Fantasia Arc

Serialized in Young Animal from 2010, the Fantasia Arc is the current and final chapter of Berserk begun by Kentarou Miura. It picks up after the Millennium Falcon Arc in the wake of the Great Wave of the Astral World, the cataclysm Griffith unleashes that fuses the physical and astral realms. Aboard the Seahorse, Guts and his companions sail for the mystical island of Elfhelm hoping the Elf King can mend Casca's broken sanity, while Rickert assembles a party of his own and Griffith rules nearly the whole world from his new city, Falconia.

The Elf Island chapter opens with the undead pirate Bonebeard assailing the Seahorse, forcing Guts into a berserker rampage. Repairs strand the group on an island cursed by the Sea God, where Isidro befriends a shunned girl named Isma, whose mother was a merrow. When the villagers themselves transform into tentacled servants of the Sea God, Schierke possesses Guts in the Berserker Armor so he can strike at the monster's heart from within its body. The merrow join the fight, Isma awakens to her own heritage, and the beast is slain, after which a flame-child guides Guts to safety. Between these battles, a flashback recounts a teenage Guts imprisoned as a gladiator, aided by the mercenary Martino and healed by Chitch, the fragile spirit of a spring blossom he vows to return to its meadow.

Meanwhile, the Paradise and Pandemonium chapters follow Rickert through the changed world to Falconia, where apostles openly defend humanity and Griffith comforts the grieving with visions of the dead. Confronted with the truth that this utopia rests on his fallen comrades, Rickert slaps Griffith, refuses to hate him, and flees the city with Erica, Silat, Daiba, and the tapasa as the assassin Rakshas hunts them.

In the Elfhelm chapters, the Seahorse reaches Skellig, and the party navigates a gauntlet of magical traps and wary witches before the archmage Gedfring and the Flower Storm Monarch, Danan, welcome them. Through the Corridor of Dreams ritual, Schierke and Farnese astral-project into Casca's dreamscape, gathering the fragments of her mind to mend a shattered doll and restore her, though her trauma from the Eclipse remains raw. As the group settles into life on the island, the mysterious Moonlight Boy matures at dawn into the form of Griffith before the horrified onlookers.

In the arc's continuation, Guts cannot harm Griffith, who abducts Casca with Zodd's aid as Elfhelm's spirit tree collapses and the island is destroyed. Danan, Isma, and the merrow depart the physical world, leaving Guts to break down in despair aboard the fleeing Seahorse. The survivors are then taken by Kushan warriors to their capital, where Guts is imprisoned and learns that Falconia's forces mean to conquer the world for Griffith, drawing the empire toward open war. By publication length the Fantasia Arc is the longest in the series, extended by hiatuses and by Miura's death in May 2021. Following a nine-month halt, the manga resumed in June 2022 with Kouji Mori supervising the story and Studio Gaga handling the art. Miura had noted that Berserk was roughly 60 to 70 percent complete in terms of story as the arc began.