The Spider’s Thread
As the spirits burst through the chapel door, the spider-thing stings Mozgus and his men. Isidro, Nina, Luca, and Jerome flee up the stairs towards the chapel but become trapped between the spirits at the door and those behind them. Then a pillar of flame bursts through the door, burning away the spirits and exposing an unconscious Casca. She falls into the arms of the fire’s source – Mozgus, who vows to complete his holy mission by burning the “witch” at the stake. One of his men, the midget, recognizes Nina as Casca’s companion. The cone-headed one attacks them, using his weapon, a four-pronged grip attached to a chain, to tear a chunk from a pillar and launch it at the four. It misses but leaves a large hole in the wall, which causes part of the floor to give way, sending Nina and Luca over the edge, the former caught by Isidro and Jerome while she holds Luca tenuously by the hand.
Those Who Dance at the Summit, Those Who Creep in the Depths
Luca lets go of Nina’s hands, but as she falls the Skull Knight catches her. Behind the others cone-head throws another chunk of pillar, but before it can hit them Guts, guided to the top of the tower by Puck’s sensing of Casca’s presence, smashes through it He narrowly misses Mozgus, who realizes Guts is the renowned Black Swordsman. He refuses to relinquish Casca as he and his men unfurl their wings.
The Skull Knight lands in what he tells Luca are the burial grounds at the base of the tower. He senses something else there, and an egg-shaped shadow slowly approaches.
Hell’s Angels
Guts fights the torturers and they smash up the chapel between them. The others and a newly-arrived Farnese look on in astonishment (except Puck; he’s seen more impressive).
One Unknown in the Depths of Depths
The egg-shadow snatches Luca and takes her to a cave of many candles, and an altar made from human skins in a mockery of the Holy See’s symbol. From the shadows it begins telling her its story.
It never remembers being anything but a scavenger who lurked around the monastery’s garbage chute (once finding a strange stone amongst the refuse). It once went up top to see other people, but the monks called it a monster and threw stones to drive it away. It began digging a hole, delving deeper and deeper to escape the shadow of the tower. Then more and more people gathered around the monastery, and the bodies of their dead were thrown down the hole until it was buried. But as it suffocated it met them – the five angels. They showed it the truth of the world, made it understand its anger and sadness and the despair felt by all. They promised to grant one wish if it offered them something. The offering was the world; the wish was to hatch “the perfect world.” As it finishes its story it steps into the light to reveal its Apostle form – a giant Behelit.
The Threatened
Now calling itself the “Egg of the Perfect World,” the Egg Apostle watched the suffering, debauchery, and tyranny that played out amongst the monks and refugees. It also watched Nina, and how Luca was like a torch to her, giving her hope yet also illuminating her darker side, bringing conflicting emotions of love and hate she couldn’t abandon. But, it claims, all truly desire one thing, the missing piece between the old world and the new…
Omens
Farnese watches Guts fight, unknowingly describing her feelings in a way that mirrors the Egg Apostle’s torch metaphor. The torturer wearing a bird mask, the one she and Serpico met, urges his master to take Casca away while the others deal with Guts, detailing the two who are twins to protect him. As the trio leaves, Isidro tries to stop them by smashing a piece of rubble on Mozgus’s head; the rubble shatters (he’s actually stone-skinned now, but I’m half-sure it would’ve done that anyway :P).
The Egg-Apostle reveals it’s hand in creating the Great Goat and the current forms of Mozgus and his men, but assures Luca that it’s actions, and hers – i.e. taking Casca in – were all part of a great convergence, where a single, insignificant thing – it’s life, will bring forth something greater. Luca asks why it told her all this as the Skull Knight bursts in, and as it vanishes it says it was so at least someone would know its story. The Skull Knight was surprised it could still dodge so well in spite of its injuries then realizes his sword had hesitated – it wasn’t time to kill it yet. The earth starts to shake, and the Skull Knight quickly eats the Egg Apostle’s Behelit before grabbing Luca and jumping back into the burial chamber, where a massive growth of spirits is forming.
Martyrdom
Mozgus flies away with the twins, Casca in his arms and Isidro on his back. Guts kills the remaining torturers, but immediately afterwards an earthquake starts.
Collapse
In the crypts the dead start to rise in great mounds as if possessed by spirits, which the Skull Knight says is the malice that permeates the tower taking form before he escapes with Luca.
The tower begins to collapse as the spirits rise from the ground, driving back Azan and the Knights. At the top, Farnese almost falls as the floor and ceiling start to collapse but is saved by the timely arrival of Serpico. From on high, Mozgus and Isidro are able to see the tower’s new shape – it has tilted to the side, the top section collapsed into the shape of a hand.
Shadows of Idea – Chapters 1-3
Panic and fire spreads through the camp as spirits possess refugees and begin to feast on their friends and family members, and those who can flee towards the monastery. From atop the tower Guts can see the pattern created by the flames – the Brand.
