Dawn

Morning light spreads across the ruins of St. Albion, and the ghostly torment of the previous night has faded entirely. Only a small band walks away intact: Guts, Casca, Isidro, Jerome, Farnese, Serpico, and Puck, while the refugees trapped inside the Tower of Conviction perished when it came down. Feeling the chill, Casca is draped in Guts' cloak, and the two former lovers share a rare quiet moment.

Nina, who rode out the collapse hidden inside a barrel, emerges and pleads with Isidro and Jerome to find Luca. A voice from a nearby well leads her to her mentor, who had sheltered in the waist-deep water below, and the group hauls Luca to safety. Their reunion is cut short when javelins rain down around their feet.

The weapons belong to newly arrived Kushan scouts commanded by Silat, still flanked by his four hulking Tapasa. Acting on an oracle's word and orders from a hidden master, Silat has come hunting a specific man, and the fallen tower convinces him the prophecy held true. He commands his scouts to strike.

Guts leads the counterattack, telling the women to hang back while he, Serpico, and Jerome hold off the scouts. Isidro ignores the order and hurls stones, sparing Jerome from a killing blow. When two scouts slip past and loop ropes over the women, Azan arrives in time to stop them, and the Holy Iron Chain Knights' commander joins the fight in a tense partnership. The earth then begins to shake, and Zodd bursts through a surviving stretch of wall into the midst of the panicked Kushan, whose shock proves he is no ally of theirs.

This chapter closes out the arc's harrowing night and sets up a major reveal. Standing atop the wall Zodd shattered, the Skull Knight neither speaks nor meets Guts' gaze; he only lifts a hand toward the horizon, drawing the swordsman's eyes to a sight that leaves him stunned. The superior directing Silat's hunt is kept unnamed here.