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Hellhound

The Hellhound, also known as the Beast of Darkness, is the manifestation of all the hatred and evil that dwells within Guts’ soul.

1 Appearance
2 History
3 References

AppearanceEdit

The shape of the inner demon is considered to be shaped after Guts' personality: a lone wolf trying to seek his place in the world. When he finally thought he had found his place in the Hawks, it was taken away from him by the God Hand, intensifying his rage for losing his comrades. The guilt he felt for Casca may also have affected him when she called him a ”Mad Dog”^[1] for being careless to the point that she had to worry about him.

The Hellhound was mostly shown with its demonic left eye, corresponding to the damage that Guts had sustained to his right eye.

HistoryEdit

EclipseEdit

The beast began as merely a lust for revenge, but as the sacrificial brand had nudged him out of the physical realm into the interstice, where the lost souls inhabited, he was attacked. Fueled by rage caused his inner demon to consume evil spirits that Guts had killed.^[2]

RetributionEdit

The path Guts took shortly after being rescued by the Skull Knight, the path of revenge and bloodshed, was the reason the beast grew in power. As the Black Swordsman, he and the beast were in perfect harmony. However, guilt mixed with anger during the struggle against Rosine's Apostle spawn left a trail of massacred human children as they returned to human form once they had been killed, marking the beast's first appearance through the manifestations of ghosts.

Millennium FalconEdit

However, his longing for a civilized life with Casca and a peaceful place he could call home was considered the direct reason for a shift from one entity to a man and an inner beast. As it tries to convince Guts to give in to his evil desires, it taunts him, questioning the morality of his quest for revenge and urging him to commit ever-greater atrocities, most notably attempting to convince him to rape Casca.

After confronting Slan in the Qliphoth, Guts was wounded in both his physical body and his ethereal body. As the Berserker armor intensifies violent emotion in order to make the user forget about their pain, it works as a catalyst for the inner demon's manifestation. When Guts used it, the ethereal wound caused the demon to flow into the armor and affect the armor to such an extent to change its form. Because of Schierke's help, Guts regained control and was able chain his inner beast once again. The beast continually urges Guts to give in to his dark desires to kill Caska, and return to his hunt for vengeance without concern for anything else.