Central City The dark depths of the underground are intertwined with pipes, like the country's festering intestines.
Envy walked briskly through the dark tunnel and walked towards "Father"'s throne. He was in a pretty good mood. Not only had he burned down Central Library's branch library, but he had also wiped out all the information about Philosopher's Stone that the pair of nasty Elric Brothers might have found.
"Now, those two brats can only bump into each other like headless flies."
Envy pushed open the heavy door with a smile on his face as if he had succeeded in a mischief.
However, the atmosphere in the hall was extremely solemn.
He immediately noticed that Lust and Gluttony had returned, but they did not stand next to the body of the "strange Alchemy master" as usual. Instead, they stood with their hands down, looking particularly gloomy.
"Lust? Are you coming back now?"
Envy glanced around in surprise, "Where is that little girl? Or that arrogant Alchemy master? Why are you empty-handed?"
"I didn't catch them."
Lust--or the "disguise program" controlling this body at the moment, responded with a cold voice, "That situation... is completely a trap."
"Trap? What do you mean?"
"That Alchemy division seems to have known about our existence for a long time, and even waited for us there specifically."
Lust's eyes flashed with just the right amount of fear, which was the best reaction calculated by Morgana based on the original personality model.
"If Gluttony and I hadn't reacted quickly enough and barely found an opening to escape after dying more than a hundred times, I'm afraid we wouldn't be able to come back now."
"Is he that strong?" Envy's eyes widened in disbelief.
"Stronger than you think. That kind of power... doesn't look like Alchemy at all."
"Ha! How strong can a human be?"
An arrogant and disdainful sneer came from the shadows. It was a sharp voice unique to children, but it contained heart-stopping malice, "Lust, you are just making excuses for your incompetence."
"Brother Pride, if you think you can do it, you can try it yourself." Lust replied expressionlessly, with a trace of lazy provocation in his tone.
"Tell me his location and I will be happy to harvest his life."
"That's enough."
On the throne, the being known as "Father" slowly spoke. His voice was not loud, but it instantly suppressed all Homunculus's arguments.
"Don't quarrel like children."
Although my father's eyes were still calm, there was a light of thought surging deep in his eyes.
"The core question we have to face now is: How much does this Alchemy division know? Does he know about our 'Promised Day' plan? And... where did he get this information?"
In this room, only a few people know the complete plan. Father never believes that his "children" will betray him.
"Maybe there was a leak from the military." Arrogance speculated, and then looked at the president standing aside, "Wrath, you may need to clean up your subordinates."
"Although some senior military officers are aware of our existence, they do not understand the full extent of the plan."
Jin Bradley still maintained his tall and straight posture as a soldier and calmly analyzed. "Even if the Alchemy division pried some information from the top military officials, it would not be enough for him to lay such a trap. Unless..."
"Father, there is another possibility."
Lust suddenly interjected, with a cunning light in her eyes - this was Morgana's tactical inducement, "Is it possible... that the greedy guy betrayed us? After all, he is the only one who has broken away from us and has the most uncontrollable personality."
The air solidified instantly.
"Indeed, that traitor... there is a possibility."
Father thought for a moment and made a decision.
"Envy, go and confirm the situation of greed. As for Lust and Gluttony, go and deal with Scar. That Ishvalans has made too much trouble in Central City recently and has interfered with our layout."
"As you command, Father."
Watching Homunculus follow the order and leave, Morgana, disguised as Lust, quietly sent a message in the consciousness network:
[Induction successful. Envy has been transferred.]
Ian's secret laboratory.
The shadowless lamp casts a pale light, illuminating every detail of the operating table.
The air was filled with the smell of disinfectant mixed with some high-concentration magic power. Ian was wearing a special pair of Dragonhide Gloves, holding a sharp scalpel in his hand, and his eyes were as calm as ice.
On the three dissecting tables in front of him, there were three "experimental subjects" whose chests and abdomen had been completely cut open.
Lust. Gluttony. And... greed.
Yes, just now, when the "pretender" was seducing his father underground, Ian had already "recycled" the greedy man who was hiding in the sewers as a soil king by Law of Thunder.
At this time, these three Homunculus are not dead.
Their chests were stretched open by some invisible force, and what was exposed to the air was not a living organ, but a slowly squirming dark red piece of flesh that seemed to have Self consciousness.
Even in the state of being dissected, they are still alive and watching themselves being studied. However, under the dual effects of the powerful Full Body-Bind Curse and sound wave suppression, they cannot even move a finger, and they cannot make any sound from their throats.
They could only look at the black-haired man in despair, examining the core of their bodies with a look that admired works of art.
"Interesting... really breathtaking structure."
Ian gently moved the bright red Philosopher's Stone with tweezers, his tone full of academic admiration.
"Philosopher's Stone has completely replaced the essence of life. Your bones, muscles, and nervous system are essentially just 'extensions' and 'decorations' of this stone. The stone is the body, and the body is the projection."
He raised his head and looked at Void.
"As long as the energy inside the stone is not exhausted, even if I chop you into pieces, you can Infinity reorganize. On the contrary, once the stone is broken or the energy is exhausted, you will immediately disappear into ashes."
Ian paused and connected with Tower Spirit in his mind.
"Morgana, is the memory retrieval completed?"
The purple House-elf shadow appeared in the air, holding a virtual data pad in its hand.
"Yes, Master. The process is slower than expected. Because Philosopher's Stone contains thousands of painful souls, the noise is too loud. I have to filter out the meaningless wails like looking for gold in a garbage dump in order to extract the core memory belonging to 'Homunculus'."
