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.)
