Ruptured World

Deep in a shadowed wood, five boys pick their way forward, the youngest, Nico, kept in check by his brother Toma, who fears wolves and roaming Kushan. Only Nico goes unarmed while the rest carry crossbows, and he swears he glimpsed fairies among the trees. The oldest of them admits the forest feels strange, stirring a long-lost sense of wonder. Unseen laughter drifts around them, then fades, until Nico points skyward at an enormous beast gliding just over the treetops, and the boys scatter in fear.

At Godot's home, Erica mourns at the old smith's grave when Guts arrives with Casca and Puck. Overjoyed as she is to see Casca whole again, Erica dissolves into tears over the father she has lost. She explains that Godot died not long after Guts set out to rescue Casca, comforted that Guts had visited him first.

Erica urges Guts to settle at the cottage with her, Rickert, and Casca, reasoning that his presence would keep Casca from wandering off. Guts stays silent, neither refusing nor agreeing while his thoughts circle Griffith. He cannot reconcile how, standing before the White Falcon at Albion, his two-year hunger for revenge briefly evaporated. Now that Griffith walks the mortal world instead of the God Hand's realm, he is always within a sword's reach.

Almost offhandedly, Erica mentions a recent caller who came seeking Rickert, an old acquaintance from the Band of the Falcon with long white hair and delicate features. Guts instantly understands it is Griffith. On the nearby hill, where Rickert has driven swords into the ground to honor the fallen mercenaries, he greets his former leader with joy, unaware that Guts is already charging up the slope with murder in mind.