Chapter 155: Immortality
Edward decided to follow his instinct that something was wrong. So, he immediately used a spell on his mind. Immediately, he entered a state where his mind or consciousness is very inactive; his thoughts are mostly blank.
The ideas and thoughts in his mind were removed completely from his mind–even the ones in subconsciousness. That way, even if someone tries to read his mind, all they would see is blank.
As for his usual interaction with people that requires thinking, he first wanted to let Morgana take control of it. However, he changed his mind. Instead, he created a second brain that had the same brain wave as his and connected to his own, created a small dimension attached to his body, and placed the brain inside.
The second brain did not have many of his thoughts or memories but could serve as a way for his daily communication.
"Master, you're being too paranoid again," said Morgana directly through their soul link. She knew that her master did all of this to prevent Truth from reading his mind. However, he seemed to have gone overboard.
Edward ignored her. All these preparations were made long ago to deal with powerful Mind Readers. The only difference was that now he could create a small dimension to place the brain instead of carrying it on him inside a magic item.
After activating Project Mind Blocking–which only took him an instant–Edward continued to watch the events of this world unfold. As for Olivier next to him, she did not even notice the changes that occurred in the split seconds after he extinguished that min-sun.
On the screen, events continued to occur as they should.
Father thought that it had achieved the "perfect form" and become God. Unfortunately, he was wrong. Hohenheim has been messing with the Nationwide Transmutation Circle for many years.
Over his long years of life, he managed to talk to and convince the more than 500,000 souls inside his body to get their forgiveness. Then, he asked them for help to prevent what happened to Xerxes from repeating itself.
As such, he has been going around the world releasing some of the souls inside his body at strategic places around Amestris to prepare for the day that Father accomplished his ambitions.
So, Hohenheim immediately activated his plan. Immediately afterward, all the souls of the citizens of Amestris that were inside Father were forcibly released and returned to their bodies.
Olivier was finally relieved after seeing this; she was glad that Edward did not lie to her. Her brother along with the people of Amestris will be fine.
After Hohenheim's plan worked, Father was in some trouble. He needed these souls to contain "God" inside his body. Without it, he had to use his own power to contain it, thus reducing his offensive abilities.
Unfortunately, even severely weakened, few people were his opponent. Additionally, Father controlled the tectonic energy underneath Amestris thus rendering all Alchemists useless. The only people capable of using alchemy were Hohenheim because of the Philosopher's Stone inside his body, and May Chang who used Alkahestry.
As Edward watched things unfold, he suddenly had an idea coming to his mind. The idea was the fact that he would also have to control the tectonic energy back in the Empire after he spreads Alchemy. After all, who knows what crazy things these wizards and scientists will experiment with after gaining access to such power.
If he does not have a way to control them, the Empire might be plunged into chaos.
As soon as this idea came to his mind, the spell activated and intercepted the idea and sent it to his World Gate located outside of this universe in the void where it was stored. To him, this was the safest place as Truth power should not be able to reach there.
Edward knew that he had to wait until he deactivated the spell for this idea to come back. But now was not the time.
After Hohenheim and May Chang struggled against Father, the Elric Brothers and Scar's plan finally activated. Using Scar's brother's alchemy research, they were able to counter Father's control over the tectonic energy and allowed other Alchemists to regain their ability to perform transmutation.
Once events unfold to this point, Edward looked at Olivier and said: "We can leave now."
He then teleported her to the battlefield where countless soldiers and a few alchemists battled against the weakened Father. As soon as she arrived at the location, Olivier took charge of both the Briggs and Central soldiers, commanding them on the attack against Father.
As for Edward, he just looked around and watched. He saw many people he was familiar with including Hughes that had revealed his identity to his best friend, Colonel Mustang.
After that, he closed his eyes. Immediately afterward, he found himself in the point of view of Father. He could feel all his thoughts and actions. The reason he did that was to learn how this guy managed to contain such a powerful being inside his body. This kind of knowledge might be useful in the future.
Soon, things unfolded just as they should. Under Greed's sacrifice, Father's body was turned into fragile carbon atoms. Alphonse sacrificed his soul to get his brother's arm back, and Ed finally killed Father.
In the end, Father lost the ability to contain God and returned to his true and original form: The Dwarf in the Flask.
Immediately after that, Edward Elric used human transmutation, sacrificed his Gate of Truth as a toll to bring his brother's body back.
