According to what the boy said, the girls were noticed by some lad and called the knights, who seized them. Farnese, eager to destroy Guts, identified the fugitives as the ones that Guts tried so hard to protect, and arrested them and took them to the Citadel of Condemnation. Anyway, once again the hot lover lost his chick after barely getting a peek or two at her.

By the time Guts reached the castle, it was already nighttime. At first, he wanted to trivially fight his way through the main gate, but then one of the prostitutes, who knew a way to get inside unnoticed, promised to help him.

While Guts and his companions were getting there, Casca had been taken to the torture chamber, where Chief Inquisitor Mozgus himself attended her. But as soon as real danger arose, demons began to appear near Casca, as they had before. And since it happened in the torture chamber, which was literally saturated with hatred and pain, the evil spirits immediately used this energy to materialize in the form of blood-red protoplasm. This embodiment of suffering immediately began to expand, consuming all humans. The protoplasm swallowed up Casca as well, but it didn't hurt her at all.

In general, I suppose several 'components' were required for the upcoming rebirth of Griffiths. The first was a 'holy place' connected with the Spirit World. The second was sacrifice - thousands of people sincerely wishing for the 'coming of the falcon', i.e. Griffiths himself. The third ingredient was pain, suffering and a sense of doom. And the most important 'ingredient' was the Sacrifice that made Griffiths an apostle of demons. But since his wish had not yet been fulfilled, the Sacrifice remained untouchable. Guts might naively have believed that he was the toughest guy in the world, killing demons left and right, but in reality, he was allowed to live. As for the weaklings he killed, they were just food for the demon that was growing in his soul.

Meanwhile, Guts, Isidro and I reached the bottom of the castle, which towered over us like a mountain. The prostitute threw a stone toward a small, shuttered window on the third floor. It immediately opened and a rope ladder descended. This window was a 'loophole' through which alcohol and whores were brought into the fortress, plus sometimes soldiers would use it to go away.

While the girl was talking to the guard, trying to get inside to distract him, Guts just jumped through the window with such speed that no one even noticed him. He also tore the guard's head off in the process. After that, the swordsman began to run through the empty corridors of the castle, demonstrating a profound understanding of the principles of Brownian motion.

However, he quickly reached the cellars where the torture chamber was, navigating by smell and demonic energy. Here he was taken by surprise by a whole crowd of inquisitors running upstairs, so he had to hide in one of the corridors. But to his surprise, in the midst of this crowd he found Farnese walking erratically. He stealthily 'kidnapped' her and started extracting information from the girl, demanding to know where the Casca is and what had happened to her.

After discovering that Casca was being held in the torture chamber, Guts threatened Farnese and forced her to lead him there. Serpico followed the pair in stealth, trying to think of a way to save his ward, for whose life and health he was responsible with his head.

Only when they reached the torture chamber, they found empty rooms with no trace of people or their corpses. Only the lingering traces of blood told them the place wasn't completely abandoned. Also, the whole place was saturated with demonic energy, which literally glowed in the air with a reddish mist.

“What's that supposed to mean?” - Guts, who hadn't expected to see an empty room, was angry.

“Impossible!” - Farnese muttered, glancing around. – “Not so long ago...”

And then they came around the corner and found that the bones in this part of the room were laying a thick layer on the floor. The remains, too, were reddish in color and were falling apart at the slightest touch.

“It's those...” - Farnese almost vomited, although in my opinion these bones looked much more aesthetically pleasing than the nightmare that was going on here just half an hour ago, when a whole crowd of inquisitors was 'working' at a percussive pace.

Here Guts found his tame elf Puck, who had managed to survive the demon attack by hiding inside a steel helmet. Puck assured Guts that Casca is still alive. Moreover, he could still feel her life force, so he led his master to her.

Farnese, who had seen Puck, was again stunned. If all the 'wonders' she'd seen before had been vague visions and waking nightmares, but the little flying man was clearly visible. And as she looked around, she noticed me, too, because I had now purposely removed my cloaking spell. Remembering what I had done to the apostle in the mansion, Farnese no longer dared think of escaping. Again, she was forced to follow the Black Swordsman just to stay alive and... then she felt a tingle between her legs and her head was filled with unrestrained sexual fantasies.

“You can get lost.” - Guts dismissed her with a scornful look.

“Wait, I'll come with you.” - The blonde shouted, running after the 'boyfriend of her dreams'. As soon as he stepped back, the red protoplasm, already familiar to her, was oozing from the walls again.

