Pursuers

In Jill's village the grieving townsfolk bury their burned children, whose bodies the flames have twisted into clutching shapes. Unable to tell the corpses apart, they lay them all in one mass grave with a Holy See priest presiding. Watching from afar and nursing a flask, Zepek notices birds scattering in the woods behind him, and soon armed silhouettes approach through the trees. The villagers panic and bolt for cover until the priest, Father Hobbes, calms them and vouches for the newcomers.

The soldiers prove to be the Holy Iron Chain Knights, whose commander Farnese greets Hobbes and says her order rides on a mission to recognize miracles. Invited into his church, she brings Azan and Serpico while the rest help bury the dead. Hobbes tells them of a passing Black Swordsman traveling with an elf. Farnese, skeptical yet tasked by the Holy See to track that very man, explains that tales have spread across the land of river and mountain spirits and similar beings assaulting small villages, all sharing one thread: a Black Swordsman's presence. She wonders whether he is a mere criminal or something far larger. Hobbes says the swordsman was bound for the Misty Valley but that its dangers leave him no guide to offer. At that, the eavesdropping Zepek steps in and volunteers, then heads home in high spirits to dig out his long-idle armor.

Back at the valley, after being flung upward by the beetle-man, Guts flips in the air and lands on his feet. The last two guardians, tougher than the rest, reveal they were knights before their monstrous change and charge together. Guts evades the beetle but the mantis appears behind him; he spins to block its strikes with sword and metal arm, and while he is occupied the beetle barrels in, sending him rolling and badly hurt. They flank and charge again. Guts parries the mantis, then swings the Dragon Slayer onto the beetle's horn, only cutting partway and failing to kill it. As the two take position front and back to charge as one, Guts fires his arm cannon into the beetle while sweeping the Dragon Slayer through the mantis, killing both in the same instant.

The village holds a mass burial for its incinerated children as the Holy Iron Chain Knights arrive. Farnese reveals her order has been sent by the Holy See to track the Black Swordsman linked to monster attacks across the land. Zepek volunteers to guide the knights to the Misty Valley. At the valley, Guts destroys the final two knight-turned-guardians by firing his arm cannon and swinging the Dragon Slayer in one motion.

This 20-page Conviction Arc chapter ran in Young Animal issue 19, dated September 1997. It debuts Father Hobbes and formally introduces the Holy Iron Chain Knights' pursuit of Guts, drawing Farnese, Serpico, Azan, and Zepek into the storyline. Per the chapter's trivia, Farnese uses the term chimimoryo when describing the rumored creatures to Hobbes.