In just a few blows, Guts chopped the ravenous trees into debris and rescued the girl's corpse. After that, as if by magic, the Sun rose and its first rays fell on the corpses of the two men who had decided to give a stranger a ride. The swordsman stood looking at the bodies with a pain in his eyes. A long-standing and dull pain that couldn't be taken away, and couldn't be used to.

“Weak. How weak you are.” - I commented as I stared at the scene. During the fight, Puck and I had only been flying in circles, trying not to fall into the clutches of the undead. So, my accusations were immediately countered by my two companions.

“It wasn't his fault.” - Puck declared in a sad but indignant voice.

“Weak?” - Guts squinted at me. – “The weak are those who are unable to defend themselves. And true strength is the ability to survive and live the life you want.”

“You are weak.” - I grinned contemptuously, minting my words. – “If you were stronger, you could save those two. You could have killed all the demons before they even tried to hurt anyone. If you'd embraced the power of the Philosopher's Stone, those two probably wouldn't have even noticed that someone had attacked them. But you denied that gift of power, leaving yourself as a useless wimp. Yes, you survived, but don't tell me that their deaths were exactly what you wanted to achieve.”

Guts waited, looked at the undead fragments, glanced at the girl's corpse, and then pulled out a blood-red ruby that attracted the eye with its mere appearance and mysterious shimmer.

“Every power has a price.” - He said. – “Who would believe that true immortality can be given as a mere gift?”

“The price of power is responsibility for it.” - I objected. – “The chance you've been given to become stronger, to kill demons. You're just afraid that in exchange for that power you'll wake up your conscience. You're the one who put it to sleep by making excuses for your weakness. You're only strong enough to save yourself. Isn't that right, Guts?”

The swordsman looked at me with a frown, then he hid the stone in his pocket, put his sword behind his back, and crept away, no longer looking back at the battlefield, leaving the dead behind, to continue living in spite of his enemies. I waited a few seconds, and then flew silently after, too, leaving the dazed Puck to gather his thoughts.

The night had ended not only in a philosophical dispute between me and my 'guide' to the Spirit World, but also in a wound to his stomach, plus an arrow wound in his thigh, and a couple of superficial cuts. A weapon that had been rotting in the ground for years had made a nice hole in the swordsman's belly, carrying a lot of dirt and other contaminants. And the arrow, shot by one of the skeletons, still had the remains of poison on it. With the 'spiritual' enhancement these wounds were not fatal, but nevertheless his body was severely weakened, struggling with the infection and trying to cure the 'extra' holes.

By noon, a band of armored knights appeared in front of Guts and immediately began to surround him. The leader of the party was another blonde. Her name was Lady Farnese. She was formally the leader of the Knights of the Holy Chains of Iron, but in reality the leader of the rabble was a short and heavily built man who wielded a battle iron staff that looked more like a double-edged sword.

“We've found you at last, Black Swordsman!” - Farnese declared pompously. – “We are the Holy Iron Chain Knights. We've been chasing you by order of the Bureau of Investigation to bring you to justice. You will be dealt with mercifully if you lay down your weapons and surrender. If you do not, I swear to God you will regret it!”

“I don't remember crossing the road of the church. I didn't do anything wrong.”

“What a hypocrite! Then where did the blood come from?” - The blonde indignantly pointed to Guts' bloodstained clothes and his sword. – “While we were chasing you, we saw the bodies of an old man and his daughter. You don't say? It's God's will! Squad, capture the Black Swordsman!”

That was the end of the negotiations, and the parties moved on to the massacre. Or rather, Guts had been about to massacre, only his wounds from the night had taken their toll. He couldn't even swing his sword properly, and fell shamefully on his ass.

“What a weakling!” - I did not fail to put salt on the wound. – “You can't even swing a sword.”

As a result, Guts began to punch with his iron prosthesis, knocking out teeth and brains, even in spite of the knights' protective armor. A disorganized mob of 'high-born' rabble rushed at the target in crowds, trying to chop him into a salad, though the order was actually just to 'grab' him. But even the combined efforts of the crowd were not enough to stop a swordsman accustomed to fighting real demons. The point was that this squad was made up of the children of all sorts of powerful people who didn't want their descendants to actually fight anyone. So most of the attackers were just fools who wore armor for beauty's sake.

