Beneath Sun-Dappled Trees

Schierke and Farnese wake soon after Casca, and Danan explains that only one day passed in the waking world despite the countless days spent inside the dream. Whole again, Casca says she remembers her companions and the feelings of the girl Elaine, who now sleeps within her, before thanking Farnese, Schierke, and Ivalera. Asked what she recalls, she likens her time as Elaine to a trance in which she could only watch the journey unfold, unable to think or feel. She remembers setting out to free Griffith from the Tower of Rebirth but nothing past that point. When Farnese asks about Guts, Casca is moved to tears.

To mark her recovery and the seeming end of the group's long road, Danan dresses Casca in an elfin makeover of a petaled gown, delicate ornaments, and braided hair for her reunion. Casca objects that she is a warrior, but Danan insists she looks like a noble elfin beauty. Danan then reveals she has reached Guts by mind and asked him to wait beneath Elfhelm's cherry tree.

As the women head back to the others, Casca's cherished days with the Band of the Falcon and her time as Elaine sharpen in her memory, and she catches a faint voice inside herself. When she reaches Guts under the tree, the sight of him unleashes a flood of the horrors she could never recall before: the ruined, near-lifeless Griffith and her experience of the fifth Eclipse among them. As her most harrowing memories return all at once, Casca lets loose a piercing scream.

The reunion inverts the hoped-for happy ending, since regaining her full memory forces Casca to relive the trauma tied to Guts himself.