Infiltration of Wyndham (1)

Griffith drifts back to boyhood, to children staging mock battles in the streets while he stared up at the castle crowning the city and swore that one day such a stronghold and realm would be his. In the present his mind has frayed in the lightless cell, unsure whether he has gone mad or how long he has been buried there. He reflects that everyone he ever met came to either trust him utterly or despise him, and that although he held them all in his grip, he himself was held in Guts', whose face outshines even the castle when he pictures his dream.

Roused in the dark, Griffith watches a single brick work loose from the wall as a small, misshapen lump of flesh seeps through, greeting him as prince and requesting an audience. Peering into the gap, he beholds a boundless void inhabited by four inhuman shapes, one of whom hails him as kinsman and blessed king of longing and promises they will meet at the destined time and place. Meanwhile the Band of the Falcon readies its rescue, though Rickert and dozens of the wounded must stay behind; Rickert voices his hope that Guts will remain afterward, and Guts says nothing.

Casca divides the mission into two teams, leading the rescue party herself with Guts, Judeau, and Pippin while Corkus commands the remaining able fighters, and they all set out for Wyndham. Three nights on, the rescue party slips into the city and crosses a graveyard, where Judeau explains that the band's spies uncovered a concealed passage to Griffith's prison that bypasses the streets and sentries. Casca locates the correct headstone, Pippin lifts it from the pre-dug tunnel, and when Guts questions bringing their leader inside, she bumps her chest against his and playfully insists she is among the band's finest and that her presence gives them the best odds. With that, the four descend underground.