Everything was over, so people began the process of cleaning up and dealing with the aftermath.
While Edward was waiting with nothing to do, someone approached him: it was May Chang.
"Mr. Bones, can I ask you something?"
As Edward looked at the little girl, he could not help but remember his cousin Susan when she was young. Back then, she was so cute. He crouched down, smiled as he patted the little girl's head.
"What is it?"
May Chang felt kindness from him, so she did not resist.
"Alphonse told me that you're a very powerful Alchemist. So, I was wondering if you know of a way to achieve immortality."
"I do, the Philosopher's Stone."
"No, I meant a way without using the lives of others."
"And my answer remained the same."
After seeing the confused look on the little girl's face, he took a stone from the ground and began to draw a transmutation circle.
"The Philosopher's Stone is made with the life energy and souls of humans. Lifeforce is essentially the Qi in the Dragon Pulse that Xingese Alchemist used. However, there is a place that contains almost endless Qi: this planet," explained Edward.
"By gathering Qi or life force from the planet, you can make a Philosopher's Stone without using the lives of people."
After explaining the process, he activated the circle, and soon afterward, a white stone appeared in the middle. May Chang could feel the vast abundant Qi inside that stone.
"With this stone, you can live for a few thousand years while also being immortal. Well, at least, until the energy in the stone is exhausted."
After handing the stone to her, she asked: "For me?"
"Yes. Consider it a gift for our first meeting."
He waved his hand and the stone entered the little girl's body and fused with her heart. Well, it was not completely fused, but more served as an energy source. The real fusion of a Philosopher's Stone is too painful and horrible.
Soon after Edward helped May Chang, he could feel a few eyes looking at him. They were Riza Hawkeye and Hughes, along with Alphonse and two burly men standing next to him.
Instantly, he could guess these people's meaning. Alphonse probably wanted to ask him to use the same method he did on Nina to separate his chimera friends, while Hughes and Riza probably wanted him to heal Mustang's eyes.
Instead, Edward immediately teleported away. Although he can be nice and do things based on a whim as he did for May Chang, it did not mean that he was a philanthropist willing to help everyone.
Maes Hughes sighed after seeing this as he was not surprised. After being with Edward for so long, he knew about his temperament. If this guy likes you, he does not mind helping you.
But if he treated you as a stranger, then he probably won't care about your life and death unless it was beneficial to him.
(AN: I have not been very happy with the recent chapters. I discovered that not many of my viewers have seen the show, so I have to describe many events so that they can understand the story. Adding to that the entire FMAB story took place in a few months, there is not much I can write about. And now, we are already at the end of the story.
(Of course, this arc is not over yet as I still have many things more to write. But, soon, Edward will return home, so be prepared for his next journey.)
Chapter 156: Visitors
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A few days after the events of the Promised Day, Edward received a visitor inside the manor that he bought in Amestris. Luckily, he was not busy and was staying there for some time. Ever since all the plots were finished, he removed the spell he placed around the house.
After opening the door, he saw a perfectly healthy Al and Ed waiting for him, and he was not that surprised that Al had healed in just a few days instead of spending years nurturing his body and retraining his muscles.
"It seems that May has put the stone I gave her to good use," said Edward.
"Yes. With it, her Alkahestry has greatly strengthened, so she was able to heal my body," replied Alphonse.
Edward invited them inside and offered them some tea. After some pleasantries, he directly said:
"I'm guessing that you're here for your chimera friends. What were their names?"
"Jerso and Zampano," said Alphonse.
"I will not help get their bodies back. You want to help them, do it yourself. I will open my library to you and all the knowledge needed to do so is in there. However, as an Alchemist, I follow the Law of Equivalent Exchange.
"So, if you want something from inside, you have to pay an equal value of knowledge."
Ed and Alphonse probably guessed this outcome as Hughes already warned them. Nevertheless, they were still satisfied as they had a way forward; they still had a chance.
Alphonse looked at his quiet brother and motioned him to say something. However, seeing the latter remaining motionless. So, he could only speak for himself:
"Mr. Bones, we were wondering if there was a way for my brother to regain his ability to perform alchemy again?"
"Yes. Become more powerful than the individual that took your alchemy."
"You mean Truth?" asked Ed. "What exactly is it?"
