Omen

Watching Guts trade blows with the wheel disciple, Farnese recognizes that the ordered, religious world she hides inside collapses every time he enters it, and concludes her faith is an illusion that dissolves in his presence. Guts, meanwhile, gains ground and shears the left wing from the baby-faced disciple. Isidro itches to join in and put the swordsman in his debt, but Jerome holds him back, knowing the boy cannot so much as scratch a pseudo-Apostle.

Mozgus longs to attack Guts himself until the crow-man checks him, insisting he finish burning the witch Casca. The inquisitor slips out through a gap in the wall with the twins as guards, leaving the crow-man behind. It unfurls its wings and rains sharpened feathers at Guts, who dodges the thrusting collar-spear but reacts too slowly as the creature soars overhead and locks its talons around his neck.

In the cave the egg-shaped Apostle admits to nudging events toward a coming pivotal moment by empowering the goat-man and Mozgus, yet insists fate has already fixed that moment and no one can prevent it, citing Luca's own role in bringing Casca to Albion. Before it can say why it confides all this, the Skull Knight plunges in and cleaves the bone statue in two as the Apostle escapes, its wish simply to have its story known. Sensing the being cannot yet die, the knight swallows its Beherit, seizes Luca, and leaps clear as the cave falls, only for the pair to face a vast black shape rising from the bodies of the starved refugees.

This Conviction Arc chapter appeared in Young Animal issue 9 on April 28, 2000. It crystallizes Farnese's crisis of faith, escalates the rooftop duel, and pushes Albion toward the looming Incarnation Ceremony as the refugee corpses stir to life. Farnese, Mozgus, Guts, Nina, Jerome, Isidro, Puck, Casca, Luca, the egg-shaped being, and the Skull Knight feature.