Chapter Summaries

Ian discovered that Bradley’s extraordinary physique came from intense training combined with the world’s Dragon Vein energy, then released his Homunculus specimens and captured Envy after rescuing Hughes. He left Hughes’s apparent death in place, planning to stage his rebirth.

• Ian examined Bradley and found that his dense muscles, resilient organs, and heightened neural speed had resulted from extreme training rather than magical enhancement.
• Ian sensed Dragon Vein energy entering his body during sword practice and considered adapting the technique for the Arcane Empire’s knight orders.
• Ian released Pride, Lust, Gluttony, and Greed after extracting the information he needed, prompting Father to suspend operations against him.
• Envy attacked Hughes after Hughes discovered the Nationwide Land Transmutation Circle, but Ian secretly rescued Hughes and replaced him with a convincing corpse.
• Envy transformed into a beast and attacked Ian, who defeated him with lightning and flames before sealing him in a containment vessel.
• Ian took Hughes’s bloodstained photograph and said that Hughes’s funeral would proceed as planned before he staged Hughes’s rebirth.

Ian revived Maes Hughes and kept him from exposing the Nationwide Land Transmutation Circle, showing him the funeral held in the world’s belief that he was dead. Hughes chose to travel with Ian to Xing, though Ian’s motives and plans remained unclear.

• Hughes woke in Ian’s villa, discovered his wounds had healed, and tried to leave to reveal the Nationwide Land Transmutation Circle.
• Ian showed Hughes the funeral being broadcast, where Hughes watched Roy Mustang, his family, and others mourn him.
• Ian explained that he had saved Hughes because Hughes was a character he wanted to protect, and said he knew the story’s ending would stop the conspiracy.
• Hughes questioned Ian’s motives and learned that Ian was Ian Alvin Bones, the alchemist who had saved Nina Tucker.
• Ian offered Hughes the choice of staying inside the sealed villa or accompanying him across the desert to Xing, and Hughes chose to go with him.

Ian and Hughes reached the ruins of Xerxes, where Ian revived a temporal imprint of the ancient city so Hughes and the Ishvalans could study its knowledge. While exploring its alchemy institute, Ian witnessed the birth of the Dwarf in the Flask and considered whether its connection to the Eye of God could help him link Morgana to it.

• Ian gave Hughes a restorative potion, then showed him a photograph of his five wives after Hughes bragged about his own family.
• Ian and Hughes reached Xerxes, where Ishvalans confronted them, and Ian claimed to be Cretan and offered them a chance to learn from the ruins.
• Ian used the Echo of Time to project Xerxes as it had been centuries earlier and explained that the city was a temporal imprint rather than real time travel.
• Ian assigned the Ishvalans to study ancient crafts and survival techniques, while Hughes examined Xerxes' governance and military systems.
• Ian explored the Royal Alchemy Research Institute, witnessed the Dwarf in the Flask manipulating young Hohenheim, and theorized that the creature came from a fragment of the Eye of God.

Ian studied the Dwarf in the Flask’s alchemy and showed Hughes the truth behind Xerxes’ destruction and Amestris’s planned nationwide sacrifice. After revealing that someone else would stop the threat, Ian took Hughes to Xing.

• Ian rejected connecting Morgana to Truth and instead observed the Dwarf in the Flask teaching Van Hohenheim, gathering alchemical knowledge.
• Ian ended his illusion of ancient Xerxes, showed the Ishvalans and Hughes the ruins’ vast Transmutation Circle, and sent the Ishvalans away.
• Ian took Hughes back in time to witness the Dwarf in the Flask sacrifice Xerxes’ million people to create Father and give Hohenheim an immortal body.
• Hughes panicked about Amestris’s fifty million people, but Ian explained that Father had built the country as a sacrificial trap and that Hughes could not stop him yet.
• Ian studied the ancient array and considered adapting it to reach the Akashic Records, then abandoned the plan as too risky.
• Ian teleported Hughes to Xing, where Hughes complained that Ian had made them walk across the desert despite knowing the spell.

Ian and Hughes reached Xing, where Ian used the emperor’s desperation for immortality to arrange an exchange between Western Alchemy and Alkahestry. After rapidly analyzing Alkahestry, Ian identified the Dragon Vein and qi as sources of life energy and turned his attention to learning how qi could strengthen wizards.

