History

[Guest]

Ayden had been here for a good couple of hours. True to his word, just as he'd said to Jeu-Hee, he wanted to visited the ruins of Xerxes, and on his way back from his stop in Xing, he wondered why he shouldn't spend a few hours sight-seeing. And, in truth, it was all worth it.

Despite the brutal, sweltering heat and the relentless, heavy winds blowing the sand around, Ayden had left his car back on what now had the semblance of a road leading through the desert, a single cobbled path, and, as such, was walking through the ancient ruins. And they certainly lived up to all the recommendations from the guidebooks.

It was an ancient civilization, where alchemy was said to be founded, destroyed before other countries, such as Amestris and Creta, even considered it as a possibility. It was a city of philosophers, theologists, and scientists, and from some of the beautiful, and architecturally sound - despite ruined - structures, this showed through.

The sand swirled about age-old, crumbling piles of rubble, everything carrying some sort of theme or engraving, so ornate, crafted painstakingly by hand... and yet this was a nation destroyed in a single night. How could that be? These people obviously kept themselves to themselves, they were isolated in the desert... it was the alchemy. Or so Ayden thought. Some reckless alchemist had crossed a boundary no others had ever dared to.

They had crossed the threshold attempting to gain ultimate power.

And perhaps the secret to it still laid beneath the dunes and amongst the fallen pillars of a desert city that no longer stood stalwart between its neighbours, one of alchemy and the other of alkahestry. Ayden stood to his full height, and felt another warm breeze, and several dozen rough grains of sand, brush over his face. The climate wasn't exactly ideal, but perhaps that was a trade-off. "Hmm..." Would he start now? Or would he wait until further down the line of his research?

[Envy]

Traveling trough a desert is not an easy thing to pull off. There is unbearable hotness, occasional sandstorms and usually a lack of water. Envy didn't suffer from the last one, but it was still a rather annoying journey. Just to see one place. Or ruins of one place, in this case. But it wasn't because he had some kind of interest on researching it. He already knew many things about this place. The information Father had gave him. Father had been ''created'' there. And that was why he wanted to see it. Because the first homunculus had been created there.

There weren't many people there at the time. There actually was just one person there, Envy excluded. He ignored the other one and looked around the place. They looked what they were. Ruins. He looked forward, where there was a huge intact chunk of wall. A giant rock, if you may. It had symbols in it. A small smirk could be seen from Envy's face as he touched the rock. ''So it really was true'', was a faint sentence that had barely escaped from his lips. This civilization really had been fooled by Father and had been used as a stone. Simply marvelous. Envy turned towards other guy. He was in a good mood now and could probably gloat over the knowledge he had about this place. Under the searing sun, Envy walked towards the man. ''Hello there. May I ask your reason to visit this place?''

[Guest]

Another man? This was interesting. Xerxes, because of the nature of its locale, wasn't exactly the ideal destination for any old holiday-goer. The assassin watched him as his hands went to a huge, somewhat unmarred piece of... rock. It had been a wall, millennia ago. Ayden chuckled lightly and rubbed his eyes, as the man queried him on his reasons for visiting the ancient city.

"I'm an alchemist. Xerxes was an alchemical city..." He paused, turned, and moved towards the same wall, kneeling by it and examining it, perhaps a foot or two away. "Simple as that. Otherwise, I was... well, I was just... on the way back from a visit to Xing." He chuckled darkly, before springing up and rotating his arms. "A fruitful, and rather... colourful visit. You could say I had a very enjoyable time, intertwining a job, a hobby, and an addiction all into one." He cackled once more, before his thoughts went to Jeu-Hee and his ghost-like pallor had a few odd patches of colour injected into it, and he quickly moved along from that chain of thought.

"What of you, though? Who are you to visit these? Another alchemist, perhaps?" He turned to the man, trudging through the sand towards him. Ugh. Despite his boots being made for 'all terrains', desert trekking was still something they were as useless as any others for. "Or an alkahestrist? It's rare to see another here, especially during this season, and even more so one to speak Amestrian." He paused, and investigated the man more, getting almost dangerously close, knowing nothing of him, his eyes narrowing as they did so.

"But maybe you don't hail from the same country as me? Perhaps you're half-Xingese, or Aerugese, or Cretan, or Esparian..." He inched millimetres forwards, before breaking into hysterical, maniacal laughter, his hot, wet, breath all over the man's face, obviously not taking courtesy into account for the visit as he threw himself back. "Oh, I joke, I joke, but..."

