a screaming child [Music] [Music] it's really good another thing that really stood out and surprised me was the voice acting now games in the 90s were pretty hit and miss when it came to voice acting especially japanese ones the resident evil 1 dub is still hailed as one of the worst ever recorded but after around the middle of the decade there was a major push to actually give a [ __ ] with their voice cast mainly after the release of the first metal gear solid and most importantly the legacy of kane games legacy of kane especially impacted the dub disorder of the berserk mainly because as dated stated idos interactive was involved in publishing meaning they handled the localization and a certain voice actor from soul reaper provided a role for the game guts himself is played by michael bell razael's voice actor and he definitely elevates the material i don't trust you balzac i sense that you're not coming clean with me on this but i'll do it for my kuska in fact he's pretty good i'm not gonna lie he's definitely one of the more underrated voice actors for guts now the main villain is played by earl bowen and i think i'm just crazy but doesn't the guy sound almost exactly like tony j it started some years ago in a nearby town no one has found a cure for it yet so when guts and the main bad guy are in the same room all i can think about is raziel talking to the elder god i've sent my soldiers to the village countless times since then to get the heart of the great tree but not a single one has returned alive but we desperately need it for our research i've seen your abilities gutsu i have a job for you a job a proposition infiltrate the mandragora village and take the heart of the great tree raziel the failed assassin you had cain at your mercy but lacked the courage to fulfill the act and now you see the wasteland wrought by the tyrant's hand by his selfish decision to preserve his own life even when it met sacrificing the whole world this is the fate of nozgoth as long as kane remains alive an ironic condemnation given this guilty scene one would think you torn down the pillars single-handedly what are you trying to obliterate as you drag your loathsome body through this chamber and why as nasgoth descends into madness and misery do you appear to thrive things in this world i am learning are rarely what they seem you apparently are no exception but he's not he's errol bowen paul eating also provides his voice but it's for a relatively small role he says he's forcing them out of the towns and villages because they're dangerous and conducting human experiments in the name of research but anyone who discovers the truth does not live long like this young woman almost found out still it's nuts that all these recognizable guys are in a relatively obscure licensed title like this now the actual gameplay is rough it's a common criticism you hear about sword of the berserk this is a hack and slash action game coming out right before something like devil may cry or god of war so they don't exactly know how to do things properly you have a very noticeable clunk to the whole package and it's really hard to get a decent flow of things at least if you want to get creative wielding the dragon slayer itself is pretty good it has a good weight to it and only a few hits can send someone flying but this is where you run into the other issue of the game the level design doesn't really complement guts that well you have this huge brute with a massive sword that he swings like a [ __ ] baseball bat so let's put him in a very constricted tight hallway that never lets them get a decent rhythm the sad part is that the segments where they do let you out in the open are pretty fun your side items feel powerful and the enemies melt when you're allowed to go batshit nuts even has one of those sort of devil trigger rage modes that honestly does look pretty good the boss fights definitely feel like a grand spectacle even if once again the combat isn't exactly the most refined it's not as bad as what you hear or i mean some people outright say the zod fight's impossible but it's not it's actually really fun you even get an interesting mechanic where sometimes you get a quick time event that depending on whether or not you fail can lead to different stages as you get through a level it's not as though it completely changes the story or unlocks a new ending honestly the game is really short like can be beaten in less than five hours short but it's kind of neat to see how different paths can be taken in each level but the actual reason i want to talk about the game is the story as stated this was written by kentaro miura himself and since it never contradicts or reckons anything it's safe to say the game can fit snugly into canon without any problems only a few elements can raise an eyebrow if you're an absolute purist but we'll talk about that when we get there the best way to describe sword of the berserk is that it's essentially a standalone black swordsman style adventure but with post-conviction guts and this actually ends up being one of the more interesting aspects to the plot the only times we've had these pulpy monster of the week style mini arcs was during a time where gutz wasn't okay he was very impulsive callous and mainly just killed things while puck was the one trying to figure out what was actually happening this time however guts is a bit more chill he's still a prick sometimes exceptionally so but this is at a point where his priorities have completely changed he's more open to working with others and his banter with puck is more sardonic than bitter and cruel and i mean um thanks for saving us see ya okay [Applause] a performer eh i kind of like her hey kaska where are you going oh she probably wants to see that show the town's right over there or why did you take her forget it puck i don't have time to waste on something like that but even you need to take a break once in a while all work and no play will make you a grump come on come on come on i want to go i want to go we won't want to go please please please oh please come on let us go let's live a little come on gatsu please sure whatever we need to get food anyway i'm starving but to really paint what i'm saying let's go ahead and talk about the actual story in the game real quick it won't take long i promise sword of the berserk opens up with a traveling performer named rita stuck on the side of the road after her wagon breaks down she her dog and her companions are attacked by bandits taking advantage of their new vulnerability well just as things are about to get violent costco wanders in wanting to pet rita's dog the bandits are happy at the idea of having another woman to sell off at the slave market and that's when gut shows up a major ass beating takes place and soon all the bandits are dead rita is thankful for the trio coming along to save them and invites them all to watch her performance in the nearby city guts doesn't want to go purely focused on protecting kazuka and continuing their journey but puck talks them into letting them see the performance it also helps that his brand starts bleeding due to something in rita's wagon they arrive in town to see the crowd excited for rita's throwing knife tricks her companion a strong man named job accidentally falls over during his routine and exposes his face revealing that he has a pretty hideous growth on his body the crowd instantly turn on them calling jabba mandragora and viciously attacking him the stress of the situation causes job to fully transform into a horrible monster slaughtering anyone around him in a blind rage guts murders job much to read his despair and from there we see the arrival of lord balzik if you can't see that this dude is the main bad guy but what are you doing here it looks like ganondorf and carries a cane he's so obviously the bad guy well he's impressed that gutz was able to kill such a violent creature and takes him to his castle to make a deal it turns out the mandragora is referred to a mysterious outbreak happening in balzac's land people develop horrible growths go insane and eventually mutate into monsters that kill each other the disease comes from the plants that have slowly infested the land mandrake plants that if pulled from the ground scream loud enough to kill any living thing around them on top of that their poison is the cause of the outbreak however it is revealed that the plant can also be used to cure any and all ailments from diseases to even mental illness but their only hope of curing the illness for good is to get the great heart of the mandragora plant which first sprouted in a nearby village that now acts as a safe haven for victims seeking to escape balzik's influence he's sent soldiers into the village multiple times but nobody has ever come back and balzac himself nearly died when he led the charge himself once balzik has his dungeons filled with mandragora victims and claims that he's searching for a way to cure his subjects but guts plane doesn't trust him sensing immediately something is wrong as they're talking puck notices a painting on the wall of a woman revealed to be balzik's wife gutz agrees to go to the village with the promise that balzac would use some of the cure he creates to heal koski's mind and just as their meeting finishes rebels attacked the castle kidnapping koska in the process during the raid some of the mandragora victims transform wreaking havoc in the dungeons as guts has to fight his way out he manages to find the rebels who explain that balzac is actually a tyrant he's been kidnapping victims of the outbreak and experimenting on them along with violently oppressing his people rita is horrified at the entire situation almost shocked at how cruel people are being to each other but guts seems pretty apathetic to the larger picture he only cares about healing kaska though he does actually apologize to rita for killing job trying to give her some little comfort that is possible in the situation i've always depended only on myself no one else using my own strength are taming me no one to laugh and job that mandragoran guy was he followed me because i fed him i was surprised at first but he was really childlike always smiling laughing even though he didn't understand i can't believe that now he's gone forgive me rita oh wow he apologized i can't believe it the rebels agree to let guts go to the village but they want to accompany him to make sure balzac doesn't get the great heart all to himself they plan to use it as leverage to guarantee a cure is distributed to the infected guts despises the idea of leaving koska alone to finish his mission but puck assures them that they'll be safe in the rebel hideout it's an elf sanctuary well as they set out on their journey the rebel hideout is attacked by balzik's men and kosuke is captured as guts and the rebels travel to the village they're attacked by mutated animals infected by the mandragora they finally make it to the village and find the story about it being a safe haven for the infected is true one of the rebels investigates a strange plant growing in the town only to accidentally uproot a mandrake the screaming causes some of the villagers to transform and attack the rebels and guts is soon the only one left alive viciously fighting for his life as a nun rushes in to stop the violence her name is erasa and she's been the one attending to the infected who all live in an almost childlike state their minds are empty but they're seemingly happy in their mental prisons rita then arrives to explain that the hideout was attacked and costco was captured balzac makes his demands clear bring the elder heart and he'll get koska back rita feels sympathy for ariza and the creatures but guts isn't convinced they'll still chop them to pieces if it comes down to it ereza attempts to explain that the creatures remind her of a boy she once knew known as nico he was slow-minded heavily implied to have some form of mental retardation and because of this he was treated very cruelly by the rest of the villagers but ereza always liked the boy for having a bright and happy attitude despite how terrible everyone was to him while during one winter the crops failed and everyone was obsessively hoarding food to themselves nico had no home so the most he could do was go around and beg someone to feed him but he went days without eating one day he decided to try the church since ereza was always very kind to him but she was too busy to hear him come into the building so once again he was left without any food and starved to death inside ereza was destroyed at the discovery that he was that close to salvation but she just didn't notice he came in we also see that niko had a lucky charm a bail it i'm gonna talk about this in a bit just just hold on ereza begs them to leave the village alone that the only reason people were attacked was because of an unspoken rule the manjagora victims set up stay away from the elderheart and they'll be fine but rita points out that the mandragora is spreading it's covering more territory so that doesn't make sense and guts plain and simple doesn't care about eraser's story he's taking the elder heart no matter what the nun runs off and guts chases after her now i know this sounds like black swordsman guts grade a [ __ ] but this might actually not be as bad as you think it is i'm gonna explain it in a bit if it's not blatantly obvious at this point when i'm gonna bring up but ereza might not exactly be completely honest about all the details here but before that we get a scene with koska in prison she's still in a daze not really sure of what's all just happened in this adventure and then we see puck come to her rescue except that it's night time and that means spookies are here to [ __ ] [ __ ] up and guts isn't there to protect her nor the demon infant so kaska and puck are all alone to deal with these horrible spirits then nosferatu zod crashes through the roof dude we just saw you fly off with griffith what the hell he acts like he's been trying to find guts again sensing a branded person nearby and accidentally stumbling into costco instead of guts nevertheless his presence chases away the bad spirits and he leaves once again to go find guts and call him a nerd with their prison in ruins koska and puck explore balzik's castle through their snooping around they discover a woman they believe to be balzik's daughter who is almost the spitting image of her mother she also acts very similar to koska mindless and in a childlike state they also discover a secret room in the castle with a mandrake heart sitting inside of it turns out they did have one it's just small and worn down from the experiments koska cradles it like a baby even humming a song to it her maternal instincts taking over without really knowing what she's holding isn't even human balsic arrives and is royally pissed off just in time for the mandrake heart to awaken and latch itself onto costco the screams loud enough to enrage every mandragoran in the dungeons and for the mandrake plants to pop out of the ground and infest the city guts and rita discover a secret catacomb under the village church and after fighting their way through the mandragorans they find areza standing with the elder heart the heavily mutated corpse of nico herself transformed and clearly corrupted so now i can explain the deal with the bailout erraza was distraught after the death of the boy so it's implied she used the bailiff to become an apostle and used her new abilities to turn nico's corpse into the first mandrake plant from there she started turning the villagers into mandragoran believing their infections make them happier this is why guts was so hostile to her and showed no sympathy to the victims this isn't an actual plague it's an apostle that was transforming humans and to her brainwashed mutants guts's brand would react to the presence of mandragoran so he kind of already knew what was going on when in doubt blame a demon gut seemingly kills areza and tries to take nico's corpse only for raza to snatch him back screaming that no one will take the boy from her gutz chases after her and they come back to the surface to find the village in ruins balzac's men came to steal the heart for themselves some of his soldiers mutated into enhanced versions thanks to essences extracted from the mandragora plants they've been experimenting with and they show no intention on honoring their deal with guts ereza decides to sacrifice herself in nico instead of letting balzac steal the elder heart walking into fire so they can burn to death just before the soldiers can attack nosferatu zod swoops in he found guts again and he's not wasting time guts thinks zod is there to help griffith weaponize the mantra gora but he insists that's not the case he just wants to kick guts's ass they fight but before they can finish each other off zod calls a truce he knows guts needs to rush back to the city to save koska and in all honesty zod was deviating from his orders to waste time with guts they would need to find a better opportunity to really go at each other's throats we also see that some of the victims of the mandragora that survived the recent events have actually been cured of their curse the plants are falling off and the victims are coming back to their senses and they immediately assumed guts was the one who caused everything dicks still guts and rita make it back to find the city in ruins the mandrake plants that still remain are infecting villagers who transformed into mandragora and went on a rampage guts fights his way back to the castle killing as many of the creatures as he can and wiping out what's left of balzac's army the final confrontation begins all parties meeting up in balsick's throne room here is where the end game kicks off ballsick gives a bad guy speech revealing that he was actually once a respectful kind ruler that tried to do good but his beloved wife was sickly so much so that balzac resorted to any method he could to save her including creating a potion using the extract of a mandrake plant the woman they found isn't balzik's daughter it's his wife it really will cure any ailment as it purged all illness from balzik's wife's body and in fact even reversed her age but the side effects even in small doses are extreme while her lifespan was extended and she can heal from any disease her mind is broken just like koska's ever since balzac has been trying to take care of her but the strain of ruling his land and caring for his now insane wife got to him he's become cruel and views his position as a burden he wants to get rid of balsick drinks a much higher concentrated dose of the mandragoran potion and mutates into an enhanced state him and guts fight and it looks like balsick is killed as the rest of the party try to make their escape to find koska we see the bailit roll next to balsik and his wife the mandragoran roots have kicked into overdrive fully consuming the castle as the party tries to run for their lives also quick side note [ __ ] this running section it's terrible okay back to the summary guts puck and rita come back to the main hall of the castle where they spot a massive mandrake plant with koska trapped inside guts makes quick work of the monster and saves koska and it seems like some of the essence of the creature actually affected her for a brief moment she recognizes guts talking about how she was stuck in a horrible dream hang in there my love [Music] my dear i was dreaming a really bad tree [Music] but almost as soon as it happens costco reverts back to her empty-minded state [Music] damn it we then come back to ball sick he's still alive but close to death his wife just giggling as she stands over him he starts laughing along with her saying the situation really was funny and then the bailout activates yep balzac sacrificed his wife to become an apostle now becoming this horrific chimera monster this is the final boss of the game and of course guts kicks his ass the monster is defeated half the city is dead a mentally ill woman was damned to hell for eternity and now everyone is openly oppressing all the former mandragoran victims we save the world guys guts puck and costco walk off into the sunset excited for their new adventure rita simply saying thank you for the time they spent together take care of yourselves you too reader what an adventure i'll remember you all forever and ever hmm forever ah you're a cold fish as usual won't you ever say anything nice for a change oh you got enough mouth for both of us you're always [Music] thank you so that's sort of the berserk as you saw it's a pretty simple story but i'd say it was effective a nice little mini arc to enjoy it's basically filler if you want to put it into the main timeline admittedly but hey it's still debated whether or not it's actually canon and i think it works when you consider what the arc actually represents the story has a pretty obvious theme about stigma and the treatment of the mentally ill which is a big aspect of the coming arc considering a certain party member is now severely mentally ill and balsic himself is essentially a mirror to what guts could become on his journey balzik tried to be a strong ruler while also caring for a wife that was no longer herself he really did love her but trying to balance these two roads show them insane let's just say this plays a factor in some things to come now you might have noticed some quirks to the rules the lore set up or maybe i'm attributing something to someone where that's not actually the case but if it wasn't that also creates some story issues it's pretty minor but here's what i mean so i said before that ereza more than likely used the bailiff to become an apostle after nico died and from there created the mandrigorin as her way of making people happy but that raises the question of why didn't all the mandragoran die out when she herself was lit on fire with the elderheart the demon itself was dead why wasn't the infection cured why did it take later we never actually got a clear answer on whether or not killing the apostle would cure whoever they transformed but you'd assume at the very least the mandrakes would if you want to assume she wasn't the apostle then who was balzik only turned into a demon after sacrificing his wife and guts's brand did react to the presence of the infected so it was a demonic plague unless maybe the logic is if someone is transformed then there's simply no going back which does make sense in some of the more extreme cases like rosine melting down children and reshaping them into elves or the heavier stages of mutations for zandark simply there's a threshold where the only cure is to kill them but still it's kind of weird now i'm actually okay with the fact that baylet was used twice since that's actually the case for the counts bailit after guts picked it up at the end of guardians of desire it's heavily implied this thing is going to be used again sometime in the future at least that was the plan plus you get this after credit scene where skull knight shows up and eats the bailit which is cool because skull knight is [ __ ] awesome but there you go that's sort of the berserk the gameplay radically shifts between being fun and being hilariously clunky but the story itself is super good it's a very simple basic shady guy ass protagonist to do a job and you find out he had ulterior motives sort of deal but it works for this segment of berserk and really this is just a treat for fans since it was the first video game adaptation of the source material now none of the new characters come back so it's safe to assume they all died during the subsequent cushing invasion i'm sorry rita i will say if you decide to sit down and play the game since you can find an iso and a dreamcast emulator [ __ ] anywhere now it is a good time you will tear your hair out during some segments because oh boy that combat but it's a nice little addition to the series you're already very loyal and invested in so i will say some characterization is a little weird like gutz is way more open about his relationship with koska than he's ever been anywhere else in the series like he's directly calling her his beloved and saying my love and all that in front of other people when he's never talked like that before he's kind of kept it on the down low it's not much but it's kind of something where it's like oh that's new it's an element that was always there but just went unstated that's just suddenly being addressed now it's not a problem i'm not complaining about it and as stated michael bell still knocks it out of the park with the role of guts and i really do think a lot of it comes down to a weird translation issue because some of the dialogue can be pasted a little awkward and it's pretty obvious that the script wasn't a one-to-one transition it had some stuff lost in translation but you know that was the nature of the beast it was a 90s anime game what could you do but now it's time to come back and talk about the actual manga again we're coming back right where we left off halfway through chapter 182 i wasn't kidding when i said sort of the berserk take place right between these segments technically it takes place during this whole section but it was a it was the only logical place to include it the cushion invasion is in full swing raiding cities and killing everyone in their way the men are executed in many terrible ways while the women are captured they're certain that they'll be raped and forced to have cushing children but some of them believe they might be used as sacrifices for their rituals the villagers lament their disappearance of griffith now considered a mythical figure cause the way they see it if griffith was still around the invasion would have never happened that's when a young girl says that something is coming the wind is whispering to her the hawk of light is coming the rest of the women write her off as insane she just watched her family burn to death so she simply lost her mind and we see the cushing commander in charge of the city invasion celebrating their victory it turns out they asked the city to surrender multiple times but they refused the fear the kushin army is too strong though in all fairness if the people surrendered they'd be used as war slaves so it's not exactly a great solution nevertheless they managed to capture six fortresses it's been a steamroll campaign salat and his men returned to report their failure of capturing griffith their story about how he flew away with zod is met with mockery salah fires back by saying that the entire reason for the invasion was because an oracle saw a sign so they can't exactly dismiss the possibility of mysticism but the commander just kicks a lot in the face and [ __ ] talks them pretty hard we actually find out that the bakiraka clan the feared assassins that gave our protagonists so much trouble in the old days the ones that were quite literally regarded in midland as legendary figures are actually pretty not well liked in the cushion empire turns out they were reduced to this state because they sided with the royal family during a rebellion so when they were defeated the bakuraka were driven out from the kushin empire the new emperor only just recently recognized the clan as soldiers of the formal kushin military salat seemingly gets pissed off rising to his feet to beat this dude's ass but it turns out he was moving to catch an arrow flying straight for the commander's head there were some midland knights who survived the attack salon's men made quick work of the survivors showing some martial arts skills strong enough to quite frankly rip these poor schmucks to pieces the skills of the bakuraka impress the commander who is now conveniently regretting how he talks serious smack about their clan salat and his boys go to leave saying that they need to return to their mission of searching for griffith who is right there good job salat i'm proud of you yeah griffith just waltzed into this conquered fortress full of hostile soldiers then just trots past salat and stabs the commander right in the head with his saber everyone is in absolute shock this mythical war hero just showed up out of nowhere and killed the leader in charge of this band of soldiers some cushion archers try to fire on griffith but not a single one touches them they somehow missed the guy standing right in front of them they prepare a second volley only for nosferatu zod to show up you see what i mean by sword of the berserk had to take place between the pages of this chapter because at this point these two are pretty much stuck together the kushans are torn apart by zod and just as they are well and truly starting to panic someone else shows up an entire line of soldiers are skewered through the skull by mysterious knight this is sir locus he is another man who saw the vision of the hawk of light and wishes to join griffith the name drop causes the villagers to rejoice he really is the hawk of light they were saved and these filthy heathens are slaughtered by these cool dudes salah it's all right though i like him he's fine the girl chews through her bindings and runs up to griffith the name echoing in her mind for some reason she just knows deep down the world is about to change now that she's met this man in particular the fight continues zod and locust able to kill countless men without a scratch salat's men ask if they're gonna try to jump in and help but he actually doesn't care they need to try to capture griffith who cares about these douchebags the girl is still in a trance just staring at griffith only for salat's buddies to lunge in and attack then another weirdo comes in to join the deviantart convention a shapeless man in a black cloak he seems familiar with her fighting style insultingly calling them slow and obtuse and it's revealed that he's actually a cushion himself this is roxas an exile from the bakiraka i don't know what you have to do to be exiled from an exiled clan of assassins but it probably wasn't pleasant roxas was also guided by the vision and says that one day he'll cut griffith's head off to make it his but for now he'll make sure no one will touch him salat's men try to fight but roxas has inhuman agility flowing through the master martial artists like liquid then another guy shows up a single warrior smashes through the barricaded gate with his warhammer an absolute giant of a man dressed in armor styled like a dragon along with his massive hammer he wields a shield cannon combo that tears through the cushions then reveals that the shield also has blades to it one of the cushions run into the stronghold to deploy the rest of their troops only to find that they're already dead mysterious figures standing in the smoke of the fires so if it hasn't been blatantly obvious here every single one of these dudes are apostles griffith raised an army of demons to conquer midland under the guise of liberating them from the cushings so while everyone views them as all great and powerful heroes they're actually horrific monstrosities that enjoy killing and eating people [ __ ] we then see a small bird fly away from the city going to an empty tree on a faraway hill the bird lands in the hands of a young girl dressed as a witch we see a silhouette of the girl flow out of the bird and back into her it makes sense later all i'll say the girl actually has her own elf companion traveling with her only this one's a lot more feminine looking than puck so elves do have genders the elf calls the girl shrike yeah it's time to talk about that berserk has a weird thing with names sometimes it doesn't happen all the time but there are occasions where people debate over how to actually pronounce some of the character names the setting is pretty blatantly inspired by dark ages europe so european style pronunciations make sense but there are occasions where it's taken a bit too far there's some people who call farnese farnese and serpicos or pico it's not technically wrong but it's acting it's adding extra steps to pretty simple names and at least how i see it it sort of feels like people taking how the japanese pronunciations sound as gospel not really recognizing that there's cases where you have to adjust the verbiage due to the language barrier the japanese name for guts is gatsu but that's not how you say his name in english and shrike is a case where her name is debated there's cases where the name is blatantly supposed to be a simple english word but due to how the japanese language works they have to adjust to make it fit did you know that naruto's name is actually nalt some people swear up and down her name is actually silk but most people pronounce her name as shirake that feels weird to say and i've always just kind of called her shrike like the bird because she has a running theme with being compared to birds if you're one of the types that go batshit insane and how i pronounce things absolutely nothing will change enjoy the mind green and to the people in the comments that go apostle actually has a silent t i know i knew the whole time but you can't stop me welcome to hell the point is that shrike has a weird name so i'm calling her shrike to make it easy also she knows griffith is evil so that's cool yeah that's not even a joke she flat out guesses right away he's evil the villagers all fall in love with griffith entrance by his presence and fully believing he is the savior come to liberate midland like something out of a tale of legend so it's something that's not completely blatant but griffith is essentially writing out a living story he gets to be this big grand hero raise an army become a king all the randis in midland have zero idea and essentially act as the extras in this massive play griffith is putting on if you're feeling some antichrist vibes yeah that's kind of what it's going for in biblical scripture the antichrist is described as a very charismatic figure someone no one would suspect is evil in fact they would be so beloved and powerful that they would lead the world into being a singular nation with one currency and from there the beginning of armageddon kicks off so you can probably tell that griffith doesn't actually have the best interests of these people in mind and before you say well he's the lesser of two evils at the moment the kushans are still committing genocide someone needs to stop them it's a bit more complicated than that but the most i'll say is this at the moment for now we move on to farnesen serpico resting in the ruins of a house trying to take shelter from the snowstorm serpico tries to look on the bright side but farnese is miserable he suggests that they just go back to the holy city and face the consequences of the tower of conviction shenanigans but she's not budging because if they went back to the city and told the holy see that their entire army was consumed by horrible monsters they very well could be tried as heretics and executed plus she just seems determined not to go home period vernice also notices that serpico is sitting a ways away from the campfire and despite ordering him to stick closer to their only source of warmth he refuses to move and from here we actually get a flashback into serpico's childhood we finally get to see who this dude really is turns out he grew up in the holy city but just because it was some grand location with a lot of reverence behind it doesn't make his life any easier he grew up pretty rough very poor and constantly fighting with other boys to keep what little food and money he had his home was a cheap hovel on the edge of the city where he lived with his mother serpico's mother was deathly ill for a long time completely emaciated and looking more like a skeleton with skin stretched over it than a woman despite how awful their lives were serpico's mother insists that he is actually an aristocrat she was so consumed in this delusion that she was certain his father was coming in any day now to sweep them into a high noble life his mother once worked as a maid for a nobleman's mansion where they had a brief affair that resulted in serpico being born so really he was just the bastard son of an aristocrat the only proof he has of this is the locket his mother gave him which contained a picture of her and his father despite her assurances serpico knew that really believing in this stuff was just a bad idea actually trying to make a life in the city meant he couldn't fall into the same state his mother was in waiting for someone else to arrive to save them he was the only person they had to take care of her and earn a living so eventually serpico simply stopped giving a [ __ ] he just bottled up all of his emotions one day the other boys beat him so bad that he was paralyzed from the pain snow piled on top of him and it seemed like he was about to freeze to death in the city streets this was until a traveling carriage happened upon him turns out this is where serpico and farnese met one another she found serpico when he was about to die in the snow and stepped on his head yeah she was just as sadistic as a kid as she was as an adult but she actually orders her servants to load serpico into their carriage even skipping communion to do it bernice has serpico taken back to their family mansion and essentially tried to turn him into her pet nursing him back to health under the condition that he belongs to her now in a sense hiring him to hang out with her as a page basically a personal servant he has to live with a vandamian family but the wages are good enough that he's able to take care of his mother even hiring a housekeeper to take care of her in his absence his mother thinks this is his chance to break into aristocrat life but serpico is just happy they didn't need to take care of her anymore his life with farnese started off rough she demanded absolute obedience and did whatever she could to make his life a living hell but he just sucked it up and stuck by her farnese actually had a reputation for making her servants run off even lighting one girl's dress on fire and badly burning her we see that the reason farnese does this is because frankly she wants attention her father was a workaholic that almost never came home and her mother would abandon her alone in the mansion every single day their only way to make her happy was to shower her in material possessions meanwhile she was left alone in a house so huge that the servants themselves would lose track of her so the reason serpico sticks by her despite all the [ __ ] she puts him through is because he sort of feels a kindred spirit with farnese they're both stuck in respective prisons almost trapped in their circumstances sure technically they're aristocrats now and this life is a million times better than what serpico was dealing with before but it's still a prison one night a violent storm scares farnese so bad that she orders serpico to hold her hand all night the lightning scares her and she demands serpico make the thunder stop but he can't do anything a tree branch shatters the window and farnese runs out of the house in terror serpico finds her dancing in the storm almost in a trance and she starts shattering some of the marble statues saying you need to become a storm yourself a reference to her philosophy we covered in part 3. she thinks the only way to not be afraid is to act as crazy and monstrous as the thing that scares her sometime after the storm we see farnese lead serpico into the forest behind the mansion they reach a clearing and he takes note of the various small dead animals around them barneys puts a cage with a small bird inside of it in front of a large tree a shrine to the holy see placed in its trunk turns out she was taking care of the bird but she says the animal never became attached to her so she lights it on fire farnese refers to the clearing as her crematory where she burns all the bad ones now to most people this is a sign that farnice was destined to become a serial killer in fact she kinda was one in a way but serpico views this as proof that she intentionally tries to scare people away he heard the stories about her extracurricular activities when she was a child taking part in the steak burnings in the city square but he can't hate her serpico views farnese as a lonely girl that is afraid of being abandoned i'm not having anyone to love her her own parents never showed actual affections and her attempts to get people to pay attention to her scares them away so the only thing she really had was well lighting things on fire the only times when people shower her with affection and praise some time passes and the rare occasion occurred that farnese's father actually returned to the mansion she tries to get his attention but she's blown off instead on top of that her father orders farnese to get rid of her beloved stuffed rabbit doll he doesn't see anything wrong with the idea since it's just a raggedy toy he can replace with as many as she wants but farnese is visibly hurt at the suggestion we find out that the toy came from one of the few times farnese's family took a trip together she nagged her father to buy it for her and ever since she held it very near and dear to her heart nevertheless she got rid of the rabbit burning it in the crematory she set up in the forest serpico tried to comfort her but she tells him to leave her alone since she'll end up burning him up as well hopefully you guys are picking up on what they're going for here with farnese she's actually pretty reminiscent of how gutz was back in golden age she's scared of being abandoned so she wants people to stay at arm's length she's the one who abandons that way it won't hurt when someone leaves her she tries to scare people away to make herself the bully or the monster but that's only so the world is less scary to put it bluntly farnese is horribly insecure and serpico knows this because in a way he feels the same thing not completely one-to-one but he knows what it's like to hide who you really are to try to function in this very bleak world serpico basically did the same thing he just smothered his emotions entirely that way he could never be broken or disappointed so the two kind of mirror each other serpico acts as if nothing is wrong and he can weather through anything while farnice is completely consumed by her emotions and would rather be hated than be ignored eventually serpico did run into the master of the house farnese's father he took note of serpico's locket and wanted to see it for himself well when the master saw the picture inside of the locket it all finally clicked serpaco just met his father that's right he was the bastard son of the head to the vandamian family he is the older half-brother of farnese instead of being a mind-shattering revelation that changes everything serpico kinda felt underwhelmed though learning that he and farnese are blood siblings did mess with him a bit still it's not like he's eligible to inherit anything hell the master himself makes that abundantly clear he's already got three older sons all fighting over who gets to sit on the throne once it's time so they struck a deal serpico keeps everything a secret and his father will grant him a position of nobility in a way his mother was kind of right this was his big shot to break into aristocracy and it worked serpico's only request was for his father to actually meet and talk with his mother but it's pretty clear that's never going to happen nevertheless serpico stuck by his promise in fact him being with farnice all around made things better for everyone she calmed down considerably finally finding a kindred spirit she could spend time with when the two grew older and made their debut in polite society farnese still clung on to serpico never considering any marriage proposals and still having a hair trigger of an attitude in fact she outright demands serpico duel whoever insulted the two at any party they go to almost setting up situations at times serpico never actually killed anybody at these duels ending things in a draw but he himself would be wounded in the process this would earn the respect of his opponents but would frustrate farnese so she decides to punish him for getting wounded getting into some pretty intensive interrogation sessions if you know what i mean she knows serpico could win any of the duels he fights but he refuses to get serious yeah the images on screen aren't enough to get the implications across bernice in her own twisted way fell in love with serpico and considering that serpico is now very aware of their blood relations that's a serious problem so he has to think of a way to balance things out if he did what she wanted that means he'd kill people for little other reason than her sadistic pleasure thus incurring the wrath of other noble families at the same time he still cares about farnese and wants to keep her happy just not the way she really wants and to make matters even worse his mother's condition got worse so bad that she is now in a permanent psychosis believing serpico was actually her beloved husband believing in this fantasy that she got married to the head of the vandamian family also the master never visited serpico's mother just like he expected after several years farnese's father returned to the mansion to talk with farnice it turns out it's time to consider marriage options for his daughter he heard the stories about the constant duels whenever frannis went to a ball so he set up an arranged marriage with a member of royalty in the hopes of calming her down at first it seemed like she was going to keep her head down and do what she's told like she usually does when father gives an order but the opposite actually happened serpico found her stripping naked in the crematorium in the forest they went to as children and then she comes on to him begging to take her away from the mansion to run away together she's finally pouring out her feelings to serpico her half-brother and to his credit he rejects her he knows it's a bad idea on several levels just from the incestuous angle alone but not only that if they run off together the family would never stop hunting them deep down serpico actually does hate the fact they're related because he might have some feelings for farnese as well it's not made 100 clear it's more something you pick up on from this panel where he relents on how he's almost trapped in this position being tied to this family he never knew but now dominates his life and just as things seem to quiet down farnese sets the mansion on fire she's fully lost her mind using a candelabra to burn everything around her serpico saves her from a chandelier that almost crushes her to death during the breakdown and it seems like she's finally snapped out of it hugging him close farnice saw serpico's rejection as him essentially abandoning her so she finally broke the only person she never wanted to leave her just turned her down in a way the reason she fell in love with serpico in the first place was because he was the only one who really understood farnese everyone bought into the persona that she was a sadistic mad woman but serpico knew that was not the real her she just wanted someone to be with her to not leave her all alone it's just rotten luck that the one guy she felt this strongly about was her sibling created through adultery it's not even like she knows in fact it's a pretty major thing that she doesn't know serpico is her brother him and her father are the only ones that know his true identity well the mansion fire was the final straw varnisa's father was furious to say the least he called off the wedding and sent farnies to a monastery serpico would accompany her to watch out for her so in a way she kinda got what she wanted she left the mansion and got to be with serpico the only problem is that now her father despises her and their relationship has gotten considerably colder now treating serpico as a servant and nothing else still farnese excelled in the monastery so much so that she was chosen to lead the holy iron chain nights azan was assigned to handle all of the actual military aspects to the army since remember that the leadership role farnese obtained was quite literally a ceremonial deal but that's how our holy trinity actually met each other they are now officially wholly iron chain knights the soldiers we saw in lost children and conviction except there's something missing you see that very winter a sect of heretics were going around the holy city and setting fire to temples and noble houses the holy iron chain knights were sent in to suppress the heathens and put an end to the damage farnese personally led the hunt and they managed to track down each and every heretic in a way she found the place she belonged and this period is when farnese's love of setting people on fire was kindled the thing is the heretics they hunted weren't actual pagans they weren't a violent cult or devil worshipers they simply protested the monopoly the church held almost all the world's wealth was being filtered into the church well this was deemed as heresy by the holy see so now anyone preaching this is a heretic in the eyes of the law and they would be executed without hesitation in fact if a single family member was accused then the rest would be talked into a trial to defend their own innocence but it was a kangaroo court designed to kill off entire families serpico was pretty apathetic to the work even if all the people they executed reminded him of his own poverty-stricken childhood that is until he saw his own mother tied to his stake it seems the protests originated from a sanitarium in the city the sanitarium serpico placed his own mother once her mental health collapsed he couldn't help but call out to her catching the attention of everyone around them but he was completely consumed in horror just calling out to the mad woman even as farnese and the priests of the holy see were standing right next to him remember if you were accused then your entire family was accused so if serpaco was deemed to have a relative who was executed for heresy then he's next on the chopping block no matter the excuse farnice denies that serpico would have any relative that could be a heretic but the situation only gets worse when his mother recognizes him calling out to her dear husband even as she's tied onto a stake she seems to have no comprehension of her actual situation simply asking if her son has been useful to him still worrying about his potential status as a noble instead of the fact that she's quite literally about to die his mind is consumed with guilt for letting this happen resentment towards his own mother for her condition and thinking about how in a way her wish was granted farnese hands him a torch he had to prove this woman was not his mother throw the torch and murder her otherwise he would be accused of being related to a heretic and also executed but not only that he has to prove to farnese that he belongs to her and her alone she still felt something for serpico and the whole situation drudged up those old feelings all over again so they did it just like when they were kids holding the torch together and lighting serpico's mother on fire that was the incident three years ago serpico's mother wasn't just sentenced to death he was the one who killed her under orders of the holy see and more importantly farnese this is what tied the two together as adults she knew he was telling the truth that the woman was his actual mother but in a really [ __ ] up way she was trying to protect him so they simply had to get through this outright nightmarish situation the best they could and then three years later they finally seemed to escape out of their obligations they were following guts his presence destroying their old world and giving them a shot at living their own lives despite all the carnage and violence he inflicted on them that he helped kill practically everyone they knew in the holy iron chain nights they want to find him again they're free of their prison and can actually make their own choices for once not just keeping their heads down and following orders still that was dark but now you exactly see what created farnese and serpaco they weren't just some spoiled noble types they had some serious baggage long before we ever actually even saw them but this is actually one of the reasons i really like these two and especially farnese yeah you can make bdsm domi mommy jokes all day if you want but farnese actually genuinely deep down has a lot more character than just that she's the spoiled princess archetype but she's kind of aware of this and has some pretty [ __ ] up twists on the formula she knows she's just some noble girl and has all these expectations placed on her and is suffocating her yet it's still part of her identity she wants to escape her life but she has no clue what that actually means she just lashed out to get someone to look at her the actual consequences of what she was doing never really hit up until she pushed it just a bit too far and serpico the poor bastard had to handle her extreme personality along with the weight of his actual situation really they were both just kids playing at being adults in a way they weren't ready for the actual world serpico used to be as a child he knew what it was like to be beaten and to be poor to be forced to care for an ailing relative the guy was well acquainted with suffering but his time with farnese softened him it was easy to live in the mansion and basically get paid to hang out with his sister and then they were adults the easy period was gone they had new obligations and responsibilities that yolk to live up to the standards of the family just got heavier farnese felt neglected her entire childhood and now her father basically just barges into her life and demands she marry some guy she never even met so she snapped and did something so terrible her own father now hates her serpico simply wanted to be free of his mother the woman that dominated his life through her condition and delusions he could never outright abandon her but he simply wanted to be free of being stuck caring for family members he doesn't care about they could finally get out and see the world after the fire when farnese was sent to the monastery and their first real experience of the world was seeing serpico's own mother tied up to be executed they kept hoping to be free of their families and they got what they wanted in the worst ways possible really that ends up kind of being a running theme for them because then towards the end they felt trapped inside their jobs with the holy see farnese especially was having a pretty bad crisis of faith and we all know how that ended so you can see why they grew to admire guts he's a man that no matter what happens barges forward he does what he wants he's not tied down by anything that they're aware of anyway and seemingly shows no fear meanwhile that was their entire lives they felt stuck taking care of their families of being afraid of everything around them a feeling like complete outsiders stuck in a prison that was never going to let them go if they never felt welcome in they practically met their total opposite and i use they to refer to both fernice and serpico are twisted together remember serpico hides how he feels but he's on a similar wavelength to farnese only instead of being afraid of everything at least in the way she is he tries to show a general apathy the only thing we really know he cares about is her so when guts ended up hurting farnese in the way he did we covered it in part 3 it set off serpico in a way he never really felt before he broke both of their facades without even trying it's like they ran into a space alien that acts completely different from humanity and yet he's just some guy they were ordered to hunt down now they don't know that he was the guts the hundred man slayer in the band of the hawk the raiders captain himself in fact were given no actual hint that they even knew or cared about that whole deal so this total stranger they only knew about through reports rumors and finding what's left of wherever you want to just shattered their entire worldview something that took them years to develop and more than a few traumatic events but that's just serpico and farnese let's come back and see how gutz is doing he's being attacked by evil snowmen yep business as usual spirits of the dead have possessed the snow around them and they're attacking and just as you might have predicted having to protect koska and fight at the same time was far more difficult than he was expecting he can't go crazy and wild like when he was by himself anymore now he has someone he has to keep alive he needs to keep alive he can't just let himself be eaten up by hate and violence anymore he needs a clear head to make sure koska is safe so when she collapses to the ground gut swoops into savor disregarding the fact that they want to kill him too luckily it seems the assault ends without much incident the daylight comes to chase the demons away our heroes aren't wounded they're simply soaked head-to-toe in water and we find that the reason koska fell to the ground in the middle of the fight like she did yeah she had to pee it's not her fault it's cold guts makes camp so he can wash koski's clothes giving her his cloak to keep warm and giving them a chance to rest after the brutal onslaught they just survived while gut stands in the river doing laundry koska ends up eating his share of the food too puck warns him about this but he brushes it off as no big deal puck tries to convince guts that he needs to keep his strength up since now he's having to fight off demons like never before even on good days he's having to fight entire nights without sleep gutz knows it's a problem he even admits that the ordeal has been far more difficult than he ever imagined having to actually protect someone for once but he refuses to stop until koska is safe even though she's nothing like the old her he'll keep going though the most painful part of the whole ordeal isn't even the neverending demons it's how he can't stop thinking about how kaska used to be and that makes him think about everything about how his old life is gone for good kaska's insanity is a permanent reminder of the eclipse of the old days of when gutz was happy his missing eye and his dismembered arm are also permanent reminders but koska's insanity is the one that hurts the most there's a brief moment where the cloak slips open and guts gets a view of her naked breasts at first you might think back to the incident in the cave where he succumbed to his urges and tried to come onto koska but all guts does is wipe her mouth clean and close the gap he knows that the old kaska isn't there anymore really what they had was gone too the most he can do is keep her safe even if she doesn't fully understand what he's really doing it's pretty grim really he's going through all of this pain and suffering and the woman he loves doesn't even recognize him but instead of breaking down or getting upset he just quietly endures the entire hell which is probably the greatest way to describe falcom of the millennium empire guts the guy goes through agony untold horror and barely even gets a chance to sit down and eat a meal or get any sleep and all he does is quietly endure the entire journey has been a very sobering experience for guts puck himself even remarks that guts is acting almost downright heroic the first time he's been truly selfless and cared about another life but this kind of living can't be good for him it's too much to handle alone there has to be a breaking point somewhere gut snaps him out of his train of thought by asking puck about his homeland just what exactly is the land of the elves well park describes elf helm as a literal utopia it's an island inhabited by elves an eternal springtime with flowers blooming and birds singing almost this endless party they can enjoy until the end of time which compared to where they are now it sounds almost like heaven guts asked why if it was so great that puck decided to leave and come to a place like midland and puck says it was because he got bored fair enough i guess gutz thinks about how strange it is that he's relying on puck of all people but what choice does he have now he has to cling to whatever hope he can get his hands on no matter how small puck tells guts to try and get some sleep that he'll warn him if anything bad happens and he finally seems to take the offer and try to get some rest only to be pulled into a dream with him i kept teasing that the beast of darkness was a big deal in conviction you only really had hints it made a few appearances namely in the cave when guts returned to godo's cabin but now it's making itself fully known this isn't just an imaginary friend that wants to scare guts it is an entity that wants to take control of him in the dream the beast asks guts why he's not chasing griffith they were so close to killing him he's on earth with them but guts wants to waste time with koska instead the beast says the only reason he keeps her around is to remind himself what griffith did she's not the woman he loves she's just a husk practically someone else entirely gut simply never wants to forget the pain griffith caused him he doesn't actually love koska anymore she's just a tool for guts to hate griffith and if that's how he sees her now then maybe he should just put koska out of her misery kill her and he can get closer to griffith in more ways than one gutz demands the beast to stop but it simply says that he wants this gutz wakes up from his nightmare to see an incubus on his shoulder he kills it and sees other incubate giving hoska nightmares as well turns out the clouds rolled in as they slept so they were exposed in the dark despite his promises puck fell asleep on guard duty so they unfortunately didn't get any warning guts goes to comfort costco who fell back into a peaceful sleep he swears that he doesn't want to kill her simply going as if as he cradles her head he's gone this far just to protect her there's no way he'd actually hurt koska right [Music] sometime after the nightmare we see guts fighting off spirits outside of a cave in the middle of the night dawn is coming soon he just has to hold out a bit longer puck picks up on how guts has been acting strange far more serious than he was before because it turns out that nightmare has been eating at his mind he's trying not to think about it about what the beast told him but it's not going away during the fighting koska follows a rat as it tries to run off spirits dive down to attack her and gut sleeps in to protect koska being swarmed himself for a brief moment guts is possessed a flash of the beast of darkness in his mind as he wraps his hand around koska's throat he starts to strangle her puck desperately calling out to guts as he fights for control over himself guts regains his senses just in time for the sun to burn away the spirits they survived the night but the toll was heavy guts rushes to make sure koska is okay who regains consciousness not long after but as soon as she lays eyes on guts she completely panics koska screams out in fear and crawls away merely giving guts a terrified stare she starts running away guts catching up to her and grabbing hold of her arm back when kaska first became insane she distrusted men notably latching only on to erica and only ever wanting to spend time with her she wasn't outright hostile to guts but there was a clear apprehension being around him now she well and truly hates him all the progress he made traveling with her has been reverted back to zero and then pushed back some from then on koska made sure to keep her distance away from guts still completely unaware that he's been protecting her this entire time guts and puck have been trying to keep up but koskis simply gets further away the harder they try puck tries to assure guts that it wasn't his fault he was simply possessed and never had any control over himself but guts isn't sure of that he can't help but think about the beast's words how he desires this back when farnese was possessed all the spirit did was increase the feelings she already had inside of her her sexual urges and sadomasochistic tendencies and guts is worried that maybe just maybe it did the same thing to him here maybe he actually does resent koska deep down and now he's starting to crack under the pressure but to make matters worse they have to find a solution before sunset she can't just