From the very beginning, Howard's magic hadn't been able to trap Edward.
The young Alchemist had held back for two reasons. First, the Full Alchemist before him was so adorable, and kept revealing secrets one after another, that he couldn't bear to stop listening.
Many of the mysteries that had once baffled him had been cleared up, giving him a new understanding of the truth about this world.
Second, he was waiting for a way out to appear.
This ruin was like a cage, completely stifling the Alchemy he was best at.
If he used some powerful weapons, he could blast his way out of the ruin. But whether he and the two women would survive was another question. He'd come to rescue them; he couldn't save them only to get them killed.
From Howard's words, he guessed that the force making the stones throughout the ruin repel Magic Power wasn't a safeguard left behind by the Magic Empire, but divinity leaking from the shattered divine fragment of Howard's Previous Life.
The whole ruin was like the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant from his Previous Life, contaminated by nuclear radiation.
Fortunately, that so-called "divinity" only repelled ordinary Magic Power. So far, it didn't seem to harm people.
That also explained why there were no animals anywhere around the ruin.
The divinity exerted a pressure, much like the legendary Dragon's Might. But humanity had regressed to the point where people could no longer sense that faint pressure.
Some animals had far stronger senses than humans, which was why none of them came near.
Edward had heard more than enough of these little-known secrets. There were still details he wanted to understand, but he couldn't wait any longer. If he missed this last opportunity, he'd have almost no chance of defeating Howard once