Laws and Promises

Alphonse, Rose, and Wrath look on in horror as Envy strikes down Edward, and Dante gloats that humans always fall short of what they pay. At the mansion, Archer ambushes the escort taking Hawkeye and the Fuhrer's family away, insanely trying to execute her before she breaks free. In the cellar, a burned Pride regenerates using the red stones within him and pins Mustang, mocking the smallness of his ambition to seize power.

The tide turns when Selim returns bearing the treasure he saved from the fire, the skull of the body Pride is based upon. Its presence cripples the homunculus, who strangles the boy in a rage. Mustang seizes the skull and prepares to burn it, planning to drain every red stone from Pride's body.

Alphonse breaks free of Gluttony and resolves to revive Edward while his soul lingers at the Gate, refusing Dante's protests that he has already been paid for enough times. As Mustang reduces Pride to a puddle and burns the skull, Hawkeye guns down Archer, then finds her commander lying in his own blood. Edward's soul, meeting Envy at the Gate, watches the homunculus force his way through toward Hohenheim, and Edward wakes whole and healed only to learn of his brother's sacrifice. He uses the same array from five years earlier to call Al's soul back.

The epilogue, narrated through Sheska's letter to Winry, reveals the Fuhrer rank abolished and power handed to an assembly under Grumman, with the Ishvalans permitted to return home. Mustang, left half-blind and bedridden, grows closer to Hawkeye. Alphonse is restored to his ten-year-old self, remembering nothing of the journey, and resumes study under Izumi, while Edward, alive in the parallel world, studies rockets in hopes of a return. Both brothers reach toward the sky, vowing to reunite.

The music accompanying Riza's grief is drawn from Chopin's Etude op. 10, No. 3. Mustang's blood-drawn circle used to incinerate Pride mirrors how he kills Lust in the manga and Brotherhood. The Japanese title, Munich, 1921, appears only mid-episode and marks where Edward was sent beyond the Gate. This entry provides the foundation for the film Conqueror of Shamballa, though many fans still regard it as the true finale of the 2003 story.