Outside Ian's mansion.
Edward and Alphonse stood in the cold wind of late autumn. The childishness in their bodies seemed to have faded overnight, replaced by a heavy sense of solemnity.
"Brother, what should we do? Do you want to go in..." Alphonse's voice was hesitant.
"No."
Edward shook his head, his golden eyes shining with unprecedented determination.
"Just like we vowed never to use Philosopher's Stone to recover our bodies, we must never take the path of Mr. Bones. That is a wrong path of abandoning humanity for power."
The boy clenched his fists, his knuckles turning white.
"I believe there must be another way. A humane, upright path."
At this moment, Lieutenant Hawkeye, who had been standing nearby, noticed the two teenagers who suddenly appeared. She rushed over with a stunned look on her face, obviously confused by their trick of "appearing out of thin air" and "disappearing out of thin air".
"Are you okay? What just happened? How did you..."
The two brothers looked at each other and chose silence in tacit agreement.
They nodded to Hawkeye without explaining, just turned and walked into the distance. They had made their choice and would not look back.
At the same time.
After the brothers left, Ian also started taking action.
[Apparition]
Accompanied by a slight explosion, the space was distorted.
The next second, Ian's figure had appeared in the center of power of Amestris - the Presidential Palace.
In the study, Jin Bradley is reviewing documents. As the supreme ruler of this country and also Homunculus "Wrath", his perception is extremely sharp.
He stopped the pen in his hand and slowly raised his head.
Looking at the black-haired young man who appeared out of thin air in front of him, Bradley did not show the slightest panic, and his eyes did not even waver.
"Are you the Alchemy master named Ian·Alvin·Bones?"
"It's me." Ian admitted frankly.
"What's the point of visiting late at night?" Bradley said calmly, as if he was receiving a visitor who had made an appointment.
"It's nothing serious."
Ian casually looked at the furnishings in the study, with a contemptuous tone, "I just want to tell you that among all the Homunculuss, the ones I hate the most are you and that guy named Pride. Your arrogance and indifference to life are really disgusting. Unfortunately, I can't kill you directly."
"Does your personal preference have any impact on me?"
Before he finished speaking, Bradley moved.
Without any warning, the switch between stillness and extreme speed was completed in milliseconds. The two sabers in his hands turned into a shrill silver light and took Ian's head directly from his neck.
The speed of this blow has already exceeded the limit that human muscle fibers can bear.
That is the Godspeed slash that can only be performed by "Strongest Eye" with a body that has been transformed by alchemy.
However.
Bang!
There was a muffled sound.
Bradley's body froze in mid-air, then he coughed violently, and blood spurted out of his mouth and nose uncontrollably.
He lowered his head in shock.
I saw that Ian had cut into the inner circle of his defense at some point, maintaining a punching posture, and accurately printed his fist on his chest.
That punch seemed ordinary, but it contained terrifying penetrating power, directly shattering his lungs.
'How is it possible? My Strongest Eye... can't keep up with his movements?'
Bradley felt a storm in his heart. His eyes could capture the flow of air and predict the enemy's muscle contraction, but the speed of the man in front of him was so fast that even his retinas had no time to form an image!
As a battle-hardened warrior, Bradley immediately tried to retreat and distance himself.
But he was horrified to find that his body... couldn't move.
Except for his eyeballs and thoughts, his limbs and bones seemed to be completely disconnected and he completely lost consciousness.
"What... did you do to me?" Bradley said with difficulty.
"A little trick."
Ian retracted his fist and adjusted his cuffs slowly, "Did you know? All carbon-based organisms, as long as they have a nervous system and skeletal muscles, have specific 'physiological control nodes', which are so-called acupuncture points."
"The human body has 18 key nerve blocking points. Since your Homunculus is based on human physiological structure, this weakness has naturally been inherited."
Ian smiled, that smile was the confidence gained from a thorough understanding of biology.
"At that moment, I not only penetrated your lungs, but also blocked the motor nerve centers throughout your body."
After saying that, Ian did not continue to pay attention to the paralyzed president, but turned his head to look at the dark corner of the room.
"Since we're talking about physiological structure... I'm curious, does this theory apply to monsters like you who only use flesh and blood as containers? Pride."
As Ian's words fell.
In the shadow corner, a little boy wearing shorts and a suit vest walked out.
That is the adopted son of the great president, Selim Bradley. It is also the oldest Homunculus - Arrogant.
At this moment, this seemingly innocent and cute "child" had a creepy smile on his face.
"Don't confuse me with that low-level human being."
Although the arrogant voice is childish, it reveals ancient evil, "I have heard of you, Ian. As a human being, you are indeed special. I am very interested in your 'origin'."
As he spoke, countless black shadows spread out from under his feet. Those shadows were covered with ferocious eyes and sharp teeth, which looked particularly distorted under the light of the study.
