Evil Insect

Getting near enough for a proper look, Guts settles the question of what he is fighting. The beings share an elf's basic shape, a humanoid frame, hair, and see-through wings, yet they also bear compound eyes, antennae, a trio of tiny extra eyes on the forehead, and the furred collars of moths. These are no elves.

He coldly asks Thomas whether he would rather avenge his slain parents or leave with the swarm. The boy refuses the creatures, and Guts scoops him up as if to protect him. Jill, ignoring Puck's objections, races into the village and slips in unseen alongside him, only to recoil at what Guts has actually done: he has hooked the Dragon Slayer's blade under the back of the child's shirt and hoisted him aloft as bait.

As the monsters drift toward their dangling prize, Guts bolts, hauling Thomas along to draw the whole swarm chasing after him. He funnels them into a rundown barn already littered with butchered livestock, flings the boy into a pile of hay, and turns to face the creatures as they shift into a more vicious, bug-like form. With the swarm packed inside, he whirls the Dragon Slayer to sever the loft supports, collapsing the hay-laden ceiling. He tosses a small flask of gunpowder into the wreckage and detonates it with a blast from his cannon arm, incinerating the monsters while he and Thomas walk away unhurt.

Watching the barn go up, Jill and Puck catch sight of what Guts already senses through his Brand: an enormous elf, grown to the size of a human child, looming beyond the flames.

Guts identifies the raiders as insect-like monsters disguised as elves. He offers Thomas a choice between vengeance and joining the swarm, then uses the boy as bait on the Dragon Slayer to lead the creatures into a barn. There he collapses the loft and ignites gunpowder with his cannon arm, wiping out the swarm in an explosion. In the aftermath, the giant apostle Rosine reveals herself as the true elf behind the attacks.

The chapter delivers the reveal that Misty Valley's elves are grotesque insect-hybrids, and it closes on the first appearance of Rosine, the child-sized apostle who commands them. Guts' willingness to endanger Thomas underscores the ruthless pragmatism of his monster-hunting during this stretch of the Conviction Arc.