Envy continues his attack against the struggling Ling and Edward, who is distracted by the plaintive cries of souls emanating from the Homunculus’ true form, especially the one innocently chanting ‘Want to play?’, reminding him of Nina. However, during the battle, Edward notices that some of the debris inside Gluttony’s stomach are missing parts of the ruins of Xerxes and realizes that with the Philosopher’s Stone existing at the core of Envy, there may be a way for everyone to escape this dimension. if they work together. May and Scar’s inquiries about Xiao-Mei’s whereabouts above ground lead them to discover Alphonse Elric (with Xiao-Mei on his shoulder) following Gluttony into the underground facility. Scar and May keep a close eye on them, but May notes that the underground passageway gives off an ominous aura, like the countless people crawling under its feet. Descending their quarry, May and Scar encounter a seemingly endless horde of chimeras tasked with guarding the Homunculi stronghold and desperately fighting them with their powers, but May confirms that the presence she senses is even lower. As Gluttony and Al approach, the Homunculi’s mysterious father senses an approaching presence.
In his office, Führer Bradley explains to Mustang that he was introduced from early childhood as an experimental subject in a secret project, after being spartanly trained in philosophy, politics, and martial arts with several other children for the express purpose of becoming Führer. Amestris. When it came time to choose which of them would become Führer, he was injected with the Philosopher’s Stone, which the father called his “Wrath”, in a process that – due to the Philosopher’s Stone’s violent attempts to take over, deconstruct and reconstruct any human body. inhabited – has already claimed the lives of eleven experimental subjects. He, the twelfth, survived the ordeal intact (except for the loss of his human left eye and the assurance that the only soul he now possessed was his own), and was given the name “King Bradley” by the research team.
Inside Gluttony’s stomach, Envy, Ed, and Ling work together to collect all the pieces of the Xerxes mural in one place to analyze. Edward notes that although he originally thought the mural was similar to the five-pointed circle he encountered in Lab 5, looking at the missing pieces convinces him that it is something very different – a human transmutation circle. Taking Envy’s claim that this space is a false gate to truth, Edward assumes that by performing a human transmutation—albeit theoretically safe, in which he breaks his own body and soul and reconstructs them back to their unaltered form—he can open a way. to the actual Gate from which return to the correct dimension should be possible. Ling and Envy trust his abilities and comply, but Edward decides to ask Envy more about the mural on Xerxes, believing that the missing pieces they found in Gluttony’s stomach were placed there to hide important evidence. Given the symbols that appear on the finished structure, he deduces that whoever designed it intended to use it to turn the entire population of Xerxes into the Philosopher’s Stone in order to overcome God, which is responsible for the sudden disappearance of the advanced civilization. Ed wants to know if the one the Homunculi call Father designed the field and intends to repeat that disaster in Amestris, but Envy shrugs off the question and tells Fullmetal to continue the transmutation. When Edward hesitates, knowing that the Stone is powered by the lives of Xerxesians, Envy informs him that these souls can never become human again and have even forgotten who they were.
Edward created a new circle of his own design based on the mural in Xerxes and initiated the transmutation with part of the Stone of Envy as the toll. He asks Ling to tell the people of Amestris about this plot if anything happens to him, but Ling merely echoes Edward’s earlier words, saying that there are people out there waiting for Fullmetal’s return and that he should decide to tell them himself . As they walk through the sea of blood, one of the souls absorbed by the transmutations thanks Edward for freeing him. His plan successful, Edward arrives at the stone doors of his gate, but notes in confusion that there are now two gates. To his astonishment, he sees Alphonse’s human body – hair unkempt for years and skeletally thin from lack of nutrients – sitting alive in front of the second gate, but before he can complete his mad dash for his brother’s body, Edward is arrested and dragged into his own Gate by shadowy black hands in her. He begs Al to come back with him, but the soulless body replies that he cannot leave with anyone who is not his own soul, prompting a reluctant Edward to promise to return one day soon to claim him.