Hollow Idol

The knights march Guts through their tents, locked in a neck-and-arm stock with an iron weight chained to his ankle, and bind him to the central pole of Farnese's tent. Her guards balk at leaving her alone with him until she shames them into obeying.

Whip in hand, Farnese demands his origins, his aims, and his purpose. Guts only laughs and guesses she is troubled by her own religion. She lists his gear, the Dragon Slayer, the repeating crossbow, the arm that hides a cannon, throwing knives, cannonballs, and last the Beherit, which unsettles her most, then presses him to confess or burn at the stake. Instead of answering, Guts asks whether she truly believes in gods and demons, and whether she has ever laid eyes on one.

Her rehearsed reply about God dwelling in Heaven and in the hearts of the faithful earns his scorn, and he tells her to go pray in a temple. The spiked whip comes out and tears his chest, yet he barely flinches, which rattles her more than any defiance would. He warns that clinging to the Holy Iron Chain Knights will ruin her name the way it did Azan's. Azan enters, appalled at the bloodied prisoner, and rebukes her; she has Guts hauled off, then kneels before the hawk statue to pray. Outside, Serpico asks Guts to stop provoking her. That night Guts is crammed into a cramped, tarp-covered cage, and as the cold bites, his Brand begins to bleed and a spirit drifts up from the earth.

Guts is restrained and tied inside Farnese's tent to be questioned. Farnese catalogs his arsenal and fixates on the Beherit as a suspected heretical object. Guts challenges her faith and, unmoved by the spiked whip, predicts her downfall. Azan intervenes and orders Guts removed, leaving Farnese to pray alone before the hawk idol. As night falls, Guts is caged, his Brand of Sacrifice bleeds, and a spirit emerges nearby, signaling the coming assault.

The chapter is a Conviction Arc entry from Young Animal issue 10 in 1998. Its title reflects both Farnese's crumbling faith and the hawk idol she prays to, and the bleeding Brand foreshadows the nightly haunting that draws spirits to Guts wherever he sleeps.