Qliphoth

The grateful villagers crowd Schierke, who explains that she called on four archangels, the Elemental Kings, to raise the barrier and borrowed a river spirit named the Lady of the Depths, whose shrine had been razed to make room for the church. She owns that the flood's ruin was her fault, since the long-neglected spirit was wild and beyond her strength to rein in. The townsfolk care nothing for their lost houses and ask whether anyone can wield such power. Schierke tells them magic takes years, but communing with those spirits is within reach and their own priest knows the way, then asks him to raise a small shrine to the Lady, which he agrees to do.

Away from the crowd, Morgan finds a sullen Isidro by a well, names him a hero, and hands him a family heirloom shortsword to replace his oversized blade. The old man recalls fleeing home as a boy and muses that a dream may be a call to adventure or a flight from one's troubles, wondering which drives the boy. Isidro hides how the words land, declares his dream one of ambition, and takes the gift. He then joins Guts and Schierke tending Serpico, whose fall onto a troll's weapon, while not grave, bars him from the coming search for Farnese and Casca.

Guts, Schierke, Isidro, Puck and Ivalera track the trolls' lingering thoughts into the forest. The unconscious women cannot signal their place, but Schierke senses they are safe and shielded by silver the trolls cannot touch. Deep among the trees she must light the way with her staff, and a mouthless, potato-shaped spirit reveals that they have crossed into Qliphoth, the blackest region of the Astral world, home to creatures born from human imagination. She suspects the widening bleed between the worlds traces back to Griffith's return from the God Hand's realm. Carrying the Holy Evil War Chapter subtitle, the twenty-one-page installment ran in Young Animal issue three on January 24, 2003.