• Ian told Hughes that Xing’s dying emperor wanted a way to extend his life and predicted that the emperor would summon them.
• At the imperial banquet, Ian opened a rift to his dimensional library and offered Xing access to its knowledge in exchange for Alkahestry.
• The emperor summoned Xing’s finest Alkahestry practitioners to Ian’s Dimensional Laboratory for an exchange of knowledge.
• Ian healed a severely wounded rabbit and concluded that Alkahestry used the planet’s Dragon Vein to repair and reorganize life.
• Ian transmuted herbs into a pill in one attempt, impressing the Xing practitioners and confirming that he had analyzed Alkahestry’s principles.
• Ian turned to studying qi, hoping to use it to strengthen wizards and overcome their physical weakness.

Ian fused magic and aura to create Battle Aura, a powerful energy that could be used by wizards, Muggles, and people with Mana Rejection Syndrome. He planned to make Battle Aura universally accessible by transforming the Solar System into a high-magic environment, but Hughes interrupted his research with news that the Emperor of Xing wanted to meet him.

• Ian studied aura and concluded that its physical-limit breakthrough plan could not give wizards the leap in power he wanted.
• Ian repeatedly adjusted magic’s frequency and ratio with aura until he created Battle Aura, which let him shatter a steel sword and leap more than five meters.
• Ian and Morgana tested Battle Aura and found that it could accumulate throughout the body, though it extended life less than ordinary aura.
• Ian successfully induced a Muggle and a person with Mana Rejection Syndrome to produce Battle Aura, then found that physical training alone increased it too slowly.
• Ian ordered Plan B to transform the Solar System into a high-magic environment so ordinary people could passively absorb magic and convert it into Battle Aura.
• Hughes sent Ian an urgent message that the Emperor of Xing wished to see him, and Ian left the Dimensional Space to return to the real world.

Ian refused the Emperor of Xing’s demand for immortality and escaped an attack on his residence with Hughes. The emperor’s attempt to transfer his soul into golden armor failed, and he died of old age in despair.

• The Emperor of Xing questioned Ian about immortality, while a hidden guard identified Ian’s immense life energy and reported a soul-anchoring technique found in The Library.
• The emperor decided to seize the technique, and Ian sensed soldiers surrounding his residence and prepared to leave with Hughes.
• Royal forces bombarded the residence, but Ian shielded himself and Hughes, then incapacitated thousands of soldiers with Wide-Area Resonance and vanished with Hughes.
• After Ian escaped, the emperor’s condition worsened, and he ordered royal alchemists to perform the Pseudo-Immortality ritual.
• The emperor’s soul could not leave his body, and he died of natural aging several days later.

Ian concluded that Truth might be testing humanity and questioned whether his own existence was part of a script, but he decided to pursue strength rather than dwell on the possibility. He turned to Scar's Brother's Research Notes and set Briggs Fortress as his next destination.

• Ian observed that the Elric Brothers' story had returned to its original course despite his interventions, and Morgana found no evidence of a force correcting fate.
• Ian theorized that Truth judged alchemists through the prices exacted for human transmutation and that Edward would ultimately earn Truth's approval by giving up alchemy to save Alphonse.
• Ian reviewed how his interventions had changed events involving Greed, the truth about human transmutation, and Gluttony's false Gate of Truth without changing their outcomes.
• Ian feared that he might be a character in a higher being's script, then dismissed the speculation and resolved to become strong enough to challenge whoever controlled it.
• Ian studied Scar's Brother's Research Notes, which described combining Xingese Alkahestry with Amestrian Alchemy and breaking Father's seal on the nation's alchemy, and chose Briggs Fortress as his next target.

Ian brought Edward and Alphonse to Briggs Fortress, where Major General Olivia Armstrong confronted him about his claims of ruling an empire from another world. He showed her his starships and their devastating power, leaving Olivia eager to hear more about his empire.

• Edward recognized Ian in the infirmary, and Olivia explained that Ian had defeated her patrol after she suspected him of spying for Drachma.
• Olivia assigned Edward and Alphonse menial work, then took Ian to her office to question him about his proposal.
• Ian opened a dimensional gate and brought Olivia to a hangar filled with enormous starships.
• Ian showed Olivia a warship’s bridge, where Morgana launched a simulated low-yield cannon strike that obliterated a vast area.
• Ian invited Olivia to join his empire and lead its Starfleet, and Olivia asked him to tell her more about it.

Ian showed Olivia the power and scope of his Arcane Empire and offered her a path to become its future commander, but she refused to abandon Amestris. After Ian addressed her objections, Olivia agreed to join him on the condition that if she ever became stronger than him, he would dismiss his other wives and belong to her alone.