"It would be interesting to capture you and study it slowly."
Facing this Cthulhu-like scene, Ian was stunned for a moment.
Immediately, he looked up to the sky and laughed as if he had heard some big joke.
Laughter echoed in the empty study room, full of irony.
The strange thing is that there was obviously a fierce battle and noise here, but the guards outside the door seemed to be dead, without any reaction. Because as early as the beginning, Ian had set up a Silencing barrier.
"Why are you laughing?" Arrogance frowned, irritated by this contempt.
"I laugh at your ignorance."
Ian stopped laughing, shook his head, and looked at the two monsters, one big and one small, in front of him with pity.
"I really can't believe it. Where did you get the confidence to think that you are a predator? To be honest, from a biological point of view, you 'Homunculus'... are simply a complete failure of the species."
"Failed?"
Arrogant laughed in anger, and the black shadow behind him danced crazily, "How dare you, mere humans, call us failures? This is the most ridiculous joke I have ever heard!"
"Really? Then let's do a simple logical deduction."
Ian raised a finger, as if giving a lesson to a mentally retarded child:
"First, the core of Homunculus is Philosopher's Stone; second, the raw material of Philosopher's Stone is human life; third, even with stones, you still need human flesh as a container or matrix to be born."
"The conclusion is obvious: without humans, there would be no stones; without stones, there would be no you."
Ian spread his hands and made a concluding gesture with an extremely mean tone:
"In other words, your entire race is essentially a 'Parasite bug' attached to human existence. Without the host, you cannot even perform basic reproduction. Even your so-called 'father' was just born from a humble slave Dwarf in the Flask."
"What is a species like this other than a failure?"
"Shut up--!!"
Arrogance was completely outraged.
Several sharp black shadow blades surged instantly, with a whistling sound of tearing the air, piercing Ian's eyes and heart. He wanted to tear this mouth to pieces, and tear this man's damn arrogance into pieces.
Buzz!
The light blue electromagnetic force field emerged again, easily blocking all attacks.
Ian stood behind the shield and continued to output his spiritual attacks:
"Maybe you look down on humans because we have emotions? Do you think emotions are weaknesses?"
"It's so sad. Each of you has only inherited one of the seven deadly sins, which means you don't even have a complete personality. Not only is your body incomplete, but your soul is also incomplete."
"Go to hell! Go to hell! Go to hell!"
Arrogant attacked the shield crazily, and the furniture in the entire room was turned into powder under the raging black shadow.
"Okay, the teaching time is over."
Ian The teasing in his eyes disappeared, replaced by cold rationality.
"Since you are a monster of shadows, let me see... the real light."
Ian raises his right hand high.
[Final Flash]
There were no complicated spells, and the simple magic power of light element burst out instantly in his palm.
It was not an ordinary Lumos, but a strong flash like an explosion of super Nova. At this moment, a sun seemed to rise in the study.
Light penetrates everywhere.
It is the natural enemy of shadows. When the light intensity reaches a certain threshold, all shadows will be invisible.
"Ahhhh--!"
Arrogant let out a shrill scream. Under the blinding light, the shadow blade he was proud of melted instantly, and the black shadow that originally spread across the room was forcibly compressed back to his feet until it completely disappeared.
Without his shadow, Arrogance is just an ordinary, non-threatening little boy.
"This is the end."
Ian Five fingers virtual grip.
The rocks on the ground instantly liquefied and reorganized, forming a perfect sphere, wrapping a look of frightened arrogance inside.
This is an absolutely closed rock cage.
There is no light inside, which means it is all dark. But without a light source to create a projection, arrogance cannot extend through "shadow" in this small, completely black space.
Immediately afterwards, Ian started Alchemy.
[Matter Compression]
The rock sphere quickly shrank with a heart-wrenching squeezing sound, and finally turned into a stone ball the size of a marble.
Ian picked up the stone ball, tossed it in his hand, and put it into his pocket.
"Your ability to devour others and gain their abilities is of great research value, so keep it as a sample for now."
After dealing with the arrogance, Ian turned around and walked towards the president who was still paralyzed on the ground.
"Next, it's your turn."
Ian squatted down and looked directly at the trembling "Strongest Eye" of Bradley.
"Although you are Homunculus, you are very special. You only have one soul, and you do not have the ability of Infinity to regenerate, nor do you have the noise of other monsters."
"This means... it will be very easy to read your memory."
[Legilimency]
Ian's eyes instantly became as deep as an abyss.
The thinking probe penetrated Bradley's cerebral cortex without any hindrance. Without the interference of thousands of wraiths, the president's memory was like an open book, allowing Ian to read it.
A few seconds later.
Ian looked away, with a look of surprise on his face.
"I see... this is really interesting information."