"I do not know. Just like he said, God, the Universe, the consciousness of all living things. Or just a powerful entity charged with maintaining the Law of Equivalent Exchange.
"In the end, it does matter. What truly matters is the fact that you did not lose your ability to perform Alchemy just because you destroy your Gate of Truth. Even if you were to recreate the Gate, you still would not be able to perform Alchemy."
Edward was not talking nonsense. In the anime, even with the Philosopher's Stone, Hohenheim could not give Izumi Curtis the ability to have children even after fixing her organs problems. And even Edward could not do the same after giving her a powerful magic potion.
When it comes to Ed's problem, he did a few experiments beforehand. He had one of his prisoners sacrifice their Gates to acquire knowledge. Then, he developed a plan that should have allowed him to regain his ability to perform alchemy.
The plan involved the meditation method that Hermione developed for mages back in the Empire. The Meditation Technique allowed muggles with enough potential to sense and control mana in the environment.
So, Edward modified this technique to allow the prisoner to sense and control tectonic energy on the ground so that he could perform Alchemy again. Although this method requires a high level of talent, the prisoner did meet the requirement.
Unfortunately, even after sensing the tectonic energy, he was incapable of controlling it to do anything. According to his description, it felt like he was taking a test and knew all the answers, however, he could not write down the answer no matter what he did.
As such, Edward knew that even if he gave Edward Elric this meditation method, it would not work.
After hearing the answer, Ed was a little disappointed–although not that much as he was prepared for this outcome. However, he still had one thing he wanted to know.
"Based on what you said, Colonel Mustang should not be able to regain his eyesight even with the Philosopher's Stone. So, why did it work for him?"
"Think about the difference in circumstances between you, your teacher, and Mustang," replied Edward.
"You mean the fact that he was forced to perform Human Transmutation."
"That's correct. Since it was not of his own volition, Truth will allow him to regain his sight."
"I never thought of it as a benevolent being," mocked Ed.
Edward just shrugged his shoulders in response; he did not have anything to comment regarding this topic. After the three chatted for a while, the Elric brothers left after promising to come by to exchange the knowledge that they needed.
After the two left, Morgana appeared next to Edward and said: "Master, you've been quite grumpy lately."
"I know. It's just that the situation we found ourselves in this world is quite frustrating."
"Shouldn't you be used to it after dealing with Herpo for so long?"
"The situation with Herpo is different. At least with him, I could gather some information no matter how little. And with that small information, I could deduce more, find ways to gather more information, and eventually, found solutions.
"But now, there is nothing to go on, which is a little frustrating."
Morgana nodded and said a few things to comfort him. A few hours later, another person came to visit Edward: it was Hughes and his family.
"Thank you for saving my husband," said Gracia Hughes. "Our family does not know how to repay you, so I baked you some Miso Caramel Apple Pie."
Edward accepted her gift with a smile, he then looked at the two little girls that were accompanying Hughes and Gracia. He squatted down on the floor to be at the same eye level as them.
"Nina, how are you doing recently? Do you like your new family?"
"Yes. Mr. Hughes and Ms. Gracia treat me very well," replied Nina with a genuine smile; probably the only one she had in a very long time.
Edward nodded his head, then looked at the other little girl. "What about you, Elicia? How do you like your new sister?"
"Great. I finally have someone to play with when daddy is busy with his work."
After inviting the family inside, they had a long chat. Edward tasted the apple pie, and it was quite delicious. So, he asked Gracia for the recipe and she was happy to give it to him.
A few minutes after the Hughes family left, another person came to see him: it was Olivier. Edward was wondering why so many people wanted to visit him on and on the same day too.
Unlike the other people, after coming to see him, Olivier made herself at home by taking off her boots and the top part of her uniform, leaving only the black undershirt.
She then went straight for the liquor cabinet, took the entire battle, and jugged it down with ease.
"What's gotten into you today?" asked Edward.
"That old man Grumman was chosen as the next Fuhrer."
"Huh? What about you?"
"Since most of the previous military leaders are either dead or traitors, based on ranks, he is next in line for the position. As for me, I was just promoted to General."
"So, what are you going to do?"
"Nothing. I already talked to Grumman and he promised me that I would be his successor."
"What about Mustang?"
She sneered, "He can only be after me."
Edward then spent the night drinking with her. After she drank her depressed mood away, she left. She refused his invitation to spend the night.
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Next Chapter Title: Discovery
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