Misty Valley (2)

Jill lingers in the valley beside Rosine, who presses her again about trading her human body to join the winged children. Unable to commit, Jill is granted more time, though the promise of endless flight hangs over her decision. Alone afterward, she gazes up at a muted sun filtering through the valley's perpetual haze when Puck drops onto her shoulder, declaring a rescue she does not particularly want.

Cradling the tiny elf in her palm, Jill asks after Guts and learns that he and Puck split apart after the swordsman nearly cut her down during an assault on Rosine. Puck insists the girl leave and warns that these creatures are counterfeit elves, unworthy of imitation. Jill remains tempted, imagining an existence free of killing frosts, failed crops, and raiders. When Puck invokes her mother, the argument collapses, for Jill despises the woman's meekness and dreads growing into either her spineless parent or her cruel father.

Her grip tightens until Puck shrieks. Releasing him, the two watch a mass of the elves stage a mock battle, arranged with commanders and troops. The pretense dissolves fast, as the little beings butcher each other in earnest while grinning like delighted children, impaling, dismembering, and beheading their fellows. One pursuer corners its quarry, swells into a monstrous bee shape, and drives its stinger between the victim's legs. Sickened, Jill retches. When the elves proudly deliver a body skewered on five twigs, she bats it aside, and on landing it balloons back into a dead human child. Spotting dozens of adult corpses scattered where the war raged, she and Puck bolt, the swarm giving chase.

Rosine renews her offer to turn Jill into an elf and allows her time to decide. Puck reunites with Jill and reveals that he and Guts parted ways. The true nature of Rosine's elves is exposed as they slaughter one another and revert to human corpses in death, driving Jill and Puck to flee.

Serialized in Young Animal issue 21 and released on October 24, 1997, this twenty-one-page installment belongs to the Conviction Arc. It continues the Misty Valley thread begun in the previous chapter and centers entirely on Jill and Puck.