Guts, the feared Black Swordsman, finishes his desperate battle with the monstrous Count, cutting and blasting him to gory scraps when the presence of the Count's daughter makes the monster hesitate. But Guts won't even have the time to clean his gigantic sword when the Count's dying pleas activate the Behelit, summoning the five God Hands, demon lords of immeasurable power. Guts' journey so far has been a long road of pain and death, but that's a walk in the park compared to fighting his way out of Hell itself!

The evil Count uses his dark powers to transform a defeated guard captain into an inhuman horror to combat Guts, the Black Swordsman. Puck, Guts' pint-sized fairy sidekick, is captured when he attempts to stop an old doctor's execution, and he is given as a gift to the count's daughter, a sweet girl in a gilded cage, imprisoned by her father in her own room. Guts, determined to make mincemeat of the Count, assaults the castle and carves a swath of blood-soaked destruction through the Count's minions. Face-to-face with the Black Swordsman at last, the Count reveals his true form, and even Guts' super-sized sword may not be big enough to contend with this demonic monstrosity!

Now that the evil Count has been killed and dragged to Hell by the demon lords of the Godhand, Guts, the Black Swordsman, hooks up with his former benefactor, the mercenary Gambino. But it's a deadly reunion, one that nearly takes Guts' life. The following years see Guts wandering from battlefield to battlefield, where his awesome skills as a slayer catch the eye of both warring parties, including the legendary Griffith, warrior leader of the Band of the Hawk, who is eager to test his combat skills against those of the Black Swordsman. As usual, anytime that Guts is involved there will be hell to pay!

From his days as a young mercenary to his time as captain of the Band of the Hawks' Raiders, Guts's life has been defined by his ability to fight and his will to win. Now cursed with the Brand of Sacrifice - a sigil that will forever mark him as prey for the damned - and with his companions dead, his lover's mind destroyed and his one-time commander and friend reborn as a malevolent demon lord, it seems that more than ever Guts must rely upon his instinct to survive. But Hell has many faces, and when what appears to be an innocent country village proves to be a den of tragic secrets, the horror of a fairy tale perverted by pain and hate may prove to be more than Guts can handle!