Full Moon (1)

Fretting over the villagers, Isma spots two children she recognizes as youths who once mocked her heritage. She rushes toward them, but Schierke sees through the disguise: they are tentacles in human shape. The creatures shed their masks to strike, only for Isidro to swoop in and hit both at once, after which Schierke incinerates them with a hair attack made fiercer by the full moon. She then tells Isma that tentacles are transformed people and that she senses no other humans on the island beyond Guts and his companions.

Schierke explains that the charm left to Isma by her mother carries genuine evil-warding power, which is why the slugs spared her. Sinking to her knees, Isma admits that although she never liked the villagers, she never wished them dead, and the weight of being the island's sole survivor settles over her. Isidro tries to descend and join the fight to impress Isma, but Schierke deflates him, warning he would only hinder Guts, who has gone berserk and can no longer tell allies from enemies. She recalls how at Vritannis she entered the Berserker Armor to steady his mind.

Asking Isidro and Isma to guard her body, Schierke sends her luminous form straight at Guts, but the armor repels her and throws her consciousness back. Guts launches into a merciless slaughter of tentacles as Bonebeard panics over his slipping grip. Casca abruptly bolts toward something, Farnese chasing after her, while a falling slug blocks Serpico from joining them. Guts kills a slug bearing down on Casca and then stands over its corpse, staring at her. When the group's silhouettes draw conflicting urges to attack, a new voice reaches him from Casca's direction. He sees her clearly, yet the voice belongs to the flame-creature from the Vritannis beach, which reaches out to touch his chest.

Schierke destroys two disguised tentacles with a moon-empowered hair attack and confirms the villagers have all become tentacles, Isma alone spared by her mother's warding charm. Her attempt to reach the berserk Guts by luminous body is repelled by the armor. Casca runs off with Farnese guarding her, and Guts slays a slug threatening Casca. The flame-creature from Vritannis appears again, speaking through Casca and reaching for Guts' chest.

This Fantasia Arc chapter spans twenty-three pages and ran in Young Animal issue 21 on October 22, 2010. It is the first of two consecutive installments carrying the Full Moon title and introduces the recurring link between the full moon and the appearances of the Moonlight Boy.