He straightened himself up as the laughter trailed off and his expression became somewhat serious once more, although underneath the skin, giddy emotions circulated throughout his body for no particular reason whatsoever. These past few days had been fruitful indeed! "...in all seriousness, what are you doing here?"

[Envy]

Man's explanation made sense. Many dedicated alchemists, or alkahestrist's in this man's case, visit ruins of Xerxes at least once. Envy was about to answer to man's question, but his questioning didn't seem to be over. That was rather annoying habit. People should ask their questions in one take. Envy was about to answer again, but this time it was the man itself which made him stop. He even had to pull his face a bit backwards to get to a more comfortable distance. Even more questions followed and the man inched himself a bit closer.

Laughter was even worse. Not because the sound of it, but because the distance between them. A wet breath wasn't pleasant. Envy was already regretting his move to talk to this man. When he finally seemed to have get ridden from all of his questions, Envy finally answered. ''I'm not an alchemist, but neither I'm an alkahestrist. I'm simply a plain person who has heard the stories about Xerxes. Probably even ones that aren't that known. I wanted to know what kind of city was behind those stories''. Envy turned his head back at the symbols. ''And now that I'm here, I feel some kind of a connection with this place. And between the stories''. He looked back at the man. ''This really must have been an interesting place''

[Guest]

A 'plain person'? No person was plain. Everyone had their dirty little secrets. Dirty little secrets that came spilling out at the barrel of a .44 revolver... yet Ayden kept his firmly holstered, growling to himself ever so quietly as the man finished his speech. Once it met its end, Ayden sprung to his feet and chuckled once more, speaking his mind.

"Individuality. Everyone reasons in different ways. Everybody justifies in different ways. Everyone solves problems their own way." He inched closer, trudging through the sand, the light refracting from his eyes. "Some use diplomacy," The desert sun lit up a pair of orbs, shimmering off them, creating a miraculously beautiful light trap, as the man stared straight, unwittingly, at the homunculus, uttering only two words with a whole world of gravity within themselves. "Some... kill."

He strayed away from the subject in just a moment, turning away and rubbing the back of his head, flipping back into his usual, quirky, borderline-psychotic form, still ITCHING to shed blood. "My point is... specify. You have some interest other in these ruins other than sightseeing. A simple mortal human wouldn't be interested in these at all..." He chuckled, not even nearly able to comprehend the hidden meaning of his own words.

He, of course, meant the immortality that was science, and alchemy, and was speaking on a much wider, metaphorical basis... but the question was if Envy would see it that way. "So tell me, 'plain man', what are your true interests in these ruins?"

[Envy]

The man was close enough to make Envy look up to him. His current form wasn't that tall and that man was very tall. He had started to question Envy's motives. This man seemed to have sharp instincts. That wasn't good. That usually meant that this conversation would eventually transform into something more violent. His threatening was enough to raise Envy's eyebrow from such straightforwardness. Those words weren't hollow. He would really try to kill him. Try, but never succeed.

Moving forwards with questioning. Res of the words were just repeating what he had just said. Although one thing caught his attention. ''A simple mortal human wouldn't be interested in these at all..." What was this? Did he knew that Envy wasn't an ordinary person? What else did he knew? He realized that staying silent too long could possibly be counted as refusal to answer. ''It's okay. Act like human''. And so he had a small burst of laughter. It sounded surprisingly normal if you compare it to the man's laughter. ''I didn't fool you, didn't I? Okay, I'll tell you''. His tone of voice was friendly and even a bit happy. But he would have been a bad actor if he couldn't do that, wouldn't he?

''I'm clearly not old enough to be a scientist, but I plan to be one. I came here to research''. Envy took few steps away from the man, mainly to be able to look forward while looking at his face. ''But research needs a subject, doesn't it? And this subject is no other than this symbol on this wall''. He strengthened his words by pointing towards the wall. ''Before I continue, may I ask if you are interested? Or would you rather want to specify your reason to be here?'' Envy was thankful for his quick thinking. It had just probably spared him from annoyance of using regeneration.

[Guest]

He... planned to be a scientist. That was fair enough. But a dull aspiration for the boy. Perhaps an alchemist in training. Oh well. Nowhere near the sort of power levels that he needed to take an interest in him. Perhaps their encounter would work out somewhat like his and Chalybs' had. Probably not. This encounter felt different.

