The Greater Evil
Chapter One: A Fateful Accident
Edward Elric, the Fullmetal Alchemist, stood near the altar of Leto, the Sun God. Before him, a panicked priest, Father Cornello, stood, clutching his left hand.
"This is the last time I'm gonna ask, Cornello," Ed said directly. "Hand over the Philosopher's Stone!"
"Never!" Father Cornello cried defiantly. "I will never give it to the likes of you!"
"Please," Alphonse Elric said as he stood beside his brother. "We just want to make things right again."
Panicking, Father Cornello drove as much power as he could into his ring, desperately begging it for anything…bring anything it could to defeat these brats that were trying to foil his plan! The ring throbbed in his hand and, behind him, a massive, black ellipse formed, reaching from the floor all the way to the top of the church thirty meters above. Ed and Al stared at the strange, dark…shape that seemed to throb with nascent power. The gem on Cornello's ring burst, and the dark ellipse burst into life, an image appearing inside its borders: a rolling, green field with trees in the distant background. Looking expectantly at the portal, the priest's eyes widened as a massive hand reached from the outer edges of the portal.
Ed and Al watched in horror as a giant humanoid, easily twenty meters in size stepped through the gateway. Its skin looked…odd, as if it were made of some, strange, porous approximation of human flesh. That, however, was secondary to the giant's most disturbing feature: its face was contorted into a wide, sickening grimace, its eyes narrowed to the point of being barely visible. The giant looked down at the happy-looking Cornello and stooped down. For a moment, it looked as if it was about to greet its master, but that notion was disabused as the giant picked up Cornello as if he were a particularly ripe fruit. Cornello let out a horrible scream as the giant opened its vast maw and gently placed the protesting man inside as if he were a delicacy. His body barely halfway inside the giant's mouth, the beast chomped down on Cornello with incredible force, sending his upper half down to the ground in front of the horrified brothers. The creature swallowed the rest with obvious relish, then turned to face Ed and Al and began lumbering towards them.
"Al, run!" Ed screamed, panic driving the adrenaline into his blood like a speeding train. Looking back, Ed's eyes widened like saucers. "Oh god," he whispered.
"What is it, brother?" Al asked, scared as he looked back. What he saw chilled the soul bonded to armour: even more giant monstrosities were beginning to pour out of the portal. They varied in size, but even the smallest one that Al could make out was easily five times taller than a man. Worse than their sudden appearance was what they were doing: the giants were lumbering toward the large, wooden doors at the front of the church. A few moments later, before they rounded the first corner, a deafening crash, a mixture of the sound of splintering wood and crumbling stone, filled the air. The giants had forced down the entire front third of the church and were now ambling into the streets of Liore.
"Brother!" Al yelled. "They're going into the city!"
"We have to stop them!" Ed said as they continued to run. Pausing, Ed clasped his hands together and placed them on the nearest wall, transmuting an exit to the outside. "Let's go!"
What greeted the brothers was something out of a horror story: the giants were lumbering down the streets of Liore, which were already awash with a veritable sea of blood. Limbs and partial bodies were strewn around like some sickening form of confetti. It was then that the screams started to register. The brothers saw a giant pick up a girl who couldn't have been more than eight, and clumsily place it on its molars. It chomped down, reducing the frightened girl to a spray of blood and torn flesh.
"Ed, Al!" someone cried from a nearby street: Rose. "Oh god! WHAT HAPPENED?!"
"Cornello," Ed begun in a hurry, trying to formulate a plan to stop the advancing giants. "He did something with his Philosopher's Stone a portal opened…he brought those THINGS here!"
"Where's the holy father?" Rose demanded, her eyes widened in panic.
"They…" Ed bent over and regurgitated what he'd eaten that day at the memory. "Rose, the first giant that came through…it ate Cornello."
"Oh god!" Rose said in a shocked, horrified voice. "What do we do now?"
"I'm trying to think of something!" Ed yelled in panic. "Al, do you have anything?"
"What about a large wall, brother?" Al said quickly.
"It's worth a shot," Ed said, determined. "Rose, get as many people out of here as you can, we're going to try and contain those things!"
"Right!" Rose said, running off to begin the evacuation.
