Magic

The fighting drags on, and Isidro finds that a consecrated berry lodged in a troll's mouth erupts into flame. Spotting Farnese and Casca stranded on the roof with Schierke and the priest, Guts sends Serpico and Isidro up to them and holds the ground by himself. The pair shove through the packed crowd to the church's core, where trolls have already forced their way inside. Feeling the sylphs in his cloak grow restless, Serpico vaults over the villagers to plant himself between them and the creatures, while Isidro scrambles under everyone's legs and scorches his own face on the salamander dagger, wounding mostly his pride.

On the roof Farnese watches trolls hem Casca in and slashes her dagger about wildly, and the silver drives them back and lets her reach the girl unhurt. With the priest fixated on the danger, Schierke is left free to finish her working. Below, Isidro tires of tossing berries and tries the technique Guts drilled into him, feinting with his sword to open a gap before striking with the dagger, but his spin unbalances him and the blow goes wide. A troll's crude mace comes down toward him, and Morgan hurls himself over the boy to absorb the strike, nearly dying for it. The old man's sacrifice rouses the other villagers to turn and fight as Isidro struggles to wake him.

Schierke's rite carries her mind into the lowest depths of the Astral world, where she petitions the Four Invisible Kings, the Elemental sovereigns who rule each of the four spirit types, to guard the townsfolk. As the ritual closes, the stacked clouds overhead split into a perfect ring, as if a hidden wall now rises from the church to the heavens. The twenty-three-page chapter ran in Young Animal issue twenty on October 11, 2002, within the Millennium Falcon Arc.