God of the Abyss (2)

An entity welcomes Griffith, now little more than scraps of skin, into its realm and corrects his guess about its nature: it is the Idea of Evil. Its body resembles a vast heart studded with countless open eyes, its valves venting a gaseous haze, with two valves twisting below it into a double helix. It tells Griffith to look around, and he sees that the gas filling the enormous void is made of the spirits of countless people.

The Idea of Evil explains that all of humanity shares a single subconscious, and it was born from the evil pooled there, making it at once God and the ego of the world. Griffith asks whether mankind unknowingly created the void surrounding them. The being likens the place to Hell but clarifies that it is simply part of human nature, a reservoir for every dark feeling people hold. Griffith accepts this as truth when he looks within and finds those same feelings in himself, then asks why the Idea came to exist. It answers that it was made to be the thing humans could blame for their pain and misfortune, and that it has long steered the course of history and individual lives. When Griffith asks whether this includes him, the Idea reveals that his birth was arranged through generations of manipulated ancestors, and that everything he has endured was orchestrated to bring him to this instant. Griffith demands to know his purpose in the design. The Idea replies only that his deeds will be whatever humanity desires, no matter the consequences, because as part of mankind's consciousness his will is the Idea's own, and it leaves him a single command: do as he wishes, chosen one. As Griffith's form gradually solidifies and he grasps the full weight of his existence, he makes one request, that he wants wings. The spirits in the void rush to him, and following the Idea's guidance he reshapes himself with them into his ideal form, the shape through which he can finally seize his lifelong dream.

Griffith learns the entity is the Idea of Evil, born from humanity's collective subconscious and functioning as God and the world's ego. It reveals it has manipulated history and that Griffith's very birth and every hardship were engineered to reach this moment. Granting Griffith the command to do as he wills, it prompts his request for wings, and Griffith uses the surrounding spirits to reshape himself into his ideal form, Femto.

This Golden Age Arc chapter ran in Young Animal issue 14 on July 12, 1996, over twenty pages. Its centerpiece is Griffith's meeting with the Idea of Evil, which frames the whole tragedy as the product of humanity's own collective will and sets up his rebirth as Femto.