And he didn't feel like dropping into true sociopath mode juuust yet. With a grin crawling up the side of his face as the boy asked him of his specific reason for being here, he smiled. "You must have heard the stories, aye?" Oblivious to the events that had occurred just 101 years ago, Ayden rubbed his chin as he waited for an answer that didn't come, but for a split-second, before continuing.

"Legend has it that but a millennium ago, the entire ruins of Xerxes were wiped out in one night, by alchemy itself." Ayden walked away, shielding his face from the man as his tone became somewhat suave and almost... mystical. Like an old storyteller you'd find at the carnival. The breeze picked up once more and swatted his cheek as the man grasped a piece of rubble lying in the sand, once jagged and fiercely sharp, its edges now rounded and smoothed by thousands of years of attrition from the desert's climate.

He continued. "As an alchemist thirsting for knowledge and power - sometimes the pair being parallel, and even the same," With a flick of his wrist, the piece of rubble spun through the air, bearing the same aerodynamic qualities as a frisbee, performing a good dozen revolutions before landing in the sand a few metres away with a soft thud as the legend continued. "This city, and its destruction... poses an almost strange scientific attraction to me. I want to find out what was capable of destroying a city and see if I can harness it."

A dry laugh. The man slowly got to his feet, the materials of his clothing squeaking, the exterior now almost scalding hot thanks to the sun's relentless beams keeping up a solid attack on him, beads of sweat forming across his brow, barely visible amongst a straightened, shimmering jungle of silvery-grey hair. "To turn myself into the ultimate weapon, a conduit for sheer destructive energy... my importance to the world would become paramount. I could control everyone and everything. Power in its most pure form."

He turned back to Envy. "That's my desire. That's what I lust for. Knowledge and power." A pause as the serious glare was shattered with but the single firing of a synapse, the situation's air suddenly going from stern and ice-cold to lukewarm and somewhat more casual. His grin became somewhat more natural, and he rubbed the bristles on his chin, not making a sound, no chuckle, no light laughter, nothing. "Heh. You can't say I'm not ambitious, right?"

[Envy]

Looks like Envy had made a wise choice. The man didn't seem to imply anymore about Envy's true nature. Perhaps it was just some weird symbolism. Somewhat fitting, considering what the man spoke. Although he had misunderstood the event that destroyed Xerxes. Granted, because it happened so long time ago. Envy's facial expression had been plain for some time now. Although it changed a bit for another hahaha-type laughter. ''You're right. You are very ambitious. Although you don't seem to think things trough''.

Envy scratched the back of his head a bit as he continued. ''You see, humans have limitations. Even though we improve ourselves, once we hit a limit we can't be improved further. Also, these ruins are still intact''. Envy strengthened his words by tapping the wall few times. Body language was always important part of convincing someone. And Envy was currently trying to convince this man that he was more superior. Not that the man know it.''Meaning that it wasn't sheer destructive strength. My theory is that when they hit the limits of their own, they tried to create something that could go further. Something that ended up wiping all of them from face of the earth. An artificial human also known as homunculus''. Envy sighed after he was finished with his explanation. A breeze went past them, moving his hood a bit. ''What do you think of my theory?''

[Guest]

"Although you don't seem to think things through..."

Haha! That was funny. Wait, not funny... positively hilarious! In moments, Ayden was in tears, doubled over, hammering his fists against the sand, causing small sandy clouds to begin sweeping across the radius the two men stood in, continuing until the last, sharp, spasms of laughter finished, and Ayden moved to his full figure again, speaking, still giggling quietly underneath his speech and where he got breaks to breathe. "My dear boy,"

A grin swept across his face, toothy and evil. "With that much power, you don't need to think things through - it'll just all fall in place, trust me." Another quiet giggle. Then a few more. Then one more to top it off. Wait, no, another one, too.

Once he was finally done, straightening himself out and dusting off some of the pesky sand, he recalled what the boy had said. A theory... an artificial human... was he trying to hint at something? Was this talk of hypotheses and otherwise... well, attempting to get him to divulge information. That sly bastard. "Perhaps, perhaps..." A pause. "I've read some on homunculi. They're plenty powerful indeed, and immortal, too... but..."

He paused, and turned to the ruins, throwing his arms into the air as if he were embracing them, the sand whipping gently across his skin. "They can be destroyed. No mortal shell, no matter how resilient it is, can last forever. I want to feel gunshots glance off of my eyeballs," He said, before following up with another cackle.