be running around on her own when the demons come back they resort to quite literally holding koska hostage they tie her hands together and guts leads her around on a rope it's brutal she absolutely hates it and constantly tries to chew through her bindings but what choice do they have by herself she'd be dead by dawn puck points out that costco will despise him for this but gut says that protecting her is the only thing that matters we see a montage of battles as guts thinks about his situation he knew the journey wasn't going to be easy but what he's handling now feels downright impossible it's not just about fighting to stay alive or protecting koska for once in a very very long time guts feels the pressure to not die if he dies costco will too he can't act risky or crazy anymore he needs to stay alive and that frustration fear and anxiety is just bubbling in his head as they travel he needs to do whatever it takes to protect her and keep himself alive so he can keep protecting her all the while she hates him more and more each day now seeing him as a violent captor even resorts to hitting costco when she tries to steal one of his knives to escape it seems like everything he's doing is only making things worse but he can't stop he just has to get koska to l-film and then it wouldn't all be for nothing she would be safe and that's what matters no matter how much she hates him by the end of it all though guts does admit that he's holding out for some kind of hope that costco would find a way to appreciate him again since now he feels like she's drifted far away the strain of the journey is finally proving too much for guts even he outright says it he's exhausted all the time he can barely protect koska and all she does is look at him with hate in her eyes the only thing keeping him going is how much he just doesn't trust himself anymore he promised to stay close to koska to never abandon her but most of all guts can only think about when was the last time koska smiled it really does feel like everything he does just kind of pushes her further away one day puck wicks guts up to tell him that koska escaped the two split up to try and find her guts consumed with panic and we see a trio of bandits resting at a hill somewhere nearby they talk about how rough the famines have been for their business not being able to find much food pretty much anywhere and on top of that the cushions will kill them if they get spotted it'd be smart to find a way to get out of midland before the situation got any worse and that's when they spot costco rummaging through their supplies they assume she's some kind of pilgrim and decide to try and rape her she screams out in horror at the advances and guts hears her cries he hates himself being so naive he thought it would be fine if they were together and that's all he seemed to care about when he rescued her at the tower of conviction in a way he thought it would redeem himself for abandoning her in the first place but it's not that simple he still left her alone for two years as much as he hates feeling koski drifting away from him guts already pushed her there in the first place the bandits stripped koskinen naked fully intending on assaulting her the main bandit spreads her legs just as koska hallucinates the man as one of the demons that raped her during the eclipse the event consuming her mind is she howls out in terror guts rushes into the scene to find all the men are dead kaska killed them she somehow got a hold of one of their swords and slaughtered her attempted rapists she simply stands there completely naked and covered in blood guts tries to get close to her but koska holds the sword on him for a moment it seems like koska is back the real one she goes to stab guts but he quickly disarms her and pins her to the ground and then it happens guts pins koska's arms as she claws at his face and then he kisses her the side of her naked body that slight image of the real koska entering his mind it was enough to push guts over the edge as she struggles to get away guts attempts to rape koska the beast of darkness filling his mind and forcing him to see a horrific vision of the creature mutilating her clawing at her skin and biting into her breast as it rapes her it then consumes kaska ripping her into pieces as the beast demand guts lose everything dear to him he only exists to feed the beast and nothing else he will have nothing beyond his hate her screams allow guts to finally get a hold of himself again and he backs off akaska who is simply crying on the ground he didn't fully rape her the vision wasn't reality but he did hurt her he still tried in fact now there's a deep and bloody bite mark on her breast and guts finally after so long after the entirety of the story you saw up to this point breaks he collapses to his knees in utter disbelief at what he just did the beast was right part of him really did want to hurt her the one thing he never wanted to happen just happened puck meanwhile is off to find koska himself as he zips around the air he spots isidro of all people running down a nearby path he pops in to reunite with the boy isidro revealing that he just scams some people out of their supplies and he's being chased a tree branch hits him in the legs and isidro collapses to the ground we see that the ones he scammed were serpico and farnese they all just happened to run into each other once again and farnese wants serpico to cut off isidro's arm for stealing their stuff which is only fair i think also she faints when she sees puck again not her fault their introduction was kind of awkward nevertheless puck leads everybody back to guts all of them completely unaware of what just happened the most they know is a lot's happened so they've been forced to tie koska up for her own safety despite this isidro is still intent on training under guts though he gets shafted in favor of the other two instead being forced to train under puck with his elf dimension style guts asks if farnese and serpico still intend on capturing him but all she does is bow before guts and formally asked to accompany him she even demands serpico neil too she really wasn't kidding when she said that she saw guts as a saint figure isidro thinks it's a trap to bring everybody back to the holy see but she swears that she abandoned the church she wants to know how to really survive in this world the truth about what's really going on and farnese fully believes the only way to learn this is to travel with guts isidro says they need to make up for what they did at the tower of conviction they damn near murdered koska on top of a lot of other sins and farnese cuts her hair short revealing that she will make amends for what she's done the funny thing is guts never actually said they could or couldn't travel with him isidro was the only one dominating the conversation in fact gut says plainly that they don't have to be so dramatic about the whole thing if they want to come along it's their choice even tells farnese that she doesn't need to pay him back he killed her friends she tried to kill koska they're even so let's just move on though he won't actually teach her anything she simply has to learn things on her own barnes thanks him for the opportunity but he tells her that she's probably going to regret coming with him soon enough following guts means dealing with demons isidro tries to seem excited by the idea but he's clearly freaking out and puck notes how weird it is that guts let anybody close to him that fast unaware that the big guy finally hit his breaking point he's tired of fighting alone he's afraid of what could happen if he was by himself with koska so for the first time he's just saying screw it and allowing these complete strangers in to help and once again he asks himself when was the last time koskas smiled still reeling from what he did to her so that's the end of gutz's section for now and it was pretty heavy i held off on the funny haha stuff because jesus christ it's a pretty painful segment considering everything that's happened guts fought so hard in conviction to save koska and frankly all the progress he made is going down the drain she hates him now guts hurt her in a way he can never forgive himself for and seems like the strain of everything just finally broke in a way it was kind of a miracle the other showed up when they did maybe having other people around him can help carry the weight guts has been fighting with this for so long he needs some kind of a break at the very least it should make fighting at night easier assuming they can survive but it's time to talk about the larger plot once again aka griffith and the whole thing he's doing we see a unit of knights preparing to ambush a cushion transport led by a boy named lord mule their morale is in shambles and mule essentially has to guilt trip everyone into helping with the attack he's still a believer in the cause in midland and he lost his father and brothers thanks to the war they discussed the rumors of a resistance force traveling around and liberating places from the cushion that they're led by griffith himself the man who won the 100 year war and vanished years ago nobody knows what the real story is whether griffith died in prison or escaped but it doesn't matter muell's second in command asks him to call off the ambush and try to find the middle of resistance before anything else they're a small force and shouldn't get themselves killed in a pointless ambush mule considers the idea but then they see the cushion transport surrounding a group of civilians including women and children they didn't know the castle has just fallen and waltzed right into the enemy this makes mule cement his position they're attacking the transport to try and save their subjects unaware of the silhouette in a distance washing them as they rush in the general to the cushions orders the war slaves to attack first the commander tells them that their archers are aimed at their backs as well as the knights so their only hope at staying alive is to survive the battle the two armies clash and it's revealed that the war slaves are captured middle and prisoners forced to fight for the cushions it's an extremely powerful tactic they developed it allows them to keep their casualties low and destroy the enemy morale in fact using war slaves was one of the reasons they were able to expand territory so aggressively they're not afraid to even fire arrows into their own ranks so long as it hits their enemies too the small force is devastated by cushing retaliation and the general orders his cavalry to finish things but as soon as the horsemen get close enough to attack they're besieged by arrow fire strong enough to take the heads off the riders on their horses lord mule looks to the hillside where the arrows come from only seeing a vague shape a pretty obviously demonic archer and his men are taking aim at the cushions his arrow strong enough to rip the soldiers to pieces and accurate enough so that he never misses not only that but a few dozen horsemen led by locus comes in to finish off the enemy only a handful of soldiers is enough to kill 500 cushions the general tries to rally his men back to the fight but then another bad boy comes into wreck [ __ ] nosferatu zod charging in with an army of demons killing everything in sight the kushans have no chance to fight off the inhuman attackers even if there were less than a hundred men then the giants show up and it's pretty much decided then and there the kushins didn't just lose the battle they're all going to die it was exactly like the rumors the inhuman army of the midland resistance led by griffith his presence reinvigorates mule soldiers who watch the battle as the cushions are utterly destroyed the man of legend himself riding with his army mule and his men try to join the fight but a sudden voice in their minds tell him to hang back turns out he received a psychic message warning them about a volley of arrows that would have hit if they kept moving forward that girl we saw from before the one that ran up to griffith as he liberated the city is now officially a part of the army and yes she is a full-blown psychic has visions can talk to people with telepathy the whole deal she uses her abilities to keep an eye on the flow of battle knowing exactly where to strike and how to turn things in their favor i'm not going to bring up kotor if you don't griffith seems to fly above his forces charging straight for the cushion general and taking his head off in a single sword strike they've officially won the battle and now they just have to deal with cleanup the kushins attempt to retreat running as the midland forces celebrate their victory over 5 000 soldiers defeated by a mere 100 it seemed impossible it was impossible but as they enter deeper into the forest they see people sitting in the trees roxas himself begging the commander not to leave since his men haven't seen any blood yet the rest of the apostles in the forest transform and you can assume the rest lord mule is taken to the resistance camp taking note of how cheerful everyone seems it doesn't seem like a battlefield at all he even has women and children playing in the camp hell even the elderly are cared for mule is astonished by it all but the strange girl assures him it's because of griffith he's the one that helps everyone feel safe and happy neil wonders if she's reading his mind and she actually admits to it as stated she's a full-blown psychic she introduces herself as sonia welcoming mule to the band of the hawk you [ __ ] yep griffith resurrected the banner of the band of the hawk the men he murdered to lead his demon army the people that murdered them all to enact his scheme and i do mean scheme remember this is all a plot by the god hand none of this is organic and it most definitely is not a positive if the violent flesh eating demons didn't make that obvious but for now you get a perspective of the outsiders looking in yule and sonja have no clue about the eclipse and the old band of the hawk they're just thankful not to be conquered by the cushion empire sonia shows mule around the camp an almost miraculous level of positivity in the air around them despite midland essentially being a collapsed state the soldiers have a high morale they even have cushions training the men mule freaks out at the site but sir locus arrives to explain everything they themselves captured some cushions and turned them into war slaves if they can survive being in the front line of battle three times they are officially inducted into the band of the hawk if they don't like that idea they get to hang out with roxas and his friends but he didn't tell mule that part but if the ones who take the oath excel in the army they're promoted like any other soldier even earning command positions if they're good enough mule says [ __ ] that these guys are [ __ ] they should all die along with getting a weird feeling that locus wants to violently murder him for some reason but the demon knight says that that's the reason for the test if they can survive the fighting that means less midland soldiers need to die mule is still pissy at the idea and locus basically tells them to get over it at least they're human like him and locus too he's totally human yeah it turns out he's actually a pretty well-known figure in midland he was an undefeated knight the winner of countless duels contests and outright became the basis to bedtime stories told to children he is quite literally a living legend neil wonders how a guy like him shacked up with griffith and sonia takes him into the woods saying there's even weirder stuff than just locus or cushions as the force gets darker they stumble into an almost pitch-black clearing mule feels an almost instinctual fear even calling out to sonia that it feels like something is about to attack them and then we see that they are surrounded by demons apostles that have been recruited and trained by griffith to be his personal army and they make no attempt to hide their true natures savagely devouring a horse in front of the children though sonia says that's an improvement compared to before before they just ate the cushions the army captured one of the demons grabbed sonya lifting her into the air though she's nowhere near as terrified as mule or me the guy looks like an evil muppet the demon is curious as to why sonja isn't afraid of him even as another apostle grabs mill and lifts him up as well the demon licks sonia saying he hasn't eaten human flesh for a while but she simply threatens to tattle on him to griffith this causes the apostle to hesitate pulling his tongue back and even starting to sweat nervously and then that giant [ __ ] from before grabs onto his arm crushing it in his grasp and releasing the little girl the demons refer to him as grunbelled and if that name sounds familiar it's because he actually got a spin-off light novel not too long ago it's fine it's okay it explains his backstory it's okay an arrow lands in the arm of the demon holding mule the archer from before sitting in a tree overlooking everything this is irving grunbell tells the rest of the demons that sonja and mueller are griffith's guests so if they hurt the children grunbelled will hurt them mueller realizes that he actually recognizes the big dude as well turns out that grunbeld was a legendary war hero from a northern country that held off an entire tudor invasion for 10 years with just 3 000 soldiers and his ferocious nature mixed with his red hair earned him the nickname the great flame dragon but the stories all say he died in battle some time ago once again this is all covered in the light novel but we're not talking about that here we'll talk about it later the most you really need to know is grumbill killed a tiger with a hammer and he probably sort of kind of sacrificed a blind lady to become an apostle along with his best friend along with another lady it's fine don't worry about it we'll talk about it later despite grumbel's warning sonia is completely unaffected by the incident just outright not taking the presence of flesh-eating demons that seriously though neither her nor mule know what they actually are emil realizes that locus was right at least the kushans were human and they hate each other as humans the guys in the forest are different almost like they're predators circling around sheep they finally leave the forest running into nosferatu zod who is standing guard for griffith he lets the two pass and they see griffith sitting on the hilltop surrounded by wisps flying all around him mule has no clue what they are and sonia says that they're the dead souls of soldiers they always show up at night after a battle the loved ones of the dead all gather and pray around griffith who sends out the wisps to visit their families one last time before they move on after the ceremony is finished the wisps all fly up into the sky and vanish as soon as it ends sonia runs up to hug griffith showing no regard for his status among the rest of the camp the guy is quite literally jesus christ to these people but sonia treats him like a big brother she can hang out with whenever she wants mule wants to know where the souls of the dead went and griffith simply says they went to a place where they will all become one oh no he also refuses to clarify if he means heaven or somewhere else griffith welcomes mule to the band of the hawk and the young knight is overwhelmed by his presence dropping to his knees and even crying just from the sheer sound of griffith's voice he even presents his sword to griffith all but begging to let him join the band of the hawk but it's an almost involuntary reaction wondering just what the hell he's doing he barely even knew griffith only the stories about him this is the first time he's ever met the man but some part of mule deep down just keeps telling him this is destiny so griffith managed to manipulate what's left of midland through what's essentially brainwashing just being around griffith seems to win people over and make them outright worship him on top of that his more unholy abilities carried over to his physical form the apostles blatantly recognized him as one of the god hand there's no way they wouldn't but the actual humans in the country see him as an angel come to earth they don't even realize that he's been sending their loved ones souls to hell they think he's blessing them attributing the best of the best regarding anything griffith does even when the truth is let's face it right in their faces the war demons are actual flesh-eating demons but they're so enamored that they're willfully blind to what's really happening king of the blind white sheep i mean not everyone instantly spoons over griffith these guchin dudes don't seem to like him very much but then roxas shows up and then they go away it's still a happy adventure everybody it's gonna be great the point is that almost every human griffith interacts with feels almost compelled to follow him the only exceptions being guts also record he didn't fall head over heels for the guy when they met each other even though he was happy to see him again plus the fight and guts telling him the truth kinda soured that also farnese and serpaco and everybody that was there at the tower of conviction when he was resurrected they were astonished to see that happen but they weren't going down on their knees in a way really does remind you of that prophecy they kept bringing up over and over again in conviction king of the blind white sheep master of the sinful black sheep they have no idea about the eclipse or demons or the godhand humanity at large is blind they're just thankful to be liberated from the cushings so his influence is powerful on them to say the least hell you can make the argument that it was almost faded that they would be brainwashed mule himself didn't really understand why he was doing the things he was doing his body just acted on its own it wasn't an explicit puppet master type deal where they have no control over their thoughts or actions it's just that they feel like they need to help griffith so this situation is less than ideal griffith has an army of demons he has blind sycophantic followers that worship the very ground he stands on and appears to have literal destiny and fate on his side all guts has is a jrpg party and they're busy fighting swamp people but they're ready to rock and roll all day long sweet susie that's right we finally get to come back to guts and his new party this is gonna happen a lot in this arc where we shift from guts and his pals to griffith and his shenanigans think falcom of the millennium empire as the yakuza 0 of berserk arcs elements will affect each side but there's a lot that's meant to sort of stay in their own lanes it's something where if you don't like one side or the other those parts will feel a lot longer than they really are though in all fairness some of griffith's parts just plain do drag on but don't worry it's still hype turns out gutz's party has already set up their new dynamic isidro wasn't kidding when he said he wanted guts to train him so he obliges the boy by hitting him really hard with a stick puck and serpico handle the cooking enjoying the child being beaten by the grown war criminal as they work i joke but guts actually does care about teaching isidro properly he tells him that he'll teach the boy the basics and is willing to spar with him but the rest is up to isidro the boy has to put in the work himself to develop his own style he can't just copy what guts does they have completely different body types and strength levels it wouldn't make any sense farnese however has had some trouble adjusting to their new lives she tries to be helpful around camp but everything she does blows up in her face she can't cook clean laundry she can't fight she's been a spoiled noble girl for her entire life even in the holy iron chain nights she was pretty sheltered but now she's out in the open and doesn't have any other choice but to learn what she can do fast however that's easier said than done she hates how useless she is her role now just to gather firewood in baby sitka and she fully admits that she thought just following guts would lead to something like a revelation or a vision or an epiphany in a weird way though the experience is humbling for farnice she knows that she's useless that she's powerless and has no clue how to live up to the standard she's putting on herself but she doesn't know how to fix it the time she spends with koska does give her a new appreciation to the mentally impaired woman bernice even apologizes to her for all the terrible things that happen in conviction it's not like it leads to something kaska doesn't really understand what's happening but it's enough for farnese at the very least she's embracing her role as koska's caretaker farnese spots a rabbit and asks koska to sit still as she tries to catch it wanting to help out with food if she can however the rabbit already escaped the burrow and crawled through barney's now blindly grabbing at nothing she gives up and notices that the sun is setting so she tries to fetch koska and return to camp only to notice she's missing kaska wandered off as farnese tried to catch the rabbit and it's almost night time she panics and runs through the forest trying to find her charge before it gets dark but in the process gets lost herself the unfamiliar territory the dark realizing that she is completely alone all farnies can do is cower in the forest morning comes and puck managed to track her down we spent the night hiding inside of a tree stump turns out serpico ran off to find farnies when they realized she was missing so it was up to guts and isidro to fight off the monsters and protect koska she came back to camp when she got hungry so she was never in any danger farnese's ordeal was all for nothing she spots guts staring at her from afar not saying a word as he turns around and walks off and to dig the knife deeper isidro scolds farnese for making them waste time despite this little [ __ ] being a loudmouth dick he has a point farnese knows it too since they joined the party all farnese has done is caused trouble for everyone so she kind of finally hits her own breaking point but in a much more positive sense than guts did as her and serpico gather water at a river she admits to him that she's been a burden on the party serpico stumbles for a second and asks if that means she wants to go back home but she actually refuses the idea even if she feels like dead weight to everyone at least she's realizing this she knows now that she doesn't have any skills or could have ever taken care of herself bernice wants to make the party proud but to do that she needed to learn just how useless she really was this right here is one of the big reasons i really like farnis as a character they never try to play her up as a badass or hyper-competent compared to the others hell that's the entire point of farnese she's not koska she's not a warrior or some wise noblewoman she's a spoiled princess that has no idea what she's doing but through being humiliated beaten down and just screwing up over and over again she's slowly learning who she really is old farnese was an emotional cowardly bully she wanted what she wanted and wasn't afraid to hurt people to get it but this farnice has become aware of how weak she actually was her old personality simply wouldn't survive in gutz's world the real world she's becoming more quiet softer hell she outright apologized to koska and is embracing her role as basically her babysitter she can't kill a hundred men or take on horrible monsters but farnese wants to make herself useful it's not important in the grand scheme of things this is just a crisis she's going through but it's important to her she doesn't want to be stuck in her old life of nobility just being weighted on hand and foot hidden away from how truly [ __ ] the world can get this isn't even the end of her arc just know that she really is a stellar character gutz's whole party easily outshines the rest of the manga to the point that you'll constantly want to get back to what they're doing no matter how good or outright crucial some of the other parts get it's just that addicting back to the summary we see the party run into a passing shepard they ask him for directions to a shipyard that avoids as many people as possible and the man points them to a mountain pass not too far away they need a ship that can get them to elfilm and the only place that fits the bill is vertanus the port receiving major traffic now that a full-blown holy war against the cushions is about to kick off also no i have no idea how to pronounce for tennis i'm just calling it for tennis though with princess charlotte missing and her father dead no matter how the war turns out midland is already dead and gone even if the cushions were defeated the country will be devoured by other nations the idea of midland disappearing actually makes guts flashback to his time with the hawks the shepherd notes guts's discomfort assuming him to be from midland but he tells him that he only took advantage of their hospitality a long time ago farnese noticeably is the only one looking at guts as he says this we're going to talk about this in a bit the shepherd goes to leave and gives them some advice about the mountain pass there's something inhuman that's been killing people around the area trolls now before you get hyped thinking gutz is going to go full troll hunter and kill these massive giant beasts berserk trolls are different a lot different in fact they're pretty [ __ ] up but you'll see when we get there for now we jump ahead to our party well into the mountain pass as planned isidro got himself into trouble by attempting to steal a bushel of apples from a man but he gets caught pretty quick the man feels bad for him and actually tosses issudro in apple assuming that he's just a desperate kid and it seems like the two share a moment together then isidro suplexes the man to the ground he's a little [ __ ] and that's all he'll ever be you little [ __ ] thief the man is obviously pissed only to get an apple to the face knocking him out cold so isidro steals the entire bushel and goes back on his way as him and puck talk and eat in the forest isidro brings up that he's yet to actually land a hit on guts he's been training but he just can't reach the grown man's power level he can't even touch him yet puck brings up that isidro is really good at throwing stones and even he admits that it's because he can't beat adults in a fair fight so he's better at being underhanded he shows off his skills killing two large birds high up in the trees with his rocks this seems to give isidro a revelation looking down at his hands during a sparring session with guts isidro manages to put his teacher on the back foot this gives him a window to reveal a second training sword he kept hidden in his clothes now dual wielding isidro manages to actually hit guts with one of his weapons it wasn't much he actually gets bonked on the head immediately after but despite his failure isidro actually managed to impress guts admitting that the boy was building up some serious momentum towards the end he's learning to attack low where most enemies won't expect strikes and his faint technique was a great idea his only problem is that he's only attacking low meaning with enough time any enemy can figure out his pattern plus he's not strong enough to actually pierce armor but still there's something there isidro is skeptical about gutz's teaching methods since he was expecting more rigid training mastering the basics and then moving on to techniques but it seems like guts is doing everything the opposite way all but encouraging isidro to master techniques guts actually explains his philosophy really ecdro should already be learning the basics by just doing things and training on his own and guts can't teach isidro his style because they have completely different circumstances guts is all about brute strength while ecdro is smaller and weaker he needs to find what works for him instead of trying to copy somebody else somebody especially that is just a completely different level of warrior plus gutz isn't some wise old swordmaster they don't have time to train for years before isidro was ready to fight gutz was a child soldier so he's teaching isidro like how he was taught guts explains the difference between the formal training like what easy draw is expecting and how guts live through things on a battlefield he's surrounded by enemies shot at by canons and arrows it's pure chaos there's a lot more factors to consider all at once isidro can't just learn how to fight with a sword he needs to develop more skills than just that guts even outright says that it's not uncommon for a swordmaster to get ganked up on and murdered from time to time because they're not ready to deal with opponents that are willing to do whatever it takes to kill you essentially guts is actually encouraging isidro to fight dirty use whatever tricks he can and do whatever it takes to win so long as you win don't worry about some regimented rule set so long as isidro finds his own way to fight that works for him because that's what's going to keep him alive hell that's kind of how isidro was surviving this far along anyway then puck comes in to try and give isidro advice on how to fight with the elf dimension style we don't get to learn its secrets though instead serpico asks guts to help them gather firewood which is weird these two haven't really sat down to talk by themselves before not anything amicable at least he's uh not still angry about that whole business during conviction is he nah i'm i'm sure it's fine isidro rests on a stone listening to the roar of the river around him he thinks about his life how he ran away from home to start his journey and considers that maybe relying on guts to teach him how to fight was a bad idea he shouldn't be dependent on someone to teach him isidro instead wants to go full lone wolf independent then puck shows up to make fun of him now you might have noticed that puck hasn't really done anything since the new party formed he's mostly just doing small things here and there like finding funnies in the woods and now bantering with isidro trust me when i say it gets worse puck has kind of taken a backseat from his original role at first acting as the literal angel on gutz's shoulder the one who goes around actually trying to help people and find out what's happening while guts killed anything that moved now he's mostly just there for comedic relief now i do think puck is funny here is smarmy wiseass humor bouncing off how stupid and arrogant easy dro acts at times but i'll admit i missed serious buck the one who screamed at jill to keep moving the one who begged teresa not to kill herself that puck this puck is fine but knowing who he was before he was just the chestnut head kind of makes it bitter to read at times though this part here where isidro wants to be the greatest swordsman tm and puck just smiles at him that's good [ __ ] that's genuinely really funny we then see that isidro actually never left camp barnes and costco are maybe a stone's throw away barneys is trying to dress one of the birds easy drill caught but she's grossed out by the task koska meanwhile is playing with the plucked feathers and then we see koska's brand is starting to bleed a monstrous arm gripping a tree branch as it watches the women serpico and guts are alone in the forest the servant gathering timber when a stick is thrown at his head guts saw right through the [ __ ] they weren't out there to collect firewood serpico wants another fight at least that's what guts thinks he plays dumb claiming he just wanted to talk with guts but when the big guy turns to leave he throws a berry at his head saying that he wanted to talk about how great it would be if guts ended up dead yeah he's still pissed but weirdly enough guts is actually happy to see it in a weird way these two want to fight each other again serpico because guts hurt farnese and continues to hurt farnace with her stubbornness to continue their journey and guts because he's a warrior he wants to fight a strong opponent and serpico shows serious potential he wants to kick this dude's ass because that's who he is but they know better than to waste time and energy on their petty rivalry there's more important things to worry about serpico then talks about how much barneys has changed if he had a choice in the matter they'd abandon this quest and go back home but she isn't budging on the matter he describes her as like a baby that cried its eyes out completely beaten down and vulnerable in the world serpico has no idea how to handle this new part of her personality where she's finally just tearing down the persona and exposing who she really is and she became this way because of guts he's willing to put aside his personal feelings to make sure she's safe and happy so if farnese happens to die on their quest he will cut gutz's head off himself so despite how much these two don't really seem to like each other they have kind of a weird symbiosis they both have women in their lives they're trying to protect and they will most definitely prioritize making koska and farnis safe and happy above their own personal feelings in the matters it's not a fun job but it's one they need to do and this is when they hear the screaming isidro runs back to camp to find koskinen farni's being kidnapped by an ape-like creature he chases the monster in the forest even throwing stones at his head to try and stop it the monster reacts to the attack stopping dead in its tracks and dropping the women it turns to show that it is in fact a troll now as stated trolls in berserk are a bit different from most interpretations this version plays them off as almost a weird hybrid between ground moles and monkeys thing is they aren't completely animalistic they're stupid and operate off reflex and instinct but well you'll see later these are nasty little [ __ ] this one happens to be wielding an axe isidro believes this is his chance to finally cut down an enemy in combat unaware of the small witch watching them from afar isidro dives in to fight choking back his fear and trying to simply react but he gets his ass beat the troll sends him flying with every strike the monster is way faster than what ecdro gave the credit for it chases him around trying to violently murder him at every chance and right when it looks like the troll managed to corner isidro and prepare a final blow someone throws a small bundle of berries into the troll's snout it runs off from the attack and the party looks up to see a small witches come in to save them she warns them that other trolls are nearby and isidro sees that she is absolutely right they were surrounded by trolls because it turns out they never hunt alone always in packs she has the party gather close spreading a rope into a circle and preparing a ritual to protect them a magic ritual this girl is the real deal an actual witch this must be pretty awkward for farnese but not only is this girl a witch she even has her own elf companion and this one is a girl too the female elf explains that the witch is making a magic circle and if they bother her whatsoever then they're probably going to be torn to shreds right as the trolls charge in to attack the circle activates keeping the beasts away and giving the witch a chance to fight back she casts a spell on a bundle of hairs firing them out into the crowd of trolls the monsters retreat and they're finally well and truly saved it's still really [ __ ] with farnies that they got saved by a witch though like that that's actually messing with her really bad turns out the spell she used on the hair essentially turned them into a bundle of fire arrows so when she sent them out into the crowd of trolls it inflicted massive damage the witch then suggests that they just leave the forest right now it's way too dangerous but isidro swears they fought monsters before the witch calls [ __ ] saying that isidro is probably gonna die the next time he got into a sword fight because he has no idea what the hell he's doing and right as she goes to leave isidro gets pissed off and a comedic situation occurs yep the witch was actually shrike it was pretty blatantly obvious since we already saw her and her elf friend whose name is eva lira by the way but now she's pissed and hits isidro in the face with her staff guts and cerfico rush in to find isidro perched on a tree branch brainwashed into thinking he's a monkey that's what you get for touching the lolly witch it made her very uncomfortable well that in a sex offender registry but that's only if you live in florida magic users aren't people shrike tried to sneak back into the woods but she notes something strange the party could see the pentagram when the barrier activated something normal people simply can't do not just that but the lady dressed in the potato sack and the big guy in all black are weird like reality shifting around them level weird we see that the party was able to reunite and keep moving after the incident with the trolls isidro is pissed off that he's been cursed to act like a monkey but guts is thankful that the boy was able to protect the women isidro is weirded out by the compliment but guts truly means it in fact guts is happy that there's other people to watch out for koska he tried to do it himself and it ended horribly even now kazuka is completely latched onto farnese still terrified of guts he knows he can't be the dashing hero that would keep her safe it's too much to handle and he's already blown his chances she hates him now and nothing he can do will change that so he'll let the others save koska that's fine with him because in the end guts would only hurt her now this part fascinates me to say the least it's obviously a reference to well you know there's even a cameo by the beast of darkness trailing behind in the dark in case it wasn't obvious enough yet it's also a sign that guts are starting to get pretty burned out he still loves koska he is quite literally willing to die for her but he knows they can't be together again too much has happened and the more guts tried to pretend that there was still something there from the old days the worse the situation got to the point that he damn near raped koska in the heat of the moment so he's okay with stepping back to protect costco when he can while letting the others take care of her he's finally relying on other people for the first time in his life the incident with the beast of darkness shook guts to his core he quite literally doesn't trust himself anymore his solitude and his strength were the only things he could fall back to when things got tough even during his days as the black swordsman but he was finally broken he reached his limit and fell further than that and he's all but punishing himself by pulling away from koska he's not pushing her out completely he still very much cares about the love of his life it's just accepting that he isn't good for her anymore he scares her now in a way guts has finally accepted that their relationship is well and truly gone [Music] we finally reached the part of berserk that is actually pretty divisive to people for a multitude of reasons though the main one is that right here is where the story starts to noticeably lighten up not completely and it's still a long ways out before you can actually see what i'm talking about in full but it's the beginning as the manga went on berserk slowly bled out the dark fantasy edge that you saw before instead drifting into more general high fantasy the horror isn't completely neutered there's still a lot of [ __ ] up [ __ ] on the horizon but you're not going to see the same nightmarish things like you saw with the eclipse falcon of the millennium empire sort of teases this idea but when we get to the final arc falconia boy is it gonna hit like a truck now personally i'm fine with berserk shed against more edgy aspects as the story progressed because it feels like a natural evolution instead of a sudden tonal shift though the tonal shifts do happen sometimes admittedly now some people downright hate modern berserk compared to the older stuff in fact you even have some people that outright say it should have ended at the eclipse like don't even go any further than that they wanted pure darkness from beginning to end and i can't blame them for that the series got its entire identity off bleak horrific dark fantasy it can feel like a downright betrayal to what made the series great however i view the situation like this yeah berserk got's iconic status through some of the more shocking and tragic moments but you can't constantly dip from that well and expect it to keep having the same impact how many times can guts watch people close to him die before it starts feeling stale like pure shock value i'm fine with the series going in the direction it's going to go because frankly it's unexplored territory you haven't seen the good aspects of this world very much the closest you have is gutz's relationship with koska and his loved ones and the only sign of magic being a positive whatsoever was puck now the story is specifically doubling down and fleshing out the actual lore around magic that maybe there is more than just the demons and god hand in hell and really i much prefer this than just repetitive nihilistic edge i'd rather a much more fleshed out nuanced story than just endless darkness and misery and misanthropy because frankly that just gets exhausting after a point unless you really have something you're trying to say berserk is kind of in a weird state where it started off so bleak and so violent and so edgy and now it's really turning into something a lot bigger than what it started gutz's entire emotional journey up to this point has been something that frankly couldn't be done in just a misery porn story at least in the same way that i define mystery porn if it was misery porn then all the characters he's traveling with would already be dead costco would be dead it would just be about finding new ways to torment guts and make his life a living hell instead the actual story decided that yeah guts's life is a living hell but above all he's fighting for something inside of it there's a reason for him to keep moving forward there's hope there's people around him that are pushing him up and i just think that's significantly more beautiful now coming back to story time the party is reflecting on the encounter they had with the trolls serpico points out how running into trolls and a witch sort of feels more like a fairy tale than what they're used to but gutz thinks it's the work of an apostle and can you really blame the guy still they find a man unconscious in the forest and they take the time to save him he was part of a group of men that came into the forest but were attacked by trolls making him the only survivor they all agreed to escort him back to the nearby village but the man says he can't go back yet he introduces himself as morgan and explains that the forest had numerous stories surrounding it for decades everything from fairies to witches nobody took the legend seriously until the trolls attacked they raid the villages around them constantly carrying off livestock along with women and children the attacks along with the war have pushed the village to a breaking point they barely have any supplies for winter and can't pay the heavy taxes still levied on them their local lord traveled over tennis and it's not like they can beg him to stop trolls anyway they either need to find a way to stop it themselves or risk being wiped out come winter so morgan suggested they enter the forest to find a legendary witch that's supposed to live there the stories say if the witch wants you to find her you'll stumble into her mansion the other villagers were too terrified to enter due to the rumors but some children say they actually did find the mansion before morgan's group was searching for five days before they were attacked but they never found it isidro is skeptical that they can find the witch if morgan's group couldn't but as they're talking they walk past a tree with a strange marking dug into it this actually alerts shrike who's astonished someone could pass the barrier so she summons her elementals as a security measure we then see that the party did in fact manage to find the witch's hut morgan is moved at the site admitting that one of the children who claimed to have found the witch before was actually him so many years passed that he started to think he merely dreamed the whole thing but it turns out he was right isidro realizes that shrike must be here as well and readies himself for payback assuming her as the witch though puck makes it clear he'll just be brainwashed into thinking he's a monkey again as they walk guts and koska get a sensation from their brands not the same as dead spirits or demons but enough to get their attentions he calls out to isidro ordering him to stop but the boy isn't listening instead he bumps into a big stone statue he laughs at how ridiculous the thing looks and puck explains that it's actually a gollum a puppet used by witches as a helper or a guard the golem springs to life grabbing for isidro but its arm is hacked off by guts and the other arm gets chopped off get [ __ ] on mudman you're not people morgan begs them to stop the violence but the golem reforms its limbs and goes to attack again guts still can't wrap his head around just what exactly is going on usually stuff like this is evidence that a full-blown demon is nearby but still doesn't feel like how it does when he's close to an apostle it's different the party is then swarmed by golems all rising from the earth and surrounding them compared to what they usually fight this is nowhere near as [ __ ] up even isidro doesn't really know whether to get scared or to start laughing they all prepare for battle and isidro gets a hug from one smaller golems this part's pretty cute not gonna lie i want one of them those golems seem like they're cool easy draw kicks the golem off of them and it falls apart on the ground only to then reform almost immediately it seems like no matter how much damage they inflict they just won't stop guts doesn't seem to care still chopping apart the big one though of course it's not working for him either we see that it is in fact strike who caused all this but she doesn't want to actually hurt them she's simply trying to scare them away or in the worst case scenario they'll pass out from exhaustion and she can just safely transport them outside the forest but what's wracking her mind is how they even got close to the hut in the first place the barriers specifically kept normal humans out yeah it seemed like costco and guts pushed right through strike even considers that it could be due to griffith's influence on the world but she's pulled out of her thoughts by the fight below her they're still going strong fully abandoning swords and just hitting the golems with sticks she expected them to be at their limits but they seem almost used to this because well yeah they've dealt with leagues worse than these things and for much longer periods of time isidro even says that this isn't much different from fighting spirits but the goofy faces make it a lot less scary gosuka grabs at something on the ground scrounging through the remains of one of the broken golems revealing a tiny doll was hiding inside of it serpico notes that after she removed the doll from the golem it stopped regenerating they found the weakness the dolls sit inside their chests so all they need to do is target that right beneath the cymbals so guts takes the advice and quickly finishes off the big golem shattering the doll with his iron fist is a drone puck combo up to finish off a gollum the boy delivering a dropkick and puck breaking the doll with a chestnut and serpico pierces right through the chest of one with his sword shrike and her elf panic at the idea of losing all their golems and the witch prepares to cast a spell only for a voice to tell her to stop strike calls off the golems and reveals herself to the party at first they all assume she is the witch from the stories only for strike to invite them inside to talk with her mistress they enter the hut and puck reminisces about his time messing with magic users back when he lived on elfilm turns out he was still just as annoying back then as he is now isidro is confused on who shrike is since if she isn't the witch then who is she the girl explains that she's still in training so she's the student of the witch they're trying to find the female elf ivalira introduces herself to the party admitting that she's basically the same as puck and acting as strike's friend though her personality is much less happy-go-lucky and stupid and a bit more hoity-toity isidro still wants to mess with shrike for the whole brainwash him into being a monkey thing and he embarrasses her by making her explain what exactly happened to the rest of the group but guts basically tells him to knock it off he wants to find the witch their retardation can wait for later shrike leads the group to the witch herself this one far more in line with traditional stereotypes of wise elder witch she's an older woman named flora and warmly greets everyone as she apologizes for the gollum incident shrike was simply concerned for her safety and didn't mean them any real harm morgan recognizes flora as the witch he met as a child all that time ago he entered the forest to get medicine for his mother but that happened over 50 years ago and funnily enough flora remembers him too so any doubt she might have that she's a fraud put them to rest right now this is the real [ __ ] deal farnese is uncomfortable in the presence of the actual witches but flora assures her that there's nothing to worry about barnes never killed any real magic users and even if she did the fault lies with the holy see not with her as an individual varnish is shocked that flora seemed to actually read her mind also isn't it kind of worse that none of the people she killed were actual witches that make me feel worse still flora moves on to address guts and koska specifically referring to them as the branded pair guts is confused how she would know that but flora simply says that she's been waiting for them she refers to the soft prophecy as her waiting on they of the brand guided by tiny wings guts worries that she may be an apostle but she doesn't give off that vibe whatsoever the brand aches but not in the sharp pain that it gives him when he's close to a demon strike is confused as to what flora means by they of the brand but the subject is dropped when flora addresses morgan to explain his situation she does not want to talk about this just yet the trolls have been worrying her they're creatures of what she calls the astral world they should almost never be seen by humans let alone conduct full-blown raids though despite her fears and her very obviously good-natured self she can't help them she's too old to leave the hut isidro blurts out that it sounds like flora is preparing to die which pisses off strike and evalira but flora actually confirms this her death is coming and she's simply waiting on it morgan panics thinking this means that his village is screwed but flora instead offers shrike to go in her place the young girl argues against the idea but flora views it as a chance for her student to put her training to the test flora asked the party to accompany her for the rite of passage but guts refuses they have a quest to complete they can't waste any more time than they already have though flora offers them payment for the job if they help strike clear out the trolls she will give the party powerful talismans to help them on their journey isidro thinks she means cheap little trinkets but shrike assures them flora's talismans are very very powerful flora herself says that while she can't remove the brand she can make them something that can dampen the effects dampen the effects of the brand of sacrifice reducing the amount of spirits that attack them and even protecting them from being possessed by demons the brand is too strong to be held back forever but it should give them enough time to finish their journey the idea that he might actually be able to find a solution to his mental problems makes guts have a flashback to when the beast of darkness made him hurt koska this is his chance to keep something like that from ever happening again isidro meanwhile finally realizes that the brain of sacrifice is what was pulling demons toward guts in costco he's been with him this entire time and only just learned this nevertheless guts looks back to koska who cowers behind farnese at his gaze and the site seems to push guts into accepting the job morgan is thankful that his village finally has heroes to save it but shrike doesn't want to leave though flora makes it clear it's not a choice she's nervous to introduce herself to everyone showing a far more timid side to herself than when she was the arrogant witch that was messing with isidro who still wants to bully her due to their awkward first impressions flora offers them a chance to rest for the night assuring guts that they'll be safe from the demons thanks to her magic they all sit down to have dinner an assortment of nutritious nuts and berries and guts brings the conversation back to how flora seemed to know they were coming in fact he wants to know how she knows about the brand of sacrifice at all flora says she received a message from a friend in the astral world they specifically asked flora to help them when the party arrived aesidro wants to know just what the hell the astral world even is and flora explains that it's basically the afterlife though it is way more complicated than just that the power of the brand of sacrifice allows the astral world to manifest around them shrike then says that all of reality is basically three worlds lying on top of each other the astral world the world of idea and the normal world this is where we finally get a full-blown explanation of how the magic in berserk works i mentioned in part 3 that puck's explanation behind why farnese couldn't perceive him wasn't exactly word for word how it actually worked the way puck explained it he was always there it's just up to someone going out of their way to notice him otherwise he's basically invisible and won't be remembered in any way in truth the way it works is that perception is reality if you already believe that things such as elves or trolls exist then they exist and it reaches the point that you can see and touch one for real you manifest it into your reality into the normal world that's part of the reason why ghosts attack the party they perceive the spirits as violent monsters coming to kill them so they're able to physically fight them off usually this is impossible for other humans but the brand of sacrifice throws the separation of the worlds into chaos so that's why all the weird stuff seems to happen around guts and kaska they quite literally shift reality around them through their very existence with the brand in the old days people used to live right alongside stuff like elves all the time but thanks to the holy see strict dogma the amount of humans that can see them has shrunk into an all-time low puck then takes the time to mess with barnes over this i have no commentary i just i just think this part is really funny there's a lot of good humor in berserk you have to you have to let me have my fun here guts worries about going to l film thanks to the exposition dump thinking they might actually be traveling to the afterlife instead of a physical place but pukk assures him that humans live there all the time isidro gets the idea of getting people to just stop believing in weird stuff to make the monsters go away earning an ass beating by puck in the process but shrike explains that it's not that simple it's not just belief people don't have to actively think about these things for them to work the subconscious plays a large factor plus these worlds do exist flora says that all of reality works off of layers magic users have been able to separate their souls from their physical bodies and go out of their way to study how the worlds actually function the first layer is the physical world simple enough the first layer of the astral world is the interstice basically a sort of limbo if you remember that first night after guts woke up after the eclipse skull knight told him he is now trapped in the interstice it's the merging of the world of the living and the world of the dead it's not too different from the normal world except this is where creatures and spirits dwell people who died suddenly or with regrets are trapped here until they move on to a deeper lair this one is radically different from the normal world flora doesn't say much beyond it's where angels demons and even pagan gods exist and the lair after that is the collection of human karma though magic users have no clue whether or not it's heaven or hell limbo purgatory they don't know what the hell it is after this point if you go even deeper than this no one knows what happens not one person who's ever crossed further has come back alive but flora does think that something might exist deep in the abyss under this layer flora says that the world is too large and mysterious to be bound by a single doctrine and the very study of magic itself revolves around solving the big questions of the universe so things got pretty trippy and existential there for a second but now you guys can see that it's a lot more complicated than just a guy fighting hell in fact now the question remains of what exactly is hell what is any of what we saw things got weird and crazy fast nevertheless we get some nudity to tie us over let's stop thinking about weird science stuff at the moment or i guess magic stuff but it's the same thing still the party is relaxing in flora's hut as farnese and koska enjoy a relaxing bath puck is there too but he cares not for human titty varnis reflects on the journey so far amazed that they actually found a spot to enjoy a bath for once it was a chance that seemed like it was never going to happen again and it all happened in the mansion of a witch a rare luxury to say the least isidro spots his chance to join the women in the bath he's just a young boy they can't be angry at him well shrike shows up to stop his ascension up the ladder of puberty the women unaware to the excruciating ass beating the child is suffering guts meanwhile is more interested in furthering the plot than fanservice he goes to talk to flora bringing the bailout he's kept with them since guardians of desire to her shrike ceases her punishment of isidro to pay attention to their conversation flora wonders just how the hell guts found one of these things but he keeps his answer vague because he probably didn't want to admit that he tortured a man to get it and then killed him in front of his daughter and then killed his army a lot of bad things happened in guardians of desire part one flora explains that all magic users know about baylets they act as gateways between the physical world and a deep lair of the astral world specifically to summon the god hand guts wants to know how to use the bailit and flora immediately picks up that he wants revenge koska wanders into the conversation as they speak varney's desperately trying to lead her back into the bath though the woman gets noticeably flustered when she notices that they are now completely exposed to guts and flora farnese in particular is probably more embarrassed at being seen by one than the other but we're going to talk about this later flora notes the conflicting goals guts wants to take koska to l-film and at the same time he wants to get his revenge on the god hand the one thing keeping guts on his feet was his hatred for what happened to him in koska it's quite literally one of the few things keeping him going but at the same time it's a burden that's getting worse it's hurting the people he loves it's an almost impossible balance that guts has to keep steady no matter what flora was able to decipher all of this from guts by a single conversation with the man though despite her prowess flora can't activate the valet it's not a tool like what he thinks it's an object of fate it will go where it