For a moment, Kimblee stood and surveyed the courtyard, like a master painter examining his work. There was something hypnotic about the pattern of dead bodies. The courtyard was to Kimblee an elegant statement written in blood red ink.
For every other person, including the Amestrian soldier in his blue uniform at the foot of the building stood on, it was a nightmarish jumble of blood and bodies.
"M-Major Kimblee?" The soldier stammered.
Kimblee glanced down from the top of the building at the soldier.
"Yes?"
The soldier looked back at Kimblee and stared. Blood and bodies littered the ground, but Kimblee stood above it all, pristine and untouched by blood or smoke.
"General Panzer request your presence at headquarters, sir," the soldier said, saluting.
Kimblee used the cracks in the building his alchemy had made to climb down. He looked back at the courtyard and sighed.
"Why can't the bureaucrats wait until night fall? So many Ishvalans to kill and so little daylight to do it with."
The soldier eyed Kimblee and took a step back. He had heard stories about the Crimson Alchemist, but if anything the stories had downplayed how violent Kimblee was.
What a psycho, the soldier thought.
His hands started shaking slightly as he followed Kimblee down the street.
The Crimson Alchemist reached the corner of the street then stopped abruptly and turned around to face the soldier.
The soldier nearly jumped out of his skin. His hands flew to his pistol grip.
Kimblee raised a long thin black eyebrow. "I can get there by myself, thank you."
The soldier gulped, "Sir, the general insisted that I accompany you. He told me to make sure you got to headquarters."
The soldier didn't add that the general had told him to do it by any means necessary. The glint in Kimblee's eyes, however, showed that he understood the situation perfectly.
Kimblee looked at the name on the soldier's uniform. "Tell me, Sergeant Martin. Is this the first time since the war began that you have actually stepped on the battlefield?"
Sergeant Martin froze. His hands, soft and white, unused to being stained with anything but ink were now shaking violently. If his pistol hadn't been in its holster, he would have dropped it.
"I thought so. How can you call yourself a solder. You are nothing but a glorified secretary. Draw your gun and you are more likely to shoot yourself then me. But don't worry. I am going to headquarters. You can just tag along behind me like a good little secretary."
With that, the Crimson Alchemist turned and started walking again.
Sergeant Martin trailed behind Kimblee, no less afraid of the Crimson Alchemist then before.
Ahead of him, Kimblee smiled and savored Martin's terror.
The streets they walked through were gray cobblestone surrounded by gray buildings. This area of Ishval had been under military control for some time. All the bodies had been cleared away and the blood cleaned off.
Kimblee thought the streets looked drab and colorless. The sooner he got out of them and back to the front lines the better. Bureaucrats made everything boring.
Headquarters had been set up in abandoned house near the center of the city. Close enough to get reports from the front line fast, but far enough away to keep the green banners with a white dragon on them outside the door pristine.
The uniforms and rifles of the two soldiers outside were likewise pristine.
Leave it to bureaucrat to care more about how shiny a soldier's weapon is then whether or not he can actually fire it, Kimblee thought.
"I do believe the good general is expecting me," Kimblee told the door guards.
One of them nodded and opened the door for him.
Kimblee entered with Martin stumbling in behind him, so glad to not be responsible for Kimblee anymore that the sergeant almost fell over.
"I appreciate you telling Martin to stay with me. So kind of you to make sure I didn't get lost," Kimblee said.
The group of generals standing around the tactical table with a marked map of Ishval, looked up.
"Watch your tone, Major. I am your superior officer and I deserve respect," the bald general, General Panzer, snapped.
Looking at the men before him, Kimblee saw men in crisp uniforms who had grown fat from their sedentary lifestyle. There was a time when an officer was one who led his men into battle. Judging from the condition of these, old fogeys, it had been decades since any of them had taken a life. They did not deserve Kimblee's respect nor his allegiance. The only reason he still obeyed them was because they let him do what he enjoyed most in the world.
"Sorry, sir," Kimblee said, keeping his voice flat and neutral, "I am here as you requested."
General Panzer looked at Kimblee for a moment. Probably trying to figure out in that bald empty skull of his if Kimblee was mocking him, then he grunted. "Apology accepted. How has the weapon performed?"
Kimblee turned around long enough to spit up the red stone lodged in his stomach and then turned back to General Panzer.
"It is amazing. It allows me to completely bypass the Law of Equivalent exchange," Kimblee said.
The Philospher's stone, bought with the souls of thousands of Ishvalans, glittered in his palms, looking almost like a simple, normal ruby.
"Excellent. You can tell us all about it in your report," General Panzer said.
He held out his hand.
It took Kimblee a moment to realize what he wanted.
General Panzer wanted the Philospher's stone. He wanted to take it away from Kimblee. With the war in Ishval all but won, there was no need to let Kimblee use the stone to cow the enemy. Kimblee had been allowed to have his fun off leash, but now they wanted to rein him in.
Kimblee's hand tightened around the stone, his stone. Kimblee was done being a good military dog and following orders. The time had come for him to slip his collar and be off the leash for good.
Without warning, Kimblee tossed the stone into his mouth and swallowed it.
General Panzer yelled something and a couple of his colleagues started to move towards Kimblee, but Kimblee wasn't paying him any attention any more.
"I guess that makes you the only one who know I have the stone," Kimblee said.
He clapped his hands together and crimson power hurtled at the generals exploding and kicking up a storm of smoke and dust.
Kimblee heard the soldiers outside yelling in confusion and Sergeant Martin coughing somewhere in the smoke cloud.
Kimblee located Martin and grabbed him by the collar, causing the man to scream in terror.
"I am going to let you live. You will carry a message for me to Central command. Tell them that the stone is mine now. Let them try to take it from me. If they dare," Kimblee said.
Then he dropped the sergeant and strode out of headquarters.
Both of the guards outside were sprawled on the ground.
Kimblee dismissed them as not worth his time.
The Crimson Alchemist was on the loose.