Guardian Angels of Desire (5)

Beyond the walls, villagers watch a supernatural tornado swallow the castle. Within the staircase realm, Guts fixes on one member of the God Hand whose form blends man, bat, and falcon, and screams the name Griffith. The being answers with cold detachment, hinting at a shared past, while the Count begs the demon Void to kill Guts and is refused. The God Hand dismiss the Apostles Guts has slain as beneath their concern, and when the falcon-shaped one calls Guts' very existence lowly, the swordsman forces himself upright and hauls his sword up the stairs to strike. The others marvel at his will, and Ubik notes that this being, whom they call Femto, has branded him.

Climbing on, Guts shouts that he is the reason for Femto's place among them and mocks the demon's godly bearing. Then his Brand erupts in blood and he buckles, as Femto explains that the mark bleeds and burns in proportion to the power of the demon near it: a mere Apostle draws only drops, while beings like themselves inflict agony, gushing blood, even death. Guts' eyes roll back, yet he swings his blade overhead at Femto, impressing the four onlookers before a telekinetic push sends him flying. Femto remarks that the Count's wish to see Guts dead may have just been granted by accident.

Void resolves to end the fight and honor the Count's request, but the demons explain they cannot trade fresh power for Guts' death because the Count holds no love for him. Femto instead offers Theresia as a fitting sacrifice, and Ubik urges the Count to repeat what he did before. A tear in space reveals the past: seven years earlier the Count returned from hunting heretics to find his wife willingly joining a pagan orgy, slew every worshipper but her, and in his despair activated his Beherit. The God Hand, absent Femto, granted him his Apostle body in exchange for the wife he had spared, who was then devoured. Void conjures a burning Brand before Theresia and waits on the Count's approval, while Guts, his fingers ruined, asks Puck to heal them with his powder.

Guts identifies the falcon-formed God Hand member as Griffith, now called Femto, and attacks despite his bleeding Brand before being repelled. The Count is told he cannot buy power with Guts' life and is instead pushed toward sacrificing Theresia. A vision reveals the Count sacrificed his own wife seven years earlier to gain his Apostle body.

The chapter establishes the mechanics of the Brand of Sacrifice, whose pain and bleeding scale with a demon's power. It confirms Femto's identity with Griffith and reveals the origin of the Count's transformation through his wife's sacrifice. The moment sets up the choice the Count must make over Theresia's fate.