needs to go and activate when destiny tells it to it's simply waiting for the right place and the right time so if the thing belongs to guts then he's destined for something terrible in the future it will always come back to him even if he tries to get rid of it but if it doesn't belong to him then it will find its way to the true owner even now the real owner is craving the power the bailiff can bring guts is frustrated at her answer but he accepts that there's nothing that can be done laura simply wishes that it leave and stay very very far away from guts he tries to ask flora who told her they'd be coming but puck interrupts the conversation by snatching the bailout he's grown attached to it even naming it betchy and he feeds the cheese it likes cheese guts has one final question before he leaves flora alone he wants to know just what the hell the god hand even are flora describes them as executors of the will of something lurking in the abyss the idea of evil the deepest lair of the astral world they work for the idea of evil once again a vague and cryptic answer it's the hidden chapter chapter 83 we covered in part two still he goes to leave running into shrike as he does she finally recognizes the brand of sacrifice for what it is and tells him his quest is impossible they control fate itself does he really plan on fighting them guts says yes all he needs to do is hit him where it hurts he leaves but shrike isn't impressed by his answer she then admits to flora that she saw griffith saying that he is unlike anything that's ever been seen before his mere presence engulfs people and his fortune is so strong that he simply can't be touched there's no way a human can fight him and if he really is the hawk of darkness like from the prophecy then that's even worse it might already be too late flora chimes in to say that griffith was the one who branded guts then tells her student not to focus too hard on what she thinks she knows considering all the possibilities yes guts and costco would die fighting griffith but then it was simply impossible for either of them to survive the eclipse in the first place no matter what was thrown at him they are still alive he fought off his fate long enough to encounter flora and shrike something that shouldn't have happened considering the odds strike recognizes this as an admission that flora wants her to aid guts on his journey her test was simply a way of getting her student to join the party because the mere existence of guts serves to teach shrike about the world fate and destiny exist but humanity can still choose shrike needs to learn how powerful this idea can be so she wants her student to see how important this encounter truly is for her so now a lolli witch has joined the party and the best way to describe shrike is she's basically a sheltered nerdy girl thrust into a very very brutal world she's not a coward or useless you already saw before that she's pretty powerful but she has trouble interacting with normal humans thankfully that term doesn't exactly match the party hell she might fit right in with everybody so guts has a magical girl daughter figure now which is sad considering the circumstances around that idea it turns out flora was not kidding when she said there are talismans to help them with the brand while they're not as powerful as something the witch herself can create strike is able to give guts and costco one strong enough to ward off evil spirits for up to three days on top of that the party is given an ointment designed to help them perceive ethereal bodies and to top it all off she even gives them magical weapons to help them fight serpico receives a tunic and a sword blessed by wind spirits the physical world's properties of matter solid liquid vapor energy resonate with the elementals of the astral world earth water wind and fire they actually affect the world by acting as the ethereal forms of elements so the wind spirits are actually what blow wind in the sky whatsoever elves actually act as a form of a wind spirit but puck was too stupid to figure that out dude you are one how how did you not know that the important thing is that the wind magic gives serpico the ability to dodge attacks everything from arrows to even sword strikes and his sword is actually a blade made out of an eagle feather blessed with the ability to summon powerful winds and focus the air so much that he can tear things apart without even needing to touch them serpaco tests the ability by slashing out a candle from across the room the fires extinguish from the wind and puck confirms that the candle itself was cut from the strike isidro receives a dagger blessed by fire elementals what strike calls salamanders the blade was magically forged out of molten lava and any strike he makes will ignite his target and burn like hot iron isidro tests the blade and accidentally sets the table on fire under him they all show skepticism at the idea of this young impulsive child being given such a dangerous weapon but cepuko admits it probably wouldn't be a good idea to give it to farnice either cheat hurt herself with it by using it for dirty reasons they also receive consecrated berries something that will scare away the trolls if they get cornered though shrike admits that their last resort measure things go bad to be honest she doesn't even want to bring isidro with her but flora told her to so she has to keep the boy alive farnese and costco receive much simpler gifts chainmail shirts made out of silver and farnese herself is given a silver dagger the metal has strong magical properties so they should be protected if things go bad they aren't really the fighters of the group and they have equipment that's more defensive than anything else strike tries to teach easy drone serpico how to properly wield their weapons that they need to actually believe in the strength of their magical power it's not just getting an enchanted weapon they form a bond with their user and the stronger the bond the more strength they can pull from the elementals strike tries to give guts a battle axe to replace his sword but he refuses the weapon the way he sees it he's sticking with what he knows best he's been using the dragon slayer for years it would be a bad idea to just suddenly swap it out with something else as gutz orders them all to leave shrike seems like she's gearing up for another lecture but something about the dragon slayer catches her attention in the probably not great way the party all gather outside the tree hut taking note that the small wounds they've had are all gone shrek explains that due to the nature of the hut their physical and ethereal bodies have gotten closer together so their physical wounds will heal they've been living in the interstice the shallow depths of the astral world that allowed them to see monsters and spirits but flora's hut was deeper than what they were used to so much so that it's impossible for other humans to perceive it at best they see the mansion as a mirage in the distance never physically perceiving it in a way they've sort of crossed over into the afterlife in the real world the tree floor on shrike live under is dead but due to the strong worship that magic users poured onto the tree it flourished in the astral world it's the reason so many magic users live in the interstice the physical world's rules become loose and it's easier for them to stay hidden and manipulate their surroundings strike even giddily says that magic users can fly if they become strong enough i'm liking her bros i would buy her ice cream strike asks if koski can stay with flora but gutz refuses the idea nothing good ever happened when guts left her behind he'd rather she stick with them no matter what then take a bet that things will stay safe as he's gone flora agrees with guts mentioning that his connection with koska can help save him from the hellfire inside farnace is nervous to start their new side quest feeling she might just end up getting in the way but guts simply orders her to care for koska she seems excited at the idea almost happy happy that she can make guts happy with their preparations complete our party leaves to go fight off the troll infestation but as they leave flora's hut gutz takes note of a shape in the window turns out they had a visitor he just didn't want to see them off flora is completely comfortable with his presence talking to him like an old friend she wonders what the stranger's motivations really are whether he's manipulating them or showing a true sympathy towards guts flora hopes that some humanity is still buried deep down inside of the man and we see that the stranger is skull knight he was the one who asked flora to care for guts and his party he claims that guts may be a factor of causality such as him so he might see guts as a sort of kindred spirit flora describes this as god bestowing fate upon humanity through our encounters with others this obviously speaking about how guts just happened to run into the people that eventually became his companions by pure chance something so small snowballed into a completely new life path for guts though it's absolutely for the better i don't even want to think about what would have happened if guts was still all by himself by this point nothing good that's for damn sure but let's go ahead and get back to the creepy little bastards themselves the trolls some villagers find a troll has broken into their barn devouring their livestock to mere bones now it's ripping a man apart devouring his flesh in front of the horrified crowd the man's wife throws rocks at the troll desperate to get the thing away from her husband but all it succeeds in doing is pissing the monster off she tries to kill it with a sharp farming tool but is quickly overpowered then savagely raped by the troll in front of the mob her brother tries to fight the monster off and actually runs off in pain from the attack but as soon as they think the situation is over they spot an entire pack hiding in the darkness remember trolls hunt and packs the party arrives in time for the funeral morgan welcomed back with open arms the crowd happy to see him safe they explained the situation to him the wife was carried off by trolls her brother and husband torn apart and unrecognizable and what's sad they were only married for four days all three grew up together and now the whole village is gonna starve now that each person is being picked off one by one and the raids on their livestock is not getting any better so do you hate these little [ __ ] yet don't worry don't worry it's gonna get worse the town is eager to see if morgan was actually able to get any help and that's when the rest of the group arrives in tow that diversity makes the town skeptical only one of them seemed like an actual warrior plus they had kids with them but the presence of puck and evalera is enough to convince them that yeah maybe they did come from the witch they assume that the witch was either farnese or koska but morgan clarifies that it's actually shrike who was nervously hiding behind guts the whole time this does not end well the crowd turns on them once they realize that the only thing standing between the horde of horny flesh-eaters and them is a little girl i see trotel's strike to show off a spell something to convince the town she's the real deal but she refuses magic is meant to be taken seriously she can't just cast spells to fuel her ego then the town priest shows up so things have went from bad to very very not great he tears into morgan for what he sees as a stunt relying on superstitious nonsense won't solve the troll problem and might just end up with even more victims he even accuses morgan of dressing strike in the witch outfit just to bring something back since he was the only survivor of his group one of the villagers point out that they do have elves with them but the priest isn't convinced it's not like they can fight those things anyway the preacher views the party as traveling performers that morgan hired to come swindle the village and essentially tells them all to [ __ ] off jesus doesn't want them there the same villager that's still holding in some hope points out that guts looks like a scary dude maybe he could do something at the very least but the priest doesn't care this is a test by god to see if they're truly desperate enough to buy into stuff like witches instead of relying on his holiness to come save them the party isn't really sure what they can do to convince them that they're real adventurers and farnese considers mentioning their rank with the holy see but serpico points out that it's probably not a great idea to talk about their old jobs considering that they themselves might be the subject of a manhunt after the unpleasantness at saint albion temple the priest then approaches strike warning her that she shouldn't run around posing as a witch if they were in the holy city they'd burn her at the stake without hesitation witches are a symbol of wickedness apostasy and never shutting the [ __ ] up about crystals on twitter before shrike can lose her temper koska ends up stumbling into the funeral falling into one of the caskets the village is understandably pissed off at this up until they notice that koska is a special case gut simply picks her up causing koska to cry out and run for farnese as soon as she's free he then plays this off as them being pilgrims praying to heal koska so the church is all but obligated to show them charity and if they don't like that then they can get a nice good view of the dragon slayer the implications are pretty clear so the priest makes the right choice and prepares their housing shrike slowly realizing what exactly flora meant by how significant everyone meeting each other truly was she would have never been able to convince the village she could have helped without the others mainly the big dude in all black with the reputation of entire towns vanishing off the face of the earth when he showed up but don't worry about that part this is a happy moment some sometime later the party is gathered in their lodgings strike hands them all bundles of her hair telling them all to tie it around their fingers it'll allow her to communicate telepathically with everyone and she shows off her ability by insulting isidro with her mind good to go she explains that deep down every human is technically capable of telepathy but it requires them to connect their ode essentially tethering their souls together shrike's hairs act as a literal tether and it helps non-magic users at the very least communicate with her just her however the others don't have the magical ability to carry out the spell and this leads strike to her next point she is in charge while they battle the trolls she's the only one of the party with any experience with magic so she'll be able to keep an eye on the battle far above what the others are capable of doing isidro is pissed off at the idea but the others agree technically it was her job in the first place the boy storms out of lodgings and raged at the idea of taking orders from the girl who humiliated him and we see him training under a bridge he's still trying to master the move he used to hit guts during their sparring but he's having trouble keeping steady using a sword with one hand throws him off you see that really he's also just pissed off that somebody new gets to call the shots when she just joined the party this little girl gets to barge in take complete control and make him look like a complete idiot puck mocks him relentlessly over this showing zero regard to the conflict inside of isidro but then morgan decides to show up to offer him some lunch the two talk about the state of the village isidro going so far is calling it shabby the spot they're in guarantees they won't get much sunlight and the new highway drove most passerbys away from their route so they dried up economically as well despite the challenges morgan refuses to let them shrivel up and die he then asks the boy why he's following guts anyway but isidro denies that he's following him he's in the middle of his own journey he just asked guts to teach him the sword but it's abundantly clear that yeah you see joe's a fanboy he sees guts as a monster that eats monsters and his admiration for the man is on full display though once again he denies this is the case also puck makes a yoda reference moving on morgan asks isidro if he has any family but the boy shrugs him off instead asking if morgan has any family considering he went off to hunt for a witch in the woods he's also pissed at how the whole village just seemed to turn on him the first chance they could whether or not he got what they wanted the dude still risked his life to get them help morgan didn't even try to talk back or get angry isidro suggests he simply run away from the village there's no point staying here the old man admits that all his loved ones are already dead from a famine they're all buried in the village and at his age there's not much point just picking up and moving somewhere despite how he was treated morgan still feels obligated to help so long as they're safe he won't have any complaints besides he got to complete his dream in life he got to see flora again morgan goes on to explain his childhood he was a typical boy playing in the woods dreaming of catching fairies and going on adventures and set sail out of her tennis and never looked back but it all changed after his mother fell ill before he knew it morgan charged into the forest desperate to find the witch in hope of saving his mother and he actually did manage to reach her and just as promised he was given medicine to save his mom only when he got back his mother looked a lot older than he remembered still the incident taught morgan to appreciate the home he has and ever since he stayed right there in the village without a complaint now he's an old man his memories of his youth fading from his mind but that little adventure he had to save his mother stuck with them even to this day and knowing that flora was sitting in that hut waiting to see him again that gives him contentment enough isidro was pissed off at the story refusing to ever consider that he was like morgan when he was a child isidro was actually working on making his dreams come true he's not gonna rot away in a shitty little village like him he'll be the next hokage circumstances be damned oh god damn it morgan isn't angry or frustrated with the boy simply seeing him off with a blank expression gutz was actually watching the interaction from afar and morgan tells him about how much ecdro thinks of the guy but guts remain silent simply taking in what happened strike stands in front of the town church thinking about the battle to come when the trolls arrive everyone will evacuate into the church so they need to make it the focal point of the defense she's also trying to stave off her own nerves but that's understandably a tad difficult she thinks she knows something about the church but gets distracted when some village kids pelt her with rocks they feel justified in attacking shrike because the priest doesn't like her but gut shows up to scare off the kids he brings strike's mind back to the fight ahead telling her that the whole place got ransacked pretty bad it wasn't set on fire or anything that an army would do but it's not great shrek thanks guts for his quick thinking back during the funeral though she's worried that lying about their purpose will have consequences guts doesn't really think it's a big deal asking shrike what exactly she was keeping herself from saying to the priest she says that's not just the priest but every human is wrong and a fraud you're a fraud shrike explains that the spot where the church was built used to be a shrine for the spirits turns out the holy sees churches literally crush the sacred places that old civilizations used to worship the spirits the holy see only exists to protect its own existence invoking the name of god to go to war and invoking god when they want salvation an endless cycle that solves nothing shrike says that the very things they want to forget might be exactly what they need to save themselves from the horrors around them guts think she's talking about witches and shrike tells him a story of when flora was younger she used to travel around to different villages helping whoever she could she saved countless people but when the holy see grew in power the very one she wanted to protect started to ostracize flora eventually driving her deep into the forest where she lived ever since shrike can't forgive the normal world for how they treated her master and if it was up to her she'd never interact with it for a second gutz then plainly tells her basically leave these people for dead if she really doesn't care there's no reason to waste time what's the point in saving a bunch of [ __ ] that don't appreciate her especially when flora is close to dying the way he sees it if she just does what she's told even if she doesn't want to do it then that's a fool's errand the bluntness of gutz's words piss strike off who has to choke back her anger thinking that it's simply impossible that these two are connected by destiny back in the lodgings serpico watches over farnese as she cares for koska he hates that they're wasting time with this glorified side quest too or really just the whole quest period he wants to get farni's back home safe and the more they put themselves at risk the harder that becomes despite this he does note that farnese has become very accustomed to caring for koska even if he hates all the risk in danger serpaco can't deny that their journey has been a good influence for farnese she's actually smiling he goes outside to inspect his sword the idea that this weapon symbolizes complete freedom is pretty ironic he admits it's something that's completely alien to him and he's not sure what it really means but there's no time to think about that guts and shrike look into the distance alerted by the sensation of the brand the trolls are here shrike alerts the party to gather the villagers at the church everyone getting the signal to ready for nastiness but there's a problem it's not just a raiding party of trolls it's an entire army of the things pouring out of the forests and coming straight for the village there's nothing else to ransack so they're coming to take what's left the town guards alert the remaining population of the coming raid and just as predicted the townsfolk rush for the church the trolls quickly surge in to overrun the population serpico attempts to save a mother and child from a pack but his sword's magic doesn't seem to work the others having to tell him to focus on the wind elementals in order for their magic to take effect they manifest around his blade just as the pack of trolls comes straight for serpico he tries another attack this one blowing through the monsters and taking them apart serpico has finally figured out how to use his weapon properly using his new abilities to finish off what's left of the pack a troll tries to ambush serpico from a rooftop throwing his spear down at him but his magic cloak blows out a gust of wind that protects him from the projectile giving him a chance to slice the troll in half everyone is in shock that this random dude used literal magic to kill off these horrible monsters and isidro wants to show off his magic weapon as well running straight towards a troll to attack him only for his buddies to show up trolls hunt and packs isidro runs back in a panic desperately throwing back some of the berries to the trolls chasing him it actually works the trolls scramble backwards to avoid the berries as they bounce on the ground but this only succeeds in pissing them off the tidal wave of hairy monsters charging for our unlucky heroes serpico manages to kill a few and easy dro tosses more berries but it's not enough especially when they see that the trolls have their own method of dealing with their wounded they savagely eat them alive as they run a man bumps into koska sending her to the ground farnese stops to try and help but a pack of trolls leap towards them only to stop in their tracks the silver chainmail they were given actually does work and it keeps the monsters at bay as serpico prepares another strike once they're safe serpico realizes that farnese just risked her own life to protect someone else hell the woman they tried to murder before so that's pretty substantial too bad the trolls have them surrounded the silver keeps them away so long as the party sticks together so the plan is to open a path and get to the church the townsfolk are guided inside by the priest who overhears how the party stayed behind to guide everyone to safety they all watch the trolls surround our heroes simply giving them no chance to escape he assumes they're dead meat but guts doesn't like that idea the priest screams that it's impossible to fight off those creatures but you know exactly how that goes guts cleaves through the trolls tearing them apart with the dragon slayer and sending their body parts flying even after watching serpico wield literal magic everyone can't help but watch in amazement at the result of gutz's handiwork even goes so far as crushing the skull of a troll with his boot splashing the horde with blood as he hefs the dragon slayer over his shoulder even if guts got quiet and existential you shouldn't forget this man is capable of extreme violence so much so that he starts ripping through the horde of trolls entire groups falling apart with every sword swing the dude is a whirlwind and before long a large gaping hole in the horde is created everyone is an absolute shock this big guy dressed in all black just slaughtered dozens of trolls in just a few seconds and he did all without magic just his sword even shrike and eva lyra are impressed watching from the church rooftop the witch in training assumes that it's due to how long his presence in the interstice has been or maybe it has to do with that very scary vibe she gets from his sword nevertheless they prepare the spell placing a charm on the building and telling the townsfolk to enter the church as soon as possible the priest freaks out at the sight of this little girl standing on top of the church but the townsfolk picked up on how she said magic with how her companions could fight off the monsters especially that huge dude she might actually be the real deal the priest drops the issue for now simply ordering them all inside regardless of whether or not the spell will actually work strike telepathically orders the fighters of her party to buy her some time and serpico tells farnese to hide inside the church with koska the fighting kicks off again isi drove serpico and guts killing as many trolls as they can get their hands on the village watching in wonder realizing that morgan really did bring magic users to save the day the priest still thinks this is stupid pagan [ __ ] and goes to drag shrike off the roof farnese notices him leaving realizing he's going to try to interrupt the spell the priests demand strikes stop what she's doing but she's in a trance evalua is the only one that can speak to him and she's promptly slapped away right before the priest can grab shrike farnese comes in to stop him saying that she's trying to protect the village and they need to trust her the priest says that he would rather die than be saved by heathen magic and the village were to be destroyed then it was simply the will of god and farnese kind of realizes that she was just like this priest when she was with the holy see damning people to hell in the name of god she feels like she has no place to judge the man or even try and stop him it would just make her a hypocrite to talk down to a man that committed the same crime she did but farnese looks back at koska who innocently meets her gaze this gives farnese the courage to run up and stop the priest who's still trying to pull shrike out of her trance but they have no time to argue the trolls made it to the rooftop in fact they're flooding into the church they're running out of time the men are still fighting a violent battle outside but it's nowhere near over and they only just realize that the trolls have everyone completely penned in they hear farnese scream from above and guts worries that koska must be in danger he orders isidro and serpaco inside he can handle the trolls out front and he does giving the two a window to run back inside the trolls are coming for the civilians but the magic users can't get past the crowd they're paralyzed by fear creating a wall of people the two can't get by serpico remembers his cloak gives him superhuman agility and before the trolls can attack he uses it to fly above the villagers cutting through the beasts isidro had to crawl under people and on top of that his bond with the magic dagger still isn't the greatest only burning his face when he tries to summon the salamander's fire on the rooftop the trolls are getting closer the priest telling himself he isn't afraid even as certain death is staring him in the face cosgo is surrounded by trolls fernies having stepped away from her when she confronted the priest despite the silver keeping the monsters from attacking varnish screams out at the sight of her charge in danger she runs into the pack wildly swinging with her silver dagger she reunites with koska terrified yet holding out her weapon the trolls instead decide to focus on shrike and the priest inching closer as the only other humans there have repellents though it seems like all hope is lost shrike's spell is building to something back in the church the trolls just keep coming isidro runs out of berries meaning he has no other choice but to try and fight them hand to hand even if he isn't experienced yet there's no other option isidro tries to use the same move he practiced ever since he sparred with guts but right as he tries to get the backstab to work he runs into the same problem as always the momentum of the sword is too strong he's being pulled out of his form leaving him wide open for the troll to attack rise it seems that isidro is well and truly screwed someone jumps in to save him morgan the old man dove in front of the troll to protect the boy this side of morgan's sacrifice inspired the crowd to fight back against the horde themselves the tides slowly turning in their favor though isidro can't help but worry about morgan after the attack then we jump inside of shrike's mind as she casts the spell she calls upon the four spirits gods that inhabit the four elements and act as the true demigods to the world to give the church their divine protection shrike is able to call upon the blessings of all four finally finishing the spell serpico rushes to the roof to save farnese only to notice a bright light shining down from above in fact everyone notices it even the trolls the light consumes the church and everything inside leaving the humans safe but burning the trolls to cinders not only that but morgan's wounds are closing puck's healing abilities have accelerated thanks to the light strike's spell is enough to envelop the entire church purging out any trolls that get too close the priest is in utter disbelief but shrike explains that it's a simple barrier though burn away anything that tries to kill them he's still freaking out about the fact that his life was saved by magic but shrike explains that the four spirits aren't a heathen ideology they love humanity and want to protect them her spell brought their power into the physical world in fact they're the four angels written about in the holy see scriptures the holy see and magic users have different ways of describing things but the ideas are exactly the same so trying to separate and oppress people based on these differences is pure hubris though the church can't create spells and literal miracles like magic users can it's simply due to perception magic users try to give the spirits a form in their minds to essentially will them into existence not just belief but knowing these things exist and trying to give them power it's something humanity was always capable of manifesting the spiritual into the physical though there's obvious good and bad parts to this you might get a badass angel burning away your enemies with holy light or you get trolls the magic in this world is kind of confusing but good to know using magic doesn't piss off jesus thank you jesus you're cool dude all guts knows is the trolls can't enter the light so that's good good job shrike but then something bad happens something big a massive beast crashes through the village tearing through buildings as it goes no one has any clue what the hell the thing is except for shrike this is berserk's version of an ogre the sight of such a monster should be impossible according to shrike it simply shouldn't exist in the physical world let alone be rampaging around with trolls thankfully the barrier is able to keep the monster out though not strong enough to burn it to ashes like the trolls they breathe a sigh of relief knowing that at least it can't get in but then it picks up a piece of lumber creatures can't enter the barrier but objects can the ogre starts chucking pieces of lumber at the church intent on collapsing the whole thing so that's not good and to make things even worse we see this weird reptilian frog horse rise out of the town river brought to the surface by a building rainstorm so that's even worse the ogre is still desperate to demolish the church and it's looking like all the momentum has swung back in favor of the monsters their only hope is for strike to cast another spell but she needs a window to do this then guts takes a step towards the ogre he'll give her that window everyone screams at guts that's impossible to win but puck actually says that he's pretty used to fighting big monsters like this he'll be fine case in point gutz uses some of his bombs to blow a hole in the ogre's stomach then chopping off the arm it used to wield the lumber with the dragon slayer and just to make it a trifecta he swings the dragon slayer backwards tearing open the ogre's stomach even further damaged intestines splashing to the ground the ogre desperately launches another piece of rubble at guts who deflects it with his sword the chunk of wood exploding the skull of an unlucky troll who tried to catch it with his face and only now does everyone realize that guts isn't just some big dude with a sword even his own party seem to have underestimated him guts is well and truly a force of nature isidro is rendered downright paralyzed at the site they never saw guts during his more frustrated days i mean they saw hints of it during conviction farnese and serpico had a good view of it during the whole debacle before conviction really kicked off but the actual depths of what he could do was lost on them they haven't seen him kill entire armies or butcher apostles like a [ __ ] lunatic shrike has even less knowledge than the rest of the party does and utter disbelief that a guy could do all of this with zero magic despite the spectacle the ogre is still alive picking up its own arm and reattaching it to its body guts tries to finish it off before his arm fully heals but he's attacked by sudden water projectiles that horse thing from before showed up to the fun it's a kelpie a mythical monster that drowns unlucky travelers all of these things gathering in one spot has shrike confused but she pieces together that the kelpie arrived due to the rainfall turns out a kelpie is a powerful elemental monster capable of forcing lesser spirits of the water to fight for it and it becomes extremely dangerous when it rains strangely the kelpie actually murders some of the trolls there is no loyalty among these things they're all competing against each other to devour humans seeing that guts is about to be overwhelmed serpico offers to jump in and fight barneys doesn't want him to risk his life like this but all he tells her to do is protect koska who's just going ooh well said kaska serpaco leaps down from the church to kick the kelpie's ass much to strike surprise in such a short amount of time he was able to bond with the wind spirits to the point that he can quite literally fly with them we see that serpico is proud of how much barneys has changed admitting to himself that he never even tried to set her free from her prison they fed off each other's misery simply spending time together while never improving but their journey changed all this it took ruining their entire lives but now they finally get to build something new out of what's left in a sense serpico has forgiven guts for what happened during the last arc now the two will stand shoulder to shoulder and fight off these monsters as comrades the plan is simple enough guts kills the ogre serpico kills the kelpie though the latter is a bit more clever than the big dumb monster at first it tries to send bursts of water at serpico but his cloak protects him from the would-be wave though when he attacks the kelpie summons a wall of water to keep itself from being beheaded so they're at an impasse guts and the ogre get into a good old-fashioned brawl taking swings at each other and using pure brood strength to see which one breaks first though it's going about as well as you might expect for the ogre poor guy he just wanted to protect his swamp right when they think the ogre is fully dead and finished the trolls swarm in to eat the remains it gets back up the ogre's guts are spilling out of its body but it's still ready to fight throwing a troll at guts like a stone though it misses its mark and the troll melts as soon as it crosses the barrier isidro watches the two men fight pissed off at himself for not being able to keep up with their skill level all the while shrike is preparing a second spell she delves deeper into the astral world trying to summon more power to help fend off the monsters as she travels she finds an ancient shrine a true and honest sanctuary the ethereal form of what was demolished to build the church in its place turns out the shrine was dedicated to the water elementals meaning they have a new power source to use for a spell the fight between serpico and the kelpie is rough he's able to dodge the water blasts though he's sent to the ground when one hits him in the shoulder the kelpie tries to grab serpico with its tongue but he's quick to slice it off despite finally being able to wound the kelpie the fight is still a stalemate anytime he tries to attack the wall of water blocks his strikes and he can't defend against everything that kelby has to offer eventually the monster will wear him down and then he's dead but the kelpie has another idea it takes control of the water building on the ground wrapping around serpico's mouth and drowning him where he stands it looks like he's well and truly screwed but he's able to use the cloak's power to fire the water back at the kelpie seeing the kelpie manipulate the water beyond just throwing projectiles gives serpico an idea if that thing can do it maybe he could do it too with his sword serpico sends out another strike and when the kelpie summons the wall of water he uses the wind to reshape it into a spiral giving him a window to finish it off serpico stabs the kelpie through the head but it's able to push him off for he can kill it sending serpico into a pack of trolls one of their weapons wounding him he got cocky he should have just finished the thing off when he had the chance now he's wounded and the monster is desperate to kill him guts can't come in to help the ogre is making sure he can't even look away rise it looks like circo is a dead man a wall of water forms to protect him in fact all the water in the area is flowing away from the kelpie now it's attacking the trolls sucking them up into many water spouts and drowning them shrike was able to successfully call upon the water elementals even manifesting a water spirit behind her the technique is called possession this is the good version of the bad one essentially shrike and the spirit merge as one and they can use their shared power the spirit speaks through shrike saying its purpose is to purge the land of the unclean spirits attacking them shrike herself sinks deeper into the spirit's mind readying a massive swell of water the group feels an earthquake build getting the feeling that something's gone wrong with the spell shrike isn't breaking out of the trance not only that the river is overflowing a lot the absolute tsunami of water tears through the village consuming everything in its path even guts is sent reeling back from the strength of it the trolls and even the ogre are being washed away in the flood though it's trying to hang on with some of the rubble it created but guts make sure that it goes down permanently and serpaco decides to do the same with the kelpie removing its head from its shoulders the sheer strength of shrike's magic terrifies isidro and before long the monsters are completely purged out of the village the townsfolk start to celebrate their victory yet shrike isn't snapping out of it well let's just give it a minute i'm sure it's fine isidro can't help but feel useless but at least the civilians are safe serpico rests on a collapsed rooftop as he waits out to flood but it's still not stopping evalua tries to snap strike awake and yet the water keeps flowing her fusion with the water spirit is too strong the spell simply won't end farnese tries to shake her awake but evalier says that will only end in disaster strike's soul is in the astral world if they just try to wake her up it's possible her soul will never actually return to her body and she'll end up a husk of her former self one kaska is already bad enough they don't need two the only way to snap shrike out of this is to tap her staff in a specific rhythm otherwise she's a goner inside of the astral world we see that strikes thoughts are consumed with the water spirit's presence she's losing herself to immense power of the elementals her mind overwhelmed and at risk of breaking completely but the tapping of her staff and the physical world is enough for strike to focus her thoughts memories of flora's teachings flash in her mind warning her to never lose herself in a spell this lesson is enough for shrek to come back to reality breaking out of her trance though the flood is still tearing the town apart the church starts to crumble under the force of the water and koska falls over the edge into the waves bernice reaching out and grabbing her hand but unfortunately it's pulling her down too the women are caught in the rapids guts trying to catch them as they rush past but they're too far out shrike is able to manipulate the water enough to give them a downed tree to grab onto at least ensuring they won't drown but they're swept away by the flood as guts and serpico call out to them soon all the water is gone what's left of the village in absolute ruins but the villagers are just thankful to have survived such a nightmare whatsoever the party went off to search for farnesenkoska but they're nowhere to be found serpico is still heavily wounded barely even able to stand up after all that's happened the most they're certain of is that the law kept them safe enough from the flood that they should still be alive shrike uses her magic to try and find them but her thoughts are scattered still beating herself up for letting the flood happen in the first place but guts comes in to comfort her saying that despite everything she did they did a good job the village was saved and no one blames her for the damage she's the leader of the party so she needs to gather her thoughts and do what she does best the speech calms strike down enough that she's able to sense farney senkoska in the distance they're alive and unharmed the only problem is that they're both unconscious on the log which is being carried off by the surviving trolls not [ __ ] great shrike you [ __ ] up big time buckaroo still the village congratulates their savior the great witch of the spirit tree and they're now enthusiastic to learn about magic and her ways she explains the history of their land that the church was built on top of the shrine dedicated to the lady of the depths the children aren't familiar with her but one old man says his great-grandfather actually told him about her turns out being forgotten about and suddenly summoned out of nowhere caused the spell to go haywire shrike wasn't experienced enough to get it under control and apologizes to the town for the damage he caused though they assure her it's no trouble at least they survived the attack but shrike can't deny that deep down a part of her wanted this spell to fail her deep-seated anger fed into why it went south so badly and now she feels terrible that they have to suffer the consequences for it she asks the priest to build a small shrine for the water spirit and he actually agrees to the idea saying that tolerance is one of god's teachings he's a cool dude nice to see he's not just some blank stereotype [ __ ] shrike then tells the village that while wielding actual magic takes years of training they have the ability to pray to the spirits to grant their wishes saying that the priest is well acquainted with the method visualize the spirit in your mind to give it strength it's the same principle as praying to god remember shrike said that the way witches learn about magic and the way the holy see proselytizes about god it's basically the same thing they just have a few varying definitions and a few different terms it's the same material it's just different ways of interpretation there really shouldn't be a reason why the church and magic users go at each other's throats isidro is still sulking after what happened morgan goes to speak with him his wounds completely healed thanks to puck and isidro thanks the old man for saving his life though morgan jokes that really the boy is one of the heroes that saved the village but isidro doesn't feel that way at all the way he sees it he's only good at running around and making noise he couldn't help with the fighting at all and if anything was just a liability that got an old man hurt well morgan decides to give him a pardon gift a sword his father won in a bet with a sailor a long time ago the blade is smaller so isidro should have an easier time controlling it he's unsure of whether or not to accept the gift but morgan assures him it's not a problem he then tells isidro the real reason why he ran into the forest all that time ago it wasn't because he was trying to save his mom he ran away from home the weight of all his responsibilities his sick mother the pressure just got to him so he tried to leave just like isidro did in a way morgan did try to chase his dreams and it was only after meeting flora did he realize what was important to him isidro is a lot more receptive to the lesson the old man is trying to give though he's still a cocky little bastard saying that he's actually going to accomplish his goals no matter what so he'll take morgan's sword and prove the old man wrong the party gathers in the church serpico wounded to the point he simply won't be able to accompany them as they go to save farnesenkoska in fact he begs them to go ahead without him saying farnese is officially in their care guts swears they'll be back and marches ahead telling isidro to either keep up or wait with serpico but for now let's take a break from the submarine talk about what just happened things definitely got big and climactic back there and the craziest part is that it's not even over yet not only did we finally get to see combat magic in action something that frankly was restricted to demons up until this point but the actual lore just exploded in size for a large chunk of the manga the most we actually knew about in regards to the supernatural fully focused on the world of the living and the world of the dead stuff like ghosts undead apostles the god hand hell that's all we had in regards to actual magic of berserk now we see an entire other side of the spectrum with the four spirits and the elementals and while they're still capable of severe destruction they are outwardly positive beings expressly protective of mankind and willing to do whatever they can to fight off the less than noble creatures of this world but thanks to the holy see's influence they've lost their strength to the point that it takes a magic user directly talking with them in the astral world for their effects to be seen on earth so really angels do exist in berserk good to know but that's just lore stuff character wise this whole sequence was pretty substantial you see farnese finally found her purpose which is ironically the same one guts has protecting costco with her life serpico finally accepts guts as a comrade and has forgiven him for what he did during conviction admitting that the influence he's had on their lives has only made farnese a better person isidro tasted some humility failing constantly throughout the battle and realizing that just because he's traveling with guts it doesn't immediately make him a great warrior he still has a lot to learn before he gets any good though the ass kicking wasn't fun he's learning that sometimes you need one to understand what you're doing wrong schreich sort of had a humbling experience as well but in a different sort of direction she's already very powerful but she has a bit of an ego she assumed she was inherently better than everyone due to her skills at magic and really not even considering herself a part of humanity at large hell most of her conversations were just explaining the lore and rules of magic to people but it was after the spell failed and she nearly destroyed the village entirely that she realized that well she's not as good as she thinks she is she's emotional and it can cloud her judgment she has a lot to learn but now she has a group to help her with that guts didn't say much through this segment he's kind of just kept himself for the most part but here you finally get a moment where well he's actually the good guy of course we always knew he was the good guy in all of this the story has mainly been from his perspective we have the full context of what he does but even then there were plenty of moments where guts did some pretty terrible things everywhere he went things caught on fire and died he was hated by most everyone he ran across there were exceptions of course but this is the first moment in a very very very long time where people actually celebrate guts you get the first ever moment where our boy guts the hundred man slayer who's acted as a violent lunatic in most every arc we've seen him in actually gets to act like an honest-to-god hero that's right guys this isn't a bittersweet at least some of us made a deal he actually helped save the day this is part of the reason why i like this arc so much sure a lot of detractors crack jokes about the cast turning into a jrpg party and they are not totally wrong i even refer to him as the jrpg party shrike's presence definitely feels a lot more fantasy and moe than how the rest of the manga played out she's a cutesy little girl that could use magic but it earns the jrpg party we saw how much guts was suffering alone how it was breaking him down and driving him insane yet one brief moment of weakness was enough where he drops his guard and says [ __ ] it and accepted the others into his life that snowballed all the way to this moment here guts by himself was the boogeyman the embodiment of death and destruction guts with a group was able to save countless people from being eaten alive by monsters it's pretty obvious what the guy is supposed to do in life it's all but screaming in his face things are looking pretty good so far he might actually be able to catch a break for once right coming back to the manga guts isidro shrike and the elves enter the forest to find farney senkoska shrike is able to follow the residual energy of the trolls leading them straight to their den the other villagers offered to come along but they refused the help too many people would be a hindrance and there's not a guarantee the trolls aren't gearing up for another assault puck says they could have taken serpico's equipment to use for themselves but shrike says that's impossible once the talisman is bound to a user they're stuck together the spirits inside won't give their power to anyone else guts ask shrike if she can pick up on where farnese and koska are but she can't get a response from them they're unconscious the most she can tell is that they're alive and unharmed and since they have their silver shirts the trolls won't be able to harm them isidro notes that the landscape has gotten stranger the deeper they go into the forest it's the exact opposite of how it felt when they went into flores the complete mirror opposite actually it's getting darker more unsettling unnatural and the distance they spot a silhouette gays and horror guys to the worst creature in all of berserk say hello to schnoz that's not its actual name just the one fans gave him i think he's really cute shrike uses a small spell to scare the thing away and it runs off into the darkness ahead turns out they crossed over into the astral world but not every part of it is nice and fluffy in fact the part they're in is very [ __ ] bad they have entered kwelfoth a region of complete darkness entities in the astral world tend to gravitate towards each other the good natured warm ones stay with one another and the darker evil ones do the same the problem is that this is physically on earth a place like quillfath shouldn't have actually manifested in reality in fact the whole situation should be completely impossible ethereal creatures are on earth and interacting with humans as though they were flesh in blood like anything else shrike has no idea what any of this means only that must have something to do with the appearance of the man she saw earlier as if he's changing the world just by existing in it the setting grows more unsettling the deeper they go almost like they're at the bottom of an alien ocean the creatures grow more abstract yet remain relatively harmless they haven't been attacked nor do any of the monsters in quill foth really show any interest in them in the deepest part of the cave they finally reach the troll's den shrike tries one last attempt at calling farney senkoska and this time she actually has a chance farnese wakes up in the den trying to remember what happened back in the village she shakes kaska awake and thankfully manages to hear shrike's telepathy they try to get their bearings unable to see exactly where they are and then they spot a creepy tentacle monster in the pond ahead and then their eyes suggest to see the entire landscape around them it's indescribable some peak blood-borne nightmare sequence vibes in fact this might have been the inspiration for it shrek picks up on farnese's fear and the party rushes in to save them the witch telling pharnies to calm down so long as they have their shirts they will be safe which is easier to say when you aren't staring at stuff like this and this farny's notices the log they rode on during the flood is in the cave with them so they use it to climb out of there just in time for one of the creatures to take notice and get uncomfortably close but farnese is able to scare it off with her dagger strike checks in on the women hoping they're all right and farnese assures her that everything is fine only then does she realize that this entire time farnese has been fighting to protect someone else not just defend her own life something the old her would have never done they hear noises deeper inside the cave and find the trolls in the process of raping the women they captured remember when i said these are nasty little bastards this is exactly what i was talking about these trolls are some evil [ __ ] the sight shocks farnese and shrike warns her to avoid attracting their attention no matter what so they're simply forced to sit and watch the trolls and their activities they rape the women as much as they can and if they die the corpses are simply tossed down to the scavengers at quillfoth if they live well you'll see a woman desperately crawls over to farnesenkoska begging for help but as she speaks she feels a sharp pain in her abdomen her stomach starts swelling and is torn open from the inside out bursting like a balloon as a collection of troll babies birth themselves if you like alien then this might be giving you some serious xenomorph vibes only instead of being a big black penis with acid blood it's these horrible monkey creatures that literally rape women to breed this is why so many were able to attack the village when the assault happened they breed a lot of trolls very fast so long as they have a reliable source of female victims barneys can't help but scream at the site and really could you blame her now i can't blame the trolls for wanting to breed her and kaska like blue ribbon steers so we gotta be fair here but the noise gets the troll's attention and they're coming straight for them strike is alerted to the bad news realizing that they have mere moments to save their friends before the worst of deviantart inflation fetishes can happen to them but despite the rush they are surrounded by trolls shrike uses her magic to slip past the monsters without a fight not wanting to waste a single second of time more than they needed to guts only thinking about reuniting with koska again for farnesenkoska the horror is on full display the trolls continue raping the women devouring the flesh of the children they captured and the few that are coming closer aren't stopping farnese wants to cower to fall apart like a scared child like how she used to but she can't she has to protect koska and while she isn't a great fighter like guts or serpico she does what she can to take swipes at the trolls farnese is useless but she has to protect someone that's even weaker than her kazuka is like a baby just wandering the world without knowing anything so farnice has to be brave for both of them no matter what happened to her in a way koska is her retribution or maybe something else unfortunately one of the trolls brandishes a farming tool the silver can't protect them against that so farnice readies herself to take the blow to protect koska only for the troll to be shot down by crossbow fire guts is there ready to kick ass as usual the trolls try to ready a counter-attack but he lays waste to the horde with his crossbow with the monsters routed he goes to make sure the women are okay farnese moved to tears while kaska is still hateful towards him farnese almost falls to her knees the adrenaline of the situation wearing off but guts catches her you get this moment where she seems almost hesitant to pull away from him we're gonna talk about this later don't worry about it she asks about what happened to serpico and guts tells her that he's been wounded but he's okay and guts made a promise to bring her back to him the party gathers the surviving women and children telling them to get ready to escape the trolls react to the loss of their breeding slaves and food source and come pouring out of the cave in countless numbers gut simply tells them to go he'll fend off the trolls alone while they get out of there shrek thinks this is a [ __ ] terrible idea but guts is dedicated he's going to kill every single one of these things before he gets out his stubbornness makes shrek nervous thinking he's just being a reckless idiot but he's determined to see it through before they leave gutz tells farnice that really she has been a big help to him taking care of costco like she's been his praise moves farnese to tears once again though she composes herself and helps lead koska and the other survivors at aquilfoth gutz then hands isidro a bag of his spike bombs explaining how to use the weapons himself he orders the boy to act as the rear guard to protect the women and children as best he can isidro might just be a kid but even a kid can be a dangerous opponent if he gets clever and guts knows exactly what isidro is so he's ready for this job whether he knows it or not isidro is ecstatic to prove himself to guts promising to do the job completely flawless and soon enough guts is alone with the trolls he opens fire on the beast slaying waste to as many as he can despite punching a hole in their numbers more are coming so he decides to unleash the dragon slayer realizing that this is the first time in a while he's had the opportunity to just kill every single thing that moved he doesn't have to worry about protecting anything so he's more than a little grateful for the opportunity the rest of the survivors make their way out of qilfoth isidro successfully using his dagger to light bombs and throw them back at the trolls finally able to show off his skills and prove he's not a useless idiot guts's words shook isidro to his core now he's more than determined to get this done barney senkoska trail behind eventually tripping over themselves after a portion of the cave catches koska's foot varnish gets her to her feet in time for another monster to come for them though she stabs the entity with her silver dagger finally realizing that costco wasn't retribution to her instead she's redemption she never collapsed when she was protecting koska because she knew she had to be the stronger one so in a sense koskis saved barnese instead of tormenting someone that couldn't fight back to wield power and authority like a mad woman and indulge her own twisted fantasies she's fighting to keep them safe in turn that saved her life more than once she's finally truly found her purpose to save and protect someone weaker than her and that weaker person gave her a chance to truly make up for the terrible things she's done do you guys see why i like farnese so much i mean this character arc was something else it's not even done yet i mean i really don't want to spoil what's on the horizon but holy [ __ ] she's already a completely different person and the way they've done it is just so compelling you really actually do want her to win guts is still cleaving the trolls apart free to go as ballistic as he wants that dark violent feeling inside of him bubbling up something he hasn't had the chance to indulge for a while he's always had to worry about others to keep koskis safe or help out serpico save isidro watch out for farnese but now he can be the black swordsman again if just for a bit and he's enjoying every single second of it it's not like the trolls have any chance at stopping him either to him this is basically a snack the survivors come to a stop the trolls have them surrounded at both ends strike can't summon a barrier or manipulate their minds like earlier their only chance is for strike and easy draw to fight together her taking the front while he handles the back but as they prepare for the battle an overwhelming force pushes into the cave blowing through like an explosion and cutting the trolls as it goes they have no clue what the hell that was but thankfully the root is clear guts managed to kill his share of trolls a lake of blood and flesh on the cave floor and just as he turns to leave something manifests in the cave with him his brand explodes in pain even with the talisman shrike gave him he checks his pouch to see the bailit is changing shape something is coming for him something powerful strike tries to communicate with guts telling him that everyone has reached the end of quillfath and he needs to leave too but something is wrong wrong enough that koska collapses to the ground clutching her chest in pain the sheer force of whatever is happening sends shrike to the ground a shaken terrified mess she's trying to reach guts but he's not talking whatever is causing this is forming right in front of him the bailit finishes changing shape his brand is pouring out blood and we see that the flesh of the trolls is taking the shape of a woman salon one of the god hand just materialized in front of guts this is the first form she's taken in a long time but there she is standing in front of guts like nothing happened he goes straight for the kill diving in desperate to kill her only to be sent into the puddle of blood by her wings she brings guts close to her saying that she's been watching his journey this entire time she's felt everything his rage agony and she loved it and now he's there in her domain quilfoff and she wants guts to let it all loose