Quickening

A slug-like apostle rips Pippin's remains in two at the waist, tosses the halves aside, and lunges at Guts with its jaws gaping. Guts dodges at the last second but tumbles backward down the hill, and when he rises he is ringed by more apostles than he could ever hope to beat. They parade the bodies of the slain band, hoisting whole corpses overhead, clutching heads in their mouths, and wearing their victims' faces like masks. The sight tears a scream of fury from Guts.

Then he sees, held high above him, an apostle gripping an unconscious Casca, and his rage swells beyond measure. He charges, hacking down every apostle between them to reach her, until one bites into his left forearm and stops him short. Before the creatures can defile Casca in front of him, a thunderous heartbeat rolls out and turns every eye to the giant hand at the center of the carnage. Griffith's metamorphosis is finished, and he emerges as Femto.

A slug-like apostle finishes destroying Pippin's corpse and attacks Guts, who is then surrounded by an overwhelming horde displaying the band's remains. Guts sees the captured Casca and charges into a killing frenzy before an apostle seizes his forearm. A booming heartbeat halts everything as Griffith completes his transformation and is reborn as Femto.

Closing out this stretch of the Golden Age Arc, the chapter ran in Young Animal issue 16 on August 9, 1996, across twenty-one pages. Its final page marks the birth of Femto, the fifth member of the God Hand.