World of the Winged Ones

Guts senses blood seeping from his Brand of Sacrifice and turns back the way he came, aware an apostle is close. Before Jill's eyes, Rosine restores her old human face, unchanged from the day she departed, though the rest of her body keeps its elfin look. She greets Jill warmly and shows off her new form. Jill recalls Guts' claim about the sacrifices behind it but keeps silent rather than accuse her friend.

Thrilled by the reunion, Rosine asks Jill to join her at the Misty Valley and turns to inform her elf thralls that the girl may enter. She wraps Jill in an embrace and lifts off, meaning to carry her to the hideaway, but their climb is broken when Guts sprints back and swings at Rosine despite Jill in her arms. She speeds her ascent to escape, losing the tail of one wing to the blade. Her face snaps back to its monstrous shape and she commands her thralls to attack, only for Jill to beg her to stop the fight before it starts. Rosine relents, wheeling away with Jill and her elves and leaving Guts with the now-freed Puck.

Puck suspects Guts cared nothing for Jill's safety in that swing; Guts admits it, yet begins to wonder whether he pulled the strike out of concern after all. The fairy berates him for his indifference and flies off alone, while Guts studies the severed wing-tail and suspects he truly did hold back. Far overhead, a frightened Jill clings to Rosine, who bids her behold a view no human will ever see, a vantage known only to birds and elves. Enthralled by the landscape below, Jill listens as Rosine offers her endless flight, on the condition that she become one of them.

Rosine assumes her human face to welcome Jill and invites her to the Misty Valley. Guts ambushes them mid-flight and severs part of Rosine's wing, provoking her to summon her thralls before Jill talks her down. Rosine flees with Jill, leaving Guts to wonder whether he held back his swing. High above the world, Rosine offers Jill perpetual flight if she agrees to become one of the winged elves.

This 20-page Conviction Arc chapter appeared in Young Animal issue 15, dated July 1997. It marks the first open clash between Guts and Rosine and plants doubt about whether Guts restrained himself for Jill's sake. Rosine's aerial pitch tempts Jill with the freedom her harsh village life denied her.