let her feel all the pent-up emotions he's trying to bury shrike feels guts's mind explode violent emotions taken over to the point that she has no idea what's even going on inside of his head kazuka doesn't like what's happening either the pain of the brand getting to her even puck feels something very bad deeper into the cave and the worst part is that it's not even the overwhelming force that blew past them unfortunately shrike can't wait for guts any longer the trolls are coming for them they have to seal the entrance of the cave to get rid of quillfoth otherwise this will never truly end they can only hope that guts will escape in time to get out of the way of the spell but he's uh not having much fun at the moment slan is mercilessly taunting him enjoying his animalistic rage to the fullest extent she says his soul belongs in quillfoth full of hatred darkness agony but most of all fear she uses her wings to cut his flesh open ripping his armor to pieces she holds guts up high almost like a trophy she wants him to struggle to fight her with all his might take his long thick sword and penetrate her i'm not exaggerating on that last part either she mocks guts saying he can't possibly do it he's just a human there's no way he could ever hurt her so maybe he doesn't want to be a human why not make a sacrifice like what griffith did then maybe he'd be strong enough to kill her just maybe something is thrown at slan's wings fraying guts from her grasp slon laments on how her fun was interrupted seeing skull knight standing proud the god hand says that he shouldn't meddle in the affairs of men and women teasingly calling him your majesty if you've seen part 2 or even part 3 you'll understand how important this is then skull knight shoots back by calling her the [ __ ] princess of the uterine sea hard to really top that insult she's not just a hoe she's the princess of the inhuman dimension of darkness and thottery he sees that slan was the only godhand summoned into quillfoth but she says that she simply came on her own to seek guts the godhand's influence is growing griffith's presence in the human world is causing the realms to overlap while the other godhand are formless she and griffith can walk in the mortal realm as they please skull knight readies his sword preparing to take her head and end slan once and for all but she's not shaken quillfoth is her domain what she calls her womb she can summon whatever she likes there sending an army of ogres down to attack skull knight shrike readies her spell but the surviving trolls are coming isidro warns the women and children to stay inside the magic circle strike prepared for them but farnese notices that the trolls have fully learned to use farming tools as weapons unaffected by the magic since they aren't technically crossing the barrier knowing that they're still in danger isidro readies himself to fight off the trolls shrike re-enters the astral world sinking deep into its depths flora's words guiding her as she speaks of the elementals if the user isn't careful they will be consumed by the spirits they intend to summon but the element to be aware of most of all is darkness since if you gaze into the darkness it gazes back into you as well yeah they drop a nichi quote let's take a moment for all the reddit users to calm down they're excited don't worry speaking of unspeakable darkness let's get back to salon and her corrupted womb despite the trouble that the one ogre gave guts before skull knight is able to slice through the horde of them without effort then hacking apart the trolls that come and attack him as well despite skull knight's unspeakable combat power the monsters simply won't end slan can birth them faster than he can kill them she takes the moment to brag telling skull knight that it's impossible for him to beat her there but turns out all he was doing was buying time for guts he puts his metal arm against her stomach and sets off the arm cannon effectively destroying her womb isidro was able to fight off the trolls but he's running out of guts as bombs and then a special troll shows up decked in a suit of armor wielding human weapons and wearing a necklace of skulls isidro readies a bomb only for the troll to grab a smaller one nearby and use it as a meat shield even if aesidro threw it the shield would soak up all the impact meaning he would still be alive he's thinking about his options knowing he needs to keep strikes safe thinking about morgan risking his life to save him and seeing the salamanders on his blade finally starting to form the troll aims a crossbow at isidro who lights his bomb dives low and tosses the explosive to kill the shield and then rolls in close to the captain troll he slashes the monster with his new sword then he twists around and stabs the monster with his fire dagger the blade letting the troll on fire and successfully killing him isidro actually got his move to work back inside a quill-foth we see slan in absolute ecstasy from gutz's attack loving how much the fire burns her and the feeling of her flesh tearing apart but it's not enough she wants more her flesh is already starting to reform and heal skull knight orders guts to strike her with the dragon slayer the sword was soaked in the blood of hundreds of thousands of the dead that weapon can hurt her so guts runs her through he successfully impales slan stabbing her body with the dragon slayer despite the wound slan still seems to be in love with the agony he gave her feeling life and death writhing in the uterus even kissing guts and telling him that he's the best before falling apart into a pile of troll intestines guts thinks for a second that he might have actually killed slawn but she tells them that she hopes they'll meet again someday fading into the blood like a shadow the loss of slan causes a reaction inside a quillfoth the monsters inside are starting to melt down isidro is in disbelief that he actually got his technique to work but the other trolls are less impressed they could do a move like that too if they felt like it they just don't want to right now but the battle gave schreich just enough time to finish her summon this time calling upon the rotting root lord and earth elemental it uses its power to melt down the trolls finally finishing the monsters for good but before they conceal the cave off they try one last attempt to reach guts he finally responds but quillfoth is officially falling apart the forced advent and removal of slan was too much for the realm to handle they need to get moving before the entire cave collapses but the entrance has them blocked inside they're trapped except skull knight has an idea he has a new sword he thinks is really cool and wants to show guts and in all fairness it is a really cool sword his plan was to only use it to entomb the god hand in hell but this is a special circumstance skull knight swallows his regular sword and pulls the blade out to show it is now covered and melted down balets this is why he was eating any of them that he came across to forge the sword of actuation with it skull knight is able to cut a hole in reality itself he grabs guts and charges ahead just in time for quill foth to completely break down and be sucked into the vortex of hell right from the spot that skull knight cut into the ground so this dude legit made a sword that can summon hell itself that's [ __ ] hardcore just as it seems as though they're about to be pulled in as well skull knight cuts another hole the survivors are trying to keep the spell stable enough for guts to get out of the cave but they're running out of time the realm falling apart despite their best efforts but weirdly enough guts just seems to appear behind them he just teleported out of nowhere back to safety skull knight explains that the sword allows him to cut holes through space allowing him to cross through the lairs guts tries to find out how skull knight even knew to show up in the first place but he's already gone he shrugs the incident off only shrike ever realizing that skull knight was even there to begin with and quel'foth officially dies the four is slowly returning to normal they have officially won the quest finally completed and they can all return to town serpico fully healed and reunited with farnis and the others they finally rest the horrors are over the sight of everyone gathered together kind of reminds guts of something in fact it's just hitting him what this entire adventure has felt like he now has companions again he remembers what it was like to be with the band of the hawk he has friends a family he truly thought he would never have something like this again yet it's right there in front of him he has another chance this is probably one of my all-time favorite moments i mean this is just this is a gut punch after everything that's happened it is [ __ ] good i love it i genuinely love it a lot we see flora etching a talisman into a piece of armor saying the job felt oddly nostalgic skull knight is there with her teleporting over to flores after the scene in the cave with guts it seems the armor she's working on hasn't been used in a long time so much so that she never thought it would ever be used again period skull knight says that there's no way she doesn't know how dangerous this particular armor is and flora confirms it it was the entire reason she was watching it in the first place but it's because of the potential danger that it be ready for them when the party returns to the hut skull knight says it's a symptom of karma but flora doesn't believe in this saying that while people can repeat mistakes karma is a spiral they aren't forced down the same road skull knight and flora are skull knight seems to take comfort in this but something's coming the war demons have come for flora griffith's army is marching into the forest the old woman dryly accepting that she's become weak enough for them to penetrate through the barrier skull knight is intent to fight for flora even knowing that she is destined to die in fact he's fighting to make sure she dies peacefully rather than be murdered flora thanks him for his loyalty happy that her old friend was there to see her off she summons her golems to a cisco knight but the demons mean business nosferatu zod himself leading the attack the last image we see is flora simply wishing she could have seen skull knight's bashful smile one last time the rest of the party is completely unaware of the coming events simply trotting back to floras without a care though shrike could have sworn she felt flora's thoughts for a moment ivalira talks with her friend trying to get her excited to return to flores so they can be praised for her job well done though shrike thinks that wouldn't happen all she did was close a troll then quillfoth collapsing was something else still the rest of the party try to give shrike their gratitude barneys in particular especially heaps praise on to the little girl to the point that it's kind of creepy it's not her fault she had to fight a tentacle monster still strike isn't sure this group of wackadoos and strangers really is her fate or not but maybe she can find a place here oh [ __ ] guts collapsed yeah despite his wounds supposedly healing back at the church something is wrong they flip him over to see a cut dug into his soul his [ __ ] soul his physical wounds will heal but unless they can fix the damage done to his ethereal body they will simply keep opening back up their only chance was to get him to the mansion so flora can fix him but guts insists he's fine even rising to his feet but he's sweating a lot clearly straining himself far more than he's willing to admit shrike is surprised guts can even stand wounds to the ethereal body are far worse than anything physical so much so that it would take something extremely powerful to create them in the first place not just some troll not only that but the talisman she created was burned off his neck his brand naked in the air once again guts sends his thoughts to shrike simply telling her i kicked her ass images of his fight with slawn race and shrike's head unable to comprehend how guts could survive an encounter with an actual member of the god hand it's simply impossible that a human would be able to handle well any of this she tries her damn just to figure out what exactly happened only for her memory of flora to come to mind don't get bogged down by the impossibilities and the hypotheticals just acknowledge that he's still alive but something is wrong she can feel it up ahead the barrier for the hut is vanishing and bad energy is sweeping inside koska clutches her chest and guts orders them to stay right there isidro and serpico think it's the remnants of the trolls but guts knows exactly what it is the demons are finally here and they've set flora's hut on fire shrike is in a complete panic rushing on a head despite guts's orders easy drone serpico run in to try and stop her and that's when guts sees them apostles he wastes no time going straight for a demon and sinking the dragon slayer into his shoulder despite getting the first shot guts is too weak to actually fight the thing off the demon simply grabbing the blade and pulling it out of him guts is sent flying back the army now alerted to his presence and not very happy with his attempted murder of their friend the demon he attempted to kill mocks guts for being too weak to even stand up straight and readies and attack only for skull knight to cut the demon into mincemeat guts asked why he's there and he answers plainly flora is his friend the demonic army is confused as to how a single horseman can fend off war demons like he can but skull knight won't even give his name to apostles he's the one that stands against the god hand that's all they need to know one of the demons actually recognizes skull knight from the eclipse from when their master was created and gut starts putting pieces together especially when they directly point at him saying he was one of the survivors of that event then nosferatu zod shows up to make things even more blatant yep guts ran straight into griffith's personal army of demons grunbel then makes an appearance requesting zod allow him to be the one who fights guts the giant heard the stories about him the man who survived the eclipse and hunted apostles so he wants to put him to the test grumbeld is aware that sending an army to murder an old woman is dishonorable but he's forcing himself to go along with it to prove his loyalty to griffith and guts's sudden appearance is sort of a gift to grumbald that made the whole unpleasant duty worthwhile so he'll defeat guts to prove his worth as a warrior of the band of the hawk the band of the hawk he really just went there he really just dropped that name as the saying goes let the x fall where it may preferably on this guy's neck and through the bone shrike runs into the hut desperate to find flora but the fire is out of control isidro jumps in to protect her from the flames screaming at shrike for losing her cool but no matter what he wants to say shrike is upset she's in tears she's worried about flora terrified she might already be dead serpico arrives in time to try and get the two out of the burning mansion shrike trying to telepathically communicate with flora she manages to get a message through and we see that flora is consumed in flames she has one final message to give to her people before she dies she needs to get that suit of armor to guts no matter what shrek's mind is going a mile a minute and flora simply tells her that gutz is in danger he's fighting a powerful enemy and needs the armor shrike doesn't want to leave she wants to try and save flora but her master tells her to go it's her time to die she needs to let it happen shrike breaks down crying she doesn't want flora to die like this burning to cinders it's supposed to be peaceful calm fair the elder witch tells shrike that she's already lived far past her time and she shouldn't be saddened by her death magic users view death differently it's not a solid end it's simply a change in their form of life but shrike is afraid of being alone she doesn't want the happy time she went with flora to burn away like this she's still just a little girl and flora is really the only family she's ever had once she's gone shrike will have no one in the world unfortunately the battle between guts and grunbeld is only getting worse the giant's pure strength sends him flying with every strike and he has no armor to help cushion the damage this is the man's human form by the way and he's already far stronger than anything guts has fought before the only thing keeping him in the fight is the pure malice guts feels hearing the apostles refer to themselves as the band of the hawk yet sheer anger is enough to fight an enemy that actually knows what he's doing grunbelt is able to throw guts around like a small child slamming into his chest with his warhammer the dragon slayer acting like an impromptu shield that kept guts from being crushed grunbeld is actually frustrated at gutz's inability to fight outright pissed off that his opponent is stuck on the defensive but guts's wounds are getting worse he can't fight grumbeld without armor not only that but the wounds on his ethereal body are still giving him trouble he's completely outmatched the rest of the apostles get bored with the show and decide to try and finish off flora only for skull knight to intervene they won't touch that woman zod pushes himself out to the front saying he'll be the one to fight skull knight while they finish the job quickly turning into his apostle form killing an uppity subordinate and going straight for his opponent skull knight mocks his rival for being so obsessed with going after an old woman but zod makes it clear that he only offered to fight skull knight because he's the only one that can conceivably hold him off so once again they duel but for completely different reasons from the eclipse one of the apostles bursts into the hut intent on murdering flora but shrike is able to set on fire with her enchanted hairs like before but it's not stopping still transforming into a demon serpico tries to cut the monster apart but that doesn't work either they have no choice but to run they don't even have the luxury of trying to save flora so instead they make for the treasure room deciding to fulfill her master's last request shrike doesn't know if these people or guts in particular are her destiny but she does know they're in danger and she is the only one who can rescue them she is the disciple of flora the witch of the great spirit forestry they enter the treasure room and spot the armor from the vision armor blessed by florida have great power yet still holds great danger as well back to the duel gutz is plain and simply defeated thrashed around and abused by grumbeld with zero chance to fight him off grumbeld refuses to believe the black swordsman is actually this weak the man who killed countless apostles the one who could match nosferatu zod in a fight the one considered the arch enemy to demons is this weakling grunbeld is even outright jealous at how strong skull knight seems by comparison to guts thinking zod had the better deal in all of this he says the battlefield belongs to proud warriors to die there is a sacred aspiration and a grun beld guts is nothing more than a poser ruining the label gut says that he's simply a monster pretending to be a warrior and that he's not even the real deal since he's a demon this pisses grumbeld off who simply kicks guts away and decides to exterminate him with a shield cannon the blow goes straight for guts but he's conveniently protected by the golems forming a wall of dirt to protect him they can't do much but they gave guts enough time to get a message from shrike telling him to get inside the treasure room where a suit of armor waits for him grunbelled quickly destroys the golems as guts makes it inside the rest of the party astonished that he's still alive the wounds from before are opening along with brand new ones that are causing him pain even if they put guts in the new armor there's no way he'd be able to move shrike is certain that guts's life will be in danger no matter what they do but this is the only option an apostle starts to break through into the treasure room and they're torn on what to do spend time putting guts into the armor or risk fighting that thing off themselves just as she raised herself to fight the apostle guts grab shrike's arm he wants the armor no matter the consequences the demon gets closer as they suit guts up for combat isidro screams out as the apostle has completely broken inside the keep and is coming for them but guts merely slaps the boy away rising to his feet as the demon approaches grunbell notes that guts was clever to use the golems as a distraction but views the tactic as shameful simply delaying the inevitable though he does notice something explode out of the hut ahead even skull knight and sod notice it the apostle stumbles back outside murmuring in agony that guts was supposed to be dead he ate him yet something hurts inside the dragon slayer bursts out of the demon's head then in barely a second the demon is completely chopped to pieces from the inside out exploding into chunks of meat as we see guts in his new armor perfectly fine and very willing to fight his face hidden by a skull-shaped helmet a second apostle jumps down to attack barely managing to actually bite into guts but he simply splits the demon in two without a moment's hesitation this armor is different from his usual stuff gutz was very agile and strong before but this this is outright superhuman even his party can't believe what they're seeing though that's kind of normal at this point isidro was hyped at the sight of guts cutting down so many apostles saying flora should have handed it over earlier if it was this strong but it's not that simple grunbell notices that gutz is moving like someone else entirely to the point he wasn't even sure it was guts until he saw the sword zod immediately recognizes the armor for what it is mocking skull knight for forcing guts down the same path of hell his rival followed and guts has no idea what he's feeling all the pain was gone as soon as he put the armor on or it's more accurate to say he stopped caring about the pain it doesn't bother him anymore what is more important is the feeling boiling up inside of him something evil is seething it wants to take control a dark voice in his head demanding he give it full control the beast of darkness the armor starts to change shape with guts trapped inside his helmet stretching and reforming to look a lot more animalistic he charges straight for grunbelt who's still arrogantly taunting him only to be thrown back from the force of gutz's attack the armored giant was pushed backwards by the same guy who just moments earlier couldn't even stand up straight and guts isn't stopping swinging his sword into grumbelled shield like a madman the demon warrior is all but pissing himself when guts takes another shot at him this time using the dragon slayer to tear open his shield he just barely fights guts off with his hammer readying a blast with the cannon as he comes to the realization that no human can move like this guy can but gut sleeps in again opening his left arm to fire the cannon right in the ground belt shield exploding the cannon inside of that and blowing the entire thing apart the rest of the party is excited at gutz's newly enhanced combat abilities but shrike admits the truth guts is still very much in danger none of his wounds are healed guts simply doesn't feel pain anymore this is the power of the berserker armor whoever wears the cursed suit will go completely insane with rage to the point that fear and pain are completely forgotten and because the user no longer feels pain they can push their bodies far past their limits even if it starts to damage them even if it kills them and that's when we see that guts is bleeding a lot now the berserker armor is actually a pretty divisive plot element to fans of berserk some absolutely love this thing and think it is probably one of the most metal power-ups seen in anime something this deadly wielded by a guy like guts ensures that at the very least the fights will be very very unpleasant plus the design just looks cool the berserker armor is so much more jagged and sharp looking than any of gutz's other armors like someone just wielded a bunch of plates together just looking at the thing makes you feel like you might cut a finger plus the influence the beast of darkness has on the armor the wolf cowl i think is incredible visually the berserker armor is great but critics do have a point when they say they don't like it design wise the armor is sick but conceptually it kind of breaks an unofficial rule the series had going for a while guts never used magic at least never knowingly yeah he used elf dust but that was purely to heal wounds yeah the dragon slayer became cursed after murdering so many demons with it at least that's what it's implied but guts never knew and it's not really an enchantment on the weapon it doesn't magically hit harder because it's cursed it's just cursed the berserker armor is the first official usage of magic by guts and some people think that sort of waters down the impact he has this dude was able to fight off so many horrible demons before some outright terrified of the man by the end and he did it all with just his weapons his skill and his raging violent insanity adding magic to the formula now to some fans feels almost like an outright betrayal to what gut stood for a powerful warrior that got through any situation with just his iron will and sheer grit but now he has a magic iron man suit that turns him into the incredible hulk when he's angry now it's a lot more complicated than that and it's actually safer to say the berserker armor is outright a downgrade after a certain point trust me you'll see it's a deus ex machina yes a very very blatant one but it's also a really cool one therefore you can't complain or i'll cancel you on twitter back to the violence we see that something is very very wrong with guts he's bleeding from every orifice even leaking out of the eye holes to his helmet that's when the party finally starts to understand the danger they're all in shrike can't even communicate with him telepathically because his mind is consumed grunbelt still doesn't really understand what's happening and goes to attack only for guts to jump over the hammer and break the damn thing with a dragon slayer gutz was able to render the apostles signature weapon useless after a single attack then following up by driving the massive sword into his shoulder forcing the giant to his knees the force of the attack was enough for gutz's muscles to explode blood spraying out of the armor though guts shows no sign of feeling it grumbeld is impressed with gutz's sudden ability to kick his ass and transforms into his demonic form a great dragon adorned with crystals and this looks familiar it's because dark souls 3 has an enemy type that's a direct reference to grumbeld dark souls in general has a lot of berserk references to say the least but i'll let other channels talk about all those it's enough to fill entire hours of content still the dragon feels as though he can finally stand against guts with his new form and swings his tail down to crush him only for the guy to catch it every spectator to the fight paralyzed to see guts be hit with the tail at full force and stop it midway digging his feet into the ground so hard that his leg bone snapped from the pressure then seizing the opportunity to stab grumbeld in the face with dragon slayer guts is thrown back by the dragon sent flying and slamming straight into the stump of the great tree and we see that he was able to crack the dragon's armor much to grunbeld's horror and the best part guts is still going even as his arms and legs lay twisted from the battle completely broken and forced to reshape back into place by the armor once again this is not healing his wounds they're simply forcing him to keep fighting no matter what the armor is sending metal shards deep into guts's flesh and reinforcing his bones manually legends say the previous owner of the armor was completely devoured fighting until the last drop of blood was forced out of him so the berserker armor isn't some cool rage mode that guts gets to tap into despite what you may think it's quite literally evil it's flesh-eating armor that will force him to keep killing until he drops dead the horror finally registers with the party and shrike has no idea how to help guts she's terrified and begging for an answer of what to do next flora appears in her mind to give her student one final message she is the only one who can help guts despite her inexperience insecurity and whirling emotions only shrike can save guts from the power of the berserker armor so she decides to at the very least try she prepares a ritual as the fight between guts and grunbild gets worse the dragon is growing afraid of just what guts is capable of being the first opponent to ever withstand more than one attack and he even hurt him back in return some of the apostles returned to say they couldn't find flora and they're growing bored they want to help grumbald fight guts but they don't even get the chance to be yelled at by their commander they're torn apart in a single swing that cuts an entire line down the only survivor tries to avenge his friends and he's swiftly executed sliced open and stabbed through the head another demon tries to fight back and manages to break some of guts's ribs but the man simply bites into the demon's shell forcing it to the ground and killing it the armor repairing the damage done to guts's ribs his fighting is becoming less human as time goes on to the point puck is finding it difficult to tell the difference between him and the demons the party prepares to defend shrike as some demons approach the young witch delving inside of guts's mind in order to pull him out of the violent madness but all she sees inside are flames hellfire so strong it would shatter the minds of any regular human deep inside of the armor she spots the beast of darkness its form shaped out of the hellfire this is the image his subconscious projects onto the armor this horrific monster made out of a blazing inferno of hate and guts is buried somewhere inside of it shrek hesitates afraid to approach the monster and unsure if she could even rescue guts from something like this but flashes of the outside world remind her of how urgent the situation has become she dives inside of the beast and she sees deep down that there are lights fragments of guts as memories that slip past shrike we see images of the golden age of the old band of the hawk koska and griffith even a slight nod to gambino hidden away and just underneath these lights is the darkness the eclipse shrek can't comprehend what's happening simply suck deeper into the abyss as she cries out to flora images of demons mutilating guts as friends swirling like a vortex but at the deepest layer of the abyss shrike spots one of flora's talismans engravings etched into the berserker armor just past this layer we see a silhouette of guts a rough etched out visage of the man made out of fire shrike recognizes it as guts's ego the aspect of guts's mind that keeps him who he is essentially what makes him more than just that flora etched the berserker armor to protect the ego of the user when it's used there's still a chance to save him his mind hasn't been destroyed but it's not in a great state simply calling out for war death malice anger vengeance shrike tries to speak to guts's ego begging him to remember who truly is but it fights back it only wants to kill screaming how it wants to murder demons and griffith especially shrike doesn't back down trying desperately to get guts to break out of the spell the armor put him in she summons a vision of the outside world showing serpecone isidro desperately fighting off two demons then showing farnese and koska who stand at the edge of the forest as they watch the fires burn the hutt to the ground the sight of koska seems to get to guts screaming at a demon to leave her alone as they watch one approach the women shrike picks up on this and focuses her attack bringing direct attention to koska she finally hits a breakthrough reminding guts that he is the branded swordsman the man who protects the branded girl koska gutz's ego explodes to life his entire body taking shape in the fire his real body in the real world reacts to the change his face finally shone under the mask if partially he spots the apostles coming for his loved ones just as grunbell tries to attack him with a blast of fire breath guts dodges out of the way instead cutting through the demons to save isidro and serpico not stopping for a second he goes straight for the demon coming for koska and farnese able to cut its head into before it even touched them farnese isn't sure if guts is still guts but his helmet retracts showing a beaten down scarred burned yet smiling guts a tuft of white hair now visible above his right eye farnese is horrified by his injuries while kaskas still growls at him and clings to her companion but guts doesn't seem to care simply happy that koska is safe and sound once again though grumbeld is coming back to finish him off but just as he breathes out an inferno once again the attack is blocked by a wall of fire a shape manifests in the flame showing a much younger version of flora standing between the demons and our party she thanked shrike for a job well done then telling them to escape as soon as possible before the entire forest burns once the spirit tree dies their domain in the astral world will disappear as well but shrike doesn't want to go but flora tells her it's time for her and the forest to die even if it was a nice place there it couldn't last forever even though she loved her days with shrike viewing her as a true granddaughter it was time for her to go guts rescue shrike from a burning branch that almost crushes her carrying her out of the forest as flora swears they will see each other again now it's up to shrike to continue the journey without her to face her destiny the last images we see are of shrike looking back reminiscing about the happy days she spent with flora as her master gave her final goodbye and with that flora is dead the party was chased out of the only sanctuary they had for god knows where all by the demons that had been hounding guts for years the moment he finally tries to forget about revenge to focus on his new loved ones and open up the apostles came screaming back to burn everything to the ground he well and truly can't escape it poor shrike was finally starting to come into her role as a witch only to be forced to watch her master be murdered by the demons despite flora's assurances they'll meet again it seems like the apostles got her forcing the elderly witch to use what was left of her power to protect our heroes as they made their escape rise it looked like things were going right everything was kicked right back to square one all over again the only real positives to all this is they gained shrike as a companion and guts as a new suit of armor but the cost to get them was heavy they essentially forced a little girl from her home not even given the chance to grieve the death of her only family properly and the toll the berserker armor has on guts is extensive so much so it nearly killed him this happy side quest stopped being fun in fact this is probably one of the most grim moments of the manga not quite as grim as the eclipse but seeing this one chance at a sanctuary be ripped away that hurts especially since flora really did seem like a good person someone that wanted to help and knew a lot more than she was saying but griffith took it all away again he will not leave guts and costco alone even if they try to let go this happy side quest got really sad hopefully the stuff coming up can be fun again this is not fun i repeat zero fun here i'm not having fun this sucks say hello to the new windum completely unrecognizable from its glory days corpses lined the streets some even impaled on top of tall buildings where crows flocked to feed and unsettling mist fills the streets the city is sunk deep into hell boats filled with men travel through the mist reaching a sewer tunnel where they meet up with a contact this is the midland resistance movement trying desperately to survive but they're cut off from the rest of the country they don't even know what the current state of the nation even is they're completely isolated ser laban reveals himself as the leader of the men smuggled into the city much to the relief of the resistance movement turns out they aren't much of an actual rebellion group they're forced to survive underground hunted by something that doesn't even seem possible the entire city is filled with corpses every building every plaza even the churches nowhere is safe from the unending pile of the dead it was as if the tomb buried underneath the tower of rebirth forced its way to the surface the city was violently purged men either executed or sent out to fight as war slaves all of the women were forced into the castle cattle for horrific sacrifices used in cushing rituals and all that's left in the city are the elderly and the children the only good news they have is that princess charlotte is alive imprisoned at the highest level of the tower of rebirth despite all the horror midland has some inkling of hope inside of it if the princess is alive they can corral the nobles together and organize an actual counter-attack the resistance only wants one thing in payment for the information they want to know if the rumors about griffith's return are actually true at that moment the contact shows himself as minister foss he survived the invasion and now leads what is left of the nobility in wyndham their conversation is cut short as something dives out of the sewer water to attack the men a monstrous crocodile wielding a spear a demonic entity created through cushion magic the resistance flees from the sewer as the monster chases after them foss explaining that cushions have some form of sorcery that allows them to create half-human half-beast hybrids and they're everywhere always hunting after the survivors unknowable monsters that break the very fabric of reality the resistance has even taken to calling windham the demon city they managed to escape the demonic crocodile and foss explains that everything started when the mist flooded the city ever since then creatures like that have crawled through the streets what's left of the population forced to stay inside of their homes terrified to step outside and risk being caught once again they're spotted by a cushion mutant this one being a demonic elephant hybrid plus that crocodile came back they're completely surrounded by these things trapped and completely at the mercy to the elite cushion furry division that is until the crocodile is suddenly killed by arrows turns out they have someone watching out for the resistance irving sitting high above on a rooftop having just killed the mutant crocodile sir locus also comes in swiftly killing the elephant monster and introducing himself to the resistance he gives the terrified men a message soon the city will be freed from the kushin army a strong wind will blow and clear out the corrupted mist covering the city freeing them from their tyranny just as soon as he arrives locust takes his leave simply telling the resistance to prepare for the tempest the hawk brings confirming to them that yeah griffith is back as locust trots through the fog we see that something is watching him so carefully in fact that he was even able to decipher that him and his companions are demons the fog was actually created by this man hidden in the mist and all but challenging them to come into his demon castle so apostles have been pretty bad before they've been able to kill scores of people with their abilities alone rosine created an entire swarm of minions by kidnapping countless children from villages around her domain wylad led a death squad so violent he was all but banished from midland until the king was desperate enough to order him to murder griffith zod goes without saying in regards to his reputation even the jobber guys like the slug count and the snake lord had pretty decent body counts and what made them worse was they held positions of power and authority hell the count's murder count was mainly through his frivolous executions more than anything so imagine if the emperor to an entire nation was a demon that's right the entire cushion kingdom is led by a demon he invaded midland and has been using his abilities as an apostle to conquer territory to spread his unholy empire say hello to emperor ganeshka and he is an evil [ __ ] to say the least so evil in fact you might actually start rooting for griffith by the end of this sounds crazy but it actually happened with some fans still ganesha debriefs the failure of the bakiraka clan to capture griffith salat forced to eat crow once again though ganeshka is disappointed noting that salak gambled everything on completing this job all to restore his clan to glory he actually isn't that surprised he ordered them to capture griffith but yeah what was he expecting what happened he's literally a member of the god hand so instead he merely orders the bakiraka to watch his movements ganeshka's personal army will do the work of capturing the hawk of light salat's companions are ashamed at failing their duty but he tells them that it was his fault he was too inexperienced to handle such an important task but now the bakuraka run the risk of being shown up by the kushan military so their clan will only be humiliated further salat isn't too worried about this certain that there's no way mere soldiers will capture a guy like griffith they just need to keep their heads down and seize their chance when it comes along then they can impress ganeshka but do they really want to do that like they get ganeshka as their boss but god damn even they don't really like how far he's going with windham the tepasa who are the guys that follow salat discuss the rumors of monsters hiding in the fog some of the kushin soldiers themselves are growing afraid of the stories of what's hidden in the fog but salat dismisses the idea though it's not impossible nosferatu zot exists so maybe other things like him do too it also really doesn't help that salat entrusted the fate of the bakiraka to this crazy genocide guy but his full ends justify the means by this point i mean what the [ __ ] can you do the bakuraka have been fighting for centuries to be recognized again they can't let their personal feelings cloud their judgment but yeah ganeshka's [ __ ] crazy the man's brutality earned him the nickname the dread emperor ganeshka has his royal escort take him to the tower of rebirth traveling up the tower to visit his prisoner princess charlotte she is still alive along with her servant anna now spending her days in isolation keeping busy with embroidery work much to ganeshka's annoyance anna tries to scold the emperor for barging into charlotte's room but he as they're thrown out this dude doesn't really believe in ideas such as chivalry turns out he gave charlotte the embroidery tools to give her a hobby but it's starting to piss him off it's time for her to prepare for what's about to come ganeshka intends to rape charlotte and impregnate her thus effectively conquering midland through blood it's his final move to end the war and he's holding the kingdom hostage until she agrees holding the deaths of her people over her head until she breaks he tried to be patient with her giving her plenty of time to accept what's happened and get ready for the obvious but he's done waiting ganeshka throws charlotte onto the bed causing her to flashback and see images of her father from when he tried to assault her as well she cries out in horror begging for griffith to save her causing ganeshka to freeze up he spots the embroidery she was working on realizing then that all of them are about griffith charlotte wasn't just some dumb princess she's the hawk of light's lover she's much more valuable than the dread emperor ever realized he leaves the tower allowing anna to come back in and comfort charlotte ganeshka is tired of war and hoped that conquering midland would have been simple but now things have gotten interesting every apostle knows how important griffith is to them he represents the new world they all instinctively want to serve him as though they finally had a chance to serve god himself everyone except ganeshka he is the dread emperor the one who will conquer the world himself he's not about to just give up his kingdom it belongs to him so he plans on usurping griffith and ruling the world as the one true demon king so we have an apostle that wants to rebel against the godhand something we quite literally have never seen before even the ones that seemed apathetic to the larger schemes such as zod and wildlad at the very least showed some kind of reverence or loyalty to the godhand they understood how powerful they were and respected them but now you have a demon with an army powerful magic to support said army and is strong enough to steamroll the world to the point he's getting bored and he refuses to give up that throne no matter what and no matter who asked it's a demonic civil war but nobody has any clue what's really going on not even ganeshka's own men salat and the tapasa noticed that some of the castle guards have been murdered recognizing immediately that there's intruders roxas appears behind the trio avoiding their attacks and mocking the state of the bakiraka for letting themselves be snuck up on they believe the demon is there to assassinate ganishka finding it strange that he would have let himself be seen if that was the case but roxas denies this his job was to open the gate allowing sir locus and his knights to pour into the castle he baits the bakuraka to chase after him salat and company falling for the scheme and following the apostle ganeshka's men report that invaders have entered the castle but he already knew simply ordering his soldiers to entertain them as he watches some of the captured women be fed to his pit of demonic crocodiles he wonders how far the band of the hawk could really get into the demon castle the cushion military tries to stop locus and his knights but they're powerless even if they could hit their targets they simply pull their arrows out and push on a head the archers are then murdered by irving and his men freeing the demon horsemen to keep going without interruption once again the battle is a slaughter the clueless humans outmatched by the apostle knights there's no way of stopping the band of the hawk with human soldiers so kaneshka orders his army to lure them into a specific part of the castle the part where the dhaka are gathered while ganeshka has used human soldiers for a large chunk of his invasion he was also preparing another army these ones blatantly inhuman ganeshka created an army of demonic soldiers just like griffith did but he had his own method ganeshka reveals himself to sir locus arrogantly showing off his legion of monsters he believes that he is in full control of the situation the numbers of the banter the hawk far too low to actually pose a threat to his rule even if they were apostles like him at most ganeshka believes they're there to gauge how powerful he is as a demon locust wants to know why ganesha is rebelling against griffith and the dread emperor repeats his assertion that he is the ruler destined to conquer the world the king of kings and no one will take that from him he fully believes himself capable of taking down griffith to fully ascend as a god himself locus is offended at the idea that someone would think they're better than the absolute and the battle begins the daca charging for the demonic knights all the while salat and the tapasa are still chasing after roxas who's playfully keeping his distance away from the experienced assassins salat notices that he's actually luring them to a specific location a grand mausoleum in the center of wyndham salat and his men follow the trail of corpses roxas leaves behind infiltrating the building along with the demon as they try to stay hidden from the kushin army as well deep inside the mausoleum they find a horrific sight a ball of flesh chained together and suspended in the air it looks as if it were created by the melted down bodies of other demons their monstrous forms barely recognizable in the greater biomass of the entity salat and the tapasa watch in horror as a woman is lowered inside of it cushion monks praying as their ritual commences the woman is submerged in the fluids her stomach immediately swelling as a creature grows inside of her violently ripping open its mother as it's born kushin workers capture the demon infant and dispose of the dead woman's corpse tossing her into a pile of other murdered prisoners roxas comments on the site talking to himself though loud enough for salat and his friends to hear as well this is how the daca are created they captured various apostles stitched them together and filled the interior of the sphere with amniotic fluid pregnant women are dropped inside and their babies are infused with demons creating an inhuman army for ganeshka salat wants answers on just what the hell is going on and how roxas knows what any of this even is but all he says is that ganeshka is a real demon king they're spotted by the workers inside and salat leaves with his companions hit with a sickening realization that their emperor is doing something unspeakable the battle outside is kicking off in full swing locust transforming into his demonic form to fight off the dhaka much to ganeshka's curiosity his real form is this strange metallic centaur looking deal ganeshka is fascinated by the powers of the war demons now fully transformed and meeting the other demon army though there were a lot more under the dread emperor's sleeves than he let them see salat and the tipasa stay hidden as a full-blown war between demons kicks off having no idea what the hell is going on and being very scared and confused as much as salat hates to admit it roxas was completely right ganeshko wasn't human not by any definition no matter how many creatures the band of the hawk kills the kushin demon army just keeps coming even if they are apostles they will eventually hit their breaking point and be overwhelmed by sheer numbers ganeshka wants to know if they can break through his army and actually deal any damage worth noting irving and his archers arrived just in time to try and attack the emperor only for their arrows to phase right through him ganeshka didn't just create the mist he is the mist ganeshka's true demonic form is a cloud of fog completely invulnerable to attack on top of that he can summon and conduct electricity through his mist frying anything inside of it to a crisp the sight of the emperor turning into a giant cloud that can shoot lightning is yet another thing to put on the list of reasons not to trust ganeshka for salat anymore and he might seriously need to start considering a new career choice but the dread emperor doesn't even bother to hide who truly is demanding that the band of the hawks surrender and obey him they'll never accomplish whatever it is they came to do so they can either bow to their new emperor or they will die despite the horrible situation the war demons aren't intimidated and we see the shape of a wing in the light of the moon anna and charlotte are completely unaware of what's happening in the city anna just trying to make conversation with the princess who's simply gone back to her embroidery without saying a word she begged charlotte to get some sleep promising that she'll never leave her side as they turn in for the night but charlotte doesn't actually seem to listen to anna simply going back to her project as soon as her servant leaves the room she's torn out of her work by the wind a sudden gust forcing her window open with her curtains forced apart the moonlight exposes a silhouette standing by her window at first she's terrified using her embroidery to hide her face but notices how familiar the shape actually is on top of that he begins to speak saying that he's come to set the princess free griffith himself returned to her something she genuinely thought was impossible so much so that she's convinced she's dreaming it was simply too perfect to be reality a night coming to save a captive princess none of this could be real it's just a fantasy she's having the most she can do is beg griffith not to disappear accidentally pricking her finger with her needle as she tightens her fist griffith points out the wound asking if the pain is just a dream as well he then kisses her finger as charlotte realizes that this is all true it's really happening her beloved came back to save her just like a fairy tale anna is pulled out of bed only told that the princess wanted to see her charlotte takes her servant into her chamber simply ordering her to hang on to the bed post no matter what happens anna assumes the princess simply had a nightmare and isn't really listening to her simply nodding along until she can go back to sleep even as charlotte directly tells her that griffith has returned and is about to break them out of the tower of rebirth charlotte tries one last time to explain to anna this isn't a dream just as the ceiling explodes above them the band of the hawk withdraws from the battle ramming through the cushion line to escape clearing a path directly out of windom for the rest of the war demons to follow ganeshka has no idea why they would suddenly retreat like this especially when they could have actually won the fight in fact if a single demon could punch a hole straight to the city why were they holding back in the first place it's only then that kanishka realizes what the real plan was all along they were distracting him and his forces while they rescued the princess from his grasp flying her high into the sky where he can't reach them anna and charlotte are terrified at the heights and the servant desperately tries to fall back asleep now fully convinced this is a big dream charlotte considers the same thing for a moment but remembers that griffith proved to her this is all really happening the warmth on her finger is still there so the royal and her servant are flown far away from wyndham carried by griffith and nosferatu zod rescued from the dreaded emperor and a fate worse than death though with all we know about demonic babies and their human mothers it probably would have still ended in a very violent death koska lucked out because the demon infant was really young and he was a very good boy charlotte probably wouldn't have been as lucky still it seems like griffith reunited with his waifu and is well on his way to stopping the dread emperor things are looking up for this two-faced scumbag son of a [ __ ] sorry force a habit but i know what you guys are thinking man it's nuts how this big civil war between demons is building up it looks like [ __ ] is about to go down in a pretty epic manner i wonder what guts is doing well don't worry because it's time for the beach episode every manga has to have a beach episode it's japanese federal law along with school festival chapters and yakuza games ending with shirtless fights on tall buildings for the first time in the series you get to see our cast relax on the beach isidro immediately jumps into the water in excitement only to get washed back to shore by the waves yeah he grew up in the mountains so it makes sense why a kid is this excited at seeing the ocean serpico is content just watching isidro enjoy himself while eva lira is less impressed she hates the ocean since it's sticky and it smells like salt get your minds out of the gutter you coomer [ __ ] thought i was making an anal beach joke in part three with a necklace not everything involves anime titties in this series though they do crop up more than a few times admittedly shrike is noticeably quiet having to be pulled out of her thoughts by evalira she's still shaken up by what happened at flores even if she's trying to hide it the breeze pulls her hat off her head and lands on gutz's foot so he simply puts the hat back onto shrike's head a small gesture of kindness to his new party member now really take a step back and think about how far this guy has gone since we started when we first saw guts all the way back in black swordsmen he didn't care about anything only violence and vengeance hell even during golden age guts was pretty closed off to others it took some serious heavy lifting for the dude to finally start trusting others granted in his earlier years he wasn't completely cruel just standoffish black swordsman lost children guts is explicitly cruel he outright tortures his enemies and enjoys doing it he has zero regard for the safety of anyone dragged into his battles that hateful wrath filled man is now just placing a hat back onto a little girl's head they don't talk about this guts never reflects on the state of things it's just a silent moment that tells you everything you need to know to shrike all of guts did was get her hat for her but to us having seen everything this guy went through just to get to this point right there it feels downright legendary i'm being serious this is one of the all-time best moments of the manga you see it referenced so many different times when people talk about the series the moment seems to pass but guts notices that his hand is shaking he moves on ahead of shrike who seems to have picked up on gutz's worries though he swears he's fine shrek wants him to take off the armor to take a few days to rest though all guts can think about is that the talisman they were given won't last forever they already had to take an entire month off from the journey to let guts heal they needed to keep moving thankfully the armor keeps the pain at bay though not as much as when guts is fighting still he's much better than before shrike is able to supply him with medicine on top of the elf powder that puck and evelier provide all shrike can think about is how everything can go wrong if guts ends up going crazy again they'd be right back at step 1 but he's not worried about that considering shrike his trump card in case the armor tries to take over again strike thinks back to what happened after they escaped flores the armor ate into guts for days to the point they couldn't even get him out of it all guts could do was bleed when they finally got guts out of the berserker armor the pain came rocketing back all at once his wounds reopened and forced him back into unconsciousness time and time again guts simply can't take on these new demons not unless he became something worse but to do that it could end up killing him hell he could end up dropping dead at any moment but as she's racking her thoughts about this guts catches her attention simply saying this is nice shrike is confused at what he means and we see guts simply watching koska play in the ocean smiling for the first time in a very long while though gutz claims he was just checking out the sunset saying that he thought he could never be able to enjoy something like this again or even be able to sleep through a night again serpico spots a cabin on a hill above and offers they all stay there for the night they decide to rest guts taking off his armor so they can check his wounds the first thing they notice is that guts has lost weight far more lean than his absolute brute physique from before he's still a big [ __ ] but the armor is taking a lot out of him that's not even talking about the wounds he received they haven't closed much and if the sea breeze blows over him he won't be able to sleep the salt in the air would hurt serpico ready's dinner for everyone but guts notices something wrong with the soup we're not told what exactly irks him and serpico assumes he accidentally added too much salt but guts brushes it off saying he just has cuts in his mouth the flavor is fine at least so he says isidro finally addresses the obvious the tuft of white hair now sitting on gutz's head demon guts his new nickname as the slightly white swordsman it's like guts aged 20 years in a single month now okay let's take a step back and and talk about this for a bit remember he's still only in his mid-20s he was like 19 when the eclipse kicked off if you do the math and it's roughly been three years since then so the dude is only 22 at this point maybe 23 if you believe it's been like four years or so he's not even in his mid-20s that's how much this journey's been taking out of him the guy looks like he's 45 the party takes the time to rest in the cabin serpico helping guts rearrange his equipment packs to fit his new armor while puck and isidro talk about elfilm the elf describes his homeland as a literal utopia full of flowers and birds i love singing and dancing it's always springtime just the absolute tropical paradise isidro thinks it sounds like hell on earth an entire island full of things like puck but strike heard some stories about it as well the homeland is actually on an island known as skellig somewhere in the western sea the island itself and elfham lie within the interstice so no records of the island exist in the physical world regular humans would never reach it but puk seems to have a natural sense of direction on how to return home to the island so it's not going to be a problem strike then explains that many magic users have lived on l film it's practically a sanctuary for them in a way isidro teases strike by saying they treat her as a bumpkin once they arrived but before the ass beating could get any worse vernice has something to say more that she has a request much to everyone's surprise and especially serpicos farnese wants to learn magic she wants strike to act as her teacher so she can become a witch it's something she's been thinking about ever since the trolls shrike had the power to call down actual miracles well all farnese could do was cower and wait to be saved and that one time she truly fought to save koska it was because the madwoman and the silver knife gave her courage shrike says the dagger was just a silver knife but farnese doesn't care it was magic to hurt flora described magic as accepting the great mysteries around them and exploring the entire universe so farnice views this as her chance to really learn the truth about the world shrike isn't sure saying that magic is almost impossible to learn if you haven't spent your entire life studying it the older the student the more rigid their world view making the transition into the astral realm more difficult but on the other hand bernice has seen enough terrible experiences that her worldview is a tad more open than others so despite shrike herself still being a student she'll teach farnese what she knows farney's cheers and excitement officially calling shrike her teacher the former head of the holy iron chain knights the personal attack dog of the holy see the woman who executed countless people for heresy is now a witch the irony was not lost on serpico as the party takes in the scene farni's wanting to immediately jump to spellcraft much to shrike's annoyance guts senses something skull knight is there with them on the beach and despite him being a cool dude that's never a good sign later that night shrike and evalera are alone on the beach the elf begging her friend to go back inside while shrike simply stares into the ocean gutz joins them saying it's hard to sleep with how bright the moon is pointing out the full moon hovering above turns out neither of them could sleep very well strike asked guts to stop carrying his sword with him since the weight is too heavy in his condition but guts admits he can't relax without it she begs guts to go back inside and rest but he simply changes the subject talking about how the ocean at night creeps him out the water's pitch black and it feels like if he stares into it he'll be dragged down into the bottom shrike remembers what flores said about the ocean that it actually leads into the astral world it's so many different things all at once to people beautiful dangerous calming horrifying so many different emotions