Berserk Volume 25

Guts the Black Swordsman just can't seem to find a little peace. On his way to the idyllic tranquility of his miniature pal Puck's homeland of Elfhelm, Guts and his companions, at the behest of a local witch, assist a village beset by a plague of hideous and deadly trolls. Assisted by the witch's disciple, Schierke, the warrior band manages to turn the tide against the beasts, but when a monstrous ogre hits town, a tide of another kind is needed, a mystic flood to wash the town clean. But when Casca and Farnese are carried away by the flood, they become prisoners in the troll's den, where a fate far worse than any imaginable death awaits!

The acclaimed adult horror manga is now in presented in deluxe hardcover editions in the original oversized serialization format. Though Guts the Black Swordsman lies near death from battling the dragon knight Grunbeld and his demonic legion, the witch Schierke has a dangerous tool to put Guts back in the fight: the unholy Berserker Armor. But the accursed shell unleashes its host’s inner demons, which might send the tormented Guts into eternal darkness! Collects Berserk volumes 25–27, including three fold-out color posters.

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!

Now equipped with the mystical Berserker Armor, Guts fights on against the dragon-form of Grunbeld and his legion of fanatic apostle soldiers. But the very armor that holds Guts together — in a nightmarishly literal sense — might be the last straw that tears his tortured mind apart! While Guts struggles to hold his own against his inner demons, monsters of a very different sort rally in Windham as the Kushan Emperor, Ganishka, and the newly reborn Griffith rally their forces in a head-to-head struggle for control of all of Midland. But when the dust finally settles, there may be little left of the kingdom to claim!

Faced with the Kushan emperor's horrific new form and the bloody swath of destruction and spawning demons he leaves in his wake with every step, the soldiers in Griffith's new Band of the Hawk must assume their true unholy forms to battle the emperor, revealing their true faces to the citizens of Midland. How will these tormented refugees react when they discover that their would-be rescuers are as monstrous as their enemies? And could this titanic confrontation threaten to unleash even greater horrors upon the human world?

Griffith, charismatic leader of the elite mercenary Band of the Hawk, has seen better days. His fearless champion, Guts, has left the Band, defeating Griffith in personal combat as his ticket out. With his judgment clouded by this unthinkable humiliation, Griffith eases his pain in the arms of the daughter of Midland’s king. But the King doesn’t take kindly to an employee picking the royal flowers, and the next stop for Griffith is the dungeon and the torture rack! Without Griffith and Guts, the Hawks become easy prey for Midland’s army, and the AWOL Guts may be the only answer to the Hawks' — and Griffith’s — lethal problems.

Guts, the Black Swordsman, goes from the frying pan to the fire as he must enter the mating chamber in the horrifying lair of trolls to rescue his love, Casca, and the Lady Farnese from the loathsome attentions of the hideous beasts. But while even an army of trolls cannot stand against Guts's boundless fury, the mightiest of warriors is no match for a demon lord. And so when Slan of the Godhand manifests from the entrails of slain trolls and takes Guts into her deadly embrace, Guts discovers he may not only be fighting for his life, but for his very soul!