Fear-induced adrenaline pushing him, Ed ran as fast as he could with his brother trailing not far behind, attempting to get just far enough ahead of the man-eating monsters to transmute a wall to contain them. Stopping just a few dozen meters away from the main body of the horde, Ed drove all the alchemical energy he could into his hands, clasping them and throwing them down on the cobbled street below. A wall, easily twenty meters high, fifty meters long, and five meters thick sprang up, creating a giant dip in the ground on the outside edge. The giants that met the wall began ambling around it, trying to find a way around to more prey.
"Al," Ed said as fast as he could. "We need to split up. You take the left side, I'll take the right. Keep these things pinned in!"
"On it, brother," Al said, nodding, as he ran off.
Screams filling the air, Ed silently admonished himself. He didn't know if he could kill these things, or distract them long enough to get people out of the area he and his brother were walling off…in the back of his mind, Ed realized he may well be dooming the people inside to a grisly death. He hated the idea of sacrificing people, even if it saved the lives of a multitude of others. Four tense hours later, Ed and Al met back up on the opposite side of town from where they'd started, their work complete. They could already hear the sound of massive hands scratching at the wall.
"Do you think it'll hold, brother?" Al asked, frightened.
"I don't know, Al," Ed admitted. "It'll…it'll buy us time, at least, to get people out of here."
"What about the people inside?" Al continued in a quiet voice.
"I don't know how we'd get them out," Ed admitted in a sick tone.
"We could try making a tunnel small enough for us to fit through, but not enough for those things to break out," Al said in little more than a whisper.
"It's an idea," Ed agreed, nodding. "It'll be worth it if we can save even just one person."
The brothers Elric ran to a section of wall that didn't have the spine-tingling sound of hands raggedly scrabbling at stone. Using their alchemy, they forged a small tunnel beneath the wall and ran through, knowing that their time was short. Finding a small group of people huddled together, Ed immediately sprang into action.
"Everyone, listen up," he yelled urgently. "There's a tunnel behind us, use it to get out of here! Run as fast as you can, don't waste any time! Go!"
The panicked mob stampeded toward the tunnel, and the brothers ran further along the wall they'd made, searching for more groups of people still alive. Where they could, they pushed their power, making more small tunnels where they could to speed up the evacuation. As they were evacuating another group of frightened townsfolk, a deep rumbling came rushing towards them. Looking behind them at the source of the increasingly loud sound, Ed and Al saw a massive giant, its eyes glassily staring ahead of it, its mouth lolling open mindlessly, as it charged forward in an awkward gait. Thinking as quickly as his stunned mind was able, Ed threw his hands to the ground, transmuting a wall ahead of the accelerating giant. Oblivious to the stone blocking its path, the giant charged through the low wall, tripping and falling on its face. The brothers were about to let out a sigh of relief when they noticed something flailing in its massive paw, a person had gotten caught by the giant in its tumble.
"No you don't!" Ed snarled, clasping his hands and throwing them down on the ground once again, this time transmuting a massive spike that shoved itself through the giant's head. The monstrous creature flailed, releasing its captive who ran as fast as he could toward the exit. It halted for a moment and Alphonse was about to congratulate his brother on his victory when the giant's massive arms pushed itself up, lifting its head from the spike. Ed and Al watched in shock as the giant's head rebuilt itself before their very eyes. It got back on its feet and began its charge. Before the brothers could react, it crashed headlong into the wall, stumbling back and leaving a large dent. Then, it charged again, this time breaking through the barrier, sending a crescendo of sound out as the wall crumbled.
"What the hell are these things?!" Ed demanded. "It was impaled through the head! What kind of monster survives something like that?!"
"We need to repair the wall!" Alphonse cried, seeing the other giants making their way to the hole.
Just then, another crash, this one further away, sounded…followed soon after by another, then another.
"Damn it!" Ed yelled angrily. "They're breaking through! We can't keep this up, they'll wear us out before we find a way to kill them!"
As if on cue, Rose appeared behind the brothers, panting in exhaustion. "We've evacuated almost everyone," she said hurriedly. "The train's cars are full to bursting."
"Rose," Ed said in a tone of despair. "Take your people and go. I'll hold them off as long as I can, give you time to get out of here!"
"Brother, no!" Alphonse cried, realizing what his brother was consigning himself to.
"Now's not the time, Al!" Ed said desperately.
"You're right," Al replied calmly. As Ed turned around, Alphonse knocked his brother unconscious with a blow to the neck. "We've done all we can here, Rose," he said, holding his brother in his arms. "We need to go, now."