about one thing must have some influence of the astral world to it shrike never really considered what flora was saying but now that she's staring at the sea herself it's finally clicking with her not just that but the weight of everything that happened sinks in she's staring at the ocean far away from a home that's completely in ruins she's on a journey she can never come back from guts patch strikes head telling her to not worry so much about everything and especially flora guts could tell her death was affecting her and might have actually held his sort of sympathy for shrike she wasn't the only one to have lost a parent figure it's okay to take some time for herself even telling her that if she doesn't find a chance to rest she'll be old before her time something he has intimate experience with shrike denies this is a problem death means something completely different for magic users it's not a goodbye it's a rebirth into a new existence not something to be upset over but even as she's saying this shrike is crying she can't help it hugging guts as she lets her emotions out the grown man simply letting her vent without saying a word after some time shrike calms down feeling relieved that she was able to not bottle everything up inside now commenting that the sea breeze is stinging her nose guts admits that it's stinging his entire body confirming that he's been pushing himself to stay outside shrike feels much better at the scene no longer worried and simply smiling along with him evaluate takes the time to tease the two saying that shrike is developing a crush on guts happy that it was him and not the pushover housemaid or the monkey shrike ends up so embarrassed by the elf shenanigans that she forces her into her hat though guts never took any of it seriously it's just more annoying antics by elves gutz doesn't like lollies he likes milfs specifically short-haired dark-skinned tomboy milfs a supreme patrician you could say but guts notices something is wrong someone is there to see them though he relaxes once he notices that it's skull knight guts thanks skull knight for everything that happened during the flora saga but he knows that the spectre only arrives when something bad happens or when a demon is nearby however that's not what skull knight is there to talk about he's there to warn guts about the dangers of the berserker armor it will take the color from his vision he'll lose his sense of taste and his hands won't stop shaking everything guts was dealing with earlier that day the armor will take everything from him if he continues to use it as the berserker shrike is horrified at the news but guts isn't worried he'll never let it go too far again he can tame the power of the armor it's not destined to take everything from him the witch in training takes his side promising to never let the armor take over again she also recognizes skull knight from the incident at quillfoth and at flores she wants to know how flora and skull knight knew each other saying that her old master always looked at the armor with nostalgia despite how dangerous it was she guesses that skull knight once wore the armor himself something he confirms almost proud at how shrewd shrike is of how well flora taught her skull knight admits that he and flora were friends back when they lived in the reason of time in fact their relationship mirrors how striking guts are to each other he warns guts that even with the talisman the armor is extremely dangerous it will always look for a chance to take over if gus wants to stay a man he needs to be careful otherwise the berserker armor will turn him into a monster godz wants to know why the demons attacked flora and skull knight says that it's all because of griffith's goal he exists beyond the mortal world untouchable by the physical realm those living in the real world are merely characters dancing on his puppet strings them trying to fight against him would be like someone in a story trying to kill their author it's just impossible but mages exist outside the physical realm in the interstice and the larger astral world they can stand against him the godhand a single mage is more dangerous than over 10 000 soldiers that's why flora was murdered all to make sure she wouldn't get in the way and if they continue their journey there will be more demons they might even run into griffith himself the idea of running into griffith again sends a flash of rage into guts the berserker armors cowl slithering across his back as it makes its way to his head wanting to take control of his mind once again shrike calls out to him snapping him out of it skull knight repeats his warning from before guts can't protect koska and face griffith he has to make a choice but there is a small glimmer of hope and the homeland of the elves the king himself lives there king hanafabuku shrika recognizes the name saying that the legends around hanafubuku point to him having immense power so much so that his reputation among magic users is unheard of and puck never bothered to say any of this would have been helpful hanafabuku is so powerful in fact that maybe just maybe they can actually bring koska back they could heal koska [Music] you heard right guys skull knight just promised guts that if they're able to reach elfilm the king of the elves might be able to cure her insanity the real kazuka could come back just like the old days guts is ecstatic at the news and even shrike is happy for him she doesn't really know kaska but she seems cool that she is shrike that she is but the news isn't all good they still have an arduous journey to complete elf helm is still a far ways out and worst of all does koska really want to come back sure guts wants to heal her more than anything else in the world but is that what coska wants she would still be left with her memories of the eclipse of something so nightmarish and terrible that it drove her insane to begin with and it's going to follow these two for the rest of their lives maybe in a strange way kaska is happier in her insanity just mindlessly enjoying life without really comprehending anything that might be better than dealing with stuff like this and this sure it basically boils down to that classic is painful reality better than a blissful dream question and pretty much everybody here wants koska to come back regardless of any potential consequences just know that things are not going to be that simple and that's exactly what skull knight is trying to warn guts as he leaves we still have a long way to go before any of this really matters just keep chewing on this idea as we move on to the story now as strike and guts talk with skull knight we see that koska is actually outside as well wandering on the shoreline as she wanders koska meets a new friend this little naked boy the two just sort of stare at each other taking a moment to sort of process the other's existence the rest of the party searches the beach for koska it turns out funnies left with her earlier so they could use the bathroom and koska just sort of got lost along the way they start to get worried when puck actually spots her she's sitting on the beach watching the water with the mysterious boy sitting in her lap guts and shrike arrive in time to see what's going on costco reacting to guts by pulling the boy closer to her they don't know who the kid is thinking he might have just been robbed of everything and wandered over to them but shrike notices something strange about him and the boy is paying particular attention to guts costco snatches him away hugging them close and breaking their eye contact regardless the situation they decide to return to the cabin with the boy it's cold outside and shrike wants to share the good news skull knight gave them but as they go to leave gutz feels a sudden twinge on his brand he stops in his tracks and looks at the cliffs above taking his imagination made him see something though we see a very familiar shape in the shadows above okay i seriously can't describe how important this scene actually is like it is like it it is the important event for things to come just know that mysterious child has a massive role to play so much so that he was more than likely going to be a key factor for the finale before miura died and everything happened i can't say anything right now this is part 5 territory through and through but if you've already read through berserk then you know exactly what i'm talking about and if you've been paying attention to the small details you might have already put a few things together on just who this kid might really be i'm not gonna say a [ __ ] word all i'm gonna say is he has his mother's eyes though you still have no idea how deep the rabbit hole goes still the party discusses the news that costco might be able to heal her mind once they reach elfhelm ec drone ivalira want to know why puck never brought this up before but the man is too busy playing with the crab he totally knew hannah fubuku could heal mines like totally absolutely he was just gonna mention that later once he got bored with the with the crab it's a really cool crab despite the party being in good spirits at the news gutz is barely paying attention he's just watching koska attend to the mysterious child from the beach just thinking about the warning skull knight gave him that maybe what he wants isn't what she wants they snap him out of his thoughts but shift focus on the mute pair as well kaska has quickly grown attached to the kid but he's not saying a single word he won't tell them his name where he came from or anything simply hugging on to koska after he finishes his dinner they decide to check the local villages in the morning to try and find his family that really being their only true option to get the kid home wherever that is yet still guts can't help but notice the boy is staring at him guts tries to meet his gaze but he spins his head around and looks back at koska as soon as he knows his guts like he was embarrassed he got caught this actually happens more than once too he's really interested in guts so much so he actually sneaks behind him and tries to climb up guts's back the kid plops himself on guts's shoulders and the party assumes he's curious about the armor though the sight of the boy trying to play with the brute causes koska to panic running up and prying the small boy off guts though they both lose their grip and it looks like the boy is about to land on a pile of throwing knives guts and koska both catch the boy saving him from grievous injury this also marks one of the first times koski got close to guts physically since that incident though she doesn't let it last too long snatching the boy once again and even growling at guts isidro remarks that for a moment they kind of looked like a family it kind of hurt i came in tonight ivalira decides to tease shrike again saying that she needs to take her opportunity and snatch guts away from koska but shrike just shoves her in her hat again because of it it's not really important just thought it was cute now the important reaction is farnese who just sort of looks away wistful going back to reading her book even serpico notices how bummed out farnese is at the side of the trio i swear to god guys we're going to address this in a bit i'm [ __ ] begging you guys just hold on soon the party is back to sleep kaska keeping the mysterious boy close to her while everyone rests everyone except guts he's just watching koska and the boys sleep thinking about the birth of the demon infant his long-sensed buried paternal instincts drudged up much to his grief the last time guts saw the child was at the tower of conviction only a brief flash of a moment and despite all the hate and venom he spewed at the corrupted infant all the times he screamed at it or even tried to kill the baby guts can't help but wonder where it went thinking it must still be wandering alone in the night looking for them even if the baby wasn't human instead a warped and fleshy monster that drank blood it was still gutz's child as much as he tried to deny it he still had some lingering affection for the baby and in a way guts was sort of given another chance at a family though easidro and shrike aren't exactly helpless children they still give the traumatized warrior the opportunity to act as sort of a patriarch figure but even if guts has a new group of loved ones he'll still grieve and regret losing the ones that came before it's not something he can just forget and pretend never happened this guts is definitely a lot more self-reflective than who he was before in fact he seems almost outright remorseful of how he treated the demon infant he's not on his knees begging for forgiveness or anything like that he's not consumed with guilt but the pained look on his face makes it clear he seems depressed thinking about that corrupted baby being all alone and just mindlessly searching for them the guy isn't just some stoic giant that doesn't let people in not anymore that was golden age guts black swordsmen and conviction guts actively pushed people away did whatever he could to not connect with anyone falcon of the millennium empire guts is a man full of regrets burned out by his endless journey yet still pushing forward he yearns for those peaceful quiet days but knows he can't ever have them and the best part is that he doesn't let anyone know about this either guts would rather be torn apart inside and out then let his party members worry about him it's absolutely not healthy probably the best day of gutz's life involved him finally showing his vulnerabilities to the only woman he ever loved but that's the tragic pattern with guts that he keeps falling back into pretending everything is fine and refusing to look at the bigger picture it sort of comes down to the obvious divide that built up between guts and griffith something you might have already picked up on by this point griffith is this beloved war hero an actual living legend that has scores of people worshiping his name and he's a sociopathic demon a dude unafraid to murder thousands to get what he wants a full-blown evil [ __ ] he wasn't at first during golden age he was a complicated guy trying to achieve something great in a court full of snakes but now the dude is pretty much evil he's literally rewriting reality so he can be this big grand hero killing tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of innocent people in this grisly war all to give him a villain to defeat sure ganeshka is an apostle that's actively rebelling against the god hand but is he really we'll go more in depth with this later but it's very much a possibility that ganeshka himself is a victim specifically groomed for his role as the villain everyone is an actor in this big grand production that griffith and the godham put together everyone except our heroes and there might be a reason for that though once again we'll talk about that later just know that there might have been a reason why guts and farnese didn't have the same dream as the rest of the world and not just because they weren't asleep when it happened now by contrast to griffith gutz is despised by the larger world they think he's a villain a symbol of destruction and chaos granted they were kind of right but the real guts deep down is a lot more complicated he might not go out of his way to help a stranger in fact he might just find you suspicious and tell you to piss off but he's very loyal to his loved ones to the point that he's quite literally willing to tear his body to pieces to save someone he cares about the entire point of the berserker armor is that it damages him to give him power no one else except guts this is the big divide between guts and griffith griffith is willing to sacrifice others to get what he wants guts is willing to sacrifice himself to get others what they want sure right now gutz's quest is to kind of serve himself koska is his woman and he wants to keep her safe because it makes him feel better but at the same time he's pushing himself as close to death as humanly possible to keep her and his new party alive now that he's learned that there's a chance to heal koska of her insanity he's leaping at the opportunity consequences to himself be damned because why would he assume koski wouldn't want to come back it's not really an exaggeration to say that guts would rather die to protect the people close to him than do something like what griffith did now he would fight like hell to make sure everybody got out alive including him but if the chips were down and guts knew it came down to him or them i think the choice would be obvious and speaking of demonic crocodiles yeah our heroes aren't safe from the larger war around them ganeshka's evil fog starts flooding into the area setting off guts's brand immediately he knows something is coming for them the party readying themselves for a fight shrike is confused how anything could come after them considering the talisman they have should protect them from the hordes of the dead though she soon reveals that the energy coming off whatever is after them feels like demons the monsters break down the door our party getting a full face of evil crocodile and if anybody in the comments want to go that's an alligator dumbass even serpico calls it a crocodile alligators aren't the only big lizards out there these are foreign the crocodile stands up to its full height throwing its spear at isidro in serpico guts retaliates with his crossbow and it looks like the monster is killed good job guys still shrike reveals that his spirit is resting inside the animal essentially turning it into a magical life form called a familiar so this was created by someone we already knew that because we we had the whole scene with salat and roxas and all that but these guys didn't so it's fine also there's an ass load of crocodiles coming for them their only option is to set up another barrier while their cabin isn't any kind of holy ground or sanctuary the full moon means that magic across the world should be more powerful so there's a chance this could still work all they need to do is protect shrike farnese can watch the [ __ ] woman in the kidnap baby guts wraps his sword tight in his grip trying to compensate for the shaking in his hands shrike doesn't want him to fight period but he's not taking no for an answer while guts insists on fighting shriek simply warns him that a full moon is also when a person's mind is the most unstable that mixed with the berserker armor means bad news so he has to be extremely careful the fight begins with isidro throwing the magic berries at the demon crocs exploding against their flesh when they make contact serpico attacks as well using his wind magic to slice the crocodiles to pieces the sight of this manservant styling on him causes isidro to get reckless wanting to cut apart one of the demons himself though he quickly learns that was a terrible idea puck has to quite literally explain what went wrong step by step to get easy draw to understand the crocodiles already lay low so easy draw a small posture works against him he was practically rolling like a bowling ball straight into its mouth what he should have done is throw a berry at the croc roll in and attack as it reels from the explosion which he does even getting the chance to stab a second crocodile with this flame dagger isidro is slowly yet surely becoming a badass we're proud of you boy guts will play catch with you one day still he only managed to kill two of them and there's an entire horde of the things coming for them that's where guts comes in for a guy supposedly on death's door he sure doesn't fight like it he's right back to tearing apart monsters to pieces just ignore how guts is having trouble swinging the dragon slayer the party members didn't see it so it didn't happen yeah the armor is taking a lot out of guts the point that he's getting physically weaker as time goes on it really is aging him before his time taking his senses away and even sapping the strength out of his body that's why i said that the armor isn't really an upgrade it's worse than just some evil rage mode he has to watch out for it's slowly eating him alive as he wears it it's like a parasite that makes the guy completely dependent on the armor the more weakens guts the more he has to use the armor to compensate for it it's one hell of a consequence and it's only going to get worse with every fight though guts isn't about to speak a word of this to the others he's simply going to suck it up and force himself ahead all the while the women and the mysterious boys stay inside the cabin waiting for shrike to finish her ritual and put up a barrier though it's looking like they're safe from the monsters the three fighters of the group in perfect sink as they fight off the crocodiles serpico fully mastering his wind magic and easy drill perfecting his role in stab combo guts is just as effective as ever but he feels the armor trying to take over the beast can smell the blood and it's itching for a chance to get out guts has to fight the berserker armor as hard as he's fighting the demon crocodiles only using the minimum amount of power just enough to keep him moving though it's clear he's having trouble keeping things balanced farnese tries to stand guard for striking koska only equipped with her silver knife to fight off any creatures that get too close but the sight of a giant flesh-eating crocodile holding a spear has her understandably a bit shaken it seems like the thing is just gonna steamroll past barnes and slaughter them all but then it looks at the mysterious boy despite being face to face with literal monsters the kid isn't afraid he's not screaming or crying he's just staring at the monster and weirdly enough the crocodile just leaves losing all interest in attacking them farnese and evolira are completely confused unaware of how the boy just seemed to save their lives but this incident gave shrike enough time to finish her barrier the cabin now is certified safe zone she contacts the men with telepathy to explain the situation while the barrier can hold the crocodiles back these aren't like the trolls those only have astral bodies meaning they can be burned away with the shield but the crocodiles are familiars so they're both in the physical and astral worlds meaning that they'll eventually break through if they don't finish things quickly esiedra assumes that means to kill them all but strike says that will take too long familiars while powerful don't have the ability to act individually the only chance to end things as fast as possible is to find the sorcerer controlling the mob so they have to bide some time as shrike searches the area for him it sounds easy but the longer they fight the more the berserker armor creeps into guts's mind it's becoming a serious problem as are the crocodiles coming for the cabin just as shrike said the barrier is only good for slowing them down isidro ends up getting cornered by a group but guts saves them visibly frustrated at how long it's taking strike to find the sorcerer she finally spots where the magic is originating from and serpico breaks off from the group to kill them finding an entire group of kush and magic users once they're all dead the crocodiles revert back into just being regular animals all sense of higher thinking gone it seems like the day is saved and guts never needed to use the berserker armor either though the struggle to stay in control of himself took a lot out of the guy as the party get their bearings serpico finally takes note of the men leading the attack they're part of the kushin empire throughout their entire journey they've barely been paying attention to the state of politics in midland so they've been blissfully unaware of the demonic invasion a ganeshka-shaped cloud of fog pours out of the sorcerers flowing out and towards the ocean where a new shape is starting to emerge they still have monsters to kill everyone snapped right back into the battle as a mutated hybrid of an elephant and a jellyfish forces itself out of the sea technically these are created through whales but they look they look like jellyfish they have absolutely no clue what the hell the thing is the crocodiles were simple enough to understand but this is a totally different level even shrike is stunned at the side of the monster and since this thing is way bigger than just the tiny baby crocodiles they were fighting before that barrier strike erected is practically useless cepuko tries to lunge in for an attack but the trunk of the sea monster blasts him away with a powerful spray of salt water strike tries to locate the sorcerer controlling this one only to find their far out into the ocean on a boat it's simply too much distance to end things early if they want to win they just have to kill the beast which makes quick work of their shelter forcing itself right through the barrier and crushing the walls so magic isn't the key to fighting it it's too big for a barrier to stop and yet agile enough to keep serpacona's wind familiars at a distance meaning there's only one contender left to take a shot at it guts shrike immediately shoots the idea down saying that he's marching ahead to meet the sea beast and is straining himself to keep the berserker armor in check and to make matters worse it's a losing battle the beast of darkness slowly materializing on his cloak and going for his head guts and the monster trade blows his massive sword doing considerable damage to the wall of jellyflesh isidro is excited at the site thinking that it's a sign that guts is back to his old self but shrike is terrified the armor is taking over slowly but surely guts is putting so much effort into keeping the berserker armor at bay that it's giving the monster the chance to deal punishment sending him flying backwards with its trunk the beast approaches guts ready to finish him off but isidro grabs its attention by throwing a handful of bombs at his face it doesn't do much damage but now it's coming for the rest of the party instead of guts he's paralyzed against the cliffside helplessly watching the monster make its way over to his companions the sight of the others in danger is enough to flip the switch [Music] the berserker armor takes control consuming guts and trapping him inside of it the cursed armor once again using him as simply a puppet to kill every living thing around it and it wastes no time getting started guts leaping onto the sea beast and stabbing it in the eye with the dragon slayer the party watching in horror as he goes full throttle cutting off the beast's trunk with a single attack while they were saved from the monster the party knows this is only bad news for guts with his enhanced speed and strength his wounds will most definitely be torn open all over again putting him right back on death's door strike decides to try and enter his mind as soon as possible in the hopes of giving guts a chance to regain his sanity and properly use the armor to his advantage it's the only chance they have to make sure gutz doesn't quite literally fight to the death in the meantime we get a scene of gutz's perspective inside the armor he hallucinates the ocean hearing the roar of the tide and being pulled down into the depths just like what he was afraid of the armor consuming his consciousness as he's busy cutting the mutant jellyfish into pieces finally killing the monster by diving into its mouth and exploding out the back of its head with the dragon slayer he managed to kill the beast and now he's moving on to everything else cutting through the crocodiles which turned back into passive animals after their sorcerers were killed but it doesn't matter they're still there all guts sees around him is a horde of teeth indescribable monsters surrounding him and coming to kill him so guts lashes out first and cuts apart anything he sees savagely finishing off the crocodiles while easier watches he notes that even though the crocodiles weren't fighting back guts is still cleaving through them without hesitation which makes serpico very worried according to the legends berserkers got their names because they invoked fear and their enemies and their allies they're just as likely to attack their friends as an enemy so guts won't just murder these crocodiles and call it a day he will quite literally kill anything around him including his friends and it seems serpico might be right since all guts sees around him is a horde of fang-toothed shapes coming to attack guts demanding the monsters leave him alone as the beast of darkness commands him to kill he is at the mercy of the berserker armor completely blind to the outside world before long everything on the beach is dead guts standing alone in a pile of dismembered crocodiles still consumed by the berserker armor he shifts his attention to the party serpico is standing in front as guts gulks towards the misshapen beings in his vision strike still needs time to prepare her spell but it's too little too late guts charges forward as serpico orders everyone to get back ready to fight guts to at the very least serve as a distraction but something causes guts to stop in his tracks a mysterious voice commanding him to not attack a bright silhouette of a child appears before guts acting as a guardian for the others guts roars at the ghostly figure but simply tells him to not be afraid the ones in front of him are not enemies the ghost touches the berserker armor its presence and power strong enough to completely snap guts out of the trance the armor fights to keep him under his thrall but the ghost tells him to strain his eyes towards the light as though gutz was drowning under water and need to find the surface the ghost tells him to stretch out his hand just in time for guts to register the presence of strike her astral form desperately reaching out to him in the depths the little girl is able to pull guts out of the armor's influence finally saving him and the others from its wrath they're relieved that guts is okay even if it took a lot out of strike to save him but he is infuriated skull knight's warning came true once again and he was powerless to do anything to stop it the armor was simply too much and he almost killed the only people he had left strike comforts him by repeating the speech he told her earlier that night about how being stubborn and set in your ways will make you old before you realize it guts calms down at the gesture and it seems like the battle is well and truly finished isidro thinks they've finally mastered their new strategy for fighting like guts go crazy with the berserker armor and you just have strike pull him out of it if things get dangerous the young witch hates the idea since it means putting guts at risk on a constant basis but easier doesn't really think that's much different from the usual affair varnise even seems content with how things played out happy that everyone worked together to fight off the horde even if it was a risky fight they managed to win guts laughs everything off saying it's awkward being comforted by women and children but deep down he's still terrified any further just a second too late and he would have killed them all without even realizing he was doing it really the only thing that stopped him was the weird shape that appeared out of nowhere to snap him out of it things weren't just risky they were bordering on unspeakable tragedy guts puck and isidro leave to find the equipment that flew off during his rage spell leaving serpico to think about what just happened he's not stupid either they were inches away from death all because guts couldn't control the armor if anything happens and he's incapacitated serpico is the only one left who can fight and if guts were to turn against the party then he's all that standing between him and the others between him and farnice still the incident is buried and they try to move on with the night kaska now crying out in worry as the party realizes that the mysterious child has completely vanished moments before he was right there on the beach with him but now they can't find him anywhere not even strike's ability to sense the energy of life forms can pin down where he went we then see a small panel of the cliffs above that slight shadow that was there is gone now kaska is said that the idea of the boy disappearing but farnice tries to cheer her up by assuring the mad woman he simply went home but this makes guts stop and think for a bit there was no way that shape he saw in that boy on the beach were connected were they nah that's impossible still they go to leave deeming the beach too dangerous to stay since there's no telling if any more familiars become an attack the last image we see of the beach is the mysterious boy staring down from the cliffs above bathed in the light of the full moon behind him yeah this kid's a big deal if it hasn't been blatantly obvious so far so important in fact that all you have to know is that he is called the moonlight child don't worry about it he's not important but he's super important can't say much just though he's important but he's not important so shut up and forget about him also if berserk were to ever continue this kid would absolutely play a major factor in the ending a very very major one an important factor if you will we then get a scene of a cushion warship some distance away from the beach this was where the master of the familiars was stationed master daiba to be exact his job was to flood the coast with their familiars for the war effort able to subjugate the entire peninsula without any resistance all except one place they lost contact with a single location and it seems like there were no survivors master daiba is in shock at the idea and you can probably already guess where this happened guts and his party now have the attention of the kushin military specifically the sorcerers to it that war they've been ignoring for so long just noticed them all just in time for them to spot their destination in the distance the holy city of vertennis we are inching closer to the final act of the falcon of the millennium empire arc everything comes to a head in vertex there's still a long way to go before everything completely wraps up just know that things are going to go completely batshit insane by the end the scale is about to get downright cosmic still let's take a second digest everything covered so far we learned that if our party is able to reach elfhelm the place they've been fighting to get to ever since this arc started there's a chance they can persuade the flower storm king into healing koska which is [ __ ] major she's literally been insane ever since the eclipse holy [ __ ] on top of that varnise is dedicating to her new role as a witch sort of a hilarious irony in that the witch hunter is now trying to study magic wanting to find her place among the party and be useful to everyone that's some good news and a half right there things were finally looking up for our heroes but the berserker armor is proving to be a lot more dangerous than even guts realizes the beast of darkness is looking for any chance to take over his consciousness and turn him into a killing machine and to make matters worse it's confirmed that guts will attempt to kill the others if he's driven into that feral state again something serpico picked up on and isn't likely to forget anytime soon and just to round out the it's bad category it seems like the armor is sapping away all of gutz's senses his hands are shakier it's harder for him to taste food even his vision is fading his skull knights to be believed hell skull knight even explicitly warned him that the armor will take everything away from guts if he abuses it too much which he's trying not to do but the circumstances are getting more dire he doesn't have a choice but to abuse it just to give them all a shot to stay alive not even mentioning that our party just stumbled right into the larger war against the kushin empire the one where two entire armies of demons are killing each other and neither are particularly big fans of guts so in true berserk fashion you have incredible news stacked alongside complete hellish news and you want to know the best part about all this the bad news only really impacts guts he has to shoulder the burden of wearing the berserker armor he has to force himself to stay in control during battle he has to deal with the cursed armor eating his flesh and robbing him of his senses yet he doesn't complain once all he cares about is getting everyone else to safety his condition doesn't matter at least not right now the guy will still absolutely fight to stay alive but for a different reason than before and golden age guts fought to stay alive purely because he didn't want to die his survival instincts took over and he just pushed forward to try and win in black swordsman and the beginning of conviction he was still afraid to die because he saw the consequences of that but it's clear his ultimate goal was reaching griffith no matter what even if they tore his limbs off guts was going to take a shot at the god hand but now he's fully evolved into a new man he's become more quiet all that rage and aggression has sort of sunk down deeper into his personality it's still absolutely there the guy will kill if he gets pissed off but instead he's more protective almost paternal in a way he has this new group a new family and he would rather die than see them hurt hell he's going out of his way to not tell them what's happening just to make sure they're not worried just to make sure they aren't scared of him like how koska is now this is definitely one of the most painful arcs at least in an emotional sense yeah you don't have those blisteringly intense fights like before but there's still good stuff here plus it's pretty clear that the story isn't really about the action anymore it's about guts changing as a character and dedicating to a new path in life one that lets him make peace with his grief and hopefully find a new home and i absolutely love it as stated guts is the reason i read berserk and this arc is part of the reason i find him to be probably the greatest protagonist out there god simply stands alone from so many different protagonists in media he's brutal he's cruel he does not hesitate he's a complete [ __ ] if he's given the chance to be he is unafraid to torture a [ __ ] yet in the same vein he deals with unspeakable sorrow all he wants is for kaska to be safe and happy so he will do whatever it takes to protect her even if she hates him for it guts never receives praise or recognition for what he does the only time he was seen as a popular figure was back in golden age after the war with tudor ended and even then it was a brief period which only happened because he was with the band of the hawk other than that guts has never really been seen as a hero if anything if the stories about the black swordsman spread as far as it did to get the holy see involved everyone sees him as the villain the figure that brings destruction and death with them of course that wasn't the real guts we've talked about this it was just his rampage after the eclipse ended he's really chilled out and become more like his old self quiet introspective damn near gentle with the people he cares about it's a weird marriage of conviction era walking death guts and the contemplated introverted guts from golden age and everything else around him just gets more strenuous and demanding to the point that really it's looking more and more that guts might eventually reach his limit like in the permanent sense i'll explain further in part 5. just know that i fully believe guts was not meant to make it to the end credits if you know what i mean a very interesting error for the story to say the least but we have to talk about this when it's time coming back to our summary we see that the party has finally reached the city they're surrounded by various armies merchants and mercenaries serpaco notes that all of the armies and territories controlled by the holy see have gathered in this one city for the war effort shrike is uncomfortable seeing the scores of soldiers calling it all barbaric but isidro is enamored with it all he wants to know what army would be considered the strongest and serpico explains the various ups and downs of the armies judor with midland in complete decay has now risen to be the top dog ironic when you really think about how hard guts fought in 100 years war he continues to impress isidro with his knowledge of the various histories and militaries using his experience as a herald of arms meanwhile guts is swept up in a feeling of nostalgia finally back home on a real battlefield in a very very long time they try to weave through the crowds into the city ec drove in love with the atmosphere while shrike is disgusted by the dirtiness and the smells all mixed together puck is back to being invisible in the massive crowd so he spends his time pulling pranks on the various oblivious city folk the party comes across a barker trying to recruit men for a mercenary army guts explains the logic of choosing a good army making sure the leader is reliable and actually cares about his men and weighing that against the potential for profit mercenaries by and large aren't looking for glory they just want a paycheck so they need to be certain on who they're going to stick with and risk their lives for easy drone puck come to the conclusion that mercenaries are looking for a strong charismatic leader that is beloved by everyone which makes serpico recall a pretty powerful mercenary leader from back during the hundred years war sir griffith of the band of the hawk he led an entire army of mercenaries against shooter and never lost a single battle even winning against the holy purple rhino knights hey guts why'd you go quiet all of a sudden isidro actually recognizes the story of griffith saying everyone knows about it but the coolest member of the band of the hawk was the captain of the raiders the dude who killed over a thousand enemies and killed the holy purple rhino knights single-handedly guts says that story is exaggerated but what would he know he wasn't there but as far as serpico and easy draw are aware the tensions between griffith and the king are the reason midland fell apart in the first place a classic hero's fall story but now that they were on the subject isidro wants to know what mercenary group guts used to be with but he says it's been so long he's completely forgotten though his thoughts drifted grunbeld when he called himself a warrior for the band of the hawk no matter what he says that's gotta sting as they approach the city gates they're stopped by the guards they notice that shrike is dressed as a witch and that's a big no-no in the holy city serpaco assures them that they're simply a traveling performance group and the outfit is merely a costume but shrike just uses her magic to brainwash the guards to let them through unfortunately the other people around them notice so strike ends up having to use their magic again and again creating a whole mob of brain dead zombies creating even more of a scene easy draw pulls her aside and tells her that they need to buy normal clothes to keep themselves inconspicuous much to her annoyance they argue and isidro pushes her shoulder knocking her hat off which is then run over by a passing cart he feels bad over it but doesn't seem to quite understand how much he hurt her feelings shrike is now openly crying even running off on her own into the city ivalira tears into isidro telling him that her hat and her clothes were handmade gifts from flora the last thing she has from her old home that weren't burned to ashes the elf woman chases after strike to comfort her and guts orders the boy to go after and follow them the adults will look for a place to stay easy drone needs to apologize for what he did shrike wants to find a place with no other people to be completely alone both her and evelyra hate the city it's suffocating there's no solitude they miss the forest they eventually stumble their way into an alleyway where a strange figure sits at the other end it's a wisp like creature a vague silhouette of a person ivalira demands to know what the figure is but only cries out to them then disappearing around the corner the two follow the ghost and find a grisly sight the local hanging grounds entire lines of men hung at the gallows the wisp came from one of the bodies confirming that it is the soul of a dead man that can't move on she uses her magic to flash through the memories of the dead man seeing that he was a slave who was hung once brought to her tennis the rest of the corpses react to her magic begging shrike to set them free of their torment two city guards spot strike and she demands to know why these men were hung they try to brush her off but she's quick to cast another spell to get answers simply put the men were all cushion but they were just slaves brought to the city it has a thriving slave market since merchants from all over used for tennis as a port originally they would have just been sold off but with the war going on and vertanas now deemed the holy see's naval yard they had to be purged so even though these slaves weren't part of the khushan empire or even criminals they had to die it was just the wrong place at the wrong time strike is disgusted at how flagrantly the slaves were murdered further reinforcing her misanthropic nature and says that leaving the corpses strung up is desecrating the dead the guards will help her take the bodies down and cremate them properly an unseen girl watches from a distance as a large cloud of smoke forms at the hanging grounds the wisp spirits finally freed and able to move on the stranger is actually able to see them seeing it as like a grand spectacle floating in the air isidro is busy trying to find shrike searching all over the city with puck though they've had no luck puck can't even feel her energy due to all the people and the buildings make spotting from above impossible she stuck out like a sore thumb getting into the city but now she's melted into the crowds she won't even respond to their telepathy when they call out to her as isidro and puck grow frustrated they're approached by a familiar face it's mule the night we saw join up with griffith he heard about their search for a witch and is very interested in learning about it uh oh meanwhile shrike and evalera wander their way down to the docks coming face to face with a massive warship the size of it makes evaleera uncomfortable and they're completely surrounded by ships just like it entire forests would need to be cut down to make all these ships and shrike can't help but wonder why they even need stuff like this is it all to explore to conquer so many people coming together to do all sorts of terrible things shrike's world was so small before now she's thrown into a cold cruel one that makes her feel microscopic yet this is where everyone else belongs the only place they've ever known it's the exact opposite of what shrike knows her world of magic drowned out by the sheer mass of people she started off the journey believing she had all the answers that was back in the forest fighting trolls staying with flora when it came to magic and fantasy schreich was the expert now in the face of civilization she's out of her element as bad as the rest of them are back with isidro and mule we see that the boy is instantly distrustful of the night who's simply asking where to find the witch he was talking about he's not hostile or anything just a little snooty but he dismounts his horse and approaches isidro to be on equal level turns out he's looking for someone himself and it might be that witch is drows sees this as proof he's trying to arrest strike but mule has no clue what he's talking about still the boy makes his escape and puck even tries to drive a chestnut into his face though muell is able to dodge it for some reason the knight was able to see him which usually doesn't happen unless circumstances are about to get weird isidro doesn't care about this however all he wants to do is bind strike before a mule does otherwise she might be burned at the stake we see the girls sitting on the docks surrounded by seagulls she takes comfort being surrounded by nature even if it's just a bunch of noisy birds she's still upset but has calmed down since her venture through the city avalera even asks if they can just go back and eat dinner someone approaches shrike excited that she was able to find a real witch turns out that girl we saw before was sonia she's been in the city the whole time and in fact she's probably the one muhl was trying to find this whole time so it was a big misunderstanding still sonia directly calls shrike a witch as if she knows everything already not just that shrike is dressed like a witch or carries the staff she was even able to tell that she was communicating with the seagulls then sealing the deal by pointing at evolira living proof that shrike was involved with magic she admits that she saw the cremation ritual earlier saying that spirits flying free was really pretty sonia is actually pretty friendly with shrike acting as her usual very eccentric self which conflicts with the sorcerer girl's introverted nature she wants to know why shrike is in the city and not living in the forest on her own and the witch admits that she's been on a journey with other people sonia seems to pick up that something happened and comforts the girl by saying it's hard being different from the others she explains that she's also not from the city but hides her past by using a version of the ugly duckling fairy tale as an allegory there once was an ugly duckling that never belonged with the other ducks but in this version of the story instead of growing up to be a beautiful swan she's a kite bird a murder of crows attacked the duck pond one day and because they couldn't fly away to escape they were all captured the kite was captured along with them because she herself did not know how to fly but they were liberated by a great white hawk the hawk brought powerful dragons to burn away the crows and the ducks were protected by the hawk the kite viewed herself as kinsfolk to the hawk and through following him learned to fly on her own so she joined the hawk along with the dragons free ducks and even some of the crows that wanted to help and they purged the kingdom of crows through the war the kite grew more certain she was like the hawk that she was special in the same way he was they could fly in the same sky and feel the same wind unlike the other birds except one day the hawk liberated the princess of the ducks the other birds wanted the hawk and princess to mate for him to become the new king of the birds but the kite felt jealous at the site so to soothe her own emotions she went to gaze at the sea just to run into a young owl covered in seagulls by coincidence so sonia views herself as an equal to griffith the hawk she kept mentioning in her story yeah you really don't understand what you're dealing with here chief um that's not no that's not gonna end well sonia definitely views herself as an outsider to the rest of the world clearly having some form of latent magical psychic abilities but she's playing with fire here it's strange because she's aware of the existence of apostles and their downright evil natures but seems to brush it off as no big deal it's not clear how much of it is the brainwashing from griffith and how much of it is sonia just being plain psycho but having the truth be so blatant to everyone but the rest of midland is part of why people can find this arc a little tedious you just know that griffith is planning some downright unspeakable [ __ ] for the rest of humanity but everyone except our party is completely oblivious and willfully walking into the gas chamber hell guts is really the only one at this point that's aware of how evil griffith is puck sort of knows i mean he was there when he told rickard the truth and he kind of just put two and two together he knows he's part of the god hand and he [ __ ] over guts but the full extent is something only guts truly knows koska is batshit insane because of it when record learned the truth he all but begged to come on the revenge path he couldn't live with himself if he didn't skull knight seems to know what the god hand are planning but he's vague on the details and really he only seems to show up when he wants to the rest of the party is partially aware bernice was about the only one who picked up on the fact that guts and griffith knew each other but they still don't really comprehend the larger picture and she doesn't fully get how big of a deal the sully's it can be frustrating seeing how blind the rest of midland is to the danger that's staring them in the face hell the god hand created the exact circumstances that the nation is dealing with they created ganeshka it's heavily implied they created the plague there's also the famine the country was dealing with and why would we assume they didn't have a hand in that as well this is all very very obvious the truth is right there it's just nobody's putting the puzzle pieces together now in their defense it's not like they can just naturally stumble into stuff like the existence of the god hand and apostles and their true nature and what creates them and bailets and all the [ __ ] that guts knows and his party knows but you'd think they'd at least show the tiniest bit of skepticism when this war hero everyone thought died suddenly shows up with an army of demons and just starts killing everything in sight i don't know some about that would kind of raise a red flag or two to me but we're talking as people that are not brainwashed by a godlike entity so you know can't exactly throw stones in a glass house but yeah griffith's entire story is the epitome of selling a cure to a problem he himself kicked off and it's very obvious griffith is not finished [ __ ] with mankind so really sonia is not a bad character it's what she represents she's really nice to shrike when she has no obligation to be it's just you know she's literally the symbol of the blind denial of reality even if it's staring them in the face she sort of acts as the polar opposite of shrike shrike represents mages people who want to dig deep and find the truth about the world in the face of the impossible she wants to know everything yet is also clever and careful she doesn't like the rest of humanity because she thinks they're stomping around on the very energies and spirits trying to help them she's the exact opposite of blind faith she's actually very skeptical of the world around her because that's the nature of a mage she has to know how things really work not just how she wants them to work hell the exact minute she saw griffith she recognized him as the literal antichrist walking the earth sonia has no clue what her gift is and doesn't seem to take anything seriously even when she's surrounded by literal flesh-eating demons she fully believes griffith a demon of incomprehensible power that is shifting reality around him at a whim to serve his own agenda is her equal that they belong together because they're the same not to be mean but sonia is [ __ ] stupid because she is the average midland villager dipping their toes into magic she doesn't know about spells or any real sorcery just her psychic abilities that while powerful are nowhere near what we saw someone like flora pull off and in fact she's dipping her head into something that she doesn't belong in and it's probably not going to end well for her one is very aware of the dangers ahead the other is just barreling through life with no regard for what's on the horizon you can just smell the tragedy coming especially since sonia seems to want to be shrike's friend isidro finally gets a hint that shrike is at the docks but he needs to hurry once the sun starts to set the black market merchants come to port including slave traders so she could be kidnapped and sold off if he doesn't get there in time back at their conversation sonia wants to know if there's anyone in shrike's party that actually understands her she admits that they're all normal people so it's hard to think of anyone though for a brief moment she flashes back to when she cried at the beach with guts sonia and evelyra notice her new blush and no doubt her mind was red as well so they say that she's in love with whoever she's thinking about shrike is embarrassed and swears that he's just an adult that paid attention to her though sonya isn't convinced it has to be love nevertheless it's time she head back home saying they both have people they care about the comfort was enough to cheer shrike up now motivated to get back to the others though this was just in time to see a commotion back at port a small mob of kushan children are fleeing a group of sailors the children are surrounded by the slavers intent on recapturing them all to sell off but shrike and sonia both intervene kind of a dick move to get in the way of a legal business transaction shrike but it's okay you didn't understand the nuances and complexities of civilization also child slaves are not people the sailors laugh at the sight of two little girls trying to stand up to them sarcastically asking if strike is really a witch sonia accuses the men of being pirates but they actually deny this they are legal traitors giving express permission to buy and sell slaves they bought the children and for tennis and plan on selling them off the city guards getting cold feet and hanging the kids like the men before so they're just unmarked contraband funny enough if the kids stayed in the city they would be killed for being cushion so in a really disturbing way the slave traders were saving the children's lives though absolutely not out of a sense of altruism they simply saw an opportunity to make some profit nothing more sonia makes a strange comment saying that maybe the city burning down isn't such a bad idea as though it was something she was thinking about before running into shrike the witch says she doesn't care what the local laws say what they're doing wasn't right and they need to be punished one of the sailors tries to grab shrike and kidnap her but she uses a spell to completely paralyze the man his friends assume he's just playing along with the little girl's performance but he's not joking he can't move sonia is excited to see real magic and the paralyzed sailor is knocked unconscious by flying stone yeah isidro finally found the girls sonia thinks this might be the guy that strike has an interest in but she assures her isidro is just a dumb monkey plus he smells easy drill calls out the sailors loud and proud just as boisterous as always fully accusing them of being pirates and also pedophiles i'm not kidding in fact isidro wants to know why they aren't kidnapping women with dummy thick hips and big bomby milkers it has been like six hours i want to get some [ __ ] sleep i'm [ __ ] begging god please the slavers actually laugh at isidro's rambunctious nature but that one he knocked out is pissed he gets up and takes a swing at isidro who uses his rolling slash move to cut his leg almost by reflex by this point but now the pirates are a lot less happy he cut open the artery of their friend meaning he'll be dead in a minute this is officially the first time isidro has ever killed anybody he's fought monsters countless times but this is his first actual to the death fight with somebody and he's terrified shaking like a leaf as the slavers surround him and they fully plan on killing him for retribution for their buddy strike tries to prepare a spell in order to help easy draw out of his mess but he demands she stay out of it if she uses magic out in the open like this they'll be burned at the stake even though he's at risk of being violently murdered by drunken sailors he doesn't want strike to risk being caught and killed herself despite how much the two bicker back and forth he really does care about her safety sonia outright calls him heroic but also a monkey but wait isidro told shrike to hold off on her magic through telepathy yeah sonia heard their thoughts and doesn't even try to deny it isidro is able to outpace the sailors using his agility to his advantage and using whatever chance he has to strike puck even comes in to help to blind some of the sailors and let isidro finish them despite his impressive ability to keep up with the grown men strike knows it's just a matter of time before they catch him so she sends out a message to guts catching his attention as he wanders the city with the other adults of the party isidro is cornered by the sailors and it seems like he has nowhere left to run but just as it looks like all hope is lost mjol rides in on his horse he followed isidro to the docks no doubt trying to track down sonia he's relieved to see that she's okay the girl just waving as if nothing is wrong and shrike asks who he is sonia calls him her watch dog then gives him the title of the duck knight mule is annoyed but doesn't press the issue he simply offers to help isidro fight off the slavers the boy rebukes him since it was his fight nobody asked the guy to butt in but mule doesn't care about permission he simply cuts down the slavers as he rides cutting off one's hand another's throat and splitting one man's head open in a flash four opponents go down isidro is pissed off that mule stole his thunder so he dives back into the fight just as things turn into a full-blown melee a man with a peg leg jumps down from the ship kicking mule and sending him off his horse into the ground this is the captain and he couldn't be more of a pirate stereotype if he sang shanties and chug captain morgan's and yeah he's a psychopath not just because he sells kids i mean a man's got to make a living somehow but he bites into the dismembered arm of his crewmate because he could before easidro can take a shot at fighting the captain mule lunges in for a duel it seems like he has the whole thing handled but the pirate captain immediately recognizes that he's been formally trained and that means the captain knows exactly how to counter him despite only having one leg the man is surprisingly agile so he jumps into a small row boat sitting in the water below the footing has gotten far more unstable which means that mule is quickly beaten down and at the pirate captain's mercy the pirate takes the time to brag about his victory saying he'll sell mule off as a male prostitute in the cushion empire which is one hell of a threat not even gonna lie jesus christ but this gives isidro the chance to leap to the rescue while mueller doesn't know how to fight in obscure circumstances that's all isidro knows how to do quickly adjusting to the rocking of the boat to keep up with the pirate captain using his dodge strike let him perfect fighting from any stance but the captain is still one hell of an opponent though he does well enough that the captain actually calls for a ceasefire he's impressed by isidro's abilities and in fact offers to hire him on as a crew member though the boy is quick to tell him to go [ __ ] himself the captain reveals that this was a distraction technique that gives him the window necessary to reveal a secret weapon his peg leg has a blade inside of it and he kicks it up at the boy though he's able to dodge out of the way the captain says that isidro's main flaw in fighting is that he's terrified to actually kill his opponents he hesitates which means he leaves himself wide open isidro is at the captain's mercy just like mule was they both failed to beat this old dude with a peg leg so they suck strike and sonia aren't necessarily surprised by the outcome and the witch readies a spell just to end the encounter and get it over with but sonia says there's another surprise waiting for everybody somebody was sleeping in that rowboat someone who is now very pissed off at being woken up from his nap the captain is sent flying out of the boat isidro right behind him and we see a very familiar knight is in the city with everybody yeah it's azan one of the last survivors of the holy iron chain knights one of the companions of farnese and serpaco last time we saw him he was supposed to be reporting to the holy see just what the hell happened at the tower of conviction he was actually a pretty well respected knight in the army so how he went from that to sleeping in a dingy rowboat is a mystery nevertheless he's angry at the