Fullmetal Exorcist- Chapter 5- The Sun God's Façade
"Come along, now," one of the followers led the five people in. Ed, Al, and Lavi were amazed by the surroundings of the room, wondering just how much it takes for people to really crowd it. Rose and Ryan, having been used to it, looked on…
"The Founder is a very busy person," said one of the followers. "And thus, he has not much time, but you have been in luck."
"It's all right," Ed smiled sheepishly. "We won't take too long."
"Yeah," Lavi followed along. "Just a nice cup of tea, and we'll be leaving quite soon."
"Yes," said the man in front of them, reaching into his pocket. "This will end quite soon…"
Before Ed could tell what he was going to do, the man whirled around with a handgun in his hand, pointed at Ed in the face.
"Just like this!" the man cackled. Rose and Ryan gasped. Al and Lavi tried to charge in but were blocked away by the other men.
"Brother," Ryan pleaded. "What is the meaning of this?!"
"Rose, Ryan," the man with the gun explained, not taking the gun off of Ed's face. "These men are heretics trying to trap the Founder! They're demons!"
"But they're Exorcists-"
"They are enemies of the Letoin Church." The man gave a death glare at Ed, who remained indifferent. "They must die! Or the Founder will be taken away!"
"But!" Rose was in tears. "Father wouldn't have allowed it…"
"The Founder HAS allowed this!" Another man said. "The Founder's words of God are the will of GOD!"
"Wow, you have quite a very mean God," Ed's blasé expression at the magazine of the gun surprised everyone, and irritated, the man pulled the trigger.
But Ed's mind was racing to calculate his next move. He placed his right hand on the nose of the gun and cranked it up, rendering it useless. The bullet began to overload the gun, and the weapon exploded in the man's hands.
Lavi watched in awe at how Ed was able to merely bend metal like that with his bare hands… The Junior Bookman looked around, noticing the five other Letoists charging at them with sharp javelins. He cracked his knuckles and sent a punch square in a man's face, and the man yelped in pain falling to the floor and dropping the javelin.
Al followed up by jumping up over a man who was holding him back, kicked him in the stomach in one fluid motion, grabbed the dropping javelin and blocked a man's attempt to stab him in the chest. He then took control and went on offensive as he flipped backwards and tossed the blunt end of the javelin at an unwary robed man in the back. Ed had taken down the others with ease, and the five people were surrounded by bruised men.
Rose and Ryan looked in horror, Rose clutching Ryan's shirt to bury her face away from the sight.
"How… Why…" Ryan was at a loss for words. Ed looked up from his work, and frowned with his steely glare.
"Why?" He said. "I don't know either, why they attempted to shoot me…"
"You're always a trouble magnet, brother…" Al sweatdropped, imagining all the other times when Ed was nearly killed… let's count… a hundred times… maybe?
"Well," Lavi commented. "Now with that Exorcist uniform, I'm sure you'll get more trouble with Akuma on your tail."
"Yeah," Ed smiled. "No doubt…"
"Please…" Rose looked at them with pleading eyes. "Tell us… what are you doing… are you the heretics?"
"No," Al answered scornfully, looking at the javelins the people were using. "We are not heretics. Since we believed that your 'Father Cornello' is accommodated to the Innocence, we are here to request alliance with the Black Order-"
"But that's impossible!" Ryan shouted. "Letoism and your Vatican will never agree! You children should know better than that!"
"Will never?!" Ed shouted back. "Look around you! It's already an all-out war against us, right? Of course they don't seem to agree! It seems that your 'Cornello' is trying to set us up on something. You've seen you God's nature, didn't you? Well, open that head of yours and realize that your 'Founder' here is just a plain old fraud! Hell, we're not even here for alliances anymore! It's about taking the Innocence away if he's going to harm visitors like this!"
"But… he would never do that…" Rose fell to her knees. "Cornello… he promised that he would bring my mother back…"
Ed was about to explain why that won't happen, but he didn't feel like bursting his shell anymore, so they proceeded quietly to Cornello's room. The room was pitch black for a few seconds when the lights of the dark room were lit, spanning across the entire room, which resembled so much like a vast dungeon of the undergrounds. Ed, Al, and Lavi took their fighting stances, when they saw a platform ahead, and there, Cornello, their opponent, or ally?
"Oh, and I was expecting a nice welcome," Lavi commented, showing off his dangerous side, but Ed looked at him, and the redhead backed down. Ed had warned him that being sassy to others wasn't going to help if any of them became short fused.
"Welcome to our holy church," Everyone saw Cornello descend the steps. "Have you come to learn our teachings?"
"Yeah," Ed smiled with a hint of crafty planning. "Please, tell us a bunch… like abusing your Innocence to trick the people of this town!"
He heard Rose and Ryan gasp, abhorred by Ed's guts to say such despicable things to the Founder. Cornello smiled back skeptically.