A pause as he turned around, lunging back towards the boy. "You may well be right, but these... homunculi..." He paused, letting out a pitiful snort of a chuckle. "Why bear the appearance of the human when you're but something much more? It's pathetic..."

If he respected these homunculi, that would shut him up. However... if he was one... on the off-chance... well, he was goading himself into a fight. A fight of assessment and observation.

[Envy]

It was annoying to find out how ridiculous this man thought of his statements. It was visible even on the outside. It was only added up by the fact that he didn't even seem to note his statements, going all about all-mightiness again. But the thing that really made Envy to lose his temper was trying to criticize the behavior of homunculi. What did he know about it? Nothing. He hadn't even thought why they would do that. This one was an obvious provocation. But Envy didn't care anymore. He no longer had no reasons to play along.

''You don't seem to get it'', he started as light started to move along his body, transforming him as they moved across his skin. ''If I wouldn't act like human'', he was barely able to say before his transformation was complete. It was his original appearance, the one which few people knew as ''Riku Silver''. His face pale face was back to calm, usual expression. His now red eyes were closed momentarily and his white hair was hidden by white hooded vest. He was about Ayden's height now. Maybe slightly shorter. A large tattoo could be seen in his chest and his trousers were blue. But he still didn't have anything on his feet. Sun felt slightly hotter because of his changes, but it really wasn't notable. Eyes opened at the same moment as his mouth turned to his usual grin.

''I wouldn't be able to see stupidity of human's at first hand''. He had barely finished this sentence when he had already leaped towards the man. His other arm was extended towards him. And while he hadn't reached him yet, he started to extend his arm using his powers. Plan was to use this as a surprise and tie the man up with the arm.

Spoiler:

[Guest]

Ayden arched his eyebrow as the man's limb began to extend towards him. Well, this was unexpected, but, nevertheless... he'd improvise. After all, he was greater than even some of the actors in the Amestrian and Cretan classics of the world of film, and their improvisation skills where famed throughout the entire globe.

The arm shot towards him faster than he'd thought; a small miscalculation as he dove to the side, rolling through the sand, saw it glance over his back, but in moments, the assassin had returned to his feet, twin pistols in hand. He was a homunculus, huh? Impressive display. But his plan wouldn't succeed any time soon.

He unleashed a fair few shots; the ungodly creature had already insinuated that he was somewhat above human, so they weren't meant as anything other than a distraction, an annoyance. But sometimes an annoyance was all that was necessary to turn the tide of the battle. "So this is what you truly are!"

Having extinguished half a clip from each handgun, he took it upon himself to finish the vulture-like action of circling the sick, twisted imitation of a man - despite power on this scale what he had openly admitted to desiring for but moments prior to the events of the 'battle' - and instead began to charge, barrels aimed dead at the man's chest. If he couldn't beat him, he just had to keep him suppressed for long enough to... make his point.

The wild charge finished when the slides of both guns slammed forwards and the guns clicked repeatedly; shit. He needed to reload. At the last moment, apparently dummying, he dove to the side, rolling once more and making the best use possible of his acrobatic prowess, sliding the pistols - somehow - back into their holsters, getting to his feet in a moment, and leaping back, before uttering another taunt.

"Your power is impressive, but I have some tricks up my sleeve, too," His hand went to his face, where the initial blow had apparently drawn a small slick of blood. He patted it with his hand, before clicking his head from left to right. "That was a dirty trick... but surprises only work once!" With that, he thrust his cloak up behind him, letting it billow in the Xerxian song. "You may be able to endure more than your average human, but in the end, if you choose to imitate us, beast, you must make sure your prowess is sufficient enough to hold dominion over us, too!"

His hands immediately went to his back, although still concealed by the cloak. His wrists were bent somewhat awkwardly, but in a simple moment, the signature sliding sound of metal on metal, blade on scabbard, and then a flash of the shortswords became apparent that Ayden was a master of close-combat as well as unleashing a firestorm from afar. They were Aerugese tanto, held in reverse, and they were sweeping a low blow towards the creature's legs, below the knee.

[Envy]

Envy wasn't exactly delighted by the fact that that man was able to dodge. He didn't even seem to be much surprised from his unique physical abilities. Envy's eyes followed the man as he dodged, got to his feet surprisingly quickly and pulled something in both of his hands. They were another not-delightful thing: pair of guns. Even though they weren't that lethal, against him, losing souls was still annoying. Envy's feet rammed into sand as soon as they could, enabling him to do a dodging roll forwards. It wasn't all successful, seeing that first few hit him. One in lover abdomen, another one in leg. Painful, but nothing that reduce the stone. Getting back on his feet, Envy turned around to see his opponent. He had taken aim again.