slavers for waking him up and also for selling kids so he threatens to beat everyone's asses this guy was good enough to stand toe-to-toe with guts of all people granted he was almost dead and about to pass out but azan still is not a slouch when it comes to fighting and he proves this by clubbing one of the pirates completely overtaking the battle and ending things the captain is drowning in the port water admitting he can't swim and isidro just knocks him out with an oar leaving him to drown now that the slavers are distracted mule and sonia lead the slave children out of the docks helping them escape the city entirely we then see guts was watching things from a nearby alley not feeling the need to get involved now that everything turned out for the best our heroes managed to get the children out of her tennis unharmed so much so that mule is in utter disbelief they had no issues leading a group of kushins out with no problems sonia simply says it was a secret how they did it showing her and shrike use magic to give them cover mule doesn't know what's next for the kids now that they're out of the city but sonya says that they're coming with them back to the band of the hawk they can't just abandon the children and she doesn't want her memory of meeting strike to end in a bittersweet fashion you'll relents accepting that yeah those kids are coming with them back to camp whether he likes it or not and he almost name drops the bant of the hawk almost only to be interrupted just in time by aesidro who throws a sword into his hand mule is disgusted at using a stolen sword but isidro tells him he can't protect the kids without a weapon which the knight takes offense to the two bicker back and forth each insulting the other for losing the fight with the pirate captain and as the tensions between the young man come to a boil sonia asked strike to come along with them to the band of the hawk the people that murdered her master and ruined the world gotta love dramatic irony shrike is surprised at the offer but sonya assures her that the band of the hawk is made up of all types a witch wouldn't be that crazy they even have some soldiers that aren't human yeah this is a really bad idea some of those guys would probably remember you shrike don't go it's for the best just just don't still sonia isn't joking she really wants her new friend to come with her saying that nobody judges anyone in their army she would have a place there the current world isn't where she belongs strike thinks about what she's seen the terrible things the death the warmongering her hesitation to give a clear answer seems to pull isidro out of the fistfight he started with mule giving the knight a chance to give a hard punch to the face with the boy seemingly beaten mueller himself says that isidro hesitates at the worst possible times he really is afraid to kill his enemies meaning he's useless at helping his friends when it really counts outright saying isidro isn't qualified to be a swordsman the words seem to affect shrike more than the boy however who simply responds by roundhouse kicking mule in the testicles yeah now that the fist fight is back on they move out of the way of the city gate revealing a figure watching over them from a distance guts despite all her hesitations and outright resentment for humanity shrike does have a place she belongs to so even though she's flattered at the offer she turns sonia down the girl is disappointed but picks up that the arrival of the big guy at the gate was the one that pushed shrike into saying no nevertheless she respects her new friend's decision to stay behind in the city they exchange names content with their meeting meanwhile isidro and mule are still beating each other's asses and they're not stopping even as sonia and shrike ask them to knock it off so they can go home mule and isidro try to exchange their names as well but in a far less friendly manner as sonia and mule make their way with the kushin children sonia tells them to get as far away from the city as they possibly can the young witch suddenly receiving a vision of her tennis burning to the ground bodies lining the streets sonia seemingly being the one responsible for showing strike the future so it's not just mind reading seeing the dead or that battle meditation ability sonia is a full-blown psychic in every sense of the word outright having premonitions of possible futures she doesn't even directly say goodbye to shrike though it seems like they'll never see each other again mule is confused by this but sonia simply says they're going to meet again in the future isidro beat into a pulp and barely able to talk properly says they need to get back into the city before the gates close for the night but he's also sorry about messing up strikes close evalua wants to tease the boy forcing him to use puck to apologize in clearer words but strike apologizes as well for being so difficult she's grateful he came to help no matter how small it was he seems embarrassed by the sudden display of affection and walks off ahead without shrike who's busy watching guts leave his spot at the gate and mix into the crowd ahead content with his role as the silent guardian watching over the children [Music] that night the party all enjoy a dinner inside of a crowded canteen isidro still sulking over losing his fight with mule he wonders why they picked a place filled with thugs and ruffians but serpaco admits it was the only option they had the city is full of soldiers who filled up every other place they should be thankful they even got a spot there though guts assures them that every canteen is like this full of illegal doings and drunks one such drunk tries to hit on koska who is obliviously eating her food but he's taken care of when guts delivers a heavy kick to his jaw varnish leads strike down from the attic of the tavern revealing that the young witch is dressed in a new outfit some leftover village clothes that the owner kept from her daughter strike feels awkward being out of her usual witch outfit and not having the staff on hand makes her nervous but it works for a disguise while they're in the city she notices isidro looking at her and he admits that it's a good disguise nobody's gonna find out that terrifying witch who can destroy villages is this little girl though that wasn't what she wanted to hear you screwed up isidro no lolliwitch gf for you but the scene is cut short by the arrival of three drunks attracted to the table by the presence of women though shrike was still just a kid still one of the drunks tries to proposition farnese who nervously shields strike while declining his offer this man does have good taste i'm gonna lie there there was worse you could have picked still some of the man's drinks spills on her new dress leaving a noticeable stain on strike's outfit acdro begins to rant at the drunk and his friends but guts just up and punches them in the face saying that it's payback for staining their girl's nicest clothes to his credit he didn't use the iron hand because that wouldn't be a heartwarming moment of shrike realizing guts cares for her like a daughter that would just be a grisly murder the whole tavern devolves into a bar fight strikes thoughts playing out as she thinks about how nasty and violent the human world is that's vulgar not what she's used to at all also azan steals some food that spills outside during the tavern fight don't worry about him he's a loser but even with all the nastiness even though shrike was now breaking a bottle over a drunk man's head in the middle of a dirty tavern being with these people make her very happy our party has officially crossed the threshold this isn't just some collection of broken weirdos strung along by this vague quest of helping this insane mad woman not anymore they're now a family they care about each other they want to help each other sure they might bicker and fight but in the end they look out and make sure they're all safe and sound a real true connection has formed and on that note let's take a look at some frauds that's right it's time to switch back over to the band of the hawk specifically we see that princess charlotte is busy trying to bake a cake for griffith taken to learning how to cook in order to provide for the camp with anna acting as her teacher her servant suggests going ahead and letting griffith try the cake but charlotte's too nervous to approach him and it says that he should be able to take some time away from the war effort to enjoy baked goods and this gives charlotte the inspiration to find him as soon as charlotte spots griffith she's overwhelmed by his presence almost outright worshiping the very ground the man walks on she's once again too nervous to go speak with him only to spot sonia running up the hill jumping towards griffith and wrapping him in the hug the demon doesn't seem annoyed at all by the gesture instead simply asking how their trip to the holy city was charlotte slips into the conversation to offer her homemade treats which sonja quickly takes a piece of and starts eating she hands the treats out to the others much to charlotte's dismay as she was the one who wanted to hand a piece to griffith still he enjoys the cake offering praise to the princess for her good work sonia is shown to be paying very specific attention to how charlotte and griffith act with each other and if you remember the story she told strike then you realize that she kind of doesn't want these two to have any time alone not for the correct reason such as griffith is a literal [ __ ] demon from hell instead she's jealous she thinks that griffith should be with her it's not played off in a malevolent fashion it's just a crush from a little girl making her act out in small ways but mule picks up that sonia seems to want to dominate the conversation with griffith and pulls her aside essentially telling her knock it off charlotte and griffith barely get any time together as it is the princess spent a long time captured by the cushions and only just now reunited with the man she loves sonia needs to give them some time at the very least it's not 100 clear if mule speech sunk in for her as she just sort of shoves her piece of cake in his mouth and walks off but it was enough to make her leave instead she wanders the forest until nightfall following a river downstream there she spots irving the archer apostle sitting at a campfire she asks if she can stay warm by the fire and he doesn't have a problem with it though he's not much for conversation instead picking out the loot he has sonia likes the song he played though she says it makes her feel lonely which leads into a larger conversation about his isolated nature he says that since he's a hunter he feels better alone sonia asks if all hunters are like that and he does admit that there are those that travel in groups but he's simply always hunted alone he can go days in the forest tracking prey to the point that he loses track of time itself and resorts to thinking like an animal becoming a beast himself sonia says that she was alone too in her own way her gift made her different from other people to the point that it was like she lived in a completely different world even saying that charlotte wasn't the only one who was afraid until she saw griffith sonja soon falls asleep sitting by the fire with irving watching over her he puts his coat on the little girl to make her comfortable as sonia dreams about a kite bird and an owl playing together in a forest with griffith watching over them and that's it for this little segment of griffith and his merry band of posers so why do i keep insisting these people are frauds well they kind of are we've actually had this conversation before as stated all the way back in part 2 for god's sake that guts and griffith have completely mirrored experiences when it comes to relationships with other people griffith has to lie manipulate and do terrible things to make other people like him hell the only reason he has the neo-band to the hawk is that he's literally rewritten reality to make him the grand hero to save the day i'm not exaggerating when i say that griffith brainwashed these people into loving him the apostles follow him because he's one of the god hand they're naturally driven to obey as it is the rest of humanity unaware of what he actually is are swept up in his magic energy [ __ ] that pushes them into loving him it's not clear how powerful sonia's abilities are she definitely is a talented psychic but even she is unknowingly powerless in the face of a legit demon god meanwhile guts never tried to make the party like him he simply accepted them all into his life and fought to save and protect them and their bond is far stronger they really did create a small little family together it took a lot more pain so much more suffering guts quite literally ruined the relationship he had with koska so much so that it's almost beyond fixing at this point but in the end it led to something real something genuine shrike wasn't brainwashed in the loving guts in his party she naturally realized she was being an arrogant jerk and slowly let her guard down eventually seeing that she really does belong with these people same with farnice she had an entire crisis about whether or not she could do anything outside of being pampered like any other noble despite knowing she has no practical skills hell she was openly mocked by the army she led because she was a [ __ ] up and being seen as just a crazy mad woman who lashes out at others bernice made the choice to struggle and get better becoming the only person in the party that koska trusts and listens to now going out of her way to study magic and becoming a full-fledged witch like shrike nothing [ __ ] with her mind and made her do this it was her choice something farnese wanted to do to help the people she grew to care about it's a subtle distinction but it's the main reason people find the gut segments so much more powerful than anything griffith has to say not just because we hate griffith for obvious reasons you can make plenty of villain stories compelling but seeing our heroes fight for the almost microscopic moments of rest they get and come together as comrades will never not be engaging griffith can have all the demon armies and praise from psychic lollies he wants he never earned any of these things least not in the way guts did and i feel like it's an actual distinct plot point that this is how it is he sold out the only people he had left sure there were a lot of reasons griffith made that original sacrifice it was not just some simple fly-by-night thing he did once again watch part 2 to see that golden age was a lot more complicated than i sacrificed you all because i'm evil but you still hate him for it funny enough if you really want to you can almost see it as like a commentary on old school anime heroes and how anime manga stories are paced today the classic anime protagonists go through all kinds of hell just to find a bed to sleep in for the night while the new heroes are given everything on a silver platter but that's just an interpretation you can have since this was way before any of that really started to become mainstream it's more of kind of something funny you can view in retrospect as personal interpretation and it's more about setting griffith up as an antichrist figure since in the bible the antichrist is described as an incredibly charming person who will brainwash the world into loving them any other allegory could be seen as more of the reader filling in holes from their own viewpoints which they can be interesting and fair enough as it is but i'm just saying coming back to our summary we return to following guts in his party specifically bernice shrike and evolira they're trying to teach barnese the basics of magic having her visualize the shape of an apple in her mind she needs to slowly add more detail to the image until she can completely recreate the fruit without looking at it but no matter how much she tries it's just a blurry image though shrek assures her that it's natural to start off this way if she keeps trying she will master it magic is more than chanting a spell or performing a ritual it's about visualizing putting power into concepts they wish to perform and because farnese has experience with the astral world she's more likely to latch onto magic than other people the key behind summoning the power strike can outright making contracts with the beings known as the four cardinal kings they need to train farnese's mind to create an ethereal body essentially teaching farnese how to astral project her spirit and move between the realms the key is to make the bond between the ethereal and the physical strong enough to separate but controlled enough so she can return to her form so the apple is a good starting point to firmly establish these concepts for her farnese isn't sure if she's capable of doing this letting her doubts and insecurity eat away at her again and it's only made worse when koska snatches the apple eating it making farnis cry serpico and isidro return to the attic after trying to find a ship nothing is available everything from merchants to privateers are snatched up for the war effort meaning they have no way of sailing for elfilm at this rate we see guts is actually bed bound finally forced to rest and recuperate from his injuries and frustrated overestimating their chances of finding a ship once they reach the city he fully admits he expected to just waltz in and find something once they got there but things are more complicated than that the party doesn't know what to do isidro suggests stealing a ship but serpico thinks that's a terrible idea they'd still need a captain plus they would be hunted down for stealing a ship puck doesn't have any ideas but he is dressed as a pirate and koska finished her apple they truly hit a dead end but that's when farnese offers to take care of the ship problem they're curious as to what she's got in mind but serpico seems to pick up on what she is suggesting the two leave farnice making sure to take her sword with her the sword adorned with the vandamian family emblem on it now this is probably one of my most favorite segments in all of berserk you guys are gonna think it's boring as [ __ ] and you're gonna call me gay and stupid it's entirely different from what you're expecting you think graphic violence and or annuity is on the horizon and you're not completely incorrect but no instead you're about to see a very slow-paced introspective sequence regarding farnese and her family i already said she's one of my favorite characters and this part is one of the reasons why directly remember the last time farnese saw her family they viewed her as a psychotic mad woman who set things on fire but this farnese couldn't be anything further from that now very shy and almost gentle compared to her old self it's almost downright a sitcom scenario still we transition over to the vandamian family house one of farnese's brothers magnifico is complaining to their father about being passed over for business opportunity he's done everything that was asked of him even managing the banks he's been put in charge of so well that he's all but create a monopoly in some regions however his father is not budging the way he sees it he's merely done all that was asked of him following orders but never showing initiative manifeco is pissed because he feels like his brothers were given better opportunities to excel while he got the short end of the stick how can he show initiative when he was given a shitty position to begin with still his father isn't changing a thing it's all a part of the plan he just needs to shut up and follow orders the conversation ends when one of the servants comes in to say they have a visitor a young lady with a servant who gave him her sword to verify her identity the mention of farnese's name tips off her father and they're allowed within the manor farnese approaches her father but immediately she's locking up and getting nervous she can't even address him as father just shaking and sweating in fear instead of greeting his daughter or even showing a modicum of relief that she's safe and alive he just asked why she showed up in the first place he did hear about the death of the holy iron chain nights but the official story is that they were all defeated by the kushans so the death of the knights whether or not it was actually her fault brought shame to the family bernice was the leader whether or not she was just a figurehead and her going into hiding only makes it all look worse in fact he seems to imply that he would have been fine if farnese did die even telling her to appear before the holy sees court to face judgement and in case you're still on the fence with this guy he flat out tells farnice that she brings shame to the vandamians by just existing he orders farnese to stay in the mansion until he gives her permission to leave she barely said a word and her father already has her under his control again serpico tries to call out to farnis and it seems to help steal her nerves if just barely enough to keep her father from walking off though she's quickly back to a mumbling mess barely able to say friends and ship though he doesn't respond to it the whole idea ended in disaster though minifico is shown to be watching from above once again one of farnice's attempts to do something on her own failed it's sad because she really did go out of her way to help but her father is a supreme douchebag so what could she do she really had something of an idea and it was just pure bad luck it didn't work out how she wanted which can hurt worse than it just being a stupid idea to begin with farnese is beaten down and made to feel like an idiot by anything she does and it had to happen after she really does try to change for the better it's a mini tragedy in a way someone who does terrible things fights to become a better person only to have every obstacle imaginable thrown their way as if they're being told they were an idiot forever thinking they could be anything more than what they are anyway let's see that annuity i promised back at the tavern's attic we see shrike attempt to give koska a bath but the mad woman is completely out of control splashing shrike with water and trying to get her to play isidro says he wants to help but shrek made sure he doesn't do anything perverted with the mentally damaged woman by tying him to a chair but he's more clever than the witch gave him credit for rocking back and forth to move the chair over to the curtain that the girls are hiding behind for privacy and just as he grips the sheet with his teeth pulling it open to get a decent view something soft presses against him isidro got a face full of coska titty lucky bastard the madwoman has soap dripping into her eyes causing her to become uncomfortable and run away from shrike little girl is desperately trying to pull koska back to the bath but it's no use the older woman despite being insane is too much for her to handle ivalera suggests using magic to calm koska down but strike insists she can handle watching over koska just fine without it until koska grabs her towel and rips it off her sending the girl spinning as kosuke covers her face leaving shrike exposed and laying on top of guts he really doesn't care about what's happening more just annoyed that his rest was disturbed by shrike falling on him but the witch girl is mortified casting a spell so strong that the flash goes out the window she runs off crying begging guts not to remember what just happened as he lays in bed covered in soot like a looney tunes cartoon and wondering what's taking pharnise and serpico so long back at the vandemian manor barnes is busy taking her own bath this one far more luxurious than what she got used to on the road but despite the comfort all she can think about is that this is the first time in a while she's been without koska she wonders if they're washing her hair properly when servants interrupt her announcing that they prepared a change of clothes for farnese to change into she's allowing the servants to dress her trying to convince herself that they'll be fine with her there but notices that her silver shirt and dagger are missing the servants say they were damaged and they're just moving to have them thrown out furnace barges out of the changing room half-dressed showing no regards to the fact she's basically exposing herself to the staff and serpico instead interrupting the worker carrying her equipment and retrieving everything hugging the shirt and dagger close to her not just because of the practical use they genuinely mean a lot to her symbols of her time with the party of when she felt like she was useful to people also this is sort of a tragic slash cathartic way of resolving the stuffed rabbit incident as a child she allowed her father to bully her into getting rid of a toy that genuinely meant a lot to her one of the few times she felt like she actually had a family with her parents now she stood up for herself and basically put her foot down you are not getting rid of these items they mean the world to me it's never explicitly said she simply runs up and grabs them and hugs them but you get the idea minifica walks in on farni's commenting that she's just as unpredictable as ever the conversation moves to the hedge garden and we see that farnese's brother is a lot more warm and welcoming than their father they haven't seen each other since she was sent off to the convent so it seems like minifico genuinely wants to reconnect with his little sister he's not surprised that she hasn't talked to her other brothers yet as he puts it the vandemians aren't a very tightly knit family but regardless the news about farnese's exploits have gotten around her reputation with the holy iron chain knights and their defeat at saint albion farnese assumes he's about to berate her like their father did but manifeco says that it wasn't her fault really he blames their father for forcing her into the position in the first place she was never given a choice in the matter yet he gets to speak down to her as if it wasn't his [ __ ] up not just that but manifeco has vivid memories of farnese as a little girl running around the mansion by herself because her parents never spent time with her her father was barely a factor in her life until it was time to start barking orders that's all it was he even blames him for the fire that farnese set the one that had her kicked out of home and sent to the holy see the entire nickname of the vandamian devil child was his fault not farnese's manifeco describes their fathers almost like a sociopath someone that needs to control everything everyone around him fully willing to abandon even his own family if they don't meet his standards it's pretty clear he resents the senior vandemian for passing minifico up on business deals but the guy does have a point it may come from a place of selfishness but he's right he asked farnese why she returned home and she explains that she's been on a journey and needs a ship minifico isn't really surprised by the news considering farnese's nature of getting into trouble but he's not sure how to help the situation is exactly what it looks like every single ship is used up the port is packed to the brim but they're all focused on the war with the cushing empire and asking their father for a favor this big is out of the question but magnifico might be able to get a ship just a single one in exchange for a favor back at the tavern we see isidro koska and puck watching some thrilling crab racing my money is on crabbing ham personally he's got a good coach still shrike is frustrated how much the others are goofing around the daily chores thrown into disarray without serpico there to manage things still they're trying to make it work easy dro can handle feeding koska while shrike feeds guts the big guy swears he's fine apparently dealing with a slight fever but she insists it's worse than that after making it back to civilization after so long all the fatigue from his fights hit him all at once he needs to take some time to rest and that involves letting shrike feed him soup say ah guts do you want to be a jerk and make the little girl cry the sudden arrival of serpico caused the strike to flinch accidentally pouring hot soup on guts's face in the process still isidro was surprised it took them so long to come back but it's just him not farnese and he's holding a parcel he says that they arranged a ship for everyone but farnese isn't coming back they're stunned by the news wondering what happened and who's gonna take care of costco without her but all serpico does is hand them a letter if they give it to any trader in for tennis they'll be able to find a ship and a crew no problem he then gives shrike back the magical items the silver shirt and the weapons he gives a candid thank you blankly reading out a rehearsed message of how grateful the vandemian family is that their daughter was returned safely so as thanks all expenses in the city will be covered serpico goes to leave strike trying to stop him until guts rises out of bed he at the very least wants to know the reason why but serpico isn't talking guts resorts to bringing up their cold rivalry saying they still need to fight one more time but the manservant says there's no reason to varnise is back home safe why would he fight guts anymore with that he's gone the party left to figure out what happened when the two left earlier that day strike can't reach out to farnice through telepathy more than likely due to the bit of hair tied around her finger simply being removed so they're left in the dark isidro is insulted at how the two just up and left after everything they've been through but shrike swears she saw a vision of farnese when she's touched serpico's hand she looked upset and so did he in his own way it doesn't make sense to her farnese seemed dedicated to learning magic plus her bond with koska meant she wouldn't just abandon her something was going on they just need to find out what varnish and serpico were in trouble also they are not looking out for koska that job sucks make the nobles do it god submits to himself that it wasn't his nature to dive into other people's business but whatever's going on has him curious now too he orders the elves to follow serpico and find the vandemian mansion and spy on whatever they can find the elves are excited at sneaking into the home of aristocrats and quickly get distracted by the luxuries around them playing in the large mansion and gorging themselves on fancy food they're only reminded of their mission once they spot farnese going to the greenhouse dressed in fancy clothing turns out she was waiting for her brother manifeco more specifically somebody he wanted her to meet roderick of stauffen a naval officer that's right to get her friends a ship barneys had to accept an arranged marriage in all fairness to the guy he doesn't seem creepy or evil and god knows the series enjoys its domestic violence when it can indulge itself as we all do but manifeco swears roderick is a cool dude they met in college where they told stories about their families and roderick has been fascinated by the vandemian devil child ever since instead of being horrified or uncomfortable being around farnese he finds her incredibly interesting the dude is a classical romantic in the strictest sense of the term even going so far as admitting that he personally filled the greenhouse with roses as a grand gesture for farnese roses are seen as the ladies of flowers symbols of nobility in class but roderick hates roses because really they all blend in together they're one and the same each and every one so he wanted the greenhouse filled with roses to make the white lily stand out even brighter the only one not afraid of being different at least to him dude definitely has a better sense of winning over women than guts ever did he just had a ptsd attack and choked one the elves fly off spotted by serpico as they make their escape to deliver the news to the others evolira excitedly tells them of roderick's proposal gushing almost like she was watching a soap opera but the others immediately pick up on the problem if farnice gets married off she's gone forever shrike and isidro think she's completely abandoning the group and the witch in particular is heartbroken that her student abandoned the ways of magic and left koska behind isidro says that was probably just a whim she had and she's saying goodbye to them all with a gift but guts insists it's the opposite she's marrying roderick to get them a ship political marriages happen all the time and with farnese being a daughter of a primo noble family she is guaranteed to have a lot of suitors guts wants to write it all off as far nice making her choice and sticking by it but he's got doubts she did it for them should they just leave her behind because they got what they wanted that doesn't sit right with any of them farnese was happy with the party serpico less so but he tolerated things just to ensure she had a sense of purpose she's potentially risking the rest of her life to give them a shot at reaching elfhelm and just to fully bring the argument to a close kaska accidentally drops the letter in the fire burning it to ash now they don't even have the thing they need to get a ship in the first place so [ __ ] it guts puts it in the best words possible if the price of a ship is koska's babysitter and good food it just ain't much of a deal no matter what they needed to stick together they'll go and get their friends back circumstances be damned back at the vandemian mansion we see that farnese is still practicing our magic trying to visualize the apple in front of her in her mind she feels like it's almost there but it's just not clicking all the way she thinks back on her lessons with shrike how excited she felt to learn about magic that maybe she could change a part of herself if she mastered it but now that she's back home it all feels like a stupid impulsive decision the cold breeze causes farnese to drop the apple but luckily serpico is there to retrieve it supposedly it's already spring but the cold weather and the snow just won't go away he keeps farnies warm by offering her a coat and she says that being back in a vandemian mansion during the snow reminds her of their childhood so much so that's almost like the journey they went on was all a dream barnes once again asserts that she wanted to find her purpose to be useful in the way only she could most of all she wanted to help the others though now she feels like all of that was an excuse for herself in truth she loved being with them she felt accepted and warm with everyone and the more she spent time with the others the more she felt she finally found a home but her anxieties caused her to run back to the vandamians to leave before she was forced away now she's cold and alone all over again but most of all she feels like a coward one who squandered her only chance at finding out who she truly is deep down they soon spot a gathering of people on a bridge ahead of them it's farnese's mother surrounded by other nobles as she walks in the garden turns out she was off exploring the southern islands to escape the cold weather then she stopped by a battlefield to give the soldiers there a morale boost but now she's back home and wondering what happened with farnese as far as she knew her daughter went missing after the holy iron chain nights were destroyed farnese explains that she's returned to fulfill an arranged marriage for magnifico her mother instantly guessing it was a scheme among the men of the family to [ __ ] each other over because as it turns out they plan on revealing the marriage to their father at a later point farnese's mother is worried about whether or not her daughter truly wants to go through with this but she seems content with marrying roderick still won over by his performance at the greenhouse though her mother asks point blank if she already has a man she's fond of farnese hesitates to answer and that's when her thoughts flash to guts of all people we're gonna talk about this in a second farnice tries to deny her own thoughts but her mother picks up on how her daughter suddenly went quiet she says that it's odd for farnese to be so distracted especially when she spent her entire childhood tormenting her father farnese has no clue what her mother is talking about but she says outright varnisa's father is terrified of her yet she's not saying this in a derogatory fashion instead she says that her husband is weak and because he's weak he needs to control everything to make sure his schemes go off without a hitch and only once he gets everything exactly how he likes it does he relax in a way he's not in control of anything he's terrified of the world and does nothing but work to make sure that everything goes exactly right and farnese represents the total opposite she's impulsive chaotic something he can never fully understand that does whatever she wants so he grew afraid of his own daughter farnese is in utter disbelief at the news she spent her entire childhood being terrified of her father never once did she ever try to stand up to him simply going along with his orders but her mother insists that she stood up for herself in her own eccentric way despite how terrible her actions were when she was younger it was essentially all repressed emotion and resentment of her family made manifest and her father had no clue how to handle someone like farnese to the point that he basically abandoned her alone in the mansion cut off from the larger world in a way farnese is still a child her heart is open and vulnerable she's never lived until recently to the point that she doesn't belong in the same world the rest of the family does but instead of viewing this as a bad thing her mother insists that if farnese were to ever find the place she belongs she would be very happy she knows what it's like to be cold alone and abandoned so she has the potential to be the most kind and empathetic person out there despite being guilty of abandoning farnese herself her mother is proud of the woman she became joking that the secret was that she learned not to be like her parents nevertheless the stage coach for farnese arrives and her mother is curious about the occasion turns out a royal ball is held to see the soldiers off to the war front and minifico specifically asks for farnis to come in attendance it seems like the older vandamian woman picked up on what he's got planned and asked farnese if she can come along and right as all this is happening we see that the rest of the party actually made it to the mansion the only problem is that they can't find an entrance just walking along the wall line isidro wants to know the plan for when they actually get to the door but gut says they'll just walk in and talk to her which sounds like a really bad idea especially considering that they have koska with them plus strike is dressed as a witch they can't leave the crazy lady alone in an old tavern room full of sharp objects and fire and they might need to use magic if it comes down to violence when the circumstances are shitty you make do and right when they finally find the gate they see the stagecoach leaving with farnesen's side and serpaco riding on his horse they just missed them god damn it alright let's take a second to talk about that scene since it all but confirmed something you might have already started to notice as the video went on farnese seems to like guts she seems to really like guts now before it was played off as her looking up to him as a hero similar to the admiration that koska felt for griffith back in golden age but it seems like that's starting to evolve into something else possibly something deeper if you notice she always got flush around guts hell everything she's been doing was to make him proud not just the party specifically guts and when she thought she disappointed him it crushed her spirit it was the entire reason she started taking care of koska not just because she saw the mad woman as a chance at redemption though that was a part of it but it was because koska is important to guts then of course you had the moments where the big guy comes in like a gallant knight to save the women and farnese always seemed to swoon over him even if it was in small ways now it is completely 100 one-sided in fact it seems like guts has no clue that farnese has these emotions towards him at all you'll see later that other people see it serpico especially is not an idiot but it's an unspoken deal because everyone knows how it will end and it sort of brings to mind what goto said before he died as guts left to save koska he's so focused on what's in front of him that he's letting everything else slip by the wayside now does this mean that guts should forget about koska and get with farnese i don't personally think so no could it ever happen not sure it would definitely be a major character shift considering just how important koska is to guts i mean she is quite literally the reason he's still breathing everything he does is to protect her kaska is literally the mother to his child and guts doesn't really seem to have any interest in farnese as a romantic partner one of the reasons he was so interested in koska was that she wasn't a spoiled noble woman she was a very capable warrior someone that could stand toe-to-toe with him in a fight guts really admired that and saw that as one of the reasons costco was so incredible to him hell every time he thinks about her from the old days she's suited up in armor standing proud like a commander that's the kaska he loves that's the woman he loves farnese is too gentle he does seem to care about her he was the one who really pushed to get her back in the first place but that was mainly because farnese is important to koska it's kind of a tragic romance in a way hell it's almost intentionally played out like a parallel to the love triangle in golden age varnish is in love with guts guts is in love with koska serpico's in love with pharnies but nobody can be with each other whether it be due to kaska despising guts for him abusing her whether or not it was his fault farnese just sort of being the odd woman out and being too nervous to voice her feelings whether or not it would actually work or serpico because of blood relations whether or not farnese even knows about that it's a complicated web but that's part of what makes this arc so interesting even if nobody can get married or be together in a romantic sense they do what they can to keep the people they care about safe because to them that's enough now some people legit actually wanted guts and funnies to get together i don't necessarily agree with it but there's worse girls you could have picked please don't loot the witch lolly her grandma just died back to the manga the stagecoach makes its way through for tennis finally arriving at a grand manor hosting the ball we see some of the other vandamian brothers giorgio and polizzano don't worry about them they aren't important plus that guy's fat the main focus is on manifeco and roderick we're standing outside on the balcony drinking together they watch as it seems like the lords of midland can't help but get rowdy inner politics and old grudges flaring up thanks to how much damage the war has done to the nation turns out one noble made a deal with judor for support which is still seen as a mortal enemy by another lord thanks to the hundred years war despite the man's pride from midland it's expected that even if the country were completely liberated it'll all be chopped to pieces and handed off to stronger territories around it sir owen shows up to break up the fight absolutely humiliated by the public display since it only brings more shame to midland as it is the noble who started the fight says that owen is there to search for support as well but he claims that all he wants to do is unite the old nobility together not any random aristocrat they can't afford to keep going at each other's throats now more than ever they need to stand together and keep midland alive but the other men aren't as committed as far as they know the royal family is dead without them what's the point midland's claim to fame was their ancient bloodline supposedly tying all the way back to supreme king geyseric himself that's the wrong picture still owen is pissed off at his lack of progress though he understands it's hard to feel much pride in a dead kingdom but most of all he's frustrated that he can't help his friend sir lebon the man infiltrated wyndham but hasn't been heard from since they don't even know that the princess has been saved everything inside the country and especially the capital is radio silent minifico and roderick watch over the spectacle the sailor admitting that he's not much beloved in his own country as well so he sort of feels what they're going through having no real place to call home anifiko says living with his family gave him his own sympathy for midland situation but above all he views the state of politics as a waste of time the true road to progress is through exploration to set up sea routes and conquer new land this is actually where monifico and roderick establish their friendship they want to explore the world to find new opportunities for power and profit roderick's family paradoxically don't want to explore the oceans they set themselves on the world stage by focusing on shipbuilding and sea trade but other than that they're complete isolationists the vandamian family specifically manafico's father doesn't want to stumble into anything that would complicate the chessboard he already set up it seems like everyone else is content to stay in their tiny world except roderick and minifico really they've got a good plan in place be the first to establish trade routes and find new territory and it definitely helps that their families are about to get tied together through marriage yep minifico basically sold his sister out roderick will handle the sailing minifigure the business and they both get the profits ensuring their names go down in history minifico even admits that he specifically waited to reveal the marriage at the party because then his father wouldn't be able to cancel it but funny enough roderick doesn't really care even telling his friend to basically shut the [ __ ] up so he can spend time with farnice he really does seem to care about her or at the very least it's putting on a very convincing act going out of his way to ask her for the first dance as the three leave serpico was there too we see minifico's mother is there to mess with her son it seems like he told neither of their parents about his scheme not even realizing his mother came home early from her winter vacation she teases minifico for his attempted conspiracy but doesn't actually try to stop him she likes the man that farnis is set up with and in a way she's kind of proud that her son is reminding her of his father but she has some advice for him farnese isn't very good at obeying orders especially when it looks like she's acting submissive any time someone ropes her into a scheme it does not end well magnifico will be very sorry if he isn't careful of how he treats his sister the vandemian matriarch spots serpico watching the dance from the window and goes to speak with him she's trying to remember the last time she saw him and serpico admits that he's been working at the estate for over 10 years ever since barnes saved him as a child her mother comments that spending that long with her daughter must have left the guy pretty warped himself saying that they're basically inseparable if they live that kind of life together she tells him to continue looking after farnice as she takes her leave the man's servant impressed how fast she was able to deduce things from merely talking with him once then he spots two lights flying in the sky yep the party tracked them down again this time fully ready to barge in and get their manservant and their pyrophile back using strike's magic they slip right past the guards without any incident she can manipulate the energy of the guards enough so they can sneak around without much trouble but if they make too much noise they'll be spotted quick as easy dro grows excited at the idea of eating a bunch of fancy food at the party striking guts feel something in the air something bad out of nowhere a dense fog floods past them the same fog that showed up when they were attacked at the beach strike can feel a violent presence nearby but the guards are blissfully unaware of what's about to go down up until a massive beast shows up the party hears the sounds of violent homicide and look back spotting the silhouette of a tiger in the fog interestingly despite the monster staring right back at her heroes it doesn't attack instead simply disappearing into the fog they had no idea what the monster was but there's no way on earth it means anything good the only positive is that the fog means it'll be easier for our party to infiltrate the manor as well though all guts can think about is that something terrible is about to go down they spot the main entrance but surrounded by guards shrek prepares to cast another spell but she receives a transmission from serpico he actually gave them a message to go to the rear entrance to meet with him they enter through the secret passageway now inside of a great hall filled with pillars serpico arrives describing it as the colonnade chamber it was a relic from when the territory was taken from the cushing empire now standing as a symbol to the holy see's victory he apologizes for bringing them all there showing that his intentions were less than honest he draws his sword on the party refusing to let them and especially guts reach farnese finally challenging guts to a duel one last time easy drone strike are horrified but guts takes them up on the offer shrike demands the two not fight but guts insist they have to do this all isidro can think is that they won't actually try to kill each other they'll stop their attacks short or something completely unaware of the tense history between guts and serpico the men weren't kidding around they were really going to fight to the death gutz tries to prepare a swing but he taps against one of the pillars turns out there was another reason why they were brought there beyond the seclusion with so many stone pillars around it'll be next to impossible for guts to build up proper momentum for his sword meanwhile serpico is completely unaffected the only choice guts has is to smash through the pillars in order to win the fight kicks off with the bang guts already putting serpico on the back foot but with his sword slowed down by one of the pillars it gives the man's servant a chance to counter-attack guts deflects the sword with his iron hand though part of his cheek is cut he retaliates by swinging his sword in a frenzy breaking down as many pillars as he can though he can't seem to touch serpico who simply dives between each one and takes any chance he can to swipe it guts isidro is impressed at how agile serpico is even without the magic hood and how adept the man is at using cheap tricks to his advantage serpico himself is confident that his strategy will work to prevent guts from building up enough speed to do anything really destructive but even with this obvious handicap guts is relentless able to actually cut serpico's hand with an attack the nobleman knows he can't keep up forever that guts will eventually outpace him when it comes to stamina plus his sword is too thin to break through the berserker armor so he needs to find a chance to either hit guts's neck or pierce his head that's the only way he can win guts goes in for a thrust and serpico goes for a counter evading the blade and cutting gutz's hand only for the blade to scrape against the artificial one in the middle of a fight guts completely changed the grip of his sword putting the iron left one above his real arm he read what serpico was going to do and reacted before he could pull it off the fight is intense enough for the beast of darkness to wake up slowly bleeding its influence into guts's mind though luckily it's not able to take over his body completely but if it goes on any longer it could be a problem not even mentioning that the rest of the party is right behind them serpico is amazed at gutz's strength thinking back on how he and guts differ not just as fighters but in life itself serpico adapts to his circumstances hides what he really thinks and feels just growing numb to the world and doing whatever it takes to keep his cool but throughout their journey together he seemed to change right along with farnese because of guts guts despite not really ever being a leader to the group inspired the two to become more passionate to fight for what they care about most serpico was content with shutting out his own feelings in order to survive only to run smack dab into a man who does the exact opposite a man who never once stops fighting the world around him it made serpico happy to see the impact he had on farnese his half-sister becoming more courageous and trying to find her place in life all to help guts in the end every change she made or tasks she tried to complete whether it was good or bad was to make him proud not her family not the holy see not even serpico just the stranger they ran into and tried to kill if things were different they could have all journeyed together forever but serpico can't let the inevitable happen the way he sees it it's only a matter of time before guts loses control completely when he murders barnes in a blind rage so no matter what even if he truly cares about these people and sees them as comrades guts and the others have to leave shrike actually spots the image in serpico's imagination unintentionally sending it to the girl through telepathy and soon he's cornered by guts stumbling into a spot with no pillars to hide behind guts goes in for one last attack serpaco desperately jumping and hanging off the last pillar near him to avoid it this one causes rubble to pour down onto guts serpico finally given his perfect chance to strike back and end the duel only for guts to use the dragon slayer as a shield collecting the rubble as it falls down on top of them and launching the heavy stones right at serpico his whole scheme to win the fight was to bake guts into shattering enough pillars to cause the roof to collapse on top of him thus giving serpaco all the time he needs to hit a vital area with his sword except it backfired spectacularly with guts himself weaponizing the rubble to pin him to the ground serpaco thinks maybe his plan was figured out sometime into the fight but guts insists it just happened still all seems forgiven now that the duel is finished serpico is frustrated at having lost though he knows it's just stupid to keep trying to stop the man he's always been intimately aware of just how downright superhuman guts is in comparison to the rest of the group this ambush was done out of pure desperation to keep farnis safely at home since he knows that she won't be able to stop herself from wanting to come back if they approached her shrike tearfully promises that she'll never let that happen revealing to serpico she was well aware of his fears he doesn't respond to her instead turning to guts and asking just what he is going to do once he sees barnes again though he fully admits he doesn't know just that he's gonna see her whether serpico likes it or not this seems like a good enough answer for the manservant now grinning as he thinks about how reckless guts seems to act towards anything gut says it's time for them to get moving but isidro first wants to know if that fight they just had was real like were they actually trying to murder each other and it turns out yeah they were both men were fully willing to kill the other if it came down to it isidro thinks he's just bluffing saying guts went out of his way to spare serpaco with a rubble trick but he says it was pure luck that happened serpico is not the kind of opponent that you can try to keep alive he's too dangerous that's what it's like to be a swordsman to be willing to kill anyone trying to kill you in return isidro already having issues with fully killing his opponents is uncomfortable at his words but serpico says that there was an unspoken rule they agreed to they agreed to a duel that means only their swords no explosives no throwing knives no crossbow nothing beyond the dragon slayer plus he never unleashed the berserker armor regardless of whether or not the situation really called for it or not it was another trick guts simply refused to use during the fight so even if guts swears it's the opposite there was an honor they tried to keep to though gutz is more worried about the monster tiger they saw before than picking over any of the details of the duel serpico was blissfully unaware to the supernatural events that the party stumbled into when they got to the mansion though hearing about a monster like what attacked them at the beach showing up there makes him think about the sorcerers he killed if kushan monsters are anywhere close to the city it means they're scouting out for tennis meaning the kushans are preparing to invade just like sonia predicted they would the monster must be there to kill off the most important people and pretend is to [ __ ] the military before the army ever arrives meaning farnice and her family are in danger serpico offers to guide them all to the main hall but not before shrike returns his magical equipment the wind spirit's delighted to be back with their user one down one to go back in the main event the nobles are blind to the danger coming their way all the nobility continuing to bicker back and forth as parnisa's father makes himself known to the guests soon the entire room can't take their eyes off him much to the frustration of manifeco though all farnese can think about is that serpico seem to just vanish from the room the head vandamine gives a speech about the war effort congratulating everyone for arriving and wishing them good luck with the war minifico waiting right for the speech to end to spring his announcement and just as everyone is invited to a toast he calls for the guest's attention himself he gestures towards roderick and where farnese was supposed to be standing only to find she isn't there she disappeared into the crowd trying to find serpico so now magnifico looks like a complete fool in front of not just the nobility but his father who is very curious to know what exactly his son is planning all the while the demonic tiger is seen skulking on the balcony right outside the main hall the fog has fully set in for tan is now enshrouded in ganesha's influence and the demonic tiger explodes through the window the sudden gust of air knocking out all the candles and turning the room pitch black the room is sent into a panic as everyone tries to assess the wounded and get another light going but something is in the room with them the nobles still have no clue what's happening even as they're splashed with some kind of fluid and ungodly noises fill the room it's only when they light another torch do they realize they are caked in blood the noblemen are being torn to pieces by the demonic tiger essentially locked in a chicken coop as they have no power to fight off something like this the guests panic at the side of the monster but farnese recognizes what it is one of the cushion mutants though that doesn't stop the beast from ripping through the crowd with its claws the monster free to cut apart as many people as it wants they try to run for the exit but the monster blocks off their escape there's no running away from this thing they're trapped farnese knows the monster came from the astral world the question now is why is it here but she doesn't get enough time to ponder things as she spots her brother and father cowering behind roderick who's drawn his sword in an attempt to protect the two that won't work but farnese knows what will silver so she grabs a silver candelabrum and stabs the tiger directly in the eye with it it doesn't do much she's pulled around without much effort from the monster but her family are in shock that she even did it to begin with and it seems to at the very least have hurt the creature but it's not long before farnese is sent to the floor her dress restricting her movement so much that the beast has her in the perfect spot to murder her just as it seems like farnese is a dead woman another gust of air blows past this time revealed to be serpico who grabbed farnese and is getting her far away from the tiger he apologizes for disappearing he was needed as a guide they had some friends who wanted to come to the party that's right the band is back together and guts is about to kick off the happy reunion with a murder as he is want to do varnish is surprised that everyone came back for her but they showed zero consideration that they are surrounded by nobles said nobles are in disbelief that a guy like guts could fight off the demon tiger but that's not the important part the important part is that sir owen thinks he recognizes the big guy with the sword the fight ends like you expect the tiger leaps for guts and he cuts it right down the middle a single strike completely bisected the monster the nobles celebrate the supposed victory but he says things aren't over yet more tigers burst into the hall things just got more complicated serpico uses his cloak to fly above the monsters getting her to safety with the others farnese seems guilty that she almost abandoned her friends like she did but kaska is just gleeful she got her friend back and they don't have time to think about stuff like that they need to move before they're overwhelmed god suggests just leaving everyone to die but farnice begs him to stay all her family is there they have to do something to save them guts is quiet at the suggestion strike even nagging him for acting too cold but he relents they'll save the nobles however they can shrike already found the sorcerers controlling the monsters all they need to do is have serpico kill them he leaves to kill the magic users while guts keeps the tigers busy seeing it as the perfect workout to get back on his feet he was resting too long anyway so he begins the violent actions cutting through the big cats in his usual fashion before long he's standing on a pile of their corpses it seems like no matter how many tigers come against him the big guy with the sword is unstoppable some of the nobles talk about trying to recruit him to their armies all bickering back and forth once again over who gets to recruit guts but there's still tigers to deal with one of them tries to break off from the fight and go after civilians again but a well-placed bomb from isidro stops it dead and to make things even more weird the elves show up to take a commission from the work needed to save their lives it's about three percent depending on what company you use nevertheless the nobles are delighted at seeing the elves though one of them notices that they're talking about taking their money a tiger manages to corner two women who are completely helpless in the face of the creature strike opens her bag and two small like snake tendrils fly out and wrap around the tiger tiny thorn vines with little faces at the end of each one turns out there are new familiars that shrike herself created which she calls thorn snakes specifically designed to harm physical creatures along with ones from the astral world she gives barneys a ring made from the same vine giving the woman full control over the snakes it's a tool that farnese can use to help the others and is the first actual weapon she's been entrusted with the silver knife was more of a last resort type deal this time she actually has something to use in an offensive sense gutz's fight with the tigers is still going though an unexpected figure shows up to help roderick despite being completely outclassed by pretty much everyone the guy is still gonna fight guts tells him to piss off for his own safety but he doesn't want to be shown up in front of his fiancee though that tiger does look very big and scary thankfully his life was saved by farnese he uses her new thorn snakes to wrap around the monster's legs and bind it to the floor roderick has no clue what just happened but she simply screams at