"Alphonse," Rose began, before hearing his silent sobs ringing in his hollow armour. "Follow me."
Rose led Alphonse through the tunnel he and his brother had created, peripherally aware of the crowd of people running for their lives, some running straight into the vast, forbidding desert surrounding the city. Boarding the train just as it was starting to move, Alphonse Elric watched on as the larger giants peeked their heads over the buildings, occasionally reaching in, pulling out their terrified, protesting residents, and consuming them. As the train began to move, Alphonse cried, knowing how many people he'd just doomed to either die by the man-eating giants or to the sunbaked desert. He understood that he'd saved as many as he could, but the train's engines only just drowned out the screams still coming from the town of Liore.
"Al," Rose said as they rode, barely holding herself back from screaming at the horror she'd witnessed. "Please, tell me," she looked at Al with pleading eyes before screaming in terror, "TELL ME WE DID THE RIGHT THING!"
"We saved as many people as we could, Rose," Al responded, his voice quavering. "Brother impaled one of those giants through the head…it just wrenched itself free and regrew all the damage it'd taken. I don't know how we're supposed to kill those things…"
"God," Rose replied, covering her hands with her mouth. "You mean they're immortal?"
"I don't know, Rose," Alphonse said with a heavy sigh. "I doubt anything is truly immortal, but those…things, they're a lot more durable than they look. This train is heading to Central, right?"
Rose nodded. "Yeah, that's what the driver said," she affirmed.
"We'll go to the military HQ when we arrive, then," Alphonse said in a determined voice. "We need to let Colonel Mustang know about what's happened here."
The rest of the train ride was filled with a sombre, yet terrified silence. Alphonse knew his brother would be angry with him, but…they'd made a promise. He couldn't let Ed go on a suicide mission, no matter how noble. For his part, Ed was obviously far more exhausted than he'd let on, as he slept the entire way to Central. Once the train came to a halt, though, Edward Elric was wide awake, and had a bone to pick with his younger brother.
"What the hell, Al?" Ed demanded angrily as they stepped off the train onto the platform. "I could've saved more people! Bought more time! Found a way to kill those damn things!"
"Ed!" Al barked, getting his brother's attention. "You know as well as I what would've been more likely to happen. Chances are, you'd have ended up in the stomach of one of those damned giants! I can't…no, I refuse to let you kill yourself!"
"I'm sorry, Al," Ed said sadly after a moment's silence as the brothers and Rose walked from out on to the street toward Central HQ. "You're right. It's just…those things…what the hell was the preacher thinking, bringing them here?!"
"I don't think it was intentional," Alphonse replied. "I think he was just desperate and the Stone responded."
"Maybe we shouldn't have pushed him so far," Ed said sadly as they opened the doors to the military headquarters. "If we hadn't…"
"It isn't our fault, brother," Al said kindly as they walked through the halls toward Mustang's office. "In the end, the Stone was responding to him. If he hadn't been so desperate to keep his power, this wouldn't have happened in the first place."
"I guess you're right," Ed sighed, knocking on Colonel Mustang's door.
"Come in," a voice called from inside the room. "Ed, I'm glad you got a girlfriend, but-"
Colonel Roy Mustang, Flame Alchemist, looked at the young woman's face…at Edward's face, and immediately knew something had gone horribly wrong during his mission to Liore. Those looks reminded him of the looks some of the soldiers had on their faces after the Ishvalan Extermination.
"What happened, Fullmetal?" Colonel Mustang asked sympathetically.
"We went to Liore to search for the Philosopher's Stone," Ed began in a sick voice. "Al and I found out it was in the hands of the priest there, Father Cornello. We cornered him about it, and…and…"
Roy Mustang watched as Ed's eyes grew wide with horror and retched violently on to the carpet of his office. Normally, he'd be put out about having to now need to clean his carpet, but something about Ed's reaction worried the Flame Alchemist immensely.
"The Stone was real," Alphonse continued for his brother. "Cornello was trying to use his religious followers to conduct a coup against the government. He got desperate when we demanded he give up the Stone, and something happened. I don't know how to explain it other than a…portal opened."
"A portal?" Mustang asked incredulously. "What are you talking about?"
"We don't know exactly where it went to," Al replied. "But…but…giant, humanoid things came out of it, some had to have been at least twenty meters tall. One of the giants ate Father Cornello. Then, they…they started rampaging through the city, eating everyone they could find."
