Human Bullet

A flashback shows Zodd's talks with the reborn band before he left for Vritannis. Grunbeld and Locus cautioned that Ganishka himself might appear if Apostles assaulted the city, and Locus stressed that no physical blow can wound the emperor. Restless, Zodd walked off without a word and came upon Sonia beside a tree, who foretold that he would soon have to choose between battling the blade that once cut his flesh or taking it up as his own. Neither understood the words, and she could not explain them before Mule called her away to meet the Pontiff.

In the present, Guts clings to the transformed Apostle's fur as Zodd rights himself underwater and bursts to the surface. Their shock at the meeting fades as Guts lifts the Dragon Slayer to kill him, only for a near miss of Ganishka's lightning to stop the blow. When Guts taunts him for failing to harm the emperor, Zodd explains that the fog body cannot be touched, and Schierke adds through thought that Ganishka's form comes from bending wind and water elementals and sits deeper in the astral world than most Apostles, beyond the reach of physical weapons.

Guts lays the Dragon Slayer against Zodd's neck and proposes a temporary pact, presenting the blade as the one weapon able to hurt the emperor because it exists in the astral realm. Recalling Sonia's warning, Zodd grasps its meaning and accepts, telling Guts to lift the sword away. Schierke reluctantly pinpoints Ganishka's ethereal body directly between the fog figure's eyes. Zodd charges with Guts riding him and the blade thrust forward, powering through a lightning blast to strike home between the emperor's eyes. The strain sends Zodd crashing into the wharf with Guts still aboard, and Ganishka's fog fails to reform and begins to dissolve. Far off in Wyndham, the emperor's real body clutches a fresh X-shaped scar between his eyes, steam rising from the wound.

The twenty-one-page chapter of the Millennium Falcon Arc appeared in Young Animal issue 15 on July 28, 2006. It pays off Sonia's earlier prophecy, revealing that the choice she foresaw was Zodd's decision to ally with Guts rather than fight him. The scene also confirms the Dragon Slayer's astral nature as the key to injuring a foe who cannot be touched by ordinary steel. The scraped source lists no character roster for this entry.