him to use the silver weapon he's quick to pick up on the advice and stabs the tiger through the head with the silver candelabrum farnese tried to use before see he's starting to get it meanwhile serpico is finally able to pin down the sorcerers decapitating them all in a single strike from his magic sword just as predicted the tigers lose all higher function now just blindly wandering the hall in confusion shrike goes an extra step and casts a spell on the beasts freezing them in place so they can't move now they're just a bunch of statues completely harmless unless you like i don't know fall on one of them their teeth look pretty sharp still the thorn snakes leave the tigers now wrapping themselves into a tight coil in front of farnese recognizing her as their master she's happy to accept the gift though she turns her gaze to guts who simply tells her she can still go back to her family if she wants to that world of aristocrats she grew up in so it's time to make a choice is this the last they're going to see of her varnish goes quiet for a bit but she's already made up her mind she's not staying with her family she never wanted to return home she simply felt homesick and wanted to visit to the place where she started her own long journey but her place is with them the party the family is back together you see it's like a sitcom yeah farnese is the quirky mom serpaco's the grouchy uncle easy drone shrek are the kids who can't stop fighting and guts is the dead with extreme ptsd who just wants to be happy for one goddamn moment and kaska is the comic relief their surviving nobility finally take in everything that just happened astonished at the sudden arrival of the monsters the literal magic and most of all that the vandamian daughter was using said magic she was a literal witch so really she doesn't have a choice but to stick with the party her mother is mildly surprised but she's just happy her daughter was making friends in a way whatever journey she went on no matter how horrible gave farnice a freedom that her mother was sort of jealous of she could walk a road she wanted to go down not out of obligation to anyone and especially not her family the city guards don't seem to care though they surround the party and it looks like things are turning against them plus koska pricked her finger among the thorn snakes but just as it seems all hope is lost lord vandemian himself orders them to back off giving thanks to the party for saving their lives and turning things back into a celebration his ace in the hull pure shameless gaslighting there were never any monsters they were just animals sent by the cushions probably crossbred to be more aggressive there were no elves his daughter never used magic it was all an illusion the cushions drugged the food or spread a hallucinogen in the fog bro there's no monsters bro you're just crazy the important part is that the cushions are coming to raid the city and their first plan was to kill off the heads of the holy see and the royal families to spread chaos through the ranks the fact these people thought they would use magic to do any of that is just crazy imagine how crazy you sound bro if you're going around telling people about magic and and fairies bro you look so crazy gutz is impressed by lord vandemian's ability to direct a room and farnese can't help but agree no matter her opinions on her father the man was powerful while the fog didn't take kindly to being called an illusion the cloud forming into a manifestation of ganesha's face as he stares down from the ceiling guts picks up right away that the guy is an apostle but there's nothing he can do ganeshka is insulted at being called an illusion swearing that everything was 100 real and even more horrors are on the way stating that tonight is the start of a nightmare that will never end he escapes out the broken windows and everyone is left mortified except guts all he can do is rack his brains at what an apostle being their means did ganeshka follow him he's involved in the war skull knight was right once again he ran straight into more demons and that means that griffith could be coming as well shrike tries to snap guts out of his thoughts but it's too late the war is here for tennis is on fire [Music] this is it the final act of the falcon of the millennium empire arc the cushions have begun the invasion starting with the harbor some of the local guard try to figure out what's happening but they're attacked by crocodiles hiding in the water the strategy is to simply flood the city with monsters fully aware that the armies have no chance of fighting them off first the mutated crocodiles then the dhaka who march into the city ready to kill anything that moves the survivors at the mansion are helpless to stop the invasion reports of strange monsters all over the city and to make matters worse if the harbor burns then the party will have no ship to get them to l-film this is actually where roderick steps up he's a naval officer he's got a ship he knows a little bit about their journey from mnifico but really all he wants to know is the destination farnese seems nervous to just up and demand the ride but all he cares about is where they're going he's already made his decision himself since right now staying in vertex seems like a pretty bad idea they tell him about their journey to skellig island and seems like roderick has actually heard about it he doesn't know about elfalm or any of the magic stuff but the island itself is a physical place they can go to so the deal is made they make it down to the harbor then he'll sail them wherever they want to go it's on the way to his home country anyway plus the ship is a warship meaning they'll have enough weaponry to defend themselves should anything bad come to discuss things farnese thinks he's abandoning the war for them but he says that if is a different religious sect from the rest of the nation so they or specifically he doesn't really care to stay and fight the cushings plus he wants to impress farnese and get her to stop thinking about guts roderick refuses to become a neterrar protagonist he introduces himself to the party specifically guts and seems like everyone is ready to fight their way out of the city they even offer minifico a chance to ride with them and since the idea being stuck with his father sounds like a living hell he agrees the party takes their leave as lord vandemian whips the room into shape taking command and barking orders as they try to sneak past hoping not to get swept up in things any further despite the trouble she's had with her family varnish can't help but feel sad at leaving them all behind though her mother wishes them all a safe journey our heroes decide that crossing on foot despite the risks will be faster than trying to take a carriage so they'll have to be ready in case they're attacked they walk past a clothing shop and farnese asks if they'll allow her to change out of her dress it simply restricts her movements too much and if they need to run then it will cause problems the rest of the group slips inside while god stands guard outside completely alone as a strange man approaches him it's sir owen and he cuts right through the [ __ ] guts was the captain of the raiders for the band of the hawk he recognizes him from the old days when owen led the tumall knights even though guts looks completely different he swears he recognizes him that young kid with a massive sword riding next to the white hawk himself he wants to talk with guts but the man in black simply tells him to let it go it's all ancient history though all owen really wants to know is where is griffith gutz almost cracks saying he wish he knew but he stops himself the party finishes their business in the clothing shop and god simply leaves the conversation saying that griffith might be a lot closer than owen thinks the rest of the party noticed the scene but guts lies and says that it was a case of mistaken identity he simply looked like somebody he used to know fully burying the incident as he tells himself that the hawks are gone now there's no bringing them back no matter what he does sir owen is disappointed from the encounter but still holds hope that griffith will return to save midland from complete calamity we suddenly shift to a completely different location a military camp far away from the city the personal escort of the pontiff to the holy see himself priests from the holy see all talking about how much the journey so far has weakened his holiness even discussing the eventuality of picking a replacement once he finally dies the pontiff hears all of this from inside his tent his thoughts bitter and lonely he never once excelled in his job he wasn't a bad leader but he also never did anything to be remembered for and it comes down to the fact that he plain never cared to he was born in a good family never had a bad childhood so much so that he never felt anger or any intense emotion whatsoever he simply drifted in life never thinking about what he was doing even when he joined the holy see it never sparked inspiration into his life like he hoped it would he still just kept his head down and took orders just existing without really living and now he's an old man on his deathbed pondering a wasted life in a way he's sort of happy to die to finally end the existence that didn't seem to bring him much of a purpose or reason to keep going though he does regret not even having a single moment of truly mattering to the world until he sees it the wings of the great white hawk the pontiff receives a vision on his deathbed the spectacle of griffith laid out in front of him giving the old man that chance to serve god just like he wanted he wakes up from his dream and ponders what it all meant but just as the old man was busy racking his brains on what the seemingly divine message all meant he hears a scuffle outside someone is there to give the pontiff a message describing the dream the old man just had to a t the guards and priests have no clue what it means but the pontiff calls them inside it was sonia and mule the pontiff viewing them as literal divine agents as he seems to hallucinate feathers flowing all around them they were given orders to bring the pontiff back with them the rest of the holy see thinks they are messengers from vertenus but they deny this causing the priest to become frustrated the way they saw it these were just two kids wasting time with silly games even ordering the guards to throw them back out of the tent but the pontiff is won over in fact he wants to leave right now with them going so far as forbidding anyone from questioning his decision before anyone can argue about this the news hits for tennis is under attack by the kushan empire they can't return to the city no matter what the pontiff is fully convinced at this point that his vision was a divine revelation right as he was fully convinced he would live a full life without accomplishing anything he gets a special duty from god himself he found meaning fully committed to following sonia and mule wherever they want to lead him so to put things in perspective griffith just won over the pope himself to his cause this holy war between demons is getting downright bananas and guts and his friends are now stuck in the middle of it their only chance is to fight their way to the harbor and escape with a ship before things get any worse than they already are but that's easier said than done since the daca are surging into her tennis killing every person they see it seems like nothing can stop them but guts isn't giving the demons a choice he's forcing a path through the surviving knights are impressed at guts's ability to cleave through the cushion army and isidro and serpico decide to help out as well roderick is confused why a kid and farnese's servant is offering to fight monsters but she swears it's fine and yeah it is fine they're able to kill the daca just like any other horde of creatures roderick and ifika are still amazed by the presence of magic but things haven't stopped escalating yet because bernice herself unleashes her new thorn snakes on the daca confirming she is now a full-fledged magic user despite his entire world coming down all at once roderick kind of seems to like the idea of having a witch wife kind of based not even gonna lie but the conversation is cut short when shrike spots the sorcerer controlling the daca guts executes the man with his throwing knife and it seems like what's left of the mutants become passive like the rest of the monsters broken out of the cushions control they have an opening to make it through the city and they need to keep moving to prevent being pinned down by enemy reinforcements though the spectators around them comment that the party seems downright used to fighting monsters as our heroes march through for tennis we see that the entire city is on fire flooded with corpses just like the vision sonia gave shrike luckily they only have one more obstacle before the harbor they just need to get past the local storehouses unfortunately something is waiting for them there one the mutant elephant jellyfish monsters not just that but an entire legion of dhaka riding mutated tigers as well god simply tells the others to fight the dhaka while he handles the big guy shrike is worried about the risks about the berserker armor taking control and he doesn't deny that it could be an issue she doesn't like the idea but knowing that guts trusts her enough to come save him inspires shrike to go along with the plan so the fight begins each of the party cleaving through the daca just like back when they fought the trolls even roderick wants to get in on the fighting wanting to impress varnish and pay her back for protecting him and monifico with her magic see this dude is pretty cool manifeco is a [ __ ] though he's stumbling around trying to find a spot to hide and shrike has to save his ass when a daca tries to kill him guts meanwhile is fighting off the big monster chucking a bomb at's eye and hacking off its trunk with a swing of the dragon slayer but it's a tough beast so it's not going down that easily even if guts came in with the arm cannon it's not a guaranteed killing blow the push from the fight is enough to wake up the beast of darkness which tries to manifest itself with guts commanding it to stay down strike spots that guts is struggling in his fight so much so that it seems like he's paralyzed while the monster comes to kill him his thoughts drift to the last time he fought one of these things how it took waking up the berserker armor in order to win and with his focus taken off the fight in front of him he's wide open the beast slams guts through a stone wall seemingly crushed into paste but he's not dead instead standing on the high roof above staring down at the monster still in full control of himself he let himself be thrown through the building so he can get to the high ground now able to drive his sword through the monster hanging off its back as it thrashes around it gets intense guts is clobbered by flying stones as he desperately hangs onto the back of the creature but he's able to get his opening to cleave a hole into the top of its head shoving the arm cannon inside of the open wound and exploding the monster's brains from the inside as the beast dies guts takes the time to style even further leaping off and cleaving a daca and its tiger mount in half now that the hard part's done they just need to worry about cleanup if they keep wasting time the ship will burn enemy reinforcements are on their way behind them but it seems like the harbor won't be much better shrike swears she feels a massive concentration of evil turns out there's a lot of daca focused on the shipyard an entire horde in fact kushan warships have taken over the harbor dropping off the demonic army entire scores at a time so they can't go back and they can't go forward or can they guts openly suggests using the berserker armor simply telling the others to not show themselves no matter what strike demands he knock it off that's a terrible idea but the way he sees it they don't have a choice if they try to fight them all off someone is guaranteed to get hurt the most they can do is let gods go crazy and shrike can save him when it's time this actually causes her to cry saying that he shouldn't take an idea like that so lightly considering that the risks involve guts being eaten alive by a cursed set of armor no instead shrike will attempt to cast a spell to summon one of the great spirits though the city's heavy industry means connection to the spirits is much weaker but they have to try since this is the only solution that doesn't involve using the berserker armor though there is a great spirit that's flowing strong in the city it's almost as dangerous but it's something shrek prepares the ritual just as the dhaka finally spot our heroes both ends of the alley will be flooded with demons before long guts as the others fight off the ones actually pouring into the alley while he'll kill the ones in the harbor since the area is more open letting him use his sword in a proper fashion it's dangerous since the sheer number of enemies could push the berserker armor into taking over but guts swears that all he's doing is buying time he's not trying to kill them all he's just trying to protect shrike who is busy summoning the great spirit that represents fire itself using the burning city to their advantage though since the fire was created for evil to murder people and destroy it's significantly more difficult than shrek expected before she is fully swept away like what happened with the water spirit in the village shrike is able to tap her staff against the ground regaining her control over her astral form and able to watch the battle unfold from her outside perspective strike watches guts fight off the daca her mind flashing images of when he protected her in the tavern motivating her to finish the spell unfortunately the demons are still coming the men at the one end of the alley stuck facing a sheer wall of enemies just waiting for shrike and her magic guts managed to open a pretty sizable hole at his end but he's growing exhausted nada fighting the demons he's able to handle even a sudden ambush just fine but of the berserker armor it smells blood it's trying to take control once again farnesenkoska physically watching the beast of darkness crawl up guts's back to take over his mind guts has to spend more energy keeping himself in order than actually fighting and it's starting to become a losing battle farnese calls out the guts worried about his condition but she can't move from her spot away from shrike and koska since she's the last line of defense for the women if anything goes wrong the daca even start pushing into the alley simply overwhelming the rest of the man through sheer numbers and guts is on his last nerve grinding his teeth out of sheer strain to keep control of his mind but a massive explosion of fire bursts at the alley behind him shrike managed to summon the fire spirit the wheel of flame and through its contract with shrike it's now ready to burn away the demons around them just like every other time she summoned the spirit the sheer power unleashed is immense turning the mob of demons into charred corpses though the magic is so strong that it's a serious risk that the rest of the party will be wrapped up in it as well isidro tries to grab strike to pull her out of the path of the fire but just putting his hand close to her is enough to burn she's surrounded by fire drakes the lizards leaving isidro's magic dagger to dance with shrike and her trance guts has to dive in and grab the children to keep them safe from the spell taking the brunt of the damage himself before long an entire city block of demons are dead the path to the harbor littered with burned corpses the others try to wake up shrike who's been knocked unconscious luckily she's alright now pulled out of her trance that would sap the energy out of her to perform such a ritual so much so that guts has to offer to carry her on his back to the ship he himself is pretty banged up from his fight against the daca but carrying a little girl was nothing now the hard part is tracking down a ship considering most everything in the harbor is a smouldering wreck ah [ __ ] god senses something yep another massive beast shows up in fact a lot of them show up the entire harbor is flooded with the mutant jellyfish things shrike is too weak to use another spell and these things are way more dangerous than the daca so while the rest of the party starts to panic guts tell shrike to get down she's horrified at the idea knowing immediately what he plans to do but he's not stopping this time the beast of darkness forms right underneath shrike the little girl physically trying to hold it back while begging guts not to do what he wants to do but this time is for real the cow closing over his face while shrike is still on his back the berserker armor fully awakens shrike's astral form pulled from her body as she collapses into farnese's arms guts begins his killing spree tearing through one of the monsters like a bullet fired into its head now perched in the middle of all the creatures which are turning their attention directly on him minifico and roderick have no clue what's happening having not seen the berserker armor in action before but all isidro says is to be careful unless guts confuses them as enemies as well they shift focus on shrike who's completely unresponsive evalera notes that she isn't there right now guessing that she must have been sucked up into the berserker armor when guts transformed meaning she stuck along for the ride as guts rips and tears his way through the monsters becoming increasingly savage in his biting as he pulls them apart he leaps onto the mast of one of the sunken ships giving us a shot of shrike's spirit trapped inside the head of the armor the sudden shock of what happened caused her become paralyzed inside of gutz's mind but before long she's back to her usual self though she's still trapped in the mind of guts her unique position gives her the chance to actually see the world from the perspective of the berserker armor seeing the endless horde of teeth that he sees she's powerless to intervene as he fights filling the water around them with blood even though the party is free to find a ship there's no way they'd be able to safely depart not with the absolute chaos in front of them they have to wait until guts finishes killing the monsters only when he does that then he'll turn his attention on them farnese is doubly worried she has no idea what happened to her teacher and the man she possibly loves is using a very dangerous suit of armor that rips his flesh apart to use and it's especially not good when guts is struck during his rampage falling into the mouth of a monster which bites into him with its massive jaws the teeth going through the berserker armor and stabbing into him he manages to kill it freeing himself to go back to killing the rest of them but the fight is taking too much out of guts a gaping wound is open right in his chest the only positive is that it seems like all the creatures are dead then the kushan warship shows up the commander in charge of the beasts has arrived personally to end things the sorcerer that noted the first defeat at the beach in fact master daiba he's just floating in the air like actually floating welcome to magic [ __ ] apparently the beasts that guts killed were called makara and each one is capable of destroying 10 warships so a single swordsman being able to kill an entire group of them is impossible master daiba continues giving his introduction speech to guts seemingly unaware that the guy isn't really listening all he sees is teeth and he would very much like to kill the teeth daiba does note that guts isn't exactly just a swordsman and says that he's covered in the prana of durga i don't know what this means whether he's referencing to the berserker armor or what have you i assume so and he was just using the cushion pronunciation the guy is a magic user it's just a different style from what flora and shrike use in fact he flat out says this he saw the wheel of flame burn down his army but instead of being angry it made him curious so he wants to test his magic against guts assuming that he was the one who summoned the spirit and is using a spell to enhance his abilities daiba taunts him to attack the enraged guts falling for the bait and lunging right for the old man but is quickly sucked up into a water spout daiba controlling the harbor water itself to drown his opponent shrike notes that the old man barely even chanted a spell and he was able to summon something this strong now that guts is trapped inside the waterspout he's completely helpless it's too strong to let him move and if he falls out then he'll be killed even if he lands inside the water the only positive to the situation is that shrike now has an opportunity to reach out for guts she sinks deeper into the astral world forcing guts outside of the beast of darkness's influence bringing his mind once more to actually use the armor to his advantage instead of being overwhelmed just in time too since the water spout comes to an end and guts is sent careening right down to the ground daiba feels like the fight is already his disappointed that it took a single spell to defeat his enemy but guts isn't going down that easy instead he holds the dragon slayer out in front of him turning in the air towards the lookout post of a nearby ship he slams straight into it then using his sword to cut into the sail and slows his fall enough to keep him safe serpico is impressed by the sudden trick but he's still uncertain of whether or not it's just guts working off of instinct daiba is happy to see his opponent didn't die so quickly but then notices that he's charging straight at him the old man tries to summon more water spouts but guts manages to dodge each one the harbor is becoming so turbulent that if guts just falls into the water then he's done for the waterspouts follow after their target tearing apart anything in their path even ripping a ship to pieces just because guts jumped onto it for a brief moment a chunk of which falls down towards the rest of the group and have to be saved at the last second by guts the ship piece is heavy so much so that it aggravates the wounds guts already has but he manages to push it off to the side away from his loved ones roderick notes that it takes dozens of men and a crane to actually lift the main mast of a ship yet guts did it alone he's excited at guts of strength but isidro is far less enthusiastic the others know the dangers of the armor serpico standing between the potential threat of a berserker guts and the women but guts cracks a joke to ease the tension showing that he's back in control of himself farnese is confused how guts managed to take back his mind from the armor but he assures her that shrike is helping him out daiba cuts the heartwarming moment short firing a waterspout directly at the party to send them flying we find that he actually did recognize that guts was in a berserker state but now that he's back to his senses he might not be strong enough to handle what's to come we see that guts grab fanny senkoski to get them out of the way of the attack serpico grabbing shrike and roderick shielding the losers koska isn't happy at guts touching her but all he can think about is the sizzling on his neck daiba is either a full-blown demon or directly tied to one there's no other explanation his brand is burning like crazy just being that far away from the old man and if he's an apostle then he's a dead man the sudden violent desire to kill causes the armor to take over again if just for a bit strikes screaming at guts to take back control as he accidentally crushes the women in his arms shrek warns guts that he needs to focus the berserker armor feeds off his hate and it will look for any opportunity to possess him the thought of hurting koski again seems to bring the message home to guts who asks serpaco to combo up with him for another attack strike directly speaks to guts's mind keeping him centered during the battle he will use the dragon slayer to cleave through the water spout divas summoned opening up a chance for serpico to attack as well the old man saves himself from the wind magic with another spout but now guts takes a shot whenever the old man tries to focus on one enemy the other goes for an attack perfectly synced with each other daiba escapes the ambush and fully admits that the fight is getting a little too close for comfort it's impressive that he found two opponents that could challenge him but daiba's connection to the cushing gods gives him their divine protection they will reward his loyalty with absolute victory alright the bombs yeah acro just chucks the bomb of the old man and blows out a chunk of his back his magic is interrupted all at once daiba falling straight down to his ship and at the mercy of guts in sheer desperation daiba launches another spell this time manifesting the water around him as a massive serpent he shows no regard for the safety of his own soldiers in fact the entire warship is broken apart as daiba sits atop his new familiar he calls it the kundalini the strongest familiar he has of his arsenal it was actually sitting in the ocean before the fight its presence giving daiba so much control over the water was seemingly little effort so now they're directly fighting the source of the old man's power guts tries to cut the kundalini open but it's pure water reshaping itself after his attack on top of that it sends a focused stream of water down slicing through the ship and splitting the whole vessel in two the kundalini is immensely powerful and fully under diverse control while shrike's magic is strong it's wild and unfocused meanwhile daiba is aware of the intricacies to the elements he knows how to weaponize the water itself around him using the pressurized streams to cut apart everything in his path and guts is wasting time and energy trying to cut the familiar despite its ability to completely repair itself shrek warns guts about the power this creature has that it's technically a living god brought to earth but there is a weak spot buried deep inside of the kundalini's chest is a small serpent the way the magic actually works is that the snake forces the water elementals to form around it creating the body of the familiar so if they can get to the snake they can destroy the kundalini it won't be easy the body itself is like a large river and they have to track a small target inside of it plus all the water spouts and jet streams trying to kill them but it's not like they have any other ideas so guts goes for it regardless leaping right for the kundalini he almost gets the snake but the water is too deep to kill it he's frustrated having missed his shot and is sent straight back into the water now he's in the belly of the beast a whirlpool forming around guts as diva tries to finish him off but serpico shows up to try and kill daiba who encases himself inside the kundalini to avoid the wind magic though the attack was unsuccessful it gave guts the window necessary to escape the whirlpool the armor's magic taking away the pain helped since guts can tap into more strength to swim him out despite the weight of the equipment but they still have the familiar problem they can't seem to damage it no matter what they do and daiba takes the time to brag even directly communicating with telepathy to the rest of the party about how they're all going to die guts thinks their one chance is to dive directly into the kundalini and kill the snakes from within but strike hates this idea he'd be leaping into the one thing controlled by the familiar the water around it it'll just end with guts drowning like before shrike is angry because the only other choice would be to try to summon an even more powerful water spirit to rip control away from daiba but that's not happening the connection the city has with the spirits is weak at best plus she's still exhausted from the fire attack from before being able to make a contract with an entity stronger than the kundalini just doesn't seem possible on top of that shrike shifting focus to summoning a spirit means guts is left alone with the berserker armor which is a very bad idea gut seems to think there's a middle ground to the solution and shrike seems to pick up on what he's saying his idea is risky but now's not the time to worry about stuff like that considering they'll die anyway if they don't try something but guts is certain they'll win they both share the risk so she needs to share in the faith that it will work they're in the same boat so they need to think as one shrike is inspired by his speech and they contact serpico to help out with their plan they have one shot to make it work so it's all or nothing the plan is to summon the fire spirit once again but to focus its power into the dragon slayer essentially enchanting the blade with fire with the massive blade now burning guts has the perfect opportunity to cut through the water familiar aiming right for diva the old man is able to avoid the attack however and guts is now stuck inside the kundalini except that was the plan from the beginning the dragon slayer is still burning superheating the water and creating a pressurized steam bomb inside of the familiar a massive explosion tears the kundalini apart and with everyone falling down serpico is able to leap in and kill the serpent that formed the familiar permanently killing it for good the battle is well and truly won though daiba is able to summon a flying mount to avoid a painful fall into the ocean this pterodactyl looking thing i like it guts falls into the water but without dybas familiar it's as simple as swimming back to the surface in fact he's kind of happy to land in the sea being that close to that extreme heat surely didn't feel good shrike is quick to suggest they care for his wounds but all guts wants to know as if she's okay her astral form takes no damage from the spells so she's uninjured if a little exhausted but guts was used as the living conduit for the magic so there's a very real risk he could have been burnt to a crisp so much of a risk that shrike outright refuses to use a spell like that ever again daiba is content with ditching out fully admitting he was outclassed because of how bad [ __ ] crazy the guy dressed in all black got he wants to establish an empire of magic in the world and he can't do that if he's dead so daibo will retreat for now and just figure some things out but that pisses off his boss reminder the fog that flooded into vertennis before the invasion is ganeshka himself so the demon emperor himself watched one of his top sorcerers get his ass kicked and proceed to run away and he will not stand for this ganeshka focuses the fog into a massive form towering above our heroes though he actually doesn't seem to care about them instead focusing the conversation on daiba he's angry that so many familiars were killed in battle even electrocuting his top sorcerer with lightning when he tries to excuse his failures daiba is to retreat in shame they'll deal with him later for now ganeshka will handle the interlopers that decided to spoil his invasion ganeshka is impressed that just two swordsmen were able to fight off so many powerful entities but really they weren't just two swordsmen the dread emperor immediately feels guts's connection to the astral world but he mistakes it as him being an apostle an agent of griffith guts is confused at the idea that ganeshka views griffith as an enemy considering they were both demons but the dreaded emperor moves to kill them all the two men are struck with lightning ganesha's full power sent down crashing on top of them serpico was able to deflect most of it with his win magic but he managed to electrocute them both pretty bad ganeshka noticing that they managed to actually survive his attack simply sends more lightning chasing the two men around as they try to get as far away from the dredenburg as they can however guts are soon caught by a nasty bolt of electricity so bad in fact that shrike is yanked out of his mind and forced back into her real body even the beast of darkness seems wounded by the attack letting go of guts's mind and simply giving him control again but despite the heavy damage guts is still alive the idea that a human being could survive a direct attack from ganeshka's lightning pisses the dread emperor off greatly who decides to rectify the issue with yet even more lightning it seems like not only is guts dead but he's completely disintegrated or is he that's right the lightning didn't hit guts instead it aimed for the tallest metal object nearby and the dragon slayer was standing tall and proud right in front of its wielder so it acted like a lightning rod and protected guts from certain death ganeshka doesn't seem to understand this concept instead believing that guts simply withstood the lightning through sheer willpower meaning he can't be a human he's now fully convinced that gutz is one of the captains of griffith himself the branded swordsman is insulted by the suggestion swearing that he's human all the way down to the bone i won't bring up the [ __ ] ass monsters translation if you won't even though it is really funny ganeshka finally picks up on what guts is suggesting coming to the conclusion he's one of the branded that survived their sacrifice but instead of viewing this as a dinner bell ganeshka actually offers a deal they both want apostles dead for their own reasons so why not join forces they could combine their power to kill the hawk once and for all almost every demon on the planet has joined griffith's cause except ganeshka and if guts joins him he might be able to find and kill the demon who branded him yeah he doesn't know that it was griffith himself that did it but the deal isn't just out of practicality ganeshka can't help but admire the violent savage way guts fights the malevolence and the violence it's the only thing keeping the black swordsman on his feet so he should just embrace it and dedicate to a life of war and conquest with the demon emperor the party goes quiet taking in the downright bonkers scene of a demon offering a branded person a deal guts himself even comments that he can't help but respect ganeshka for turning on the god hand but he's not interested he has something important to get done and the last thing he wants to do is get in between some slap fight between demons ganeshka can do whatever he wants just stay far away from them which turns out to be a very poor choice of words since kanishka decides to agree to the deal and what he wants to do is kill them all as recompense for his army being defeated so that's not very good and things only get worse when ganesha's attention is taken away by something something that even guts and shrike notice the daca are suddenly overwhelmed by nosferatu zod griffith's army is here guts and his friends are now quite literally trapped in the middle of two demon armies and guts himself is trapped along with serpico in front of the dread emperor who is now firing off lightning like crazy to kill the apostles around him serpico wants to get the two of them the hell out of there but guts insists he leave without him he'll figure out how to get back on his own it's too risky to try and save him besides guts should be safe so long as he stays by the dragon slayer the lightning will strike the sword instead of him of course that isn't factoring in the possibility of a dead apostle falling down and crushing him but he'll cross that bridge when he comes to it also zod is here like right there everyone is staring at him he tries to attack ganeshka but all it ends up accomplishing is zod getting electrocuted the demon emperor's fog form means that it's practically impossible to actually harm him all they're doing is wasting energy on a losing battle still zod persists ramming through back and forth trying anything to actually hurt ganesha they even resort to just blowing the fog around hoping that would somehow translate to actually damaging him but it's not working either this time zod is electrocuted so bad that he is sent crashing right down on top of guts the two send flying into the water together from there we actually get a flashback to before zod left for tennis grumbeld and locus wish him good luck in the battle specifically warning him that ganeshka is all but immortal no physical attacks seem to hurt him though grunbeld isn't too worried saying that zod's skills as a warrior should be enough to handle things as nosferatu zod leaves he runs into sonya who gives him a cryptic warning about an important choice he's gonna have to make down the line you will have to choose between fighting the sword that once wounded him or using it as a much more powerful weapon to choose between being a beast or a warrior she then says that zod's counterpart has to make the same choice as well clearly pointing at the sudden reunion between guts and sod at the harbor though zod and sonia have no idea about what any of this actually means and just sort of accept that the prophecy will come when it comes mueller arrives to get sonia showing that this took place before they went to go see the pontiff and the flashback ends with zod simply thinking about the warning nosferatu regains consciousness in the water finally noticing that he dragged guts down with him during the crash he flies out of the water with guts in tow who's just now processing what's happening himself zod circles around ganeshka in the air who's still trying to kill the two despite guts feeling a sudden desire to cut nosferatu's head off in mid-air the lightning shakes guts out of his idea considering that zod's flight is the one thing that's keeping the two from being electrocuted and the two discuss their options just in time to receive a message from shrike it seems like she's slowly figuring out how kaneshka's magic works he's capable of moving his ethereal form into a deeper layer of the interstice while leaving what essentially amounts as a familiar made of fog in his place so regular weapons can't hurt him but guts doesn't have just a regular sword zod tries to shake guts off tired of his new passenger and assuring him that they'll kill each other once ganesha is dead but guts isn't moving in fact he takes control of the flight he'll help zod kill ganeshka much to the elder demon's surprise unaware that the dragon slayer is something new if guts can wound slan with it then somebody like ganeshka would absolutely be damaged as well zod recognizes this as the prophecy sonia gave him and agrees to the plan zod and guts will combo up to attack anishka now they just need to find his weak spot they yell at strike to tell them the location of the actual ethereal body of ganeshka and she tracks it down right at his brow between his eyes and with that guts and sod fly straight through ganeshka's cloud form tearing through his head like a bullet the attack electrocutes the two like crazy so much so they crash right back down to the ground once they pass through but it worked ganishka can't keep his form stable and back at his personal chambers we see that ganeshka actually suffered a physical wound from the attack a fresh scar burned onto his face with the emperor wounded the fog pulls out of the city leaving the demon army exposed and unable to surprise their enemies daiba calls for a full retreat fully willing to abandon their army and even ordering all sorcerers to command their troops to commit suicide all to keep their secrets far away from their enemies the kushans lost the battle and have been forced out of her tennis the rest of the party rush over to the crash site hoping to find guts alive but all they see is nosferatu zod get up standing over an absolutely fried guts burned to a crisp by the emperor's electricity zod taunts guts to get back up ready for another duel like what they agreed upon before even warning that if guts doesn't get up zod will simply tear him apart right there well guts actually does force himself to his feet much to everyone's borderline horror guts is covered in burns and beaten to a pulp yet he's still willing to try and kick sod's ass when challenged though the demon recognizes that guts isn't in a condition to fight though i think zod in some way feels like he owes guts for helping him beat ganeshka another apostle shows up to suggest zod kill guts recognizing him as the black swordsman and as a branded person so he should be free game but zod is quick to punish his own ally saying that their mission is to wage war not act as apostles they'll let guts in his party go for now and guts will not abide by this if all these demons are in the city that means that it's possible griffith could be here as well zod picks up on the implication suddenly growing far more hostile as he asks guts to spell out in no uncertain terms what he plans to do once he hears the answer if guts is there to act as an enemy then he is free game to kill right then and there beaten to ground beef or not guts and zod stare each other down and it seems like things are about to continue in a violent fashion only for serpico to force himself between the two rivals reminding guts that he doesn't care about some feud between monsters gut snaps out of his thoughts looking back at his party and specifically paying attention to the terrified koska he's still got a job to do and he can't waste any more time on his grudge so guts tell zod to leave the fight was over it seems like things have finally calmed down and guts collapses to the ground passing out immediately once zod and the rest of the apostles go back to their war serpico coming to the conclusion that he must have pushed himself to the limit just to piss zod off luckily it seems like they can finally set sail and escape this nightmare dragging guts into a rowboat where sleeping a zone is hidden and the party rose out into the water france is worried about the fate of her family taking in the absolute destruction around them along with the realization they won't be coming home for a long time if ever but she goes back to tending to guts's wounds guts himself is drifting in and out of consciousness his eye moving to the distance staring at a hilltop where griffith is watching them guts and griffiths share one last look before he falls unconscious the rowboat finally reaching the ship they worked so hard to find now you might think that's the end of the arc you have a cool duel between guts and serpico heart-warming family moments between the party a nice climactic battle an ironic reunion of guts zod and griffith the choice guts had to make between saving his loved ones and revenge a lot of things happened so many things one might even say too many things if you can't handle it for tennis was a very large chunk of the story to say the least but it's not over yet there's still a full 28 chapters to go before the actual ending of the falcon of the millennium empire arc and if you thought things got crazy before you haven't seen anything yet there's still a war to win sir owen and his guys ride through what's left of the city lamenting that the entire alliance navy was burned in a single night yet just as quickly as the monsters arrived they vanished and instead piles of cushion monsters were all that's left behind the gathered armies all discussed the situation from the previous night some not believing the stories about the monsters and others unsure of what happened to the nobility after the fall came in the only thing they do know is the main kushin army is here entire scores of soldiers standing right outside of her tennis even salat and the bakiraka are on the battlefield with them though they actually seem conflicted on whether or not they're actually gonna do any fighting if they win then their clan is trapped under ganesha's thumb an actual [ __ ] demon if they lose then the bakuraka just get more shame heaped upon them it's not a great situation for anyone involved sir owen is trapped outside as the alliance armies start to panic and in fact having so many moving parts means any chaos that breaks out is impossible to stamp down on then the worst part of it all reveals himself ganeshka is leading the charge personally he is pissed at having been wounded for the first time and he wants to see the city burn to the ground no more games he's not even using his demon army he'll destroy vertennis as the great emperor not a demon and things quickly turn into an absolute slaughter the surrounded armies despite actually having pretty decent numbers are overwhelmed by the freshly inspired cushions the alliance armies decide to retreat into the city before the enemy kills them all outside the walls but it's obvious that all order has broken down the monsters last night were to disrupt the command structure since without decent leadership the actual armies have no control over themselves so they're powerless in the face of the main kushin army sir owen comes to the conclusion that the tempo is completely in the cushion's favor so much so that nothing can be done and the battle is lost before they even started fighting in a single night the only chance that standing against the cushion empire was destroyed no it wasn't out of the blue command figures in the kushin army start dying violently arrows rain down taking off their heads right in the middle of their units it's irving set up on a position on a hill and using his demonic powers to kill the cushion men leading the cavalry charge into vertenus and without any generals to give new orders the horsemen end up charging straight into the moat to make matters even weirder a strange black figure drifts between the war elephants roxas is floating around poisoning the animals and sending them into a frenzy directly in the middle of their allies sir owen has no clue what's happening but salat and his friends pick up on the situation fast it's them it's griffith hidden away in the cliffs by the beach waiting to ambush the cushions ganeshka seems to finally realize the culprit behind his army suddenly falling apart but it's too late griffith and his men are up on the hills above the city ready to charge down and strike the cushions from behind even though the band of the hawk is much smaller than the army they're fighting the sudden arrival of a new force is enough to scare the cushions out of their spirits it also doesn't help that locus and his war demons are able to kill entire units in mere seconds make matters even worse zod arrives and starts his own slaughter followed by a score of demons himself grunbelled and his men are busy killing the war elephants in melee because these dudes are [ __ ] big and the main army attacking for tennis by the way was over two hundred thousand men and the few hundred encompassing the band of the hawk are cutting through them like a hot knife through butter and sir owen finally recognizes that it's the band of the hawk led by griffith himself the guy he was trying to find just up and saved his life salah was torn on whether or not he really wanted to keep serving ganesha now suddenly the guy he was trying to find for like a year straight is gunning for his boss and looks like he's legit about to take his head the emperor's royal escort is completely surrounded the elephant escorts are paralyzed in fear fear and griffith goes to ganesha personally killing what's left of his guard and standing before the dread emperor ganeshka essentially pissed off his actual god who just led an army to kill his men and is now standing right in front of him it's not even anything he can control ganeshka just instinctively starts to tremble at the sight of griffith the godhand's voice reaches the emperor apostle paradoxically calming him down even though he knows this is bad news his apostle nature is forcing him to obey to worship griffith like what was prophesized salat and the bakuraka sneak aboard the mobile palace watching griffith approach the emperor slowly reaching out his hand to touch ganeshka the dread emperor is filled with dread knowing that if griffith touches him he will be broken down into one of his loyal servants so he explodes into his fog form reasserting his place as the supreme ruler of the world even as zod and his demons enter the palace he swears that he will be the one who will become the king of the demons not griffith and now that they're all in his palace he has the perfect chance to finish off his mortal enemy though he won't kill him instead he'll electrocute griffith until he can't move then he'll capture him as a slave so he can show him some things he learned from a little book called the kama sutra but griffith isn't impressed with the threats simply saying the air is stagnant out of nowhere the walls of the palace explode in grunbeld and his giants tearing down the mobile palace and throwing it to the ground what was once the emperor's ultimate symbol of status and authority is now crumbling down to earth into a pile of rubble now ganesha is exposed to the open air and griffith comments that he smells the breeze of the sea a massive gust of wind blows through the battlefield almost focused entirely on ganeshka the air is so strong that his mist form is being pulled apart if he's blown apart to the wind he'll be forced out of his fog form meaning he's vulnerable in front of griffith who simply stands above ganeshka the wind blowing past him like a literal angel shockingly griffith doesn't want to kill him either at least not right now he wants ganeshka to withdraw his army he says that it's because the emperor's power makes it impossible to capture or even hurt him griffith simply wants ganeshka to go away for right now don't try to retake control of his army it would only invite confusion griffith is willing to end things as a stalemate for now if they're going to have a final battle it needs to happen in a very specific location wyndham the royal capital of midland griffith wants to finish things there ganeshka actually agrees with the idea regaining his confidence and swearing to kill griffith once and for all but for now the kushans will retreat sir owen can scarcely believe what he saw going from about to die to a sudden and decisive victory in the span of maybe two hours even lord vandeman can't believe what just happened and salat just watches his countrymen simply walk away in shame griffith once again showered in glory for saving the day the alliance armies all gush about the battle each one talking about how the band of the hawk the legendary army for the hundred years war returned to save them all led by the white hawk griffith sir owen thought the guy was impressive before but now the guy was like a living force of nature almost inhuman but there's a certain somebody who isn't impressed lord vandamian he introduces himself as the representative of the alliance army and he wants to know who exactly griffith represents with his army the demon claims that the band the hawk is the official midland liberation army under direct control of the royal house itself not only that but anyone who sets foot in midland for the war are under his command if you can't handle that don't bother coming to midland this ends up pissing off some of the alliance armies who if you remember were all scheming on how they were going to cut midland into pieces and divide out territory when the war ended but griffith isn't backing down the way he sees it he has full authority to make these demands considering they're the sole military force in the country some of the middle and nobles that were trapped in the city are offended at this suggestion griffith even after all these years was a commoner there's no way he could lead the only regular army in midland he has to hand over that responsibility to the nobility the guys who ran away when things got tough sir locus even calls this out saying that griffith and the hawks were the only ones fighting the cushions while they all fled the country and an army that doesn't protect or defend the kingdom it swore loyalty to can't be a regular army it's nothing more than a bunch of mercenaries one of the other nobles fires back by saying they can't possibly have royal permission to do any of this the king is dead and no one knows what happened to princess charlotte so griffith is wearing false authority to conduct his war in fact there's that whole business of griffith being imprisoned for high treason some years back so this could all be one of his schemes to take over the country the worst part is he's right it's just not the way he thinks still this too is refuted by princess charlotte she followed griffith personally to the city to confirm she is alive and safe sir owen joins the other nobles in paying respects to their once missing monarch and it seems like old habits die hard as she gets nervous at the sudden intention but the presence of griffith steals her nerves and she makes her first real royal decree to confirm that she is going to marry griffith and make him supreme commander to the midland military [ __ ] that's not good yeah even though all this is played off like an inspiring all is coming together for a happy end sort of deal there's a strange sort of tension behind it all you know what griffith did who he truly is yet he's getting everything he ever wanted so hard that the story itself is treating this like a big grand positive moment those spoiled nobles got smacked across the nose for being cowards that menial ganishka was defeated and humiliated midland is pulling itself out of the darkness and all it took was a guy plunging it into darkness in the first place it really does sort of make you the reader feel like almost a lovecraft protagonist in parts how can you focus on the political scheming after everything you've seen up to this point when you know how this world really works and what griffith truly is it's almost like watching a literal cult form in real time charlotte is happy to be with griffith just like she always wanted but dear sweet god it's not a good thing in the slightest even as she inspires the rest of middle and nobility to join them and freeing the country you can't help but feel like maybe dead was better sir owen is loyal to midland through and through saying that she has every right to stick by griffith since they all ran like cowards begging other countries for help meanwhile the band of the hawk just stood and fought back of course there's a lot of circumstances that make this a lot more complicated than it sounds it's easy to call yourself a coward for not wanting to be torn apart by literal demons but to him there's no excuse besides griffith already won the hundred years war anyway what better figure to rally the nobles together and bring midland back from the brink so even if they don't like it they'll stick by charlotte to the end the rest of the alliance armies don't care about all this though all they know is that the dude dressed like a bird kicked cushion ass which was kinda cool i guess it doesn't really make them feel any better though yeah gaining their undying loyalty on griffith's terms won't be that easy the war affects everybody not just midland it's a war of religion a full-blown crusade based off faith at least how lord vandamian sees it if griffith wants their support like how he wants it he needs to show why something like national borders stand above the will of god you would need someone like i don't know a pontiff himself to show up and take griffith's side which is just completely impossible that's his carriage right there isn't it that's right if you remember griffith did get the support of the pontiff earlier and he decides to show himself in front of the entire alliance armies nobles and the band of the hawk they want to know why he's come to her tennis and why he's being escorted by two kids mule and sonia but you can probably already guess it's to give his support to griffith though it's not just support honestly it's full-blown worship in front of all of his subjects the pontiff throws himself to the ground in front of griffith in a manner that directly mirrors mozgus's personal ritual from part 3 but the old man only decides to come to his feet when griffith gives him permission to the way the old man puts it a single look at griffith was all it took to confirm his vision he basks in griffith's glory for a moment right before turning to the rest of his subjects and declaring that griffith is a savior sent by god himself which was revealed to the pontiff in a divine revelation the scores of people watching the scene all remember the dream the vision shared across the world of when the hawk of light would reveal himself and pull the world out of darkness so now entire nations are convinced griffith is jesus christ himself made flesh this is very not good remember he's leading an army of flesh-eating demons that obey his every word he's still part of the god hand the absolutely malevolent force that's been doing nothing but causing suffering to the world for what must be thousands of years at the very least and the only people that stand even the slightest chance at stopping them they're on a boat welcome everybody welcome to despair so the ship the party is sailing on is sort of infamous now the actual amount of time on the boat isn't as bad as what people say and in regards to the story it makes perfect sense but i am not kidding when i say that in real life our protagonists are stuck on this [ __ ] boat for like nine years miura really slowed down on chapter production due to a mixture of not wanting to risk burnout planning things out ahead and training himself to use a more digital art style for the future all of these factors combined together along with how the story plays out jumping around to different perspectives means guts is stuck on a boat for damn near a decade in real time in fact when i got into berserk when i started it all the way back in like early high school this would have been like 2012 2013 time frame yeah they were still on that boat when i got into the series and it was only after i left high school did they finally get off the [ __ ] boat now once again when you actually read the chapters it flows a lot faster than you would think still it's kinda tedious it most certainly is considered probably the weakest part of berserk but not as bad as the legends would have you believe especially since i think the boat has some pretty great character moments for instance we see that azan has actually joined the party and is actually training easy drone how to fight yeah when you first saw the dude in part 3 you had no idea he would actually befriend guts and be a part of his crew of course you probably didn't think the same of isidro farnese shrike and serpico when you first saw them though in all fairness which right you could probably guess she was going to stick around for a little bit by that point still it's kind of cool how azan is now kind of the new mentor trying to teach isidro on how to be a better warrior it's definitely hard for him to keep up with the boy considering that he's just fully embraced using cheap tricks even in a sparring duel well if you remember azan is that formal knight he is that old-school warrior that believes in chivalry and honor the kid goes so far as spilling cannonballs on deck to tripazon over and going for a dropkick once the old man falls down but even if esiedra thinks he's clever all it takes is a guy that knows what he's doing to get the tempo back and azan does by removing the small boy's ability to reproduce yep he had his own cheap trick a direct nut shot the rest of the crew enjoy watching the two spar which apparently became a pretty regular affair though easy draw is yet to ever actually land a hit on azan same as when he sparred with guts isidro complains that azan won through a dirty trick but he's quick to remind the kid that his entire fighting style is nothing but tricks he can't complain if somebody does the same back to him and it says a lot about the one who taught him though puck is willing to take full responsibility for his students failures all right azan hasn't puck yet it seems that azan isn't actually there by choice though considered a stowaway by the rest of the crew and forced to work off his passage though i wouldn't really call him a stowaway more like a kidnap