Meanwhile, the 'red stuff' continued to pursue Mozgus, driving him into the chapel at the very top of the fortress. The inquisitor prepared to accept death, but at that moment he was 'pecked in the ass by a bird'. I mean, the local apostle, who had yet to play his part in Griffiths' resurrection, injected demon blood into the body of the inquisitor and his assistants. In just a few seconds they transformed and gained 'angelic powers'. In particular, Mozgus gained a 'fire-breath' with which he literally incinerated the protoplasm in front of him.

At that moment, he unknowingly saved a bunch of survivors, among whom was Isidro, from being swallowed by this protoplasm. In addition to him in the group were two whores and their client.

Casca, who had been inside the protoplasm all this time, was also freed by the flames, and Mozgus put his raking hands on her.

“I witnessed a miracle! It was the will of God! With this power I must lead the people.” - Proclaimed the newborn apostle Mozgus. Although his power was less than that of a real apostle, the very energy of the place allowed him to absorb far more demonic energy.

Mozgus and his party were about to finish the bunch of them off, when Guts appeared on the scene with a pompous flourish. When he saw Casca, he immediately broke away from the slice and rushed forward, sweeping away everything in his path. The only thing in the way were the seven apostles, who didn't want to be swept away, but instead joined the fight. At that 'beautiful moment', all seven inquisitors opened their angelic wings and soared into the sky, spreading a holy glow.

“So, you're the black swordsman? Did I understand that correctly?” - Mozgus asked. – “I don't know what your intentions are, but I won't give you the witch. For the sake of God's justice!”

With those words, he turned and flew away. Guts tried to stop him with his harpoon, but it was deflected by a lesser inquisitor.

“Fool, you dare go against God?” - Mozgus outraged. – “You shall suffer bleeding for it.”

Four of the inquisitors rushed at Guts, and Guts was surprised to find that their combined strength was enough to overwhelm him. The blows came one after another, and all Guts had to do was block them, unable to attack properly.

“Stupid animal, what are you doing?” - I yelled in frustration. – “Why are you defending yourself? Those sub-apostles can' hurt you, even if they have a thousand lives. Just go and kill them all. What kind of mating game is this?”

“No need to interfere, lord, it is our duty.” - Mozgus was stopped from personal involvement by his most loyal servant. – “You, Father Mozgus, must do yours.”

“Forgive me. I have lost my temper.” - The Grand Inquisitor apologized, staring at the scene before him with eyes filled with childlike innocence.

The three apostles flapped their angelic wings and soared into the sky. Guts rushed forward, but the four remaining demons blocked his path. Casca 'flew' away from him again, along with a cheekily grinning Mozgus. Isidro tried to stop the apostle, but all he had the strength to do was climb onto the invulnerable body of the inquisitor and fly away with him.

Meanwhile, four inquisitors used Guts' distraction to immobilize him. One took hold of his head with his legs, threatening to scratch out his eyes with his claws, two grabbed his arms to keep them from moving, and the third hit him in the stomach with a huge steel 'wheel,' which was actually a torture tool.

Another fit of rage consumed Guts. He roared, and his flesh 'flowed,' tearing free of the hold it had on him. The apostle tried to pierce the swordsman's eyes with his claws, but that didn't stop him. With a devilish roar, Guts twisted out of the captivity of the torture weapons, grabbed his sword with both hands, and with all his might struck the enemy in front of him. It was a huge, muscular brute wielding an iron wheel. He once again thrust his weapon to block the sword, but this time it didn't work. The glowing blue blade sliced the wheel in two, and with it the 'angel' split in two. Blood and guts splattered in all directions, flooding the chapel.

“You will pay for this!” - One of the apostles shouted, and immediately he paid the price himself, because his voice attracted the attention of the mad monster.

This apostle was a little old man wielding 'eye-pincers. He tried to dodge Guts, who leaped toward him, but he had already gone into 'combat mode,' in which the speed of his arms and legs exceeded the speed of sound, producing thunderous blows. The sword pierced the weak body, almost splitting it in half simply by the width of the blade. Before the apostle's corpse had even fallen to the ground, Guts rushed to his next target. This demon didn't even have time to do anything before he was chopped to pieces along with his weapon. Moreover, this weapon was a steel chain. The psi-bone made the sword so sharp that it was capable of chopping through steel without meeting any resistance. Of course, to do that you had to infuse the blade with psi-energy, and normally, Guts couldn't do that even if he wanted to.