Beast of Darkness

The Skull Knight sits astride his horse in the burned ruin of the Misty Valley, sensing the hellish fire and knowing Guts was its cause. Musing on whether the man can survive the path his condition has set, he dismounts before the tree Rosine called home, draws her beherit from a gap in its roots, swallows it whole, and departs. Guts, meanwhile, trudges through a night forest dragging the Dragon Slayer with a hand so ruined the bone nearly shows.

Small spirits jeer at him for slaying children in the name of revenge and speak of a beast lurking inside him. They gather into a hound-like shape that drifts beside him, describing its endless hunger for blood, then wear his own face to warn that hatred will consume him. Noticing the beherit, they revise the threat, saying Guts may one day turn into a true monster like his friend. When the thing takes on Femto's mask, Guts swings at it, and the single blow leaves him collapsed, bitter at his weakness and his lack of progress toward killing Griffith.

Puck sweeps over the mountains and, catching Guts' location by ear, finds him unconscious under a swarm of the black spirits. Beating them off with his chestnut shell, the elf smugly decides he must be stronger than Guts. When Guts wakes to the sight, Puck's cocky spirit-fighting lightens his grim mood, since he cannot take the little creature seriously. They wait out the night until dawn scatters the shades, and Guts, brushing aside the warning, declares he is what he is and will press on toward Griffith. He grudgingly lets Puck settle into his satchel, valuing the elf's healing dust, and the two walk on bickering, unaware that Farnese and the Holy Iron Chain Knights are trailing them.

The Skull Knight recovers and swallows Rosine's beherit. Spirits torment Guts and form a beast that warns he will become a monster like Griffith. Puck finds and revives Guts, who resolves to continue his revenge and lets Puck ride in his satchel. Farnese and the Holy Iron Chain Knights secretly follow them.

Carried in Young Animal issue 7 on March 27, 1998, this twenty-three-page Conviction Arc chapter names the inner beast that will shadow Guts for much of the series. The installment also holds two short vignettes contributed by Yuko Miyamura, who voiced Casca in the 1997 anime and later Berserk projects, a collaboration recounted humorously in a Berserk Gaiden side story drawn by Kentaro Miura for a 1998 Young Animal special.