Roar of the Sea

Having fled the ruin of Flora's domain, Guts and his companions reach a stretch of coast. Isidro, raised in dry highlands, is thrilled by the sea, while Ivalera cannot fathom its pull and turns to Schierke, who only stares off toward the horizon. When Ivalera nudges the girl's hat, the wind snatches it and carries it to Guts' feet. He returns it to her head and notices his own hand trembling. Schierke asks after him, but he waves her off. She urges him to remove the Berserker Armor and rest his wounds for a few days; he refuses, fearing that the talisman on the armor and the necklace Flora gave Casca will soon fail to keep spirits and apostles at bay, and noting the group is already a month behind from his long recovery.

Schierke recalls that recovery: days of prying the armor loose from where it had bitten into his bones, blood bursting from countless wounds, Guts screaming throughout. She dreads that he will drive himself past his limits in every fight to come and die of it. Watching Casca play in the shallows with Isidro, Guts confides that after the Eclipse he feared he would never sleep soundly or watch a sunset in peace again. Serpico points out an abandoned cliffside cabin where they might shelter for the night.

By evening the group settles in: Serpico cooks by a lit fire with Isidro and Casca, Farnese handles the wash, and Schierke tends Guts' wounds, which have merely closed rather than healed though she assures him they improve. Over dinner Guts praises Serpico's cooking while Isidro and Puck rib him about his white forelock. As Serpico helps rework Guts' gear, talk turns to Puck's homeland; Schierke, having heard of it from Flora, explains that Elfhelm sits on an island called Skellig in the western sea, hidden within the Interstice like Flora's mansion and home to elves and magicians. Farnese then asks Schierke to teach her magic. Though even Guts thinks it hasty, Farnese insists that ever since the troll attack at Enoch Village she has craved power after a lifetime of helplessness. Schierke agrees, and as the cabin erupts in chatter Guts smiles at the scene, only to sense the Skull Knight seated on his horse atop a rock just off the shore.

Guts' party takes refuge in a seaside cabin after escaping Flora's burning domain. Guts refuses to remove the Berserker Armor despite his severe, slow-healing wounds and worries Schierke. Schierke describes Elfhelm and the hidden island of Skellig. Farnese asks Schierke to teach her magic, driven by a wish for power after years of helplessness, and Schierke accepts. Guts senses the Skull Knight waiting offshore.

This twenty-one-page Millennium Falcon Arc chapter ran in Young Animal issue 6 on March 12, 2004. It marks the beginning of Farnese's path as Schierke's apprentice and the first mention of Elfhelm and Skellig as the party's destination.