Reunion

Gripping Casca by the arms, the goat-beast lets the serpent at its groin slither beneath her shirt and wind around her. Sensing the violation to come, she is gripped by ghastly flashes of the Eclipse and struggles feebly against the hold. At the very moment all hope seems gone, an immense blade sweeps down behind her, lopping off both the snake and the creature's left hand. Isidro, Nina, Casca and the watching knights look on as the swordsman spins around her like a dark cyclone, mowing down the surrounding heretics while she is left untouched.

His onslaught finished, Guts plants himself protectively before Casca, the two reunited after roughly two years apart spent hunting apostles. Farnese and her knights are stunned to see the Black Swordsman. Guts knows he cannot take on the heretics, the beast and the soldiers all at once, so he entrusts Casca to Isidro and announces he means to flee the cave. The boy tells him of a hidden escape route at the back.

The knights are thrown into confusion. Their order marks Guts as a target, yet his arrival has slaughtered a dozen of their own enemies. Farnese cuts through the doubt by commanding her men to kill anyone who will not yield to their authority. Guts holds the heretics at bay while Isidro guides the group toward the exit. Before they can climb the narrow path, the beast charges and rams Guts with its horns, though he catches the blow on the flat of the Dragon Slayer.

As the creature readies another rush, Guts warns the boy and the girls to stay well back and sets his blade in the stance he saves for finishing dangerous foes. The beast charges, Guts swings, and the strike hits nothing. Using its hooves to grip the rocky walls, the monster vaults over him, bounds from surface to surface, then drops straight down to stomp him, and he barely wedges the sword's broad face between them to soften the impact.

Wreathed in black smoke, the beast leaps onto the bonfire's timber. Guts orders Isidro to get the girls out while it hoarsely demands that Casca remain, launching itself over him once more to reach her. Ready this time, Guts fires his repeater crossbow overhead and lands bolts in the thing's torso, neck and jaw. The creature decides to prioritize Guts over chasing Casca, and Guts, recognizing it as the pseudo-apostle it has become, vows to rescue Casca and carry her out of Albion alive. Puck is present as the reunion at last delivers the arc's long-awaited meeting.