At that moment, Griffith remembered buying this Crimson Beherit from an old fortune-teller woman. At the same time, something strange had occurred.
When Griffith was a boy, he had always looked up at the castle in the distance. At first, it was simply envy of life within the castle walls, but gradually it became the symbol of his dream.
He wanted to have his own kingdom.
One day, the young Griffith, as usual, ran down the street. But all his companions were nowhere to be found. He had to run alone toward the castle.
However, before he knew it, Griffith was lost. He asked an old woman by the roadside for directions.
The kind old woman pointed the way and mentioned that his friends had gone on ahead.
Trusting the old woman's words, Griffith ran down an alley, trying to catch up with his friends, until he found himself in complete darkness, where he could barely see anything.
He grew a little nervous and panicked. When he looked down, he saw an extremely gruesome sight.
The entire ground was actually paved with countless corpses. Griffith's feet stood upon them.
Griffith screamed and ran forward, trying to escape this abandoned place, but he tripped over a corpse and fell to the ground, covered in blood.
He got up, panicking even more.
At that moment, the old woman who had given him directions appeared again and said to him meaningfully:
"This is the only way to reach the castle. There is no other path. The only ones who walk toward that castle are those who step over the fallen here. Otherwise, you become one of the inhabitants here."
Then, in the darkness, a person appeared before Griffith who shouldn't have been there at that time.
A little boy.
This was a little boy from the time when Griffith was already the leader of the Hawk Company. A little boy who admired him greatly, who wanted to become his knight-servant, but later died on the battlefield along with his puppet.
Many more people appeared. They were all members of the Hawk Company. Their faces were familiar. Everyone Griffith recognized.
These people, without exception, were all those who had died for his dream, for the glory of the Hawk Company.
They all came, calling out together, hoping Griffith would lead them to the castle.
But Griffith didn't understand how he was supposed to bring these dead to that castle.
He could only keep apologizing.
At that moment, the old woman appeared again and said seductively:
"Listen carefully. The roads you have traveled are piled high with the corpses of these children. It is only by their corpses, multiplied many times over, that you have been able to come here."
"If you want to reach that castle, you need to accumulate more and more corpses."
"You came here because you knew what kind of place this was, didn't you?"
"It's not too late. Before you become like these corpses, accumulate more corpses. There is no other way but to do this."
Without Griffith's notice, the hem of the old woman's skirt lifted, revealing two short bodies stacked upon each other.
And these two short bodies could emit a magical sound that could seduce the vast majority of people.
Griffith woke up.
He understood that it was meaningless to repent now to those who had died for his dream.
If he repented, it would all be over, and he truly would never reach that castle.
Immediately, the scene before Griffith changed again.
He transformed from a teenager into the radiant "White Phoenix General," and in an instant became the tortured prisoner Guts had rescued. He could only sit in a wheelchair while Casca fed him liquid food.
Finally, he stood again, standing in the barracks of the Hawk Company.
This is who I will become a year from now.
Griffith suddenly realized this.
His body had recovered. His hair had grown back. It was still silver-white and curly. He no longer needed to constantly wear the white eagle helmet, wrapped in thick bandages, with others caring for him.
Then, Griffith walked through the Hawk Company barracks.
After a year away from command, the Hawk Company had not disbanded. It had gradually emerged from the valley, recovered to a size of thousands, and earned a name for itself.
However, Griffith understood perfectly well that this reputation was not his, but Guts's and Nidhogg's.
From that year onward, because of their existence, the Hawk Company was able to stabilize completely and repeatedly achieve miraculous feats, so that no one in the outside world dared to underestimate this new Hawk Company.
Griffith even felt a sharp pang of fear, thinking that they might have performed better than him, the leader.
However, not long ago, after Griffith recovered, Nidhogg had once again left the Hawk Company, deciding to go his own way. Then Guts and Casca, who were also leaving.
Whether Nidhogg or Guts, they were going to follow their own dreams.
As for Casca, from that year onward, everyone knew she and Guts had become lovers. She wanted to stay with her beloved forever, so naturally, she would go wherever Guts went.
Griffith knew of Casca's admiration for him, but he couldn't reciprocate.
Because from the very beginning, he knew Casca was suited to be his second-in-command, not his wife.
Griffith knew the rules of this world well. His birth was not noble enough. If he wanted to reach the top step by step, besides his own military achievements, it was best to have a wife of noble blood.
Look no further than Princess Charlotte.
Later, when Griffith realized that the King's feelings for his daughter were not caring but lustful, he understood that this path wouldn't work.