• Ian transmitted basic knowledge of the Arcane Empire to Olivia, leaving her stunned by its advanced magic, technology, and interstellar power.
• Ian explained that Olivia would have to enlist as a private and rise through the ranks before he appointed her marshal, rather than being made commander-in-chief immediately.
• Olivia refused to leave Amestris, citing her responsibilities, lack of feelings for Ian, and his existing wives.
• Ian offered to wait while Olivia pursued her ambitions, promised to restore her youth later, and insisted that he would not give up his other wives.
• Olivia accepted Ian's proposal on the condition that if she became stronger than him, he would dismiss his other wives and belong to her alone, and Ian agreed.

Ian explained that he avoided conquering Olivia’s world because it held little value and was protected by the higher-dimensional entity Truth, though he had devised contingency plans against it. Olivia handled the fortress crises and questioned Ian about the Empire’s use of the Philosopher’s Stone and unequal lifespan benefits, leaving her persuaded by his argument for rewarding contribution.

• Ian told Olivia that Truth, the universe’s collective consciousness, protected her world and described three theoretical plans for fighting it.
• Olivia used the northern cold to trap Sloth in an elevator shaft and freeze him into an ice sculpture.
• Major General Raven arrived at Briggs Fortress with Kimblee, and Olivia gained his trust while learning about the Immortal Army and eternal life.
• Olivia asked Ian whether immortality relied on Philosopher’s Stones made from human lives, and Ian said the Empire mostly used clones or non-sapient lifeforms.
• Ian explained that ordinary citizens received a 200-year lifespan while elites could earn a 1,000-year premium, and Olivia found his argument about contribution and fairness reasonable.

Ian extracted the white Homunculus's memories, used its alchemical knowledge to create a genuine nuclear explosion, and theorized that Truth traded human knowledge and souls with the Origin Gate. He realized Alchemy might depend on Truth's influence and decided to seek help from an old multiversal acquaintance.

• Ian used Enhanced Legilimency to extract Homunculus Number One's memories and learned that it contained innate alchemical knowledge as a fragment of God.
• Ian combined uranium-235 and plutonium-239 through Alchemy, creating a nuclear explosion in the desert between Amestris and Xing.
• Ian opened a spatial vortex and pulled radioactive dust from the blast area into his independent dimension.
• Ian reviewed the Homunculus's memories and connected God, Truth, and the mysterious Origin Gate to the Akashic Records.
• Ian realized that the Gate of Truth might be a plugin limited to Truth's domain, which could prevent the Arcane Empire from using Alchemy.
• Ian decided to contact an old, powerful multiversal wanderer who might help him confront Truth or obtain its rules.

Ian learned that Olivia had killed Lieutenant General Raven and prepared for the coming Promised Day by planting a hidden transmutation circle designed to steal alchemical knowledge through Father. Hughes chose to join the fight, while Ian waited for Father’s attempt to devour God.

• Morgana reported that Olivia had killed Lieutenant General Raven, and Ian ordered her to share the intelligence with Hughes.
• Ian told Olivia he would not stop the nationwide transmutation on her behalf, and she resolved to fight in her own way.
• Ian planted concealed transmutation formulae at five points across Amestris to create a circle that would parasitize Father’s connection to God and steal divine knowledge.
• Hughes refused Ian’s offer to flee and chose to fight to protect his country and family.
• Ian gave Hughes an Optical Camouflage Mask and waited for the Promised Day.

Ian watched Father’s Promised Day ritual and used his hidden Transmutation Circles to steal Divine Knowledge as Father connected to the Gates. He demonstrated the ability to create a miniature star, but the chapter ended with Ian suspecting that Truth had allowed him to take that power.

• Ian appeared beside Olivia Armstrong after the battle, revealed he had preserved Buchanan’s soul, healed Olivia, and took her to his dimensional observatory.
• Ian and Olivia watched Father activate the nationwide Transmutation Circle, tear the souls from fifty million Amestrians, and open Earth’s Gate and the Gate of Heaven.
• Father swallowed God and became a god, while Ian’s hidden Transmutation Circles intercepted and copied Divine Knowledge through Father’s connection to the Gate of Truth.
• Ian used his new knowledge to create a miniature star, then dispelled it when his power drained and he suspected Truth had permitted the theft.

Ian watched Father’s defeat and gave Zhang Mei a Philosopher’s Stone made from Dragon Vein energy, allowing her to pursue immortality without sacrificing lives. He vanished when the others hoped he would grant their requests, leaving Hughes to remark on his coldness.

• Ian used a backup brain and strict mental defenses while observing the battle against Father.
• Hohenheim’s plan stripped Father of the souls sustaining him, and the gathered heroes defeated him as Edward gave up his Gate of Truth to restore Alphonse’s body.
• Zhang Mei asked Ian if someone could live forever without sacrificing another person, and he explained that Dragon Vein energy could create a Philosopher’s Stone.
• Ian made Zhang Mei a white Philosopher’s Stone and gave it to her as a reward for her devotion to her father.
• Ian disappeared when Hawkeye, Hughes, and the Chimeras looked to him for help, and Hughes called him cold as ever.

