You are discarding another outcome: Guts leads to victory the surviving mercenaries so they decide to become his army ;D, after all they have been gathered to conquest the midlands, not to free them (the "fre the lands from kushans" manifesto is just an excuse) so they represent more a third...
It's quite possible that the kid is Ganishka itself under a illusion, just to sneak in the party and get Kaska to force a Gatsu/Griffith showdown.
After all it would fit the manipulative nature of this wizard/monster (yes the right term should be apostle, but I hate to use it, blame on Miura for...
Yea, great comic, I got 2 numbers of it here in Italy, sadly the publication ended with the 2nd volume and I lost those 2 numbers during a home-change :'(
Ciao Cuba, do you remember me? anyway to stay in topic: in my opinion the new Gutt's hair seem a tribute to "Black Jack", the famous manga of Osamu Tezuka: same hairs, only an eye in view and same scars on the face (well, here gatts may just have some apostle blood on his face, not a real scar)...