In short, Griffith had no feelings for Casca, no romantic emotions between a man and a woman.
Nevertheless, Griffith felt a little uncomfortable that Casca was leaving him and choosing to follow Guts.
He had had this possessive nature for a long time. The entire Hawk Company, whether Guts, Casca, or Nidhogg, belonged to him.
However, by this time, Guts and Nidhogg had gained their freedom by defeating him.
Casca had supported the Hawk Company while he was locked in the dungeon.
When he could only sit in a wheelchair, it was the three of them who had used their strength to stabilize the Hawk Company and lead it to where it was now. Then they had let go and returned it to him.
In that sense, who could criticize the three of them? Who could make them stay?
Griffith knew he couldn't do that.
He didn't want to do that either.
These three should leave. If things continued like this, this Hawk Company would not become his Hawk Company... Perhaps it was no longer his Hawk Company.
He walked within this strange Hawk Company and heard many rumors.
The departure of the three had once again stirred unease within this Hawk Company. Originally, it only needed his presence, and everything in the Hawk Company would be fine. But now, things were completely different.
The existence of these three, their weight, might have surpassed Griffith, who had completely lost control and shown a weak and helpless form for a year.
There must be many people who had seen him sitting in a wheelchair after being incontinent, and could only watch as Guts and Casca cared for him.
Not to mention that he had ended up in this state because he had broken into the princess's bedchamber alone that night. This scandalous news had spread through the barracks.
His prestige and dignity were nothing.
It didn't matter. Griffith believed that if given time, sooner or later the Hawk Company would return to him. He believed in himself.
However, another year later, the Kushan Empire to the east struck.
The Hawk Company, under Griffith's command at that time, numbered 3,000 and fought for the Holy See to resist the Kushan army.
However, the main force of the Kushan army actually consisted of ghostly soldiers and giant monsters, as well as those Bakiraka assassins hiding in the darkness. The Hawk Company, being merely a human group, could not parry.
Not to mention their emperor, the demon king known as the "Terrifying Emperor," who could transform into a thunder giant, and blades could not harm him.
He single-handedly unleashed deafening lightning and completely routed the Hawk Company.
Pippin, Judeau, Corkus, Rickert... The core elites of the Hawk Company died in this one-sided battle. The entire Hawk Company was on the verge of annihilation.
At the most desperate moment, Nidhogg, Guts, and Casca appeared.
They brought reinforcements and, in one blow, repelled the Kushan army, saving Griffith and the remnants of the Hawk Company.
Everyone who had survived the disaster surrounded these three saviors and cheered for them.
However, the last person Griffith wanted to see at that moment was them. He would rather have died on the battlefield.
But they simply appeared.
He thought about it and couldn't help but laugh.
What was this?
Every time the Hawk Company was in danger, it needed the three old members who had left the command to save it.
This dream—something the three of them didn't care about at all—I held it tightly in my hands and never dared to relax for a second, yet I still couldn't hold onto it. And now they were pulling it out at will. What was this?
What was my dream?
So fragile?
Looking at the bodies of the Hawk Company members scattered across the world, Griffith was silent, self-deprecating, and felt resentment.
In the daze, a sharp and thin voice sounded in his ears.
"The one aiming for the castle in the sky, always piling corpses to the top, is you!"
Griffith suddenly woke from his dream. When he looked down, his body had turned back into the wounded cripple in the wheelchair, only able to be wrapped in bandages.
He smelled a stench. Had he been incontinent again? He couldn't even confirm it.
Casca, Pippin, Judeau, and Corkus were guarding nearby.
Nidhogg and Guts were fiercely fighting the "Immortal" Zodd not far away.
This nightmare wasn't over yet.
However, he didn't panic. He looked at the Crimson Beherit in his hand.
At this moment, the originally contorted face on the Crimson Beherit had revived, and that face was staring at him blankly.
He heard a magical sound.
"Now your path of accumulating corpses has been interrupted. Even if you force yourself to descend, it will be useless. However, you can still give them your wounded body and continue the dream."
"But if the castle is still more dazzling than anything else, then accumulate everything you have left and say 'sacrifice' in your heart."
"If you do this, you will obtain dark wings that will soar from the peak into the sky! If it is true that fate surpasses human wisdom and toys with people, then it is causality, for humans to become demons and defy fate."
The magical sound echoed for a long time.
Griffith looked at the Crimson Beherit from within his dark helmet, as if seeing himself in that face.
He immediately looked up, forgot about all the people and things around him, and finally fixed his gaze on Guts's back.
He smiled.
FWOOSH—!
At that moment, darkness suddenly descended, completely swallowing the only light before them.