Towards Envy's chest.

And it didn't took long for the man to unleash another annoying barrage of bullets. He didn't have much time to do anything. He actually couldn't dodge and all he could do was to keep standing. Most of them went a bit too low, hitting few internal organs and blood vessels. One went to his lung and few to his elbows. Envy grinned as he started to heal. No life taken. Luck seemed to be on his side today. More taunts from the man made Envy to answer. ''You sure can talk like you can win. Are you delusional or just stupid?'' The man's next action came quickly. He went to his legs. Envy grinned to such a tactic. His hand flashed again, showing a metal claws, few centimeters longer than his actual fingers.

''Stupid it is!'' he even announced as he made his attempt to make a large scars to the man by thrusting that hand downwards, very close to his body. Envy's temporally falling for not having legs helped in that. Regeneration kicked in the point where his hand would have reached the man's waist. His legs took a firm position, tensed themselves and made another leap towards the man. This time Envy's attempt was to make a hard punch to stomach. Considering his strength, it could be proven as quite nasty.

[Guest]

[INITIATE BATTLE THEME]

''Stupid it is!'' Envy's hand came down in an arc, and whilst Ayden was quick... he wasn't quite quick enough. Bending backwards, the tips of the claws grazed his face... and like that, the assassin had shed blood. His eyes narrowed. The homunculus readied its fist. Nobody... nobody made him bleed.

The tanto were... bloody. Panting heavily, the homunculus went to punch, and Ayden felt the air beside his gut ripple as he twisted to just avoid it; that... had been inhumanly strong. Whatever doubts he'd had had now vanished in but the span of a few seconds. This thing was definitely not mortal.

But it bled.

And if it bled... he could kill it. From what he'd seen, it could regenerate. So, either he had to disable or overwhelm that system if he wanted to win. If. It, however, seemed like the best cause of action would be to leave at some point, and bait the man to follow. The sand was beginning to whip his face and get in his eyes... and the creature wouldn't have this advantage in the sprawling urban jungles - or what remained of them - of Amestris.

Reaching into his satchel, he grinned as his fingers brushed against both metal and glass. It appeared the one phial he'd left was still in here since the Ballzini job; along with some smoke and flashbang grenades. Wasting no more time, he raised both hands to his mouth, clenching his left hand over the phial just briefly, and pulling the pin from the grenade with his teeth, before bolted up to punch Envy, the items hidden; as he did so, he dropped both of them, the fuses having a few more seconds to go.

The punch went wide, as predicted, but as Ayden leapt back, it became clear that his 'distractions' had been hidden by the sand. Turning once more, he realised he wouldn't win the battle this day, and began to sprint towards his car, clearing the site of the battle a good fifty metres before he heard the two detonations released simultaneously; two explosions, one carrying with it a blinding bright white flash, hopefully enough to slow the homunculus down, and the other as powerful as an overcharged hand grenade; perhaps enough to slow him down even more.

Another day.

[EXIT THREAD]

[Envy]

Envy didn't even bother to follow the man. He had been weak enough to retreat. And Envy knew his face. He could find that man anytime and finish what they had started this day. Homunculus watched as the man drove away. Envy's head started to jerk a bit before he burst into a full laughter. ''Stupid human. Running away are we? It doesn't matter. I will find you and then...''

Envy's laughter was stopped by explosions, caused by hidden explosives. Blinding light and a terrible explosion hit him. Personally, he couldn't tell the difference. They had been too simultaneous to divide those two explosions. Light was more of a annoyance than a real threat. But that explosion had been nasty. His legs got blown away and his body got overall injuries in general. Surprisingly enough no soul was used to heal those injuries. But now that man had done it. Envy's face was filled with mad rage. ''That human! Making a fool out of me! Find him! Kill him! Exterminate him!'' This kind of process of thoughts continued as he got up, regenerated again, and started to run after the direction where the man had driven. He maybe couldn't catch him, but he could always follow him.

Unfortunately he couldn't follow him all the way to find him But his rage towards that man didn't settle down at all. He would find him eventually. Until then, he could use his time to imagine most wonderful way to deal with this man...

/7Exit//

[Sponsored content]