This is the episode where we finally learn more about the Egg of the World. It spars briefly with the Skull Knight in the mass open grave outside the Tower of Conviction, but when it starts to take too much damage, it jumps over the knight to scoop up Luca and whisk her away.
When Luca awakens she is in a cave full of lit candles, hundreds of them. In front of her is a grotesque idol which is positioned like Christ on the cross, except this one is composed of several bodies of priests, all with expressions of agony on their dead faces.
The Egg of the World explains that it has no name or gender. It has never been anyone, and no one ever knew it. It didn’t even know itself. It lived alone, abandoned, in the rocky ground outside the Tower of Conviction, hiding in a pit and coming out only during the night to scavenge for food. Then bodies were thrown out of the tower until the Egg was buried. One of the corpses had a behelit, which the Egg used to summon the God Hand.
Their demand was that the Egg was to die and vanish, forever unknown to all. In return the God Hand would grant the Egg’s wish – to hatch a perfect world. The Egg itself will be the catalyst for the new world, hence why its current form is literally an egg.
Meanwhile Guts continues to fight Mozgus’ winged torturers, and he isn’t making much progress. Farnese is still watching the battle from the top of the stairs when she sees the coward Nina, crying in a corner and whining pitifully for Luca.
Mozgus starts to fly into the air with Casca in his arms, and Guts just can’t make it to her in time. From his hiding place Isidoro and Puck launch a minor aerial attack at Mozgus’ head, but it has no effect.
Back in the cave, the Egg of the World tells Luca that everything is moving towards an event which cannot be stopped, which is what the Skull Knight also told Guts. All of the events from the beginning of the season, including Luca meeting Casca and bringing her to St. Albion, have been arranged. When this event occurs it’s implied that the new world, and the white hawk (Griffith) will both be reborn.
Suddenly the Skull Knight comes flying into the cave, swinging at the Egg of the World. It tells Luca that it talked to her because it wanted to talk to just one person in the world before it disappeared. Which is rather pathetic when you think about it. The cave starts to crumble as fire rages inside, and the Skull Knight eats the Egg of the World’s behelit before saving Luca.
Up atop the tower, Guts is held imprisoned by the bird-torturer’s claws squeezing his face. Mozgus lifts off into the sky with Isidoro still on his head. Guts is getting the crap kicked out of him. Just as the giant winged demon is about to swing the breaking wheel at Guts’ torso, Guts uses the flamethrower in his false arm to free himself. Gradually he is able to turn the battle around by picking off the remaining torturers one by one, including the birdman.
The Tower of Conviction starts to fall apart, and around the tower grounds the hate entrenched in the dirt and the rock starts to manifest into more evil blob-like
creatures, which attack the Skull Knight and Luca. The Skull Knight throws her onto the horse and carries them both to safety. Azan orders his knights to retreat, but it’s too late for many. As the clouds part and the moonlight shines down on the ground below, we see that the crumbling Tower of Conviction now resembles a hand.
In the refugee camp below, evil spirits are possessing many innocent people and consuming other refugees after they turn. A wave of innocent refugree flee towards the knights standing in front of the Tower of Conviction, but Mozgus uses his new “God’s Breath” power to breathe fire onto the blob-creatures and save the panicked refugees.
As he hovers in the air over the refugees, Mozgus proclaims that he will stop the onslaught of evil by burning Casca at the stake. He puts her down on the ground and she awakens, only to be grabbed at by the scared, brainwashed refugees. They put her in manacles and lead her to the stake. As this is going on Guts is forced to cut through the blob-creatures to get to her, and he is thrown off-guard because they resemble the members of the God Hand.
The Skull Knight’s words come to the forefront of his mind: Do not have more than one that you care for. Guts scolds himself and goes rushing in towards Casca. Will he make it to her side in time?
My thoughts: Ah, back to the Japanese ending theme. ^_^
Going by the preview it looks like we’ll finally, finally get to see Mozgus’ final form. I don’t remember much about how the arc ends, but one step closer to the end is one episode less with Mozgus in it.
There’s not much to say because this episode felt like a “transition” episode in that it’s just one more step towards the big climactic battle. I wish I could say I remembered whether or not Nina died, but I don’t.
I did like how we got to finally know more about the Egg of the World, what it was and what its goals were. I found its whole backstory to be really creepy, and the CG animation actually didn’t bother me that much. Well done Berserk! That was horror done well.
* Susumu Hirasawa song of the week: I missed a week again, so I’m including two this week. The first is Strange Night of the Omnificence from his 1998 album Technique of Relief. The second song is Island Door (Paranesian Circle) from his 2010 remix album Hen Gen Jizai.