"Thank you for your hard work. Send me the analysis report on the 'manufacturing process'."
"Transmitted."
A massive flow of information instantly poured into Ian's mind. He closed his eyes and quickly built a model of Homunculus's birth.
After a moment, he opened his eyes, and a glimmer of understanding flashed in his eyes.
"I see... the principle is more crude than I thought."
Ian walked to the greedy dissection table, pointed at the beating core and said to himself:
"Liquify Philosopher's Stone, inject it directly into the human blood circulation system, and mix it with one of the seven deadly sins stripped out by 'Father' as a 'spiritual dye'."
"During this process, thousands of desperate souls in the stone will fight crazily for the 'right to survive'. The injected human host needs to use its own willpower to suppress all the miscellaneous souls in this soul storm, and perfectly Fusion with the 'original sin'."
"For losers, the body collapses and turns into nourishment."
"The successful ones turn their backs on customers and become Homunculus with the 'original sin' personality."
This is an extremely cruel process of survival of the fittest, and it is also an extremely dangerous way to obtain power.
"Looks like my caution was right."
Ian took off his gloves and threw them into the incinerator aside.
"If I was eager for quick success and directly combined Philosopher's Stone with my Magic Core Fusion, even if my willpower was strong enough, the purity of my soul would be contaminated by those tens of thousands of resentful spirits. By then, I might become stronger, but I might no longer be 'Ian', but a schizophrenic lunatic."
Through reverse engineering of Homunculus, Ian verified his conjecture and found a safer evolution path.
"The data collection is almost complete."
Ian glanced at the three experimental subjects on the stage indifferently.
"I have finished analyzing the ability mechanism of Lust and greed, and the remaining values are of little value. However, in order to prevent the enemy from being alerted, I have to let you continue to 'alive'. As for Gluttony..."
Ian's eyes stayed on Gluttony's fat body.
"The False Gate of Truth inside your body is the real treasure."
On the operating table, the eyes of the three Homunculus were full of fear. They wanted to scream, beg for mercy, and even commit suicide, but in the face of absolute magic suppression, even begging for death became a luxury.
They could only watch as the man turned around and ordered Tower Spirit on the side:
"Morgana, prepare for the experiment of the First Tier section. We are going to start trying 'Dimensional Separation'."
"Master, you are so cruel." Although Morgana said this, there was an excited smile on his face, "But, I like it."
On the other side, inside a cheap hotel.
The room was filled with messy books and notes, and the air was filled with the smell of decadence and mold.
The two brothers Edward·Elric and Alphonse collapsed on the ground, as if all their strength had been drained away.
Just a few hours ago, they finally solved the code left by doctor Marcoh and learned the truth about the "Philosopher's Stone" that they had dreamed of.
The legendary sacred object that can break the "Equivalent Exchange" principle and allow them to get their bodies back...
The raw material is actually living human beings.
"Are you kidding..."
Edward clenched his fists tightly, his nails digging into his palms. Wrath, despair, nausea, and various emotions surged in his chest.
He remembered the warning Ian had given him. "Your pursuit of that stone will only bring endless pain and tragedy."
"It turns out... he already knew it."
Edward stood up abruptly, with such force that he knocked over a pile of books beside him.
"Brother?" Alphonse looked at him worriedly.
"Al, do you remember the Alchemy division with the same name as us?"
"You mean... Mr. Ian·Bones?"
"Yes, that's him." Edward's eyes rekindled a flame, which was the madness of a drowning man grasping the last straw. "He is definitely the most talented and mysterious Alchemy master we have ever seen."
"So?"
"Think about it! He obviously doesn't have Philosopher's Stone, but he can exert such amazing power! He can even reshape Nina's body and soul out of thin air under the eyes of the president!"
Edward paced back and forth in the room, speaking faster and faster:
"If we hadn't met him, what would be Nina's current fate? Faced with the truth about cannibalism, we can either join in the conspiracy to kill people and refine stones, or we can only be useless in this desperate world!"
"But Ian is different! He has found a way! A way that does not require the sacrifice of living people, does not require Philosopher's Stone, but can still touch Truth!"
Alphonse's soul vibrated in the armor. "Brother, what do you mean..."
"If we can figure out the secret of his power, if we can learn his methods... maybe, we can get our bodies back without violating our moral bottom line!"
"This is a good idea!" Alphonse was also excited, but then dimmed again, "But, where are we going to find him? He said he was going to Xing, so he might have left long ago."
"No, I know where he is."
Edward suddenly stopped and dug out a crumpled card from his messy pocket.
"What is this?"
"That day at the hotel, he actually gave me this business card before checking out. It had his temporary address in Central City." Edward scratched his head in embarrassment.
"Brother! Why didn't you tell me earlier?!" Alphonse was going crazy.
"I... I forgot!"
Edward defended with a guilty conscience, "Scar was chasing him so hard at that time, and later he was busy decrypting Dr. Marcoh's information. I forgot about this card after I put it in the book... Moreover, he specifically asked at that time not to reveal his whereabouts at will."
"You guy... how can you forget such a life-threatening matter!"
"Okay, okay! Stop being so nagging! Pack your things quickly, let's go find him now!"
The two brothers quickly packed their bags and rushed out of the musty-smelling room.
The night outside is getting dark, but for Elric Brothers, this may be the first real ray of light they have seen in the long dark night.