I personally really liked this chapter. It may of been subtle, but I felt the plot moving for the first time in a long while. Not to say that the Falconia/Rickert expose hasn't been interesting, at least in terms of building the story, but the slow release schedule didn't do it much justice.
Excited to see Rickert leave on a journey, and I really wouldn't mind it if the story remained focused on him some more. The whole set up, with Rickert leaving for some far-away mountain, alongside his frail sister, and these characters that are now trying to redeem themselves (well, perhaps not trying, but in my eyes they are being redeemed through their actions), really felt like the beginning of an epic journey, and it came off as a lot more hopeful than, well, most of this manga.... Given that, the world has really changed, it would be cool to see it through the perspective of a character that won't just murder everything and anything he sees (and for some creatures to remain mystical, rather than be explained, in great detail, by the witch).
I mean, when Fantasia came about, we saw this epic montage of all these dangerous and amazing monsters, but it hasn't really amounted to much since - solely because the story has always followed Guts, and he's always been fighting epic monsters. Sure, the sea god was a step up, but that whole arc didn't really express the wonder of those few intro pages very well. I'd love to see more of these fantasy creatures, and not to see them being written off as fodder for our super OP protagonist.