Leaping Monkey

Recognizing the vision as a glimpse of the Eclipse, Guts registers how much his own path mirrors the Skull Knight's. The knight guides the group to the tomb of his beloved, the Lady Priestess of the Cherry Blossoms, whom Schierke thinks looked much like Danan. When Danan appears, the knight confesses he cannot bring himself to linger on his mortal past. Gedfring tells Schierke that Flora once served the priestess before being cast out of Elfhelm for breaking a taboo following an occultation rite.

Word soon arrives through Ivalera that Isidro is stirring up trouble in the village. Later, under cover of night, Gedfring questions Guts about his ties to the Skull Knight, declaring that the knight long ago shed his humanity and no longer belongs to the living world. He lays out a stark choice for Guts, to draw the inner hellfire in as fuel or let it devour him. Soon after, as Guts vents his impatience with Elfhelm's calm through his blade, the Moonlight Boy suddenly stands before him.

Turning the island's weak gravity to his favor and teaming with Puck and his kin, Isidro pays back the young mages for their earlier ambush. Molda and the boys relish the mischief to Kukka's irritation, until a kelpie tamed by Isma halts Isidro and the elves, after which the girls dole out punishment. All the while, Schierke turns over in her mind the nature of the forbidden act her mistress once committed.

This chapter stands as the final manga episode published before the death of creator Kentarou Miura. It appeared in issue three of Young Animal within the Elf Island Chapter of the Fantasia Arc.