victim considering they used the rowboat he was sleeping in he didn't know what was going on he's also desperate to hide his true identity never taking off his helmet and referring to himself as the black mustache knight though serpico recognizes him immediately even addressing him by name but it seems that azan was actually fired from the holy see after the events of saint albion and was content to wander as a knight until he just happened to run to his old companions by sheer coincidence so it's not like he's traumatized by what happened he is plain just embarrassed to admit he got fired the rest of the crew is pretty much left in the dark about the journey the most they know is that for tennis suddenly caught fire a giant appeared in the fog and a horrible storm blew through then their captain showed up with a bunch of weirdos one of which was nearly dead that's not even mentioning the elves the elves are weird sailors are already very superstitious so throwing in things like witches and elves just mean trouble but roderick doesn't seem to care about any risks he owes the group his life and orders his crew to treat them all as honored guests the women especially though the navigator guesses right away that roderick means farnese in particular he doesn't try to deny it they're technically going to get married once this business was all done and speaking of farnice we get a scene where serpico is standing watch outside her room turns out he's standing guard as farnese and shrike prepare a magic ritual the woman covering herself in the special mixtures that will help her move into the astral world it's time for her first journey outside of her body for farnese to remove her spirit from her physical form like how shrike can she's nervous but her teacher insists she's ready all she needs to do is lay down and listen to shrike farnese enters the trance forming her body in the astral world and fully removing her consciousness from her physical self farnice finds herself floating above her sleeping body the ritual complete she actually did it she is met by shrike who also moved into the astral world to help guide farnese the woman starting off setting people on fire has taken her first major step towards becoming a full-fledged witch after all the pain fear insecurity and feeling utterly useless bernice has actually accomplished something for herself she fully admits that when she returned to her family she felt like giving up on magic and it was just a phase in her life that was at an end at least that was her excuse the truth was she tried to run away she was afraid of being useless of failing her loved ones but then they came back for her it gave her hope that even if she isn't a strong fighter or a charismatic leader that she has a place among these people she found a home shrike admits that she was sort of the opposite she wanted nothing to do with the human world to just hide out in the forest with flora until the end of time she had everything she could have ever needed right in the forest shrike felt like she was above the world of man but going on the journey with everyone showed that even if the normal world was cold and terrible there's small specks of good buried deep down it was savage and corrupt but it was warm shrike leads farnese outside flying out of the room and floating above the ship the two magic users looking down at the ship and the ocean below but farnese finds herself looking at guts who's standing watch as koska stares out at the water but there's a problem his vision goes cloudy for a moment almost going dark even with his eye wide open the berserker armor is taking his vision just like skull knight warned roger comes to talk with guts referring to him as boss though they both decide to just drop any titles and keep things casual roderick asks guts why he isn't sticking closer to costco if he's watching over her but he doesn't answer instead the captain changes subject by asking just what exactly is the deal between guts and costco who is she to him even flat out asking if she's his woman the two are unknowingly watched by shrike and farnese still in the astral world all the while gut simply thinks about his answer saying that she's his something we don't know what he actually says since it turns out funnies jump back into her own body almost by reflex shrike comes back as well to check what happened and serpico bursts into the room thinking something went wrong but it seems that everything is okay farnese simply didn't want to know what guts was going to say it seems that her feelings for the man are starting to get complicated not just that but it seems koska got a little too excited chasing after a seagull now climbing onto the mast of the ship dangling herself over the water god sleeps in by reflex to pull her back to safety but his presence only makes things worse koska starts climbing further up the mast trying to get away from guts the ship hits a wave and koska accidentally falls off the ship guts reaches out to save her and he does grab her hand but he used his left arm the artificial one his fingers can't actually grip themselves onto her hand so she slips past and falls into the water guts jumps in without a second thought roger calling for the ship to drop anchor as they have people overboard he manages to find koska under the water grabbing onto her as he thinks about how something like this has happened before guts brings costco back to the surface just in time for roderick and some of the crew men to combine the rowboat to rescue her but after she's saved gutz is hit by a strong wave pulled under the surface and unable to swim back up thanks to his artificial arm weighing him down as he slips into unconsciousness guts finally remembers why the whole scene felt familiar any time koska stands by water she ends up falling into it and he would have to save her the memories are some of his happiest but they're painful to think about there are days that are long since gone and in the end they all lead back to the eclipse to when it was all taken away guts wakes up back on board the ship having been saved by roderick himself turns out his wounds from the vertennis battle are still very severe so a sudden straining knocked him unconscious and made him too weak to swim but guts doesn't seem to care all he wants to know is whether or not koska made it back okay she's fine by the way farnese is actually giving her a hot bath madwoman already completely forgotten the events of the day the words calm guts down immediately he relaxes back into his bed but before he can completely rest strike needs to redraw the talisman against his neck the one to keep the effects of the brand at bay but his thoughts drift back to his artificial arm he couldn't catch her this time because his real arm isn't there anymore just a brutal imitation he plopped in its spot and the only reason that iron hand is there is so he can kill his enemies not save anyone guts then remarks that even if he forces something back that was lost it won't be like it was which is probably one of the most painful quotes of the entire series since it's guts outright stating that there's no way things will ever go back to what he remembers even if he helps koska almost pointing to an idea that guts has some meandering doubt over his whole journey koska will come back but is it really gonna be that easy everything is already so different it's impossible that she'll just come back like how she was in the old days but nevertheless guts is gonna see this through to the end he'll just bury any doubt and push on ahead besides it's not like they have any other options as shrike redraws the talisman she notes that she can actually feel some of gutz's pain transfer through possibly a side effect of when she was pulled into his mind when the berserker armor took over she can feel his burns thinking back to all the time she had to cling on to him even if it technically was in the astral world noticeably nervous when guts asks if they're finished trey completes the talisman and leaves the room saying that she'll prepare more medicine and bandages for him though in truth shrike is also thinking about the scene on the front deck it seems she does have at the very least a passing crush on guts but she's content with how things are and their own way the two already have a bond that nobody else does she's the only one that can save guts from the berserker armor so in a way she knows guts better than anyone else in the party and knowing that is enough for her farnese is busy giving koska her bath but she's having trouble keeping the mad woman focused the soapy water is stinging her eyes and she splashes farnese with a bucket as sort of a childish prank but instead of showing her usual patience farnese actually snaps at koska screaming at her for acting that way but before you start thinking that's just general frustration around her charge's mental state the conversation pretty quickly shifts to guts he has nearly been killed countless times all to protect koska yet she doesn't appreciate a single thing he does for her just lashing out and spinning on him any chance she can get but guts still goes out of his way to protect her frannie's crumples to the ground simply saying that it's no fair kaska seems to pick up on how she upset farnice trying to make up for her tantrum by putting the bucket on her head though it has no water to wash out her hair still farnese starts crying clutching cos get close to her and just repeating about how it isn't fair so those feelings she has for guts are fully starting to affect her decision making this is the first time we've actually seen farnese go out of her way to argue for guts and especially losing her patience with koska she's always supported the man and of course has clear enthusiasm towards everything he does but this is the first time she's actually gotten tired of koska's [ __ ] the conflict inside of her can't possibly be fun she's starting to fall in love with a man who is percent focused on a different woman a woman she is charged with taking care of and acting as the main caretaker for and to make matters worse he's constantly getting into near-death situations all to protect koska not farnese all those times guts rode in like the badass warrior he was to save the women he wasn't thinking about farnese he was fully focused on keeping koska safe even though farnese was the only woman who actually comprehended the importance of what he was doing for them the only one that knows about and cares about the risks he's putting on himself to make sure they are okay so really she's feeling a tad bit of sympathy to the situation she herself is feeling kind of unappreciated and ignored when all she wants to do is show how much she cares about guts she doesn't want to be the other woman she wants to be the one that gutz is rushing in to save now of course farnese isn't abusing goska or anything like that in fact the idea that she's been bottling it up for so long and just now coming out to the surface after guts once again nearly died to save his actual true love is kind of tragic but enough of this character are introspection stuff let's fight pirates roderick and his crew spot a trio of ships out in the distant ocean flying the ith flags but they only raised them once they spotted the ship and they changed course to intercept roderick immediately spots the ambush calling his men to their battle stations the rest of the crew prepare for a fight while our party's left in the dark about what's to come but it's for the best because we've actually met these pirates before that's right it's those guys again welcome to probably one of the worst parts of the manga the [ __ ] pirates the jobber slaver pirates we saw isidro mule fight and for tennis are the ones trying to ambush roderick all you have to know is that they're complete stereotypes that essentially act like jokes to make roderick look cool now he is cool he's got a ship and he gets to marry a cute witch lady but this part is just sort of uh it is important to show why exactly roderick stands out among the rest of the party since before and for tennis he was just sort of a dude who could use a sword but now they're portraying his skill set as a captain and establishing that he's a complete badass not just some prissy noble like minifico but i don't know having the pirates be so two-dimensional especially compared to what we saw earlier in the arc it can feel like dare i say it filler there's really not much of a point to the battle and the pirates don't really do anything important to the plot at large now the battle is exciting it's the first time we've actually seen a naval battle in berserk which has always focused on large ground battles or epic fights with [ __ ] up monsters but i just don't know maybe it's because the pirates just plain aren't threatening we've already seen them get their asses kicked before and the captain himself utterly humiliated so having them come back for twosies just sort of feels strange you might argue that a dawn was sort of similar the guy from golden age that constantly gunned after koska and you wouldn't be completely wrong he was also a joke character that only really existed to be pushed around but adon at least put up a fight he was the set up to the hundred man fight which was a pretty major moment for guts and koska and really he was pretty dangerous compared to the rest of the army it was just that guts and costco were better and he went on to affect the plot by setting up the trap at doldry and trying to poison koska it didn't work but the point is it happened the pirates try to invoke the same energy but there's never a point where they actually challenge roderick in fact the major reveal of the fight is that they're completely outclassed by a single ship because roderick is actually a legendary war hero in his homeland who destroyed five judor warships in a single fight plus you find out the ship is called the seahorse it's a cool name for a boat it might sound like i'm really critical of this part and you're kind of right but please don't understand that this doesn't ruin the manga the story hasn't jumped the shark or anything like that it's just a segment i personally do not care for there's still a lot to appreciate for one the art looks cool i mean this arc really peaked with the art it and conviction are probably some of the best you'll see in manga period plus story wise you get to pick up on how dazzled isidro is with the idea of being a powerful ship captain sort of pointing to the fact that maybe his larger destiny might involve training under roderick he couldn't keep up under guts or azan so maybe his path is meant to be something else there were constant hints towards this idea throughout the arc from isidro having trouble fighting in a conventional style dowright getting a sailor sword as his main weapon and having the pirate captain say he would do well as part of his crew and now he's getting visibly excited watching the ship fight it helps that the pirates are getting their ass kicked eight ways to sunday it seems like no matter what they do roderick and his men are just a step ahead there's a point where roderick moves his ship downwind which the pirate captain views as a chance to turn the momentum back in his favor since any ship and control the wind has the full advantage but they quickly learn that they're trapped in place by the other ships which are too damaged to move plus the smoke from the battle hid the seahorse from sight so they're free to move as they please roderick explains that having the wind isn't always an advantage since it means the smoke hangs in front of you plus your ship gradually rises on the downwind angle meaning your weapon's aim is off and you can't hit any critical spots on the enemy vessel the seahorse is free of all these negatives meaning they don't even have to adjust their aim or even ram in the cannonballs into their weapons so they can fire very accurately very fast the pirates are torn to pieces and the barrage but it's not over yet they're still trying to win the fight but the seahorse vanished once again suddenly appearing in front of the pirates and reclaiming the upwind position unleashing more cannon fire and critically wounding the main pirate ship the final attack is enough to shatter their morale the captain ordering a full retreat leaving the other two ships behind to ensure they escape the seahorse's navigator wants to know if they should pursue after the pirates but he orders them to leave them be with how damaged they are other pirates will target them without a doubt plus he doesn't want to have to deal with capturing anyone and holding them prisoner while they have guests for now they will celebrate he orders isidro to inform farnese of what happened no doubt trying to impress his fiancee with his new victory and the boy admits that he thought roderick was just a wussy lady killer puck also says this but he was just being an [ __ ] puck is always being an [ __ ] our party was stashed below deck in the supply room tending to guts as he deals with a bad fever he's completely unconscious and evalira points out that it seems like he's having a nightmare farnese wants to know if they can help him dispel the nightmare with magic but shrike thinks that might just make the situation worse he's delirious from pretty severe illness messing with his mind could just make the situation worse they just need to leave him be with whatever he's thinking about oh christ it's back the beast of darkness is back to mess with gutz's head taking advantage of his weakened state to torment the guy the others are powerless to stop it simply trying to manage guts's fever and hoping for the best but it's very much a problem the beast wants to take control again bragging that ever since guts acquired the berserker armor it's been too late to stop it shrike's influence is simply temporary as are the rest of his companions guts is simply clinging on to these people completely blind to the truth the closer they all get the more they strengthen their bonds as friends the more painful it will be when they're all inevitably killed just like in the eclipse the beast taunts guts to let them become precious to him that when they die nothing will stop it from completely consuming guts and only then will they be free to murder griffith insane and filled with hate just like the old days but for now the beast will obey it will leave him alone simply waiting in the back of gutz's mind for the perfect opportunity to seize control and never let go guts wakes up from his nightmare much to the relief of the others but he's not listening to anything they're saying well he can't remember the dream he just had all he knows is that it was a really really bad one acdro pops in to announce that they won the battle oblivious to the situation below deck as he's screaming his head off at the others though in all fairness the cannons made him deaf for a period so he just doesn't realize how loud he's being regardless of any cryptic warnings by any schizophrenic delusions guts and the others decide to join the celebrations drinking and parting with the crew as it seems like they're free to sail to elf helm in peace puck drunk from the party decides to sneak into a barrel of apples to eat a snack well inside manifeco and roderick step away from the crowd and sit down to discuss a business plan together benifico is aware of some of the superstitions regarding skellig island and the presence of puck and evalera are living proof that maybe some of the stories are true since elves are tiny and they have cannons roderick and minifico can conquer the island the homeland of the elves could be the next big gold mine they can exploit the masses would spend a fortune to buy their own personal elf especially women and children if they come with jars i'm gonna [ __ ] kill you manifeco it's the exact resource they need to upset the balance of power in the world roderick doesn't really take the plan seriously simply telling his friend to ask puck for permission since he knew the elf was eating apples in the barrel and used him as the scapegoat to get out of the scheme don't actually take this part seriously either it's 100 a comedy scene in fact i'm pretty sure it's a reference to treasure island minifico is relegated to being a joke character really quickly the exact prissy noble that everyone hates now decides to join up with the party and does scheming noble [ __ ] while everyone just sort of treats him like a dumbass hell the only way he's able to win puck over to his side is by promising him that he'll give puck the throne once he overthrows the flower storm king and i'm sorry but anybody that's a personal friend of the totally not one thousand year old warrior king who was personally wronged by god himself is definitely not getting outsmarted by a noble guy with daddy issues even puck seems more like he's just humoring manifeco than actually taking the idea seriously or really it's just outright [ __ ] with him it's hard to tell anymore still roderick doesn't really care about any of this he's more interested in why farnese decided to climb all the way up the main mast now just staring out at the ocean from the lookout platform he panics at first thinking she might be stuck up there but she's fine she just wanted some time by herself roderick wants to know what's wrong but farnisco is quiet so he decides to offer his coat farnice is thankful and it seems the gesture was enough for her to admit what's been eating at her mind today she managed to fly higher than the main mast of the ship itself looking down from the sky it made her feel like a part of something grand that she can go anywhere do anything but eventually she had to come back down to the physical world where she felt small like a single drop stuck in the middle of an ocean and most of all even with how much progress she's made with her magic training barney still feels useless she can't even heal guts like how strike can the reference to his unknowing romantic rival sparks a slight feeling of jealousy in roderick but he keeps it under wraps instead saying that while the companions are all eccentric in their own way everyone has their role to fill so while farnese might think she's the sore thumb that doesn't belong she still contributes through caring for koska because she's there to make sure kaska is okay everyone can fight and go on rampages like they do so in her own way farnese is dealing with the hardest job of the group sure she isn't almost dying every day like guts is but the entire quest is about getting koski to safety and hopefully healing her they have to make sure she's safe and happy otherwise this was all for nothing in a way the fact that guts trusted the most important thing in his life to farnese should be proof that he does see her as a key figure to the group roderick is worried that mentioning guts and koska's relationship might have made things worse but it seems like farnese actually took comfort in what he was saying the rest of the party winds down for the night serpico keeping watch over farnese valkoska shrike and isidro all fall asleep gut simply rests on the windowsill making sure everyone is all right before he stares out into the night sky almost identical to his brooding session all that time ago during the golden age just gonna leave this image up for a bit let it soak in let those emotions burn inside all right now that we felt some things and enjoyed some character development let's get [ __ ] weird it's time to end this prepare for some magic [ __ ] and some outright hp lovecraft level cosmic horror even more than we already got because remember we still have a final battle to resolve [Music] windham is still infested by ganeshka's influence but where did the defeat ever tennis manage to reach the resistance especially of the army responsible for the victory the band of the hawk over two hundred thousand kusian soldiers were defeated only allowed to retreat on the condition that they withdraw all their forces minister foss is convinced that this is a sign that griffith has returned and even sir lebon can't help but think about the message sir locust gave them all about the tempest that the hawk will bring no deep down he can't help but feel like all that's happened was somehow inevitable almost like it was a part of destiny but not only did they hear about the victory of her tennis but they also heard the good news of charlotte's rescue she's with the band of the hawk and is safe the resistance is rallied by the good news along with every city in midland who are starting to form rebel militias and ready a full-scale revolt against the kushin occupiers but the wyndham situation is more complicated women from all over the country have been kidnapped and sent to the royal city to perform in the cushing rituals that birthed the demon army in the first place not only that but their children have been stuck in the city as well unable to escape on account of the demons and the kushin army but it seems like the kids have their own message to give the resistance once again another prophetic dream was shared but only among the children and this one was more of a specific warning instead of a general prophecy on a night when they can't see the moon all the fog will leave the city and the monsters and cushions even the castle itself will disappear along with it they have to stay inside their homes until the fog leaves once it does it will be safe until morning so that should be the time to evacuate the city the resistance isn't sure how to organize a rescue operation under such short notice but in a way their job was already done if the children just had the dream then all the people sleeping in wyndham should be seeing the vision as they speak even if they don't fully remember the details once they wake up there should be some subconscious reminder that something will happen on the night of the new moon but why is the morning after going to be so dangerous well according to the children the morning comes but it doesn't a shadow hides the sun large enough to completely cover the city and only then does the hawk come to blow the shadows away bringing the real morning with it the true dawn what does that mean well you'll see griffith is riding alongside the pontiff who is fully consumed in the demon king's influence saying that being around griffith has given him a new lease on life and he's never felt happier before charlotte is worried for the old man's health but he says he's not fated to die just yet not until he performs their wedding ceremony in fact it was his destiny to crown griffith as king the nobles actually seem pretty envious of griffith bitter at how fast he managed to win over the pontiff though sir owen is just happy to step back onto his homeland he can't deny that the dramatics of a decisive victory and the sudden reveal that charlotte is alive may have swept everybody up in griffith's hype but the mental image of the princess and griffith marrying just seems natural that griffith is unlike anyone that's come before though sonia is less impressed just wrapping herself in griffith's cloak as she rides next to him muell is confused at what she's doing but she simply brushes it off by saying that she's playing cushion nevertheless his mind drifts to the armies behind them after the fighting for tennis he expected each nation to try and one-up each other in regards to sending soldiers but each country only sent a few thousand men for the war he assumes that each nation all became nervous once they saw the kushan army was over two hundred thousand men the locust explains that they simply have no motivation in helping a country they have no prospects in griffith banned them from slicing midland apart so really the soldiers that were sent are little more than agents that will judge the state of the country mueller is disgusted at the idea that a holy war is falling victim to politics like this but locust simply says that's the name of the game but soon none of this will matter day will dawn and the true sun will shine upon the world man things are getting really cryptic i really hope it's nothing terrible it's gonna be [ __ ] terrible isn't it you see being wounded for the first time was bad enough but almost being mind raped by griffith into becoming one of his loyal subjects threw ganeshka over the edge he refuses to lose this coming battle so he's resorting to drastic measures much to diba's horror it seems like he's going to try an unprecedented experiment driven to near madness by the realization that no matter how powerful ganeshka might be griffith is simply something else entirely almost forced to worship the man out of sheer instinct as an apostle so ganeshka is going to try to cut out those instincts he's going to use the artificial bail it to become something more to transcend being an apostle and becomes something far more powerful without a moment's hesitation ganesha lowers himself into the chamber turning to fog inside and mixing with the amniotic fluid bragging that he is about to become a real demon god ganeshka's fog is rapidly sucked out of windom just like the dream predicted the elderly and children watching from the safety of their homes as the fog seems to disintegrate anything it touches turning the mutant monsters into dust even the human soldiers aren't safe from the effects broken apart in a moment's notice and helpless against the overwhelming power daiba simply watches in horror in the safety of his magic barrier as something happens inside of the fake balet it's devouring all the life the fog was touching every single drop of flesh and blood the chamber acts exactly like a baillet using the sacrifice of a life to bestow power so what happens is someone who is already a demon tries to reincarnate with its power daiba has no clue all he does know is that what would come out would be an entity from the bowels of the astral world the deepest pits where something sinister lurks inside but for the rest of the city they finally get a moment of peace free of monsters invading soldiers and most of all fog once again the shared dream they all had came true sir labon and the resistance wastes no time organizing and escape ordering the peasantry to gather in front of the cathedral they need to check each district for anyone hiding and to spread the word that they need to leave the city before mourning most of all the wounded and the sick need help the plan goes off without a hitch there wasn't even a hint of panic and since things are going so smoothly labon and his men can check the castle it's almost confusing how well things are working out to the point that it feels like everyone is just accepting what's happening like it's a matter of course but there's no time to think about things they need to clear the castle before dawn yet all they find are discarded uniforms and weapons of the cushions the resistance was blissfully unaware to the effects of the fog's disappearance of how the men who used to be inside of those uniforms were completely devoured by the artificial bailett but there's no time to ponder what happened they need to head for the castle's prison they make it through the castle without encountering a single living person and they're starting to worry that whatever happened to the kushins happened to the women they kept prisoner as well but when they finally enter the dungeons they see that the cells are completely covered with women's clothes labon unlocks one of the cells and we see that they all survived much to everyone's surprise labon tries to explain that they're being rescued but the women are too scared to move only one girl points out that this is like the dream she had labon uses this as his chance to convince the prisoners that yes they are being saved it's not a trick saying that they wouldn't have covered the cell bars if they didn't believe in the vision the crowd finally accepts that they're being rescued and labon orders his men to split up and rescue the other women not a single person is to be left behind it turns out that the prison was held to near full capacity all of the captives were women the cushings kidnapped across the entirety of midland while it's good that they managed to save so many people it's going to be hard to smuggle them all out by morning using the underground waterways like they planned simply won't work but that's when labong gets an idea there's a lot of leftover uniforms all over the ground isn't there the peasants outside notice a formation coming their way and panic once they recognize the uniforms as cushion fully believing the main army is back to occupy the city and kill them all but labon is quick to explain things they didn't have time to message ahead but this is their plan to get everyone out of windom they'll disguise the civilians as kushin soldiers and sneak out among the ranks there's no guarantee that this will work but there's certain things will go fine everything that showed up in the children's vision has come true so far they have to believe this is part of the revelation if they just get past this little slump they'll be free of the garrison and can get away from the city as far as possible but there's a problem they run into guards at the gate who want to know what unit they are and they want the answer in their native language it seems like they might have to fight their way out the worst possible case scenario considering they're escorting a massive group of civilians that can't fight but at the last second someone comes to the rescue a cushion horseman arrives to hand the guard a copy of their orders saying the whole situation was a misunderstanding it's one of griffith's spies in the cushion army there to make sure the evacuation goes smoothly it seems like everything is going according to plan and the resistance is allowed to pass through the gate unharmed the horseman introduces himself as darif who explains his role with the band of the hawk lebon is surprised that akushin is helping the band of the hawk and also holy [ __ ] they're back but sharif explains that there's actually quite a few kushin that split off to fight against ganesha which i mean he's an actual demon so he can't really blame the dudes if anything they're the smart ones labon and his men are confused by griffith's tactics but then they run into another problem it's a lot in the bakiraka and they are not [ __ ] stupid like the guards they instantly see through the disguise and they're pissed salat directly calls gerif a traitor for fighting with griffith and it seems like things are about to get violent but sharif thinks he can keep things civil he notes that they are the bakuraka clan the infamous assassins that foss recognizes from the old days though some of the resistance nobles take offense at the suggestion that the royal family would use kushin assassins for their dirty work yeah they did it voss is desperate to calm them down noting that their reputations revolve around being astounding killers and they're escorting women and children so that's a bad mixture no matter how they slice it girif explains that he is aware of the tragedy of the bakuraka clan a clan of war slaves loyal to the overthrown royal family and forced to become assassins to survive he also guesses that salat is fighting in the war to try and re-establish them as a fully recognized clan and salat himself confirms his suspicions sharif takes a gamble by asking salat to actually switch sides and serve griffith instead of ganeshka the emperor is a tyrant and he's ruling his kingdom through terror so is salat truly willing to assist in tyranny just to be reinstated to the cushions what about their pride as warriors but salat is not won over by the speech the way he sees it they've thrown away their pride years ago all he cares about is giving his people a home where they can be left alone besides not a single kingdom exists that isn't a tyrant so why care about moralizing they just need to side with the strong gerif suggests that maybe the land of peace that salat wants is waiting for them if they serve griffith maybe that new kingdom will completely change his preconceptions on how the world works salat has no clue what the hell the guy is talking about and even sharif isn't really sure himself it's just a feeling he has that this war wasn't just a jihad or a conquest for territory it's something bigger than anyone realizes and all has something to do with griffith if they follow him they'll find a new world that has never been seen before salat is impressed by the speech but all he hears are the words of a bunch of fanatics he's not joining them but he won't stop them either though he claims that it's simply because there's too many people to capture and it wasn't their mess to fix anyway he lets the group pass but he has some parting words for gerif he might have some guess on the world griffith wants to build and he doesn't like it the bakiraka had been forced to survive a painful fate one that caused them to rely on nothing but their skills and their own bodies the brutal lifestyle mixed with the recent shenanigans with ganeshka has salat pondering something himself is it really such a good idea to dedicate yourself to something you don't understand just because the new world sounds bright and hopeful doesn't mean it actually will be of course working for the dread emperor also sucks so salat and the bakuraka will sit things out and see whether or not griffith's new world is anything they want to be a part of or not the survivors get far away from wyndham running into the band of the hawk sir owen and sir labon reuniting after several years of war the two men are thankful to see the other alive but they can talk about things later for now they need to report the situation to griffith who is just watching everything from the hill as if he knew everything that happened already back at wyndham we see daiba run out of the hall containing the man-made bailit in absolute horror whatever was created in the chamber terrified the experienced magic user enough that he simply started running for his life and we soon see that ganeshka has mutated into something unspeakable a writhing mass of eyes and mouths bragging that he finally obtained the godlike power he wanted for so long the building collapses around him revealing that ganeshka has become an uncontrollable form but worse than daiba could have imagined that was only a part of ganeshka there's still so much more which is now tearing windham apart as he reveals himself to the open air a single limb exploding an entire section of the city into rubble the rest of his form rises out into the city daiba left wondering just what the hell ganeshka turned himself into it's like hell itself is overflowing into the real world the kushans waiting outside the city watch helplessly as they're caught in a massive earthquake rubble from the walls towers everything just collapsing on top of them first the city went dead quiet now an earthquake kills their friends all the cushions want to do is see the sun come up already which is weird the sky is light but it's still dark outside wait that's right everyone for miles around everyone everyone watches in horror as the sun itself is covered sonia is simply saying that the reason of the world ends now at the sight of the monstrosity before them griffith simply looking at his creation with a small smile the horrific leviathan standing taller than a mountain piercing the clouds themselves our heroes back on the seahorse are blissfully unaware to everything that's happening isidro is training with azan while serpico takes his position on the lookout post using his wind magic to help the sails catch good breeze though he's mainly there to watch out for shrek and fernies who've taken to practicing their astral projections as often as they can but shrike feels it puck and evalira are busy trying to catch a fish the latter nagging about the former's usage of a piece of cheese is bait when puck goes to swap out his bait for something more substantial he sees that the balet and guts's pouch might be a good replacement guts tries to force the two to knock off the [ __ ] but then he feels it and even the bailit reacts to the strange goings-on in the world forming into a complete face koska cries out as her brand gives her pain and guts goes to look outside trying to find out just what is causing the strange feeling shrike and farnese are the only two with any sort of clue that a calamity is taking place back on the mainland to the east and it feels like the world is tearing itself apart the world ganeshka towers over wyndham an absolute colossus compared to the entire city around him he really did become a god in almost every sense of the word to the point his own soldiers break down and start praying at his feet but there's a problem ganeshka doesn't recognize the men under his feet all he sees are tiny insects in fact it seems like ganesha's mind is starting to fall apart he's barely able to recognize his own foot even as he stomps on the ground in front of him he walks forward crushing what's left of windom to dust and his army is unfortunately right in his path though to ganeshka the bloody stains left on the ground where the men were turned into paste were instead blooming red flowers he's enraptured by the beauty of his flower garden completely unaware that he is murdering his own army the band of the hawk have no clue what the hell that thing is but sonia simply calls it the beast of the end the one who ends the reason of this world even salat and hizbakiraka are horrified the lead assassin remembering the message about that which lies outside of reason it seems like griffith is going to bring about a new world by fighting a real demon god all the villagers back at camp are comforted by the pontiff who simply tells them all to watch the battle unfold in front of them it is the prophesized time when the ultimate calamity is defeated by the hawk of light this isn't a time to be afraid they are about to witness a miracle in real time they just need to have faith in griffith all of midland is witness to the fight ahead the sheer mass of ganeshka large enough to be seen from across the country what's left of the kushan army is utterly destroyed crushed into nothing by their emperor who doesn't even realize what he's doing daiba mounts his pterodactyl and flies up to ganeshka's head desperate to break through to his emperor and make him see reason but all ganeshka hears is the buzzing of an insect some of the heads on ganesha's body spit fire at daiba who evades the attack as best he can but now the titanic monster is raining fire down from the sky making the situation seem downright apocalyptic worst of all daiba fears that ganeshka's ego has completely shattered meaning that whatever remained of ganeshka the man is completely gone all that's left is the demon the demon who destroys the world with fire shiva the prophesized god among the kushans that signals the end of the world and just as daiba predicted we get this scene that shows ganesha's ability to think is getting worse he doesn't understand that the insects he crushed were his own army but soon devolves into not even understanding what a soldier even is his mind can't handle the sheer power bestowed upon him to the point that ganesha's entire identity shatters in his own mind all he knows is that he is alone in the endless landscape it really does look like the end of the world a gigantic monster pouring fire down from the skies and all ganeshka knows anymore is that there's a light in the distance griffith after all that pride and determination his instincts completely take over ganeshko wants to go to griffith he doesn't know why just that it's his purpose to do so we then see that the fire that ganeshka was pouring down at the world were actually pieces of his body which reshaped into miniature forms of the larger monster and they are absolutely just as malicious as the main titan itself devouring any cushion survivors that are left and slithering towards the light that the main body is trying to get to they're coming right for the bant of the hawk they have no choice but to fight griffith gives a speech to his army asking the nobility to protect the pontiff and the princess from danger which they gladly agree to sonia and mueller will stay behind as well much to her anoints the ones leading the charge will be the war demons who transform in front of the clueless civilians showing their demonic natures and diving into the fight the final battle is like a scene pulled out of hell itself horrific monsters killing each other on both sides it's almost impossible to comprehend like a scene straight out of the eclipse itself the apostle commanders all show off their abilities drum pellets fire locus is lancers and zod rips through the ganishka creatures like he always does the entire time the humans are left completely speechless as to what they're seeing turns out they didn't realize that the term war demons was a literal description they're actual monsters and each and every single human soldier realizes that they are completely helpless in a fight against a real monster but worst of all if these monsters are following griffith then what does that make him it seems like they finally finally recognize what griffith really is deep down that he's a demon just like the rest of them that his very existence is the reason they suffered so much but then sonia opens her fat [ __ ] mouth she uses her telepathy to call all the terrified humans idiots prepare for one of the dumbest speeches you have ever heard i can't even sugarcoat it you're quite literally about to watch a girl damn humanity to possible extinction you see sonia doesn't think it matters that the war demons are well [ __ ] demons you see they're risking their lives to save humans not only that but so long as they fight for griffith it doesn't matter what you are deep down after all they're the band of the hawk hey kid you wanna know what happened to the old band of the hawk pretty sure you won't like that story it doesn't have a happy [ __ ] ending yeah this scene is what completely turned me against sonia as a character there's manipulation then they're siding with actual demons from hell level stupidity and the worst part is that yeah this is a really stupid [ __ ] decision remember apostles in berserk simply aren't capable of being good people anymore hell in a way they never were it's why they became demons they make the ultimate sacrifice to betray someone close to them and their hearts are flooded with evil itself every single apostle we've seen has done horrifying things to people simply because they could even the most honorable apostles still do pretty [ __ ] evil things zod is a violent sociopath that just wants to kill grunbelled still went after flora and just basically told himself he was still an honorable warrior even though no he's just a piece of [ __ ] locus is very obviously a [ __ ] lunatic even mule outright said it felt like the dude wanted to kill him this isn't devil man apostles aren't a persecuted minority that are simply misunderstood they are absurdly evil and clearly view themselves as being above mankind so humanity trusting demons is quite literally inviting the wolf into the henhouse it's just gonna end in a lot of dead bodies hell who the [ __ ] do you think caused the entire war in the first place ganeshka was an apostle like them now humanity at large don't know about the god hand in the exact way a demon is created so it's hard to really be angry at them for being manipulated i'm angry because i have information that the characters don't have dramatic irony and all that all they know is that these things were fighting the kushans so maybe they weren't so bad sonya then goes a step further by trying to join the demons in battle but irving has to save her from being eaten alive by one of the ganeshka monsters so now the band of the hawks see a war demon save a little girl it was a risky move irvine himself says that it was a [ __ ] stupid idea to try and fight one of these things but her point was made the band of the hawk are now inspired to fight alongside the flesh-eating demons griffith comes in just in time to give them their orders the war demons are powerful but even they're overwhelmed by the sheer amount of enemies before them their job is to lure any of these creatures that get passed into cannon fire they have to work together in order to win this battle it seems to go off without a hitch the humans support a surprising help that doesn't immediately melt in the face of the horrible enemy irvine tells sonia to get off but she isn't moving she likes her spot and intends to go the full battle like this so irvane simply tells her to keep her head down and hang on tight he returns to fighting the monstrosities his demonic powers allowing him to kill multiple ganesha mutants at a time and before he realizes it the rest of the hawks rally behind irvine pretty soon the demons are receiving help from the humans both sides just naturally coming together to fight the larger enemy it seemed impossible humans and demons actually working together as one to win but it was happening right then and right there daiba is watching in sheer disbelief humans and apostles are natural enemies they simply can't work together but here they are standing with humans and risking their lives despite the efforts of the band of the hawk the monsters are getting too close for comfort though the pontiff isn't afraid instead giving his own speech about how people fear the unknown and through their fear they become obsessed with doctrines that cause them to reject other possibilities other gods and in a way the human experience is staring them in the face at this very scene different races languages religions classes human fear all in the face of the ultimate unknown stirring them right there but he's not afraid instead he's filled with pure joy it's a radiant chaos almost watching a biblical battle play out in front of him led by the prophesized one griffith is the conductor to this absolutely demonic symphony and everyone is playing their part exactly how he wants them to but it seems like ganesha might be a bit too much for them a single step from his massive foot enough to send his army flying backwards everyone except zod griffith rides the back of nosferatu zod as he flies up to ganeshka's head dodging his tendrils and forcing a path directly to the dread emperor's brain griffith steps into the head of ganishka joined only by zod and roxas who snuck a ride on his wing and griffith approaches the center of the demon emperor a single face stuck in the wriggling mass we then get a flashback showing ganeshka's past we see that his mother tried to poison him as a child to have him killed and ensure his younger brother would get the throne instead so in retaliation ganeshka murdered his baby brother driving his mother to suicide but it solved nothing he was surrounded by conspiring snakes every single one trying to kill him his only choice was to kill everyone before they killed him he became so good at disposing of his enemies that his own father the king grew to fear him and saying that his father viewed him as a threat he murdered him as well ganeshka became king simply because he killed everyone that got in his way it was out of sheer survival but nothing changed to escape the snakes of the court ganeshka devoted himself to war and conquest he became a conqueror simply because he was terrified of going home of being assassinated by his own people he married and had his son as custom demanded but ganishka refused to sit down and enjoy his family the trauma of his childhood preventing him from enjoying any peace in his life even as he became a renowned emperor who led the cushings to glory deep down he was still terrified the entire motivation behind the war was simply a fear that he would be killed if he went back home and to make matters worse he was right ganeshka returned to his homeland to attend a royal banquet a rare pleasure for him but it was a trap he was poisoned his own soldiers turned on him the leader of the conspiracy was his own son who is implied to have also been traumatized by the ruthless political landscape of the cushing empire ganeshka is impaled by spears his own son giving the order to murder his father with his last breath ganeshka gripped the balet he acquired some time ago just by sheer coincidence a stranger by the side of the road gave it to him and through using the bailit ganishka sacrificed his own son to become the dread emperor ensuring that nobody can ever kill him but even with this endless power he's still stuck in the terrifying darkness of the world but now there's light in front of him it burns to look at it he's afraid of it but it's warm a comforting voice tells him that he can see past the blinding light because the one who holds the light exists in the deepest shadow it's femto griffith after so long is back in his god hand form standing above ganeshka and convincing him to yield once and for all and ganeshka finally gives in just taking comfort in the warm light but they're not alone someone decided to give his own opinion on the matter and he is very pissed it's skull knight he used the sort of actuation to interrupt the battle taking a swing right at griffith's head zod panics trying to jump in and protect his master but it's too late skull knight finishes his attack it seems like griffith is finally damned to hell zout attack skull knight infuriate at the sudden ambush but griffith is fine in fact he claims he was waiting for skull knight the sword strike didn't go through it's now floating in the air and twisting at griffith's command he's distorting space itself to control the attack from this sort of actuation the attack that can literally cut a hole open in reality he did it griffith 1 a twice reincarnated being and a sword that reaches deep into the astral world these combined together are the keys to the door using ganeshka as the vessel griffith managed to split a hole in reality itself the dread emperor is killed in the process even as hordes of miniature familiars are wiped clean by the massive burst of energy the humans and apostles both simply watch as something explodes out the top of the monster a wave of light that covers the land consuming everything in its path everyone is washed in the wave which grows wildly out of control stretching far and wide across the continent then the world even guts and his party aboard the seahorse are hit by the wave hundreds of miles away from the battle where it originated the entire planet is affected by the light and what exactly did it do fantasy has merged with reality unicorns and hydras are running around in the open much to the horror of the humans stuck in the middle of them and that's not the end of it hydras harpies giants trolls even a [ __ ] dragon the undead flood the graveyards goblins hide in caves elves play in fields all hell has officially broken loose that's right in berserk the big reality shattering event that pushed the world closer to the apocalypse is the setting becoming a basic fantasy world because that means horrible monsters are free to slaughter humans at a whim the bad end to this setting is it becoming this setup to an easy kai story we then see that the god hand each inhabit their own specific realm slan gets the horny dimension conrad is a mass of plague rats and skeletons and ubik is i don't even know why this guy decided to party in a bosch painting but he seems happy and void has become a giant brain ganeshka has transformed into a massive tree branches of pure light stretching across the sky his presence still hanging above the rest of the country but now completely transformed into something straight out of legend the spirit tree rooted in the legends of all mankind regardless of background and standing tall and proud right next to the tree the old capital not windham the old capital the city that stood long before midland even existed plucked right out of the underground ruins and brought back to the surface in a way it seems appropriate that the old capital would come back to welcome humanity to their new world where griffith will sit and rule as their king they dubbed their new capital falconia griffith back to his human form and riding on zod's back guides his people into the capital humans and apostles obeying their new ruler without question and with that we finally finish the falcon of the millennium empire arc and needless to say this was a [ __ ] monster of a video i'm not sure i have a spotify playlist big enough to cover the soundtrack needed for this the current page length for the script is over 111 pages long this goes beyond just being a long video it's outright a [ __ ] titan and i'm amazed has not killed me in the process of creating it so much [ __ ] has happened just in this arc alone do you even remember when guts fought snowmen do you remember the sword of the berserk [ __ ] do you remember the trolls i bet you guys don't even remember that i said i would talk about the changes berserk ps2 made to the story yeah they add a new apostle in for a side segment he makes guts fight ghost operations of the band of the hawk it's pretty cool the game ends when you get the berserker armor and fight crumbled though that's it it took you like [ __ ] nine hours for you to learn this still i really like this arc character development alone this is easily one of the best i've read in manga like period guts's whole redemption arc was downright incredible to watch seeing this powerful warrior just be broken down and forced to work with others and seeing how this impacts his life for the better was beautiful to see not even mentioning how much farnese and serpaco changed hell they're outright completely different people vernice was introduced as a lunatic pyrophiliac that tortured people for fun but now she's become a more quiet introspective woman that's struggling with her purpose in life she's finally found that she was meant to be a witch to study magic and she's trying to work through it but she's also now dealing with the pain of unrequited love shrike was introduced in this arc and already had one hell of a character arc herself going from this apathetic egotistical know-it-all to really caring about the party and believing that she found a home among this group of eccentric weirdos serpico's character arc was pretty blatant he went from being so protective of farnese that he was basically smothering her to understanding that he had to back off in order for her life to get better hell he tried to kill guts for trying to get involved in her life again and only once he got his ass kicked he realized that he was being an idiot isidro even had one realizing that he still has a lot to learn if he wants to become a strong swordsman and even dealing with issues where he's really afraid to kill his enemies leading to situations where him hesitating makes things worse and of course the obvious development koska might be able to be saved if they can get to l-film the land of the elves they might be able to convince the flower storm king to heal koska's mind but to balance out this good news there has to be something terrible that comes with it the berserker armor guts's new upgrade that takes whatever chance it can to drive him completely insane and nearly kill the guy it's absolutely much more of a hindrance than a power-up to the point that it's sucking the life out of guts taking his senses away and aging him beyond his years but he doesn't care so long as the people he loves are safe that's all that matters by contrast griffith's journey was so much more simple it's almost a parody or a joke he steamrolls the kushan empire gathers a massive army of blind worshipers got the blessing of all the nobility in the continent and even the pope himself thinks it's his destiny to officiate his [ __ ] wedding compared to what came before you'd think the sudden tonal shift was outright childish only if you forget that griffith was a demon planning on doing something very very bad to the world all of this the entire war and near collapse of midland was all to merge the realms of fantasy and reality together flooding the world with monsters and resurrecting the old capital why did he do any of this no clue but it can't possibly be good griffith in the god hand murdered hundreds of thousands of people for this plan painting himself as this grand hero come to end the threat and save the world but we simply don't know what the end game was going to be for obvious reasons still this is the end of part 4. it legit took months to type the script out for this alone the falcon of the millennium empire arc is well known as the longest of the entire series and i cannot imagine how much academy my pc is going to be in processing this whole thing together as a video it's gone on so long i can't even do the super edit that i kept talking about how i wanted to do where i'd put all the videos together in one massive thing for people to watch you wanna know why because the max video length you can get on youtube is like 12 hours and uh yeah we've gone a bit further than that we're almost at 20 hours now it's [ __ ] nuts but yeah it's yeah it's it's been a long journey for this this part alone was longer than the first three combined now after this we have the final arc fantasia but this is going to be covered in part 5 where we will discuss everything the build-up to l-film the final chapter and talk about what the possible ending to berserk was going to be before meyor's death but for now i need to rest this was this was a lot i sincerely apologize for how long the wait was i forgot what life was like before i started working on this but through a mixture of my old pc exploding and some real-life stuff this ended up taking longer than i expected still please remember to like comment and subscribe see you guys plot a course to the night to a place i once knew to a place where my hope died along with my crew so i swallow my grief and face life's final test to find promise of peace and the solace of rest as the souls of the dead fill the space of my ears thereafter like children they're beckoning my heart lungs to join them sing songs of the sea i remember the fallen do they think of me when their bones in the ocean forever will be when at last before my ghostly shipmates i stand i shed a small tear for my home upon land though their eyes speak of deaths filled with struggle and strife their smiles below say i don't owe them my life as the souls of the dead fill the space of my eyes and my boat lifted over and tried to capsize i'm this far from drowning this far from the sea i remember the living do they think of me when my bones in the ocean forever will be now that i'm staring down at the darkest abyss i'm not sure what i want but i don't think it's this as my comrades call to stand fast and for john i make sale for the dawn till the darkness has gone as the souls of the dead live for air in my mind as i live all the years that they left me behind i'll stay on the shore but still gaze at the sea i remember the fallen and they think of me for our souls in the ocean together will be i remember the fallen and they think of me for our souls in the ocean together will be [Music] [Music] did me [Music] no [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no [Music] [Music] so [Music] okay no [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Laughter] hey loser do you want a shirt do you want a t-shirt i have shirts now look at look in the description for a link to a t-shirt you can buy if you don't buy the t-shirt i'll kill your family if you don't buy the t-shirt i'll poison your dog if you don't buy the t-shirt you're gonna be the only person in town that does not have a t-shirt everyone's gonna look at you funny there's gonna be social consequences to not having one of these t-shirts i'm now making expressed threats of violence against you if you do not buy my t-shirt i will call the police tell them how they're not you know you're not buying my shirt they're gonna plant crack in your house and they're gonna arrest you and then beat you up in a jail cell buy my shirt

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Id: thGjmnk2QLY

Length: 509min 57sec (30597 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 15 2022