Sorry this took a while, I got a bit blocked near the end. But it's here now, so don't worry! Also, congrats to the Guest who left a review, you were right~! Finally, the big revealing about who she is~ Enjoy~!
After about 10 minutes, Brother Cray came out and announced that Father was ready to see them. "His Holiness is very busy, so it's not easy to get an audience with him. You two are very lucky."
"I'll try not to talk for too long." Edward seemed chipper enough. However, a chill ran up Deliylah's spine, like something was about to go wrong.
"Then lets end it right away, like this!" Suddenly Brother Cray took out a gun, a small revolver, and pointed it directly at Alphonse's head. Deliylah cried out to warn him, but her words were drowned out by the sound of a bullet hitting metal and the ringing of a helmet hitting the stone floor. Two men blocked off Edwards path with their staffs.
Deliylah grabbed onto Rose's elbow, recoiling at the painfully loud noise. Rose turned to Cray in shock. "Brother Cray, what are you doing?"
"Rose, these heathens were trying to entrap his Holiness. They're evil."
"What?! But his Holiness would never let you do this… let you..."
"But he did allow it! The word of his Holiness are the words of God. This is the will of God!" He finished his sentence by aiming his gun at Edward.
He couldn't fire, however, because his aim was blocked by an armored hand. "I guess there are really some bad God's out there."
Deliylah and Rose froze in terror. Alphonse's head had been blown clean off and yet he still stood, and what's more, he seemed to have no body whatsoever!
Fists and bodies flew, and by the end of it Brother Cray and the two guardsmen who had gone after Edward were sprawled on the floor, out like a light.
Rose began shaking, pointing a trembling finger at Alphonse's empty body. "Wh-Wha-What's- h-he's empty!"
"Nothing special."
"It's just what it looks like." Alphonse leaned over, revealing a completely empty suit of armor with what looked like an alchemic rune drawn in some sort of red paint. A few seconds of staring and Deliylah realized that it wasn't paint, it was blood.
"Th-There's nothing inside! How-?"
"...this is what happens when you commit the greatest sin… when you trespass in God's domain… my brother and I..."
"Edward, you too?" He was facing away from the two girls, but Deliylah could tell that he wasn't very comfortable with the topic.
"Well, lets just save that story for another time… anyway, I guess your God showed his true colors."
Rose looked around at the beaten men around her. "No, there has to be some kind of mistake!" Edward let out an annoyed grunt and mumbled something under his breath.
"What about you, Deliylah? What do you think about 'his phoniness?'" Deliylah kept silent for a moment.
"I-I'm not sure what to think. I won't say that this isn't Father Cornello's doing, but if Brother Cray was doing this on his own then it would be insulting to even try to accuse the Father of attempting to kill you. I think we need to see the Father himself."
"But Deliylah, there's just no way that Father Cornello would do something like this!"
Edward sighed. "Rose, do you have the courage to face the truth?"
A few minutes later Rose and Deliylah had managed to stuff themselves into the empty torso of Al's armor. Although it was efficient when it came to spying, it wasn't top notch in comfort. Deliylah banged her head on either the metal wall of Al's chest or on Rose's own forehead.
She heard doors creak open, and then the faint sound of Cornello's voice greeting the brothers from what was probably the second level in the large meeting hall.
"Welcome to the great church of Leto. Have you come to hear me preach?"
"Yeah, by all means, teach us, like how you use your lame alchemy to deceive your followers!"
"Well, I have no idea what you are talking about. Please to do not confuse my miracles with alchemy. If you saw for yourself you'd believe-"
"Yeah, I've seen it alright. And I couldn't understand how you're able to do transmutation that goes against the laws."
"As I said, it isn't alchemy-"
"Then it came to me. The Philosophers Stone. That's how you do it, right? Like maybe… just maybe… it's that ring?"
There was a pause before Cornello's tone changed from friendly to somewhat malicious. "Heh, the government gets their money's worth you of you, don't they? I guess you saw through the whole thing. Correct!" Rose let out the tiniest gasp, and Deliylah placed a finger to her lips. If they wanted more information, they needed to keep quiet. "The Philosophers Stone, the legendary catalyst, the amplifier of all alchemical process. With this, I can conjure at the minimum price with the maximum result."
"How I've searched for that…" The envy in Edwards voice concerned Deliylah. Exactly how long had he been looking for it?
"Ha! What's with the jealous look in your eyes? What would you want the Stone for? Money? Honor?"
