Chapter 39: Complications at Central

King Bradley reaches Laboratory 3 and tells the guards he will go in alone to aid Mustang. Underground, Lust withdraws her claws from Roy's abdomen, calls the homunculi the next evolutionary step nearer the Truth, and leaves him to bleed while she deals with the other intruders. Roy, helpless beside a fading Havoc, begs his subordinate not to die before him. Elsewhere, Alphonse and Hawkeye trail Barry to a vast white hall with giant stone doors, where the armored soul has finally caught and destroyed his own body. Watching it rot, Al grows anxious about how long his own soul can remain bound to its armor.

In town, Ling and Lan Fan keep dismantling Envy and Gluttony without lasting result. When onlookers gather, Envy orders Gluttony to devour the crowd, but a voice he calls Pride rings out, scolds his recklessness, and commands retreat, which Ling permits given the danger he senses. At the lair's entrance, Lust cuts the charging Barry to pieces, then advances on Riza and Al. Piecing together her hints about the colonel, Hawkeye breaks down and empties gun after gun into her to no avail. Alphonse shields Riza, revealing his new circle-free transmutation as Lust carves at his armor, and he refuses to abandon her even as she pleads with him to flee.

Roy suddenly appears, praises Al's resolve, and pours flame over Lust while Alphonse raises an earthen shield. Having carved a flame circle into his own hand and sparked it with the flint of Havoc's ruined lighter, and having cauterized his wounds shut to survive, Mustang burns her again and again until her Philosopher's Stone runs dry and she crumbles to dust, warning as she dies that suffering will one day cloud his eyes. Bradley eavesdrops, sheathes his sword, and calmly calls an ambulance. Barry's dying body scratches away his blood rune, killing both Barrys at once. Alphonse returns to Winry as promised, but his left arm falls off during their tearful reunion.