Berserk.manga

Somewhere in the depths of that corrupted forest, a white-haired figure sat upon a throne of behelits, smiling at a chessboard with no opponent. He moved a single piece—a black pawn—into the center of the board.

For a long moment, the only sound was the creak of his leather glove tightening around the sword’s hilt. Then he lowered the blade. Not because he couldn’t swing—he’d cut through worse than puppets. But because their eyes reminded him of someone else’s. Judeau’s. Casca’s. His own , once, before he learned that some monsters wear human faces and some humans wear monster’s armor.

It only carried the stench of rust and old blood across the hill where Guts stood, the Dragonslayer resting across his shoulders like a crucifix of iron. Below, the remnants of a mercenary camp smoldered—burned tents, broken pikes, and the twisted shapes of men who had laughed at breakfast. Apostles had done this. He’d arrived too late to save anyone, only in time to count the dead.

“Clever,” he said quietly. “You think I won’t kill children.” berserk.manga

She didn’t stand. Instead, she clapped twice.

He turned his one eye toward the horizon, where a familiar shape of twisted trees clawed at a bruised sky.

Guts turned away.

The wind did not mourn.

Or what was left of it. The steeple had been punched inward, as though by a giant’s fist. Inside, the pews were stacked into a crude throne, and on that throne sat a woman whose beauty was a blade—pale hair, lips the color of a fresh scar, and eyes that held the same hungry patience as a spider at the center of its web.

The iron bell fell like judgment, crushing the countess mid-transformation in a spray of ichor and broken chitin. The children stopped. One by one, threads dissolved from their mouths. They blinked, confused, and began to cry. Somewhere in the depths of that corrupted forest,

“Puck,” he said. “Get them to the next town.”

“What about you?”