Chapter 52: Lord of the Demon's Lair

Alphonse begs Gluttony to bring him to Father, insisting the meeting would delight the creator. Elsewhere, after a short dispute about which of them should open the portal, the scene shifts to Roy and King Bradley discussing the Fuhrer's identity as a homunculus. Recalling Hughes' funeral, Bradley admits how the loud grief of the general's daughter enraged him, and when Roy asks how he can utter such words while raising a son of his own, Bradley dismisses it as a threat useless against him and tells Roy to mind his own weaknesses.

Worse news follows as Kain Fuery learns he is being transferred to Southern Headquarters, Heymans Breda to the West, and Vato Falman to the North. Stunned into silence, Riza then receives her own orders, reassigned to Central and stationed as Fuhrer King Bradley's personal assistant.

Following word that Shao May had last been spotted beside a walking suit of armor, May drags Scar in pursuit, but he halts her on realizing that the armor's companion is a homunculus. After some debate they descend into the sewers to trail Alphonse and Gluttony, and as they go deeper May feels an eerie sense of many things stirring beneath their feet. At that very moment Al comforts a frightened Shao May, and Gluttony admits that Father remains a long way off.

Still trapped inside Gluttony, Ed and Ling face an overeager Envy in its monstrous, soul-laden form. Both nurse broken ribs as they scatter into the dark to regroup and counterattack. Ed charges but freezes when the absorbed souls speak to him, and freezes again when he hears what sounds like Nina calling him to play. Nearly digested, he stares at a fragment of the Xerxes ruins, and Ling's furious urging cannot rouse him until, connecting the pieces, Ed rams his leg clean through one of Envy's teeth and shouts that he has finally found their way out.

Underground, Scar and May fend off the gatekeepers with their alkahestry, and Scar notes that these foes are chimeras built through alchemy. May feels the strange sensation once more, now certain it comes from a person somewhere farther below.

Bradley coldly rebuffs Mustang over the Hughes funeral. Mustang's team is scattered across the country by reassignment, and Riza is made Bradley's aide. Scar and May pursue Alphonse and Gluttony into the sewers. Ed has a breakthrough about Xerxes mid-battle and declares he can escape Gluttony.

The events here correspond to Episode 25 of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, titled Doorway of Darkness.