In the days after the Promised Day, Ian received visitors at his estate and explained the limits of Edward’s lost Alchemy while offering the Elric brothers a path to help their Chimera friends. After settling his remaining affairs, Ian decided to leave Amestris and return home.

• Edward and Alphonse visited Ian, who offered them access to his library in exchange for knowledge so they could seek a way to restore Jerson and Sambano.
• Ian told Edward that regaining Alchemy would require surpassing Truth, explained that Edward’s sacrificed Gate had removed his ability to release Alchemy, and described why Mustang could recover his eyesight with a Philosopher’s Stone.
• Morgana spoke with Ian about his frustration with Truth and the limits of what he could learn about it.
• Maes Hughes visited with Gracia, Elicia, and Nina; Ian saw that Nina had settled happily into her new home with the Hughes family.
• Olivia Armstrong arrived to drink with Ian and told him that Grumman had become Führer, that she had been promoted to general, and that she was his designated successor.
• After drinking with Olivia, Ian watched the sunrise and announced that he was ready to return home.

After returning to the Dimensional Interstice, Ian investigated the changes caused by his encounter with Truth. His magic had begun adapting to new worlds and his soul had grown stronger, but a subconscious scan revealed that his humanity was fading.

• Ian returned to the World Gate and ordered Morgana to scan his body, magic, and soul for traces of Truth.
• Morgana found that Ian's physical abilities had surpassed human limits and his magic was mutating to adapt to the laws of other worlds.
• Ian examined other wizards and confirmed that interdimensional travel caused their magic to become more vital and adaptable.
• Morgana reported that Ian's soul had grown at least tenfold stronger after absorbing Divine Knowledge, but found no external marks or interference.
• Ian underwent a deep psychological and subconscious scan, and Morgana discovered that his humanity was fading.

Ian discovered that Truth had implanted an obsession with spreading Alchemy in his subconscious to turn the Arcane Empire into a source of knowledge and Soul Energy. He rejected Truth’s influence and began designing a new, independent magic system called Arcane Rune Magic.

• Morgana warned Ian that his fixation on bringing Alchemy to the Arcane Empire contradicted his usual survival-first reasoning and was likely planted by an external force.
• Ian realized Truth had manipulated his desire to spread Alchemy into making him consider changing the Empire’s laws to accommodate the Gate of Truth.
• Ian concluded he could build a new system without Truth’s authorization, using his Divine Knowledge and the Dwarf in the Flask’s attempt to create a Gate of Truth as precedents.
• Ian told Morgana to create Gate Alchemy and Arcane Rune Magic project folders, importing their knowledge from the other world into Gate Alchemy.
• Ian began planning a universal, modular, programmable rune language that could cast spells through mental models and create permanent enchantments on objects.

Ian experimented with different ways to etch and activate spells, discovering that soul energy could form a stable magic array but the spell still exploded. He identified incompatibility between magical systems as the cause and began designing a unified Alchemical Rune framework to tune their frequencies.

• Ian tried Magic Etching, but the spark faded because Magic Power could not sustain the spell structure.
• Ian tested Blood Etching and Battle Aura Etching, but the first caused an explosion and the second proved too unstable.
• Ian used soul energy to create a stable crimson fireball, but it exploded shortly after activation.
• Ian traced the explosion to conflicting frequencies among the Latin, Norse, Dragon Tongue, and Alchemy systems, with Dragon Tongue Magic disrupting the circuit.
• Ian decided to use Alchemical Runes as a universal framework for adjusting different systems' energy frequencies and began drawing a new Rune structure.

Ian developed Arcane Rune Magic, optimized his spells, and engraved spell models into his Soul Space to overcome the limits of multi-casting. After merging his consciousness with his Soul Space, he could instantly unleash spells with a thought, becoming a walking arcane artillery platform.

• Ian created stable, controllable spells with Alchemy Runes and had Morgana optimize the first-circle spell models.
• Ian discovered that drawing more than four spell arrays at once overwhelmed his mental capacity and began engraving spells into his Soul Space.
• Three months later, Ian activated twenty stored spells at once and unleashed a destructive storm across the testing grounds.
• Ian spent another three months merging his consciousness with his Soul Space despite the risk of developing a split personality.
• Ian succeeded and gained instant access to the spell models in his Soul Dimension, able to fire them with a thought.