"Hm… I wonder what you might be thinking of," Cornello looked with his beady eyes. "Grouping my 'powers' with 'Innocence' could pose a bit of a problem… If you saw it once, then you'd understand…"
"I've already seen it." Ed said in a nonchalant manner. "What I don't get is that your Innocence is neither Crystal, Equip, Parasitic, or Alchemic. You don't follow any laws when it comes to Innocence."
"That's why I said it wasn't Innocence," Cornello showed of the ring on his finger, which was glowing green and red.
"Thought so," Ed frowned in disappointment, and then looked up in triumph. "You're using Innocence anyways. That stone, it's your Innocence, isn't it?"
Cornello froze in contemplations, and everyone else was quite shocked. How come did anyone else not realize it before, especially Lavi? The Founder then smirked, and chuckled.
"I expected no less from a Marshall-level Exorcist," He smiled. "You are correct. This is a special stone made from Innocence. This is a special Alchemic Innocence, one that allows me to perform various arrays of alchemy that Innocence offers…"
Al gasped in shock. "Just like brother's…"
"With this power, I will be able to create a living army that never fears death!" Cornello exclaimed with madness in his tone. "I will override your position as a great power, the Vatican! And take the war on for myself!"
A great deal of silence ensued, and then Ed sighed in annoyance. Lavi and Al were quite deadpanned by Cornello's strange desire.
"Nope," the three Exorcists said all at once. "Don't care."
"What?!" Cornello shouted. "You're just saying a big issue like this and you 'Don't care?!' Aren't you from the Vatican?"
"Well, even though I am from the Black Order," Ed said once again, in a blasé manner. "I don't like to keep myself too attached, so I go by a different rulebook. So, let's get this straight. Give me the Innocence, and we'll go away quietly."
"Brother…" Al begged, but no one listened. Ed was probably going to pop a vein anytime soon, he just knew it.
"Bargaining with me?!" Cornello laughed maniacally. "No one in this town will believe you kids! I am loved by my people! They are my faithful servants!! I have helped them from despair! I am their Father!"
"Well, well," Ed clapped his hands, amused. Al and Lavi looked dumbfounded at him. "Thanks for the splendid speech, as expected from the Founder. Yeah, okay, maybe the whole town of your believers won't give a hoot about what we'd say… but what about what these two would say?"
Ed walked aside to let Cornello see Ryan and Rose, frightened to their limits. He scorned himself. Why hadn't he noticed them in the shadows earlier?!
"Founder!" Ryan yelled, and Rose was crying. "Is what you just said true?!"
Cornello was speechless as Ryan continued to rant. "Have you tricked us?! The power of miracles… God's power?! You weren't going to grant Rose's wish?!"
"You aren't going to bring my mother back?!" Rose spoke up, her voice cracking under the tears.
"Hm…" Cornello calmed down and smiled evilly. "Perhaps I'm not a messenger of God… but I can use my Innocence to bring people back!? No, not my Innocence. It cannot do that. I can use my other side to bring your dear mother back?!"
"Impossible!!" Ed shouted, meanwhile questioning "the other side" the priest meant. "You can't bring anyone back!"
Ed then turned on the old man and looked at everyone else as he thought. Aha! Bingo! The opposite of Innocence... even though Cornello's seems to be against the rules of any type of Innocence. He knew the answer now…
"I get it all now…" Ed said darkly, and he turned to the founder. "I get it all now… You… You! You have a been working with the Millennium Earl, is that right?!"
Everyone gasped in shock. Lavi was most alarmed. This boy… had excellent deduction skills?! Far sharper than Bookman's himself! Well, Lavi was doubting the thought, but he never confirmed it.
"The Millennium Earl?!" Cornello laughed. "What makes you say that?"
"Easy!" Ed announced. "No one but the Earl can guarantee they can bring the dead back! No! But he turns the two who sign the contract to become Akuma! It is proven impossible but not with him!"
Ryan gasped. Akuma! The demons of the Earl! The great Cornello was attributed to them?! Impossible! But… he must believe Ed, Lavi, and Al… right? He doesn't want Rose to become and Akuma!
Then Cornello ignored and tried to go for the big kill. "Rose… come to me, if you wish to get your mother back…"
"Father…" Rose wanted to get up and fall into his arms, but Ryan yanked her back.
"No, Rose…." He said firmly. Rose looked, her hazel eyes brimming with sorrow.
"Ryan… have you betrayed Leto, too?" She asked softly. Al and Ed looked sharply at Rose.
"Rose, don't do it!?" Al yelled. "He's trying to trick you!"
"Ryan… Rose…" Cornello said in a warm manner. "What's wrong? Be good children and come to me…"
"You won't be able to come back if you go, Rose! Ryan!" Lavi yelled. "You have had a good life even after Rose's mother had gone! History is history that cannot be changed!"
"Rose," Ryan urged his fiancé… "Please… I don't want to lose you, either…"
"I'm sorry…" Rose said silently. "I'm sorry… I must go…"
Ed clenched his teeth. "Enough soap opera! Just don't cross the line!"
"Oh, so that's how it is done," Cornello smiled. "It seems that I have to purge these heretics that threaten the future of my religion with haste."