"And what about you? What do you get out of founding this phony religion? If it's money you want you can make as much as you want with the Stone."
"It isn't about the money… well, I do what that, but I can get as much of that as I need in the form of donations from my flock. What I really need are followers who will happily give their lives for me."
Now Deliylah was the one to gasp. Luckily Alphonse let out the tiniest gasp of his own, so hers was somewhat covered.
"Think about it! An invincible army of fanatics with no fear of death! Soon I'll have more than enough people! Just watch, within a few years time this entire nation will be mine!" He began laughing maniacally. From what Deliylah could see in the low light, Rose's eyes were wide with dismay.
Edward however, seemed bored. "Well, fine, but I don't really care about that, let's move on." He muttered just loud enough for everybody in the room to hear.
"What?! Don't belittle my ambition by saying that you 'don't care!' You'd better care! You're a member of the military, after all!"
"You know, to be honest, I really couldn't care what happens to my country or the military. I'll be blunt. Give me the Philosophers Stone! If you do that I'll stay quiet about the scan you've been pulling on everybody."
"Hmph, are you trying to bargain with me? My followers would never believe the words of an outsider like you! The people of this town love me! They think that my words come from God! Those idiots will believe anything I tell them! I've completely fooled them!"
Ed clapped his hands together. "Wow! You are smart! Thanks for telling us how you do it."
"You're right, they won't believe a word I say, but…" Deliylah heard the straps keeping Al's chestplate in place snap apart. "But what about their words?"
Light flooded the cavity where Deliylah and Rose had stuffed themselves. Both looked out into the hall and locked eyes with Father Cornello. "R-Rose?! Deliylah?! What is the meaning of this?!"
Rose jerked herself out of Al's body, accidentally shoving Deliylah aside roughly. "Father! Is what you said just now true? Were you fooling us this whole time? Your miracles aren't real? The power of God can't grant my wish? You can't bring my darling back again?!"
Deliylah managed to clamber out of the armor a little more carefully, apologizing to Alphonse.
Father Cornello gave Rose a suspicious look. "Hm… It's true that I am not god's emissary, but with the power of the Philosophers Stone, I can do what other alchemists cannot. Rose, I will resurrect him! I am the only one who can grant you your wish. Remember your beloved! Be a good girl and come here, both of you." He motioned towards both Rose and Deliylah.
Al shouted a warning to her, which Ed finished. "If you go, you can never turn back!" Even Deliylah protested.
Despite their objections, however, Rose obediently walked over and stood by the Fathers side. "I'm sorry… but this is the only thing I can do."
Father Cornello smiled in satisfaction. "Good child… you two Deliylah, come here my young one. You may not follow the ways of Leto, but you are still one of us."
Deliylah, however, remained firmly still. "I am not. I've heard enough, Father. Letoism is fake, just as I thought."
"Just as the military thought that your religion was fake?"
Deliylah glared at the Father, rage beginning to boil. "Don't you dare…" If he dared to say the name out loud, especially in front of a State Alchemist, it would be all over.
He grinned. "After they wiped out your people in that once great nation, after they sent alchemists to take your holy land away from you, you came fleeing to Lior, and I took you in. You owe me a debt, Ishvalan." She flinched. Now he'd done it.
Edward glanced her way. "What did he just say?"
She sighed and closed her eyes, then slowly pulled her bangs away from her face like a curtain, revealing the brown skin that she hid behind it. "I may not look it, Edward… but I was born, raised, and nearly killed in the land of Ishval. That's why I don't like alchemy, and why I hate State Alchemists. The slaughtered my people and obliterated my homeland. And when they took me in with my strange skin not seen in other Ishvalans, after promising me safety and a home, they threw me aside, just another dirty Ishvalan girl. I managed to hide myself my dying my hair and covering what little brown skin I had left with clothing and makeup." She opened her eyes and looked directing into Edwards golden ones. He gasped lightly when confronted with the vibrant red iris of her right eye.
"But… if you're Ishvalan, how come you have white skin?" Edward asked, partially curious and partially wary.
"Brother!" Al cried out, warning Edward not to delve too deep into her past, but Deliylah shook her head.
"It's alright, Alphonse. I was born with a very rare skin condition that destroys the pigment in my skin and left eye. I was an outcast for many years amongst my people because I looked like the 'Amestrian dogs' who had betrayed us. My own parents nearly threw me out because they thought I was cursed. How ironic that I was the only one of my village to survive the genocide." She chuckled softly, although not finding what she had said remotely funny.
