WHOOSH—!
All the trees with hanging cocoons were set ablaze. Soon, the entire Mist Valley was painted orange-red, glowing like the bottom of a blazing red furnace.
「Quest」
Defeat the Queen Bee (Completed)
Defeat the Wasp Monsters (Completed)
Burn the Cocoons (Completed)
「Reward」
Level Up: LV 68 → LV 69
Acquired: Smithing Stones (Standard, Somber, Ancient Dragon Smithing Stone—General Use)
Acquired: Land of Shadow
Prompted by the golden brand, Nidhogg used the Smithing Stones to strengthen his brass shield and the Land of Shadow to strengthen his Lone Wolf Ashes.
「Enhancement Successful!」
「Brass Shield +1」
「Lone Wolf Ashes +2」
Then Nidhogg stood at a distance from the raging fire, holding a sinister object in his hand—the Queen Bee's Beherit, which had been hidden in the hollow tree and which he had just found.
He certainly wouldn't use this thing.
But if he left it here, and through the law of causality it fell into someone else's hands and reincarnated that person into a new Apostle, Nidhogg would be quite unhappy.
Suddenly, he remembered the Skull Knight, who was always searching for traces of the God Hand and Beherits.
Since the Skull Knight collected Beherits, when the time came, he could give this Beherit to the Skull Knight, helping his sword with the watery summons to form as soon as possible. Consider it a friendly gesture.
So Nidhogg temporarily kept this Beherit.
As the fire consumed the giant tree once inhabited by the "fairies" and all its sins, Nidhogg turned and left.
---
Windham City, grey dawn.
The captains of the Hawk Company, who were now nobles and knights, had sensed it, but Guts was truly leaving the Hawk Company. And at its most glorious moment—it still surprised him.
However, hearing the expression on Guts's face, Judeau also understood Guts's thoughts.
"When Nidhogg left the Hawk Company and accomplished such a great deed at Doldrey Castle, yet chose not to return to the company, perhaps I had a similar thought. But I never voiced it."
"The clearest moment was on the night over a month ago—the night Julius tried to incite his rebellion."
"That night was quite chaotic. To kill Julius, I finished things as quickly as I could. I charged into the enemy formation, killed his guards, but I also accidentally killed his family, including his son, Adonis."
"Adonis was about the same age as Rickert, right? Maybe a little younger? I couldn't quite remember his face. But I couldn't stop and killed him. That's a fact."
Even Guts, who had killed so many on the battlefield, accidentally cutting off Adonis's head and seeing Julius charge at him in rage—it stirred up some rather unpleasant memories.
To protect himself, he had accidentally killed someone and triggered the memory of his foster father.
A sense of guilt and self-loathing rose within him, but Guts suppressed it and successfully killed Julius.
Judeau didn't know how to console Guts. Maybe he didn't need consolation. Maybe he just needed someone to listen. Guts rarely spoke this much in one breath.
"This idea fully formed when I realized I wasn't qualified to stand beside Griffith, and that what I dreamed of was having a dream of my own—as dazzling as Griffith's."
"Staying with the Hawk Company, I'm afraid I can't do that. Honestly, my three years with the Hawks were the happiest times, except for those years when my foster father taught me swordsmanship."
"Indulging in such glory and happiness, resting peacefully under Griffith's wings—I can't move forward. And he will go further and further, reaching heights I could never attain."
"So I need to leave."
After these words, Guts stopped. Judeau also stopped, because several people appeared in the forest ahead, guarding the only path.
They were Casca, Pippin, Corkus, Rickert, and Griffith.
"I already tried to convince him!" Corkus complained loudly. "First Nidhogg, now Guts. I really can't understand what you two are thinking!"
Casca, Pippin, and Rickert quickly approached.
When they learned from Corkus that Guts was about to leave without saying goodbye, they immediately rushed over, intending to ask why and persuade him to return.
But Guts insisted on leaving, heedless of anyone's advice.
Even Griffith's.
However, Griffith didn't try to persuade him. Instead, he slowly drew his curved sword and calmly said something he had never made public.
"When Nidhogg was about to leave, I asked him to fight me. Only if he could defeat me could he go. And he did."
"Three years ago, you lost to me, and I said then that you belonged to me. I used this sword to win you. Your life and death belong to me."
"If you want to leave my side, then, like Nidhogg did back then, take yourself back with your sword!"
This was the first time everyone learned that Griffith had lost to Nidhogg three years ago.
When they saw Griffith point his curved sword at Guts, and Guts draw his greatsword in response, everyone felt the tension.
It wasn't that they had never seen Griffith's paranoia or Guts's stubbornness. But now they were at odds, and they feared they wouldn't be able to tell who would win or lose.
Casca wanted to stop them, but Pippin held her back.
The fight began and ended in an instant, just like the day Griffith and Guts first met—but with the victor changed.
Over the years, Guts had always charged forward, countless times brushing against death. The strength honed in those situations was no longer something Griffith could match.
Guts won.
He withdrew his greatsword, walked past Griffith—who knelt with a face full of disbelief—and left without looking back.
And Casca, who should have been watching Griffith and had always been extremely hostile toward Guts, was utterly devastated by the scene. She couldn't help but look at Guts's retreating back and call his name.
"Guts!"
Guts paused, but kept walking.
And so, Nidhogg and Guts, who had joined the Hawk Company on the same day three years ago, had both now left the company.
That night, Griffith broke into Princess Charlotte's bedchamber and took her first night, while the Princess half-resisted.
Early the next morning, Griffith was arrested by the army of the Kingdom of Midland and imprisoned deep in the dungeons.
That same day, the Hawk Company received "Griffith's orders" and assembled on a plain, unprepared and unarmored. They were surrounded and suppressed by tens of thousands of Midland troops.
Though Casca was wounded by several arrows, she still fulfilled her duties as acting commander, leading the surviving members of the Hawk Company in a successful breakout. They then began a long and arduous period of being hunted and pursued by the Midland army.
In just over a month, the Hawk Company had plummeted from heaven to hell. It was almost unimaginable.