As the mounds of spirits creep towards everyone Mozgus burns them away with his flaming breath. Tossing Isidro aside, he declares his new form to be proof of God’s power and that burning Casca will put an end to the monstrosities running loose. Alongside the twins and the Knights he holds back the possessed while the refugees assemble a pyre.
Atop the tower, masses of spirits coalesce into the shapes of the Godhand, but the Brand isn’t reacting as it should and Guts realizes they’re only an echo of the real thing – and missing one member…
The Skull Knight brings Luca a safe distance from the tower, but she still goes back to find Nina and the other girls. The Skull Knight is impressed by her loyalty and courage in the face of such danger but can’t help her – Zodd’s here for a rematch.
The Egg-Apostle crawls towards the top of the tower to bring things to an end and wonders briefly if things would have been different had he met Mozgus as the others did. He finds the homunculus,* which now has a physical body, amongst the rubble, and swallows it so they can bring forth the new world together.
Commentary
One thing I like about Father Mozgus that’s readily apparent here is his motivation. When so many other antagonists in this series have been self-serving, it’s nice to see one who isn’t in it for himself but wants only to serve a higher cause. It’s true that he personally desired power, as the Egg-Apostle said, but once he gains it it’s nothing but a means to help him carry out what he sees as the will of God. He’s not the only one like that – what Rosine wanted was understandable even if what she did wasn’t. It adds a nice bit of depth to what could easily have been one-dimensional bad guys and gives the theme of how your desires can consume you if taken too far more of an impact.
Whether Mozgus truly is doing the will of God is debatable. I know I’ve said previously that I can respect how he isn’t a so-called cafeteria believer and accepts both the harsh and compassionate sides of his faith, but I think I may not have interpreted things carefully enough. In Volume 18 he talks about “distressing duties” and “not deploring the people’s misunderstandings”, but there is no evidence that his methods are explicitly endorsed; those passages only seen to say that one should not falter when their actions may not be popular, even if they are right. With Mozgus actions it seems like he’s just using the scriptures as a shield against his own cruelty. As we’ve seen, it’s not that he isn’t capable of compassion, and it’s not like the actual heretics aren’t deserving of punishment for the people they’ve killed, it’s just that he takes things too far. He’s strict and inflexible, never accounting for circumstances when he passes judgement. I still think his ability to fully embrace his cause is admirable, but that doesn’t mean I agree with how he’s going about it. That one torturer wondered “if I really have become a monster”; maybe he has, but the biggest monster here is Mozgus.
And he may have gained a new form, but he’s still the same person as before; what he’s doing is just more palatable to the refugees now. They feared him, but now that the danger is immediate they suddenly they suddenly want him to save them. He’s become the torch the Egg-Apostle talked about, giving them hope while at the same time illuminating their fickleness and hypocrisy. Now, that’s not entirely fair to them; they’re cold, starving and desperate, and now their neighbors and family are suddenly snarling all the time and eating each other. Then God seemingly sends them a miracle. Acting rationally isn’t an easy thing just now. And after all, hope and succor is what they came to St. Albion’s for in the first place; can you really blame them for wanting to take it when it finally seems to appear, even if it’s through someone like Mozgus?
Then there’s Luca, and she’s an example people like Mozgus could stand to follow. Her situation in the camp is particularly precarious even compared to the rest and she knows it. She has every reason to be cynical and take every advantage she can get – her own survival could very well depend on it – but she doesn’t. Instead, she’s generous, looks out for others, and doesn’t hesitate to put herself in danger or (well, maybe a little bit) sacrifice herself in order to save them (she denies being altruistic enough for the latter, but I think that’s more a case of expecting to die then surviving and thinking ‘holy shit, did I actually do that!’). And while she might be “high-handed and condescending” and a bit of a hypocrite by condemning others for resenting those who have more and looking down on those who have less when she’s basically doing the same thing, she admits to that too, however much she insists she’s “not very good at admitting my own faults.” In the latter case I think that her denial comes from how she feels justified in holding that position since she can practice what she preaches. She does, after all, share what she earns outside her circle of friends and companions, and protects those she’s looking after, even if, as it did last time, it put her at risk of running afoul with the authorities. Maybe all of that is, in her own words, “stupidly stubborn,” but it’s a stubbornness that makes her help others, unlike some other stubborn people around here. She’s not perfect, but she’s still a good person. In a series that’s mostly about how bad people can be, it’s good to have someone like that as a counterpoint.
*it’s been following Guts around – it’s what summoned the elf-children he burned in the barn, for instance, but until that time it was controlling the spirits when Casca was taken by the heretics it wasn’t always crucial to work into the summary. In hindsight I really should’ve made more of an effort to mention it.
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