The knights, however, had more than just numbers on their side. One of the attackers fired a crossbow and hit Guts's already wounded leg. As a result, he tensed, grabbed his sword with both hands, and then slashed it in front of him, cutting the three attackers in half. The crowd froze, stunned by the sight of blood and guts exploding. Guts stopped, too, using the pause to pull out an arrow.

“I am Azan, Officer-Commander of the Holy Iron Chain Knights.” - The real commander stepped forward. The knights immediately parted, giving him room for one-on-one combat.

“Iron Staff Demon Azan?” - Guts recognized his opponent.

The two warriors had a brief conversation in the best samurai tradition, and then engaged in combat. The only thing the weakened Guts could do was dodge. Naturally, with such an approach the fight could not be won, and he decided on one last desperate move - to take hostage the leader of the entire squad, who stood there and watched the fight, gaping her mouth wide open.

Black Swordsman rushed forward, literally jumped over Azan, cut down five knights standing in his way, and was about to get the bitchy girl as at that moment the bodyguard standing behind her threw a trivial piece of wood at Guts' wounded leg. The blow caused an explosion of pain in the swordman's brain that knocked him unconscious and sent him falling at Farnese's feet.

The knights immediately began to 'sing' the bravery and prowess of their commander, while the blonde herself froze in horror looking at the vanquished enemy, who had terrified her with his strength and ruthlessness. Meanwhile, the real winner of Guts stood modestly on the sidelines, not attracting attention. His name was Serpico, and he was the girl's bodyguard, servant, and spy, as well as her secret admirer, hungry not only for sex, but also for revenge for her mother who had been burned at the stake.

Afterwards, they stripped the senseless victim of all his valuables and gave him new and high-quality shackles in exchange. After that, they loaded the still unconscious body onto a cart and took him to a temporary camp, which housed the supply section of this small army.

The swordsman was searched once more in the camp, and then taken to Farnese for interrogation. The prisoner was stripped of all his armor and clothing, leaving only his simple pants, barely tied with rope.

The vicious blonde could not forgive Guts for the fear she felt when he attacked her. So she decided to avenge herself at the expense of torture, a favorite pastime of the nobility. The chained prisoner had been tied to a pole, and the girl insisted that she should be left alone with him.

Next came a pompous speech about how Farnese's actions were imbued with 'God's will,' and finally it was time to torture. The girl grabbed a nine-tailed whip, the tips of which were tied in knots and had special steel spikes which would slice through the skin. But thanks to a little intervention from me, after the first blow, the most damage was done not to Guts' skin, but to his pants, whereupon they fell off, exposing his enormous cock to the view of the virgin girl.

Farnese, seeing this anatomical detail of the male body for the first time, froze as a pillar of salt, keeping her gaze on his cock. And Guts, sensing this lustful stare, became involuntarily aroused, causing his cock to swell and rise. This whole mute scene lasted for five minutes, during which time Farnese meditated on his cock. She had in fact almost reached the state of a Bodhisattva, because during this time not a single thought appeared in her mind.

But then they heard the excited voices of the knights, who called Azan to keep an eye on his boss and his underling. Indeed, it was dangerous to leave her alone with the outlaw. For a moment the girl was confused, glaring in panic at her subordinates who had entered the tent, and when her gaze fell back on Guts, it became clear that his pants were still where they should be, and nothing untoward was going on. The girl immediately became confused, unsure whether the 'vision of a cock' was a reality or an illusion. But since her subordinates clearly weren't going to leave her alone with her prisoner this time, she simply ordered them to take him away and lock him in a cage, where he was to be kept until he was brought to the Bureau of Investigation headquarters.

While Farnese was atoning her sins for 'promiscuous thoughts,' dusk gradually fell on the camp. The lower the sun descended, the more Guts began to sense the demons' presence. They were hiding in the shadows and under the rocks, waiting for the sun to fade. In the meantime, I'd thoroughly brainwashed my apprentice, discussing how weak, dumb, and cowardly he was.

But then Puck arrived to help the 'angry hedgehog' and stole the keys from the guards, who had decided to drink a little and had drunk too much wine to be conscious, because the dismembered corpses of their comrades stood before their eyes as soon as they closed their eyes. In just a minute, Guts was free of his shackles and released from his cage. Afterward, he sprinted toward Farnese's tent, which contained all of his belongings, most importantly his sword. My Vritras crystal was there, too. None of the inspectors wanted it, because the ruby had a spell on it that made it look like a dirty brown lump of magnetite to mere mortals.