Episode 233 (Manga)

Template:Chapter Demon Knights (魔騎士, Makishi^?) is the 233rd chapter of the Berserk manga series, written and illustrated by Kentaro Miura.

Summary

Silat and the Tapasa chase Raksas across battlements and rooftops. Silat suspects that Raksas is not trying to evade them, but instead lure them somewhere. The chase finally ends on the steps of a large dome-shaped temple, into which Raksas vanishes. Silat and the Tapasa cautiously enter the temple, where they stealthily evade the guards inside it.

Silat notices a doorway that leads to a flight of stairs. He climbs it with the Tapasa, eventually reaching the upper levels of the temple's main chamber, where they come upon a disquieting sight: they have a bird's eye view of a gigantic, living mass of flesh that is suspended in the air by a net made of chains. Several fleshy pods are also suspended from the ceiling and connected to the mass of flesh by tubes, apparently feeding it.

Silat notices several guards on the room's main floor who are in the process of pouring a barrelful of liquid into a fleshy pod that is suspended once full. Silat's gaze is drawn back towards the mass of flesh when he hears a woman's terrified screams.

A Daka is born.

There is indeed a woman in the room. Pregnant, naked and terrified, she is slowly lowered towards a hole that opens in the mass of flesh to accept her. She is dropped into the liquid that the flesh houses but is unable to escape due to having her arms tied. She screams in pain as her baby apparently violently kicks at her stomach until it forcibly bursts out of its mother's body, killing her. The baby itself is inhuman, possessing many horns on its head and protruding teeth; Silat has just witnessed the method of the Daka's creation.

The Daka baby is ejected out of the mass of flesh by means of another hole that opens up near its lower end. Several guards take possession of it and place it in a cage that houses several other Daka babies as the dead woman is hoisted out of the flesh, her stomach burst open.

Unknown to Silat and the Tapasa, Raksas has also been watching the Daka creation process, and is the only one of the four to fully understand it. He decides to explain it to the three Bakiraka, saying that the mass of flesh is really innumerable Apostles all fused together and being fed amniotic fluid. By virtue of being Apostles, the mass of flesh is inherently linked to the Astral world; when pregnant women are fed to the mass of flesh, their babies are corrupted by evil, creating Daka. Raksas makes his exit with only a few parting words to the Bakiraka, telling them that Ganishka is not the human that he appears to be. Silat and the Tapasa leave soon after, Silat determined to learn Ganishka's true intentions.

Locus' Apostle form.

Outside Windham's castle, the Daka charge at Locus. In his fury, Locus initiates his transformation, becoming a metallic, centaur-like creature after fusing with his horse. Wielding a double-sided lance, he impales the charging Daka one after another. Using his enhanced strength, he lifts all the Daka impaled on his lance into the air and shakes them off his weapon. He then tells Ganishka not to compare the comparatively weak Daka to true Apostles. As he does, Locus' entire cavalry transforms into their own monstrous states.

Ganishka orders several Pishaca of the humanoid elephant variety to enter the battle along with the swarms of what remain of the Daka, invigorated by the challenge of having to deal with Apostles.