Helck – Episode 5

He was there for a day. A day.

The fifth episode of Helck has aired. Vermilio and Helck were sucked through a malfunctioning Gate into a portal to who knows where. Stuck somewhere far beyond the reach of their allies, how will they cope?

Let’s go through it in my Recap and Review.

Recap

The fifth episode opens with the Demons in the castle learning about Vermilio’s disappearance, with Azudra taking it the worst. She has woken on a beached forest, believing that she had been flung to the edge of the continent. She notes there are no toxins present, a rare sight she had forgotten until now, before wondering how long it’ll take her to return.

Eventually, she hears knocking and wonders if it’s Helck. It is, and he managed to build an actual house in the time since they had landed there. She then runs across a small bird thing that gives her away to Helck, who explains he built the house because they couldn’t sleep outside and needed a base of operations since they’ve landed on an island rather than the edge of the continent.

The talking bird tells them the place is called the Remote Island before it starts raining. She silently laments being unable to return home, though she takes solace in the fact that she got Helck out of there in the process. At least until Helck brings her into the house despite her threatening to burn it down and reassures her that they can get back by making a boat, so she can’t give up until the end.

We then cut back to Azudra as they discuss the matter of the Winged Soldiers thanks to the information they got from the Castle. He notes that the things happening to them are abnormal and wonders if a genius mage managed to be born there similar to how two Heroes were born this time. However, despite the fact that they can’t allow the Heroes to mature, he can’t focus on that until they find Vermilio. That’s a problem because they don’t have the manpower right now to send out a search party due to the monster slaying missions to the North, and his location spell indicates that she’s far off the continent.

Asta, meanwhile, is spying in the Human Realm where she spots all the Winged Soldiers hanging around the Royal Capital’s castle. However, she’s determined to get as much information for Vermilio, who is still not sure what to think about Helck. His helping but also getting in the way are confusing her, but she doesn’t want to open Pandora’s Box by asking him directly since that might lead to a fight she can’t win. She’s so lost in thought she misses the talking bird telling her she caught a small fish that managed to get away, only for Helck to get some kind of literal Sea Horse while trying to get it.

The next morning, Vermilio wakes and still can’t decide before she receives a visit from one of the islanders. He received instructions to bring her breakfast from the village chief, but ate half of it… and then all of it. Vermilio has him take her to the village where the rest freak out except for the talking bird that points out that Helck is building a boat. The dude wrecks an axe before he cuts it with his bare hands, and explains he wants to build the boat now so they can set out once they do learn which direction to go.

Vermilio then hears the wind and goes out to see ancient ruins within the waves that feel nostalgic to her for some reason. As for the boat, it’s probably the least impressive thing we’ve seen from him being a small raft. But before we can touch on it further the village elder comes to see them and asks them to follow him to have a little chat.

Review

Okay, so this episode follows up in the aftermath of the abrupt trip that Vermilio and Helck took. The Gate spell malfunctioned and sent them to an island that’s off the mainland, leaving them with no way to get back. So we see the immediate aftermath of that.

Based on the map that Azudra had, the Human Realm and the Demon Realm are located on the same continent. The toxins in the land of the Empire seem to be concentrated in the Northern area since that’s where their forces deal with killing monsters. Meanwhile, the Human-owned area is elsewhere (and currently depopulated due to their awakening) it seems, in one of the other directions.

Since Vermilio is far from home and pretty much out of her element, she’s forced to reconsider her opinion regarding Helck since had every chance to run, kill, or abandon her. But he has been nothing but helpful so far. Even though she’s struggling to decide on whether he’s an ally or not, she’s afraid to ask him for the truth given that she doesn’t know how it’ll go since he’s stronger than her.

There’s also the fact that she felt nostalgic for ruins when she’s only been to the beach once. Then again, considering the bird stating she smelled like an old lay and she’s a demon, she’s likely far older than she looks. That’ll have to be added to the mystery pile, along with the theory of a genius mage among the humans.

As for the fluffy half-Chocobo, he seems to act as a balance in the comedy by playing off Vermilio. When she’s serious in thought, he offsets it. And unlike the other villagers, he seems fond of both her and Helck.

As for Azudra, he bounced between being wise and a laughingstock in this episode a lot. He notes the situation with the humans is odd and theorizes about it, making some good points. But he can’t bring himself to act until he finds Vermilio, with his justifications for trying to get a piece of her hair coming off as a bit creepy, to be honest.

And as for Helck himself, for once we saw he isn’t good at something: making a boat. I mean, would you be surprised if he had a luxury cruiser built when he can make a fully functional house in a day? Still, I think you can be forgiven for that considering everything else he’s done.

As for the talk with the short, creepy-looking old guy, we’ll find out where that goes next week.