Episode 89: Awakening to a Nightmare

In a dream shrouded by fog, Guts watches his fallen comrades march in twin silent columns toward an opening in the mist. He races after them, warning them away from where they are bound and pleading for them to turn, but they neither answer nor slow, drifting further off until his sight dissolves. He then wakes on a cot inside a cave lit by a gap in its ceiling, his right eye wrapped in bandages.

A small girl steps in from the bright entrance and trips on the stone in her hurry toward him. She is Erica, who once sheltered Guts during his year apart from the band, and Rickert follows close behind, shaken with relief that Guts has finally stirred. Rickert reports that four days have passed, that the Skull Knight carried him to this ore cave near Godot's home, and struggles to answer when Guts demands to know Casca's fate.

Erica points toward the falls at the cave's rear, where Casca stands in only a shirt beneath the water. Though barely able to move, Guts drags himself into the shallow pool, but Casca shrinks from his touch, thrashes free of his grip, bites his fingers, and flees to cling to Erica. Rickert explains that she trusts no one but the girl, has not spoken since waking two days prior, and no longer knows either of them despite her healed wounds.

Guts reaches for her again, then holds back and turns for the exit. Ignoring Rickert's warning that the Skull Knight forbade anyone from leaving the cave, he strides out into the wilderness and runs.

Carried in Young Animal issue 20 on October 11, 1996, this twenty-page Golden Age Arc chapter lays bare the toll the Eclipse has taken on the two survivors, Guts left maimed and haunted and Casca stripped of her memory and her voice.