The robed man approached a handle, and cranked the tool, allowing a wall on one side of the room to open, and everyone gasped.
One word. Akuma. Just one. A Level Three, Lavi confirmed, but slightly different, too. Rose, even more terrified, buried her face in Ryan again. The sight was horrible. Gossamer wings, ripped and torn as if shredded by flying shards of glass, hung on the Akuma's back, dismissed and for little uses. His scaly arms of rotting flesh, its stench floating in the air. It's body, seemed very much like a lion, and the metal green plate that hung over the Akuma's supposed head, hid away even more body horror. It must stop.
"Have you seen an Akuma like this, before?" Cornello taunted the Exorcists.
"Yeah," Ed rolled his eyes. "It's a level 3."
"Not just any," Cornello smiled. "But the truth is, my Innocence… it allows me, to manipulate Dark matter, the material of Akuma! I can make them bend to my will. And here, I have fused a great many into one."
"Well," Ed snorted, walking a few steps from his original position. "Seems like I can't fight unarmed, can't I?"
He clapped his hands and placed them on the floor. A gust of wind whirled around the room, caused form Ed's actions. Lavi watched with excitement as a mountain of stone erupted from the floor, as if separating itself from the floor. The mountain rose higher until at knee length, everyone realized it was becoming a long pole. Steadily, the pole then widened at the bottom, and then Lavi saw pure metal, not earth anymore. It was a blade. So Ed separated the metal elements in the floor and turned them into a metal blade for his staff. The staff then was at full shape, and it was separated completely from the floor, leaving a large depression in the concrete. The wind of the aftermath swept his blond parted bangs, occasionally overlapping sights of his steely golden eyes.
"When I perform transmutations like these," Ed explained. "the object I used alchemy on contains my Innocence, so I can use the object to fight Akuma. It's quite versatile."
"Ah!" Cornello shouted in fear. "So the Exorcist's name wasn't for show?! But, you can't defeat an Akuma like this one, will you?"
"Lavi…" Al told his friend. "Stay back… it's best you don't get into this. Only come when he tells you to."
Ed grabbed a hold of his staff, and twiddled the pole in his fingers as if this were nothing. He then set a firm grip and grasped the weapon with both hands, the metal blade glinting ferociously in the tense atmosphere.
"Yes, impressive, indeed," Cornello smiled. "But not enough!"
The Akuma charged with its gleaming claws charging for none other than Edward himself. Within seconds the demon as with vicinity, and had sliced the blade of Ed's staff away, gashing Ed's left leg at the same time.
"Ed!" Ryan yelled, as Ed bent over to check the wound. Lavi and Al were just as worried, but noticed that there was no blood. And if Ed's leg came into contact with the Akuma's claws, then shouldn't Ed be dead by now?
"Hahaha!" Cornello laughed. "How is that?! How do claws that can cut through your trashy iron feel?!"
"What was that?!" Ed looked up smiling, and the Akuma was clutching its arm that it cut Ed with. The claws had broken off, as if Ed's leg was far too hard for him. Immediately, Ed gave a swift side kick at the Akuma and sent it making a dent in the stone walls.
"Sorry," Ed smiled, putting his leg down, and everyone could see metal on his leg. "But this my leg's made a bit special."
"What happened?!" Cornello cried. "If the claws don't work, then bite him!?"
Lavi, Rose, and Ryan gasped as the Akuma got up, unnerved from Ed's last hit, and it ran straight at the blond Exorcist, who was calmly picking up the blade from his broken staff, just when the Akuma got the chance to get a hold of Ed's right arm with its teeth. Ed didn't wince in pain, or shout in agony. He kept his indifferent face on, and looked at the Akuma. The Akuma continued to tear at Ed's clothing on his arm with its teeth, but stopped in surprise.
"What's wrong?" Ed smirked. "Can't get a good taste? Well, let's take you to a better place where you Can get a good taste, ne?"
Ed then used the blade of his staff and stabbed the Akuma straight in the abdomen, and the Akuma obediently let go of Ed's arm, and the boy immediately rolled backwards and flipped a few more to avoid any danger just when the Akuma exploded, leaving nothing behind. Al rushed to Ed's aid to tend to his arm, but it seemed more like merely helping Ed up. Al immediately ripped down the entire layer of sleeves on the right arm, and started to check Ed's arm to see if it was causing any pain. Lavi, Rose, and Ryan immediately saw Ed's arm: It was a metal prosthetic.
"What?!" Cornello exclaimed. "A fake arm? And a leg, too?! What monster are you?!"
"Whoa…" Lavi muttered.
"This is what happens," Ed says. "When you break the laws of Alchemic Innocence. For Alchemic Innocence, for those who have abilities like mine, this is the price I had paid for having it, and I have regretted it ever since…"
Everyone was very quiet and scared by Ed's words.
"Why?" Ed frowned. "That is because... Alchemic Innocence is probably, and incidentally, the closest thing to what the Millennium Earl can do."