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After chatting with Olivier, Edward returned to his dimension while having Morgana keep watch on the development of things through divination. He headed straight to a room where a flask stood in a chair with something inside.
It was a floating mass-like object with one eye. This thing looked exactly like Father when he was the Dwarf in the Flask, with the expectation that this one was the color white.
After Edward approached the flask, the creature inside looked at him and said with someone of a grin: "So, Alchemist, have you thought about our deal? As long as you help me create a body, I will offer you countless knowledge."
Edward looked at the homunculus that he created using the same method that the Dwarf in the Flask was created. He ignored the latter's words as he immediately used Legilimency to read the homunculus' memories from the moment he was born.
This homunculus was born in the world beyond the Gate of Truth. And that world is essentially a dimension that houses vast alchemy knowledge. As a creature born from that world, he innately possesses a large amount of knowledge about alchemy.
After reading the homunculus' memories, he closed his eyes to digest all the information. A few hours later, he woke up and immediately teleported away. Soon, he found himself in a desert.
Two things were floating in front of him: uranium and plutonium. Edward clapped his hands together like prayer then touched the two substances, and immediately afterward, he teleported a few hundred miles away.
In the place he was, a massive explosion occurred, creating a mushroom cloud that could be seen from miles on. The people of Amestris and Xing who were close to the desert saw that cloud of dust.
A few minutes later, Edward appeared near the explosion with a shield surrounding him. As he watched the devastation that he created, he was quite calm.
As a person born in modern society and who has created a very advanced civilization, he understood how to use nuclear fission and fusion to make a thermonuclear bomb; he even created a spell that had the same effect.
However, just now, he used Alchemy to accomplish this feat. Before he had tried to do the same, unfortunately, despite knowing the scientific process behind it, he could not control energy with sufficient accuracy to make it happen.
Fortunately, he learned many things from that Dwarf.
As Edward watched the sand that had turned into glass because of the heat, he said out loud: "Morgana sent the appropriate Golem to clean the radiation in the surrounding...Forget it, I have a faster way."
He waved his hand to create a small vortex that immediately swallowed the radiation in the surroundings and sent it to a designated area of his dimension. After that, he teleported back to his laboratory.
This time, he was going to review every single detail of that homunculus' life instead of just a brief understanding. After lying in a comfortable position, he began.
A few days later, he opened his eyes and a slight smile could be seen on his face. This time, he learned a few important pieces of information.
One, this homunculus is a part of "God" itself, a part of its essence. This is the reason that it was born with so much knowledge.
The second thing that he learned is that this "God" is the source of Alchemy; it is the place that it originated from. At least, in this world, that's true.
Thirdly, Truth and "God" are probably one and the same, or they are connected. The reason he is not sure is because of the events that happened later in the story.
The homunculus known as Father managed to forcefully open the Gate of Truth and swallowed this "God" and used millions of souls to contain it inside his body.
Logically speaking, this should not be possible based on how powerful Truth is. The only reason that Father succeeded is either Truth allowed it to happen, or like Herpo, he cannot intervene in the world as he pleased.
Edward believed that the former is more likely. However, here comes another problem: why do all of this? Could it be it just wanted to teach humanity a lesson about hubris? Maybe It was bored and wanted to use the world as a game? Or, it could be something that Edward could not understand at the moment.
Edward shook his head to remove these distracting thoughts; things related to Truth were not something that his current self could get involved with. Maybe in the future, once he is more knowledgeable and powerful, he might try to get the answer.
After reigning in his thoughts, he focused on a specific memory that he received from the homunculus' mind. It was the memory of a floating Gate. However, this Gate was not the Gate of Truth: it was something else.
According to the brief information he received, this Gate was known as the Origin Gate. The Homunculus did not know anything about this gate. In fact, he only saw it for a passing moment.
Nevertheless, he instinctively knew its name, and held it in very high regard; it was like meeting a very noble person and instinctively having respect for it. Even as Edward reviewed the memory, he too instinctively felt respect and adoration for it.
Unfortunately, besides the name of this Gate, there was no other information. So, Edward started to ponder:
'What if that Gate is the connection to the Akashic Record. Truth seemed obsessed with maintaining the Law of Equivalent Exchange. If gaining knowledge from the Akashic Record requires the same principle, this could explain why he is so bent on executing it and maintaining it.
'After all, he obviously copied the idea of Gate from them.'
After thinking about this, Edward frowned as he realized that there were many flaws in his logic, or at least, many unanswered questions.
For example, what is the connection between the Gate of Truth and Truth himself? The logical answer is that it created it, but since all humans have a Gate of Truth, does that mean that Truth is powerful enough to give all humans a soul with said Gate.
After all, Edward once tested that even people from other worlds like him have their Gate. He suddenly paused as he realized that he may have made a mistake.
When he tried to find the Gate of Truth from the prisoner he brought from the Empire, he assumed that since the experiment took place inside his World Gate and was isolated from the rules of this world that his experiment was valid and proved that people from other worlds could have their own Gate.
However, that may not be true. The rules of this world might be the reason that individuals have a Gate--including him. If that's the case, many things now make sense.
Truth was most likely a powerful individual who created the power system known as Alchemy used in this world. Somehow, it managed to gain access to the Akashic Record and traded knowledge with it.
Edward paused for a moment as he suddenly remembered the fact that this world did not have an afterlife. After an individual died, his soul would turn to energy and return to the natural flow of this world.
'What if Truth uses soul energy as a currency to trade with the Akashic Record. After all, if the record follows the Law of Equivalent Exchange, then it will require a price to gain knowledge from it.
'And this might not be just that. If I was the person who created the Akashic Record, I would trade knowledge with knowledge. By that logic, what if Truth created the Gate of Truth and granted it to humans so that they can help him study alchemy and create new knowledge to trade with the record; it would be similar to how I created the Empire to develop more magical knowledge.'
After thinking there, Edward stopped as he knew that all of these were simply theorems and conjectures with no basis to back them.
Nevertheless, if he is right, he will have to face a major problem: the people of the Empire would not be able to have access to a Gate of Truth and perform Alchemy--unless he received approval from Truth.
His mind quickly calculated as he pondered what to do next. Soon after, he came up with a method. Dealing with Truth has many risk factors, however, since he was not powerful enough to deal with these risks, he would just find someone that could.
And Edward knew the right person for the job.
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Next Chapter Title: Open Plot