Berserk Volume 17

Warrior supreme Guts, the Black Swordsman, has seen better days — and more popular — in the kingdom of Midland, a land he once defended as captain of the Band of the Hawk. But the Hawks were betrayed and slaughtered, and now the hyolier-than-thou Holy Iron Chain Knights have captured Guts and plan to whip some repentance into him — literally. But Guts isn’t so easily held at bay, at when he manages to escape with the Holy Knights’ leader, Farnese, as his hostage, the demons that are drawn to Guts’ Brand of Sacrifice are all too willing to show her the teeming darkness in her own soul!

Hell has broken loose in the kingdom of Midland. On the death of Midland's king comes invasion, demonic forces seem to be on the rise, underground pagan cults are running wild, and the church is busily rounding up and teaching heretics the errors of their ways. While, Guts is busy testing out his newly repaired sword on the invaders, his former captain and lover, Casca, her mind wrecked by her unholy tryst with the demon lord, has fallen in with a rough crowd who don't exactly wish her well. But she, like Guts, is marked with the Brand of Sacrifice, and her abusers may soon find themselves face-to-face with the unholy abominations that are inexorably drawn to the Brand!

Guts, the Black Swordsman, and his companions have finally arrived at the sea, where they discover a mysterious child who seems to share a special bond with Guts and his former lover, the now-mad Casca. The troupe's brief respite at the shore offers moments for quiet introspection and deeper bonding, but such peace is always short lived where Guts is involved, and Guts must once again don the demonic Berserker Armor to take on a force of bloodthirsty beasts emerging from the once-peaceful surf, possessed by the accursed sorcery of a powerful Kushan enchanter! And who knows what will happen when internal strife pushes a member of Guts's band unknowingly into the comforting companionship of an enemy!

Guts, the feared Black Swordsman, is on the rampage — and it's personal. Mozgus, the malefic master Inquisitor of the Holy See, in his murderous campaign against heretics, has captured Guts' former lover Casca and has her at the ready to be burned at the stake in the Tower of Conviction, little knowing that Casca's demonic Mark of Sacrifice is drawing hideous dark powers to the Tower. It'll take everything Guts has and more to defeat Mozgus — who is much, much more than a man — and even if he can, will he be able to save Casca from the hordes of Hell amidst the inquisitor's disintegrating citadel?

The bewildered and near-mad Casca, former captain of the Band of the Hawk — and former lover of Guts, the Black Swordsman — has been adopted by Midland’s pagan cults as a witch, due to her demonic Mark of Sacrifice. But the Holy Iron Chain Knights campaign to rid the kingdom of heretics by any means necessary puts Casca in mortal danger, and Guts is having none of it, But all parties involved may end up with more than they bargained for as demonic spirits, drawn to Casca’s brand, begin to possess the heretics and unleash the forces of hell. But hell hath no fury like the Black Swordsman!

Warrior supreme Guts has been marked for sacrifice to the armies of the damned, and now he has the blood of a village of possessed children on his hands — a horde of elf-demons straight out of a fairy-tale fever dream. But now Guts must deal with the Queen of the Elves herself, and though she may be cute as a button, she has hideous power and lethal intent, and in her wake, no one lives happily ever after!

From his days as a young mercenary to his time as captain of the Band of the Hawks’ Raiders, Guts’s life has been defined by his ability to fight and his will to win. Now cursed with the Brand of Sacrifice — a sigil that will forever mark him as prey for the damned — and with his companions dead, his lover’s mind destroyed and his one-time commander and friend reborn as a malevolent demon lord, it seems that more than ever Guts must rely upon his instinct to survive. But Hell has many faces, and when what appears to be an innocent country village proves to be a den of tragic secrets, the horror of a fairy tale perverted by pain and hate may prove to be more than Guts can handle!

Desperate to find a sanctuary where his lover, Casca, will be safe from the demons drawn to her Brand of Sacrifice, Guts the Black Swordsman pushes his motley band of followers onward towards fairy Puck’s homeland, Elfhelm. With new allies who make their home in a mystically guarded woodland paradise, Guts’ goal seems within reach, but danger lurks in the shadows of even the most dazzling utopias, and even fairy witchery may not protect the wondrous kingdom from an army of marauding, murderous trolls! Created by Kentaro Miura, Berserk is a runaway manga locomotive, a crashing colossus of teeth-rattling action, spine-chilling horror, and taboo-breaking humor that fires the boilers of its devoted devotees and burns the rest. Ashes to ashes!