"We tried to contain them," Ed picked up after catching his breath. "Al and I made a huge wall and, for a while, it worked. But, they broke through it. Colonel Mustang," Ed continued in a serious voice. "I impaled one of the giants through the head. It picked itself up, and…regrew the massive hole I'd put in it."
"You have got to be joking," Colonel Mustang said in disbelief. Just then, Maes Hughes burst through the door with an urgent look on his face.
"Roy, we've got a huge problem," Hughes said quickly. "We just now got reports of a massive amount of refugees from Liore. Some of them are screaming about man-eating giants pouring out of the church. Oh," he stumbled, seeing Ed, Al, and Rose sitting in the room. "I didn't know you were here, Fullmetal."
"Shit," Mustang said angrily, lowering his head. "I guess you weren't exaggerating, then, Ed."
"You were there, Ed?" Hughes asked in shock. "Some of those refugees that I saw…it was a miracle that they made it out of the city alive."
"You saved a lot of people, Fullmetal," Mustang said reassuringly to the young state alchemist. "Once this is all over, I'll see that you all get commendations for courage. Hughes, is the Fuhrer available?"
"I think he is," Hughes said, scratching his chin.
"Good," Mustang said, getting up. "I'm sorry to leave so abruptly, boys, but the Fuhrer needs to know about this immediately. Hughes," he continued quietly to his old friend. "Take care of them. From what they told me, these three have been through hell, today."
"You got it, Roy," Hughes responded seriously. "I'd hate to see what kind of things can make a boy that went through the things he's seen vomit."
"You and me both," Mustang said, exiting the room.
"Do you guys need some time?" Hughes said gently, walking over to the Elric brothers and their guest. "Is there anything I can do to help?"
"Just see to it that the refugees are taken care of," Ed responded in a hoarse voice. "They need it more than me."
"I'll volunteer to help," Rose said in a quiet voice. "I'll do whatever I can."
"I'm sure they'll appreciate it," Hughes said kindly, placing a hand on the girl's shoulder. "What's your name, if you don't mind me asking?"
"It's Rose," she said, smiling a little at the kind officer.
"Well then, Rose," Hughes said. "I think you'd be invaluable in helping to coordinate the relief efforts. You know those people better than we do, and your expertise would no doubt come in handy."
"Thank you, Mr. Hughes," Rose said with a faint smile as she got up from her seat.
"Are you boys sure you don't need anything?" Hughes said, turning toward the Elric brothers.
"Thanks," Al said quietly. "But I'm sure you have a lot of work to do. If we need anything, I'm sure Lieutenant Colonel Armstrong can help us."
"Did someone mention my name?" Armstrong said loudly, bursting through the door.
"I'll leave you three alone," Hughes said, laughing as he led Rose away.
"Dear Edward," Armstrong said in his normal, boisterous manner as he ripped off his shirt. "Allow my perfectly sculpted physique to lift your spirits and INSPIRE YOU!"
"As much as we appreciate it," Ed said weakly. "I…don't really think now is the time, Lieutenant Colonel."
"Truly, the situation must be grave," Armstrong said, hand on his chin. "If my physique fails to elicit a reaction. What happened, Edward Elric?"
Repetition did not make telling the story any easier. Relating the panic-driven evacuation, and later retreat, from Liore in the face of nigh-unkillable, man-eating giants had the blonde boy nearly in tears by the end. Alex Louis Armstrong, normally an unflappably boisterous individual was shocked to the point of horrified silence.
"You boys," he said in a quiet tone as he slowly embraced the brothers. "No one should have to witness such horror, let alone ones so young. I…apologize for my earlier insensitivity, it was unbecoming of one of the Armstrong line. Still," he continued, a sniffle escaping his nose. "You managed to save a great deal of people, something people with three times your experience would have great difficulty doing. The gallantry you boys have shown humbles me."
"Ed, Al," Colonel Mustang said, entering the room. "The Fuhrer is requesting your presence as soon as possible to discuss the Liore situation."
"We'll be there right away, Colonel," Edward said, getting up. "Excuse us, Lieutenant Colonel Armstrong."
"Of course," Armstrong said easily.
"I don't think I need to tell you boys," Mustang said as they walked to the Fuhrer's office. "That the Fuhrer is as disturbed as the rest of us at these reports."
