Falling Sky

Puck draws Guts's eye to his satchel and lifts the flap to show the Beherit inside quivering at the horrors unfolding around it. A stab of pain then erupts from Guts's Brand of Sacrifice, doubling him over onto Casca's shoulder, and she too has crumpled under the agony pouring from her own Brand. The spirits that form the giant hand cry out for God as one, and its fingers curl shut into a fist.

Within the Egg-Shaped Apostle, the Demon Child, now an ordinary baby, begins to grow as though the years are rushing through it. Its trunk and limbs stretch out and long white hair spills from its head as the Apostle's dream of birthing a finer world starts to come true, its shell splitting apart like something about to hatch.

The spirits sheathing the Tower of Conviction start heaving up blood, and the whole structure gives way, raining spirits, refugees, and masonry down over Albion. Guts orders his companions behind the parapet for cover as the Tower crashes down in full, tearing away a great stretch of the town's defensive wall. When the smoke and grit settle, the morning sun blazes over Albion beneath a clear blue sky, and the Tower that once stood as a looming emblem of faith and oppression is nothing but a heap of rubble.

The Beherit vibrates and the Brands of Sacrifice torment Guts and Casca as the hand of spirits clenches into a fist. Inside the splitting Egg-Shaped Apostle, the infant Demon Child rapidly grows into a white-haired new being. The Tower of Conviction collapses entirely, taking part of Albion's wall with it, and the rubble is left beneath a triumphant dawn.

This eighteen-page chapter appeared in Young Animal's first issue of the new year on December 22, 2000, ending the Tsunami of Darkness sequence and much of the Albion catastrophe. It brings the incarnation to its threshold as the Demon Child transforms, and the Tower's fall clears the way for the dawn and the being about to be born.