Everyone couldn't help but look up.
Even Nidhogg, Guts, and Zodd, engaged in fierce battle, stopped and stared in astonishment at the sky.
At some point, a solar eclipse had occurred. The entire world was shrouded in terrible darkness. The "fifth death of the sun," prophesied in the Book of Revelation, had appeared.
Dimly, all throughout the valley, naked figures appeared one after another.
They blocked the entrance and exit of the walled city, then appeared between the stone walls, surrounding the hundreds of Hawk Company members who had not yet managed to escape.
These figures were densely packed and slowly walked toward each person, but they brought a shocking, oppressive feeling to everyone, as if they had fallen into a net from which they could not escape.
At the same time, the Crimson Beherit let out a piercing cry. Two streams of blood and tears gushed from it.
Similarly, Griffith's eyes also shed tears of blood.
BOOM—!
A sudden burst of evil energy engulfed Griffith, blowing away Casca, Pippin, Judeau, and the others like a gust of wind, and then enveloped Nidhogg, Guts, and Zodd with thunderous momentum.
In an instant, this evil energy swallowed the entire valley!
Suddenly, clusters of black shadows appeared, revealing human faces, floating in the air. On each face were only empty eye sockets—joy, anger, sorrow, happiness—all on these faces.
The ground everyone trod upon was involuntarily replaced by raised hills. And on these hills were faces with closed eyes.
Surrounded by human faces, the only open space was the black sun high in the sky, looking down on everyone below like an eye.
Immediately, in the midst of the human-faced hill, a giant figure slowly rose.
It was naked, revealing its graceful posture, spreading black wings, and letting out a seductive moan.
This was the first God Hand, who had briefly appeared in the dark realm—the Whore!
Then, the human face floating in the sky turned into a vortex, from which fell a thick, bespectacled face like a stone pillar. In an instant, it transformed into a small figure.
He smiled viciously. He was only the size of a human head, suspended. His lower body was entirely replaced by black tentacles.
This was the second God Hand—Ubik!
Immediately, another figure slowly rose from among the human faces on the ground.
He was only slightly larger than Ubik, but he was a dwarf, also fat. Even his eyes were so swollen they narrowed into slits. His hands were clasped together.
This was the third God Hand—Conrad!
When Griffith was lost and didn't know how to reach the castle, the old woman who had shown him the way was composed of Ubik and Conrad lying on top of each other.
It was they, either enchanting or awakening Griffith, allowing Griffith to understand his own essence more deeply and sowing the seeds that sprouted at this moment of his fate.
Finally, in the shadow of the eclipse, a cloaked figure appeared, resembling a mountain.
His entire body was covered in bone armor. His head was bare, but it was a head without a skull, with exposed brains. His eyes were sewn shut, and his mouth was stretched by silk threads, forcibly torn open, revealing teeth and gums.
This was the fourth angel and the leader angel—Void!
BOOM—!
In the center of the original evil energy, giant hands made of human faces rose from underground, stretching high into the eclipsed air like an altar. The five fingers and palms slowly parted.
Soon, all four angels returned to their places, standing on four fingers. Only the index finger remained empty.
And Griffith knelt on the palm of this giant hand.
After a strange, dead silence, these ghostly figures, which had appeared suddenly, let out a mad howl, like a carnival, echoing throughout the entire space of human faces shrouded in darkness!
One after another, they no longer hid it and couldn't wait to reveal their true bodies, unveiling monstrous forms!
Some were as huge as mountains, some as small as mice. Hundreds or thousands, they almost filled the entire space!
And the people within could only huddle together in panic, gasping for breath in their tiny living space, watching the spectacle, watching the monsters that showed them hungry and thirsty faces.
Even with all words, no one could fully describe this scene.
They were terrified and in despair, as if they had left this planet and found themselves in the endless, cold darkness of the universe!
Everyone knew this was hell!
Then, from the giant hand, a meteor-like light burst forth, flying and striking all the defenseless people, leaving strange marks one after another.
Among all these people, only one possessed a golden light emanating from his body, like a shield, rejecting the mark and reflecting it back.
The symmetrical combination of lines and the burning pain made everyone in the Hawk Company understand that something terrible was about to happen to them.
And indeed, the monsters surrounding them let out a chaotic roar at those who bore the brand, already sacrifices for this demon-subduing ritual, and lunged at them!
Without hesitation, they extended their claws, grabbed the sacrifices nearby, weakened by fear, and without ceremony, stuffed them into their mouths, biting, sucking, chewing, swallowing!
The demonic feast had begun!