"Enough of this chatter. Deliylah, come here at once!" Father Cornello interrupted.
"I said no! You can take your phony god and do whatever you want, I'm not going to obey you any longer! I've had enough of lies and deceit!" She yelled back.
"... fine. Then you can be purged along with the rest of the heretics that stand before me." He reached back and pulled a lever. "And I believe my chimera is up to the task." Deliylah turned to see a large, ferocious creature come from the shadows. From what she could see, he had mixed a lion, and some sort of reptile or bird to create a deadly chimera.
"So that's the sort of thing you do with the Philosophers Stone? That's just twisted." Ed sighed. "Well, I guess I'm gonna need a weapon." He clapped his hands together and crouched towards the ground. Blue light from the transmutation lit up the room like a lightning storm. What surprised Deliylah the most was the lack of a transmutation circle. She hadn't seen one on Edwards gloves, and if they were tattooed onto his hands he would had to have to removed his gloves first. From his hands a ornate spear was molded out of the stone of the floor, which he branded with skill.
Cornello gasped. "No transmutation circle? So the State Alchemist title isn't just for show, you truly are gifted! However…" The chimera charged forward, striking with one clawed paw. The spear instantly shattered like glass, and both Rose and Deliylah cried out. "Your little spear is no match for chimera claws that can tear through iron!"
Deliylah expected Edward to hit the ground screaming in pain and covered in blood, but instead a wide grin spread across his face. "He shredded my pants~!" The chimera whined when the claws on the paw it used to strike then broke off in a rather comedic fashion. Ed's foot them came up and clipped the chimeras jaw, sending it flying. The light from lamps around the room glinted off metal, and Deliylah gasped when she realized that Edwards leg wasn't flesh, it was prosthetic. "I guess those claws don't work so well against steel!"
"Bite him, you stupid beast!" Cornello ordered the chimera, and it once again threw himself at Edward, wrapping his jaws around the arm he threw up to protect himself. The chimera chewed for a few moments before whining in confusion. Its teeth were doing nothing.
"You like that, kitty? Go on, get a good taste!" His leg once again came up and struck the chimera, crushing its jaw and knocking it to the ground and effectively killing it with the sheer force of the blow.
Pieces of fabric flew every which way. One of Ed's gloves had been shredded by the chimeras remaining claws, and Deliylah could faintly make out bolts and metal plates where knuckles and fingers should have been. He gripped at the torn coat and shirt and began pulling, filling the room with the sounds of tearing material.
"Look at me, Rose. This is what happens to people who "play God" or whatever you want to call it. Take a good look Rose. Is this what you want?" All the playfulness had left Edwards voice. Now Deliylah could only hear pure humorless warning. Rose's hands flew to her mouth.
The remains of what had once been Edwards red coat slipped from metal fingers and fell to the floor. An automail arm extended all the way to his shoulder where scars spread across his chest. "Automail… full steel prosthetics… "Fullmetal", I see, so that's why… that's why a brat like you is called the Fullmetal Alchemist!"
"Come down here and face me, you third-rate fraud! I'll show you there's no comparison between us!" He held up his arm menacingly, as if it was going to fly off and punch Cornello straight in the face.
Cornello, however, grinned at the sight. "I see, it's all becoming clear now. You did it, didn't you? The one thing even the most novice alchemist knows is strictly forbidden! Rose, this is the price of their sin. These fools attempted human transmutation, the greatest taboo for any alchemist. In their arrogance, they tried to bring someone dead back to life!"
As these words left Cornellos mouth, Deliylah could see Rose's eyes grow wider and wider with realization. If bringing somebody back from the dead was forbidden by alchemical law, then how was Cornello supposed to bring Rose's boyfriend back from Gods arms?
To anybody confused, Deliylah is an Ishvalan with a skin condition know today as Vitiligo. It destroys the pigment in some of her skin, and allows her to, with some work, hide in plain sight. She dyes her hair a normal shade of brown (because a 17 year old girl with white hair is kind of a giveaway), wears very covering clothes, covers half her face with hair and whatever she can't cover with makeup.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter! I have about 16 of the chapters spanning over about 6 volumes planned out, so I should be writing a lot soon~ This chapter was a bit longer than the others, but super fun/kinda difficult to write. Writing alongside the manga was tough, especially if I didn't have the physical book right in front of me. Anyway, see you next chapter~!
PS, Another OC is gonna be introduced at the end of next one, so get ready~