Episode 86: Birth

The four elder members of the God Hand, Void, Conrad, Ubik, and Slan, receive the last of their circle: Femto, once the man called Griffith. His shape has become a mass of shadowed flesh ridged with muscle, crowned by an exoskeletal helm whose silhouette echoes the armor he once wore. Twin membranous wings unfold from his back, and beneath the mask his features remain recognizable despite their newly cruel cast.

Descending on a single beat of his wings, Femto alights beside the pinned Guts as the assembled apostles lower themselves in reverence. He gestures for the only other survivor of the Band of the Falcon to be brought forward, and a nearby apostle drifts the half-aware Casca into his reach.

Femto begins to assault Casca, who stirs awake under the violation and dimly names her former captain before he silences her with a forced kiss. Slan and the others watch the spectacle without interruption.

Frantic to intervene, Guts hammers the teeth of the apostle Borkoff, who clamps his arm, using a blade borrowed from Gaston until the steel shatters. With the jagged remnant he saws through his own forearm, tearing himself loose just as Femto completes the rape. Freed, Guts levels the broken sword at Griffith and roars his name.

Published in Young Animal issue 17 on August 23, 1996, this twenty-three-page chapter belongs to the Golden Age Arc and depicts the culmination of the Eclipse. The self-amputation and loss Guts suffers here define the vendetta that drives the remainder of the series.