"Can't say I'm surprised," Edward said in a sick voice as they entered the Fuhrer's office.
"Edward, Alphonse," Fuhrer King Bradley said in his normal, kindly voice. "Sit, please. I know that what you've seen won't be easy to relate again, but we desperately need to know what we're dealing with, any information you could give us would be invaluable."
"I guess I'll…start with how they look," Edward said hesitantly. "They seemed to vary a lot in size, but even the smallest we saw were easily five meters in height. They look like malformed, gigantic versions of men and their skin is…strange. From far away, it looks human enough, but up close it looks, I dunno…just off, somehow. They have human-looking faces and hair."
"How tall was the biggest you've seen?" King Bradley asked.
"Twenty meters, maybe more," Ed answered simply. "Even the slow ones move faster than you'd expect from something that big, one we saw ran extremely fast, we barely had time to get a stumbling block under its feet. Fuhrer," Ed continued in a much darker tone. "These giants, whatever they are, they're incredibly strong. I've seen them break through windows like paper and tear down houses like sandcastles. Al and I put up a wall, twenty meters high and five meters thick, around where the giants were coming from. They destroyed it in a matter of minutes."
"Five meters, you say?" King Bradley asked, shocked. "Of solid stone?"
"Of solid stone," Ed confirmed. "They have some kind of regenerative power I'm sure Mustang's already told you about. Other than maybe full-body incineration, I don't know how we'll be able to kill these things, or even contain them."
"Were they moving out of the town the time when you evacuated?" King Bradley asked seriously.
"They were, yes sir," Al responded.
"Sir, given the time it takes a train to get from here to Liore," Mustang said, looking at a map of Amestris. "They could well be halfway to either Postarim or Dar Osh. We need to send word to our forces there, warn them so they can be ready, should they arrive."
"I'll make the necessary arrangements when our meeting is complete," King Bradley said, nodding. "I'll also warn the garrison at Emell to be ready to send reinforcements, if necessary."
"Sir," Ed began urgently. "Make sure to tell the men to stay well away from these things. If they grab you, it's almost certainly over, they will not hesitate to eat anything that gets within reach."
"Duly noted, Elric," King Bradley replied gravely. "Is there any other intelligence you can share?"
"None that we're aware of, sir," Edward said.
"Very well," King Bradley said, nodding. "Edward, Alphonse, I'm sending you, Mustang, and his subordinates to Emell. You don't have enough time to make it to Postarim or Dar Osh, but your firsthand experience would be useful to those providing backup."
"Yes sir!" Edward said, saluting.
"Meeting is adjourned gentlemen," King Bradley said, standing up. "You boys have done well getting this information to me as quickly as you could, as well as helping to save many lives with your well-planned evacuation and attempts at containment. In recognition of your bravery above and beyond the call of duty, I hereby promote you, Edward Elric to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. As for you, Alphonse Elric," King Bradley continued, pulling two pins from his coat, handing one to Ed and the other to Al. "I hereby bestow upon you the Amestris Medal of Gallantry. Dismissed!"
Edward and Alphonse gave the Fuhrer one last salute before leaving his office. Following Colonel Mustang, they gathered the Flame Alchemists closest friends: Lieutenant Colonel Armstrong, First Lieutenant Riza Hawkeye, along with Jean Havoc, Vato Falman, and Kain Fuery. Colonel Mustang briefed the coterie on their assignment, most of them (minus Armstrong and Hawkeye) looked visibly shaken. However, they steeled themselves and made their way to the train station where they boarded quietly, bound for Emell. The Elric brothers were less than willing to face the giants again, but they quashed their fear, focusing on what they needed to do to stop this incursion from becoming an even greater disaster than it already had been. Hopefully, the giants would be stopped before all hell broke loose. Hopefully…
Author's Notes
I know, I've got more stories than should be legally allowed, but I just couldn't pass this one up, once I got the idea for it; it just wouldn't leave me alone! For some perverse reason, I actually enjoy writing this a lot. Something about horror just…works with me, for some reason. This won't stop me from updating The Bardock Effect or TPA. Honestly, I work best when I have a few project I can rotate since it keeps things from getting stale. Doesn't hurt that this one is going to be a LOT different from my other two stories currently up. Well, that's about it, for now. I'll catch you guys later for Chapter Two of The Greater Evil, Advance of Giants! Take care!