Early in the morning, in front of the mirror, Maas Hughes combed his appearance, and his wife helped him pick the hair hanging from the collar.

"You've been losing your hair again lately, are you so busy at work? Can't come back earlier in the evening? ”

"No way, there have been frequent riots in the border area recently, and at this time, I really can't get out."

"Are you free this weekend? Alicia says she wants to go on a picnic with her dad? ”

"Weekend," Mars Hughes pressed his forehead with a headache, "I don't know. But since it's my lovely daughter's wish, I'll find a way to take a leave of absence anyway! ”

Mrs. Hughes covered her mouth and laughed, and gave her husband a kiss: "Then let's say it." ”

"That's it!" Hughes nodded, his face full of energy.

He hugged his daughter who was having breakfast in the living room, and then left the house with the mother and daughter farewell.

As an officer with the rank of lieutenant colonel, there was a special car to take him to Central Command.

Hughes sat in the back seat of the car, took out the files he hadn't finished last night from the folder, and read them carefully.

In a trance, he glanced up, and suddenly realized that today's car was not going on the same road as usual, and it was very the same way.

Instead of heading towards the center, the cars are heading towards the outskirts of the city.

"What's going on?" Hughes asked, "Why not go the usual way?" ”

"Lieutenant Colonel Hughes, the original road has been repaired." The driver said, "So I had to take a detour today." ”

"Overhauled?" Hughes frowned: "When?" Wasn't it okay yesterday? What is the reason? ”

"I don't know, but I was notified in the morning," the driver said with a slurred voice.

Hughes was suspicious, but the driver was not a stranger, it was indeed his special driver, a person he was familiar with.

He dismissed any attempt to ask for the time being, but after the car had made a detour for a while, instead of going back, when it reached the sparsely populated street, it accelerated sharply and rushed towards the outskirts of the city.

"Hey! Where are you going! Hughes stood up from the back seat and yelled at the driver in the driver's seat.

However, the driver had no intention of stopping, he gritted his teeth and stepped on the accelerator.

Hughes couldn't stop him at all, and the army car, with the driver's seat and the back seat separated by a solid steel fence, had only a tiny window to use for conversation.

"Kane! Did something happen! Hughes tried to persuade, "You're so weird today!" ”

"I'm sorry, Lieutenant Colonel Hughes, I don't want to do that, but they're using my daughter and wife to blackmail me." The driver's hand holding the steering wheel trembled.

"Don't be afraid!" Hughes said, "Who is holding your family hostage!" Let's go and report to the army together! Our vigilante forces will not sit idly by! ”

The driver closed the small window and locked it, no matter how much Hughes spoke, he didn't mean to pay attention.

Hughes sensed that something was wrong, it was like a crime against him.

Who did it? Former enemies?

He shouldn't have made any enemies in the army.

No. Wait a minute

Hughes suddenly remembered the information brought by the Edward brothers a few days ago: [The Philosopher's Stone is made of humans].

It was after the Synth incident with Hugh Tucker, and the Edward brothers fought for custody of Hugh Tucker's daughter in court and took the child to the countryside.

Later, the Edward brothers and their companion, Major Armstrong, found Dr. Marr, who had disappeared for a long time, on the way back by train.

Once part of the research team at the Philosopher's Stone, Dr. Marr was an excellent national alchemist who applied alchemy to the medical profession.

However, after the Annihilation of Ishvar, he left the army and disappeared, reportedly taking with him classified information, where Dr. Marr was on a wanted list.

It was at this point that Hughes began to investigate the institutions and personnel who had studied the Philosopher's Stone.

He recently made a discovery, whether it was the materials of the year or the people who participated in the research, all disappeared, and he could not find a single person who knew the inside story, so he became more and more sure that there was something wrong with the internal affairs of the army.

He had reported his findings to the President, and had discussed them with his friend Colonel Roy and the Edward brothers.

Could it be that someone doesn't want him to continue his investigation?

Who is it? Who got the news so quickly?

No. It is also not certain that it is someone from the military

Recently, the scar man who specializes in killing national alchemists is also very active, is it the people of Ishvar who want to do it to him out of hatred?

No, it is impossible for the Ishvars to have such a means to blackmail Kane.

Hughes smelled of conspiracy, probably the people of the military, and many faces crossed his mind, and finally stopped at the Grand President, Kim Bradley.

He had always trusted Kim Bradley, they fought side by side on the battlefield, and during the war of annihilation in Ishvar, the president was always at the forefront of the battle.

In Hughes's eyes, the president was an iron-blooded soldier and his comrade-in-arms.

"Hey! Kane, is it the military who kidnapped your family! Hughes shouted.

"Don't ask any more, Lieutenant Colonel Hughes!" The driver panicked: "I don't know anything!" ”

Guessed right, but Hughes didn't have the slightest joy in guessing right.

Regardless of the destination of the car, it will not be a banquet with cakes and drinks, or a park full of flowers.

He realized that he was trapped in a bottomless quagmire that was about to swallow him.

What's more, his companions, who still don't know anything about it.

No, Colonel Roy must be contacted!

Hughes made a decision immediately, he opened the car door, and the wind blew in his face, pressing him from opening his eyes.

He jumped out of the car, covering his head with both hands, and trying to land on the ground with his lower body so as not to hurt his internal organs.

On the road, a figure rolled and kicked up dust.

Hughes fell to the side of the road, his uniform frayed and torn, his knees and elbows frayed, and a blur of flesh and blood.

The ribs should have been broken, and the small bone of his right leg was probably cracked, so he still stood up with such a serious injury.

You can't stay here for long, you have to hide first and find a way to contact someone you can trust.

Among the people he knew, in addition to the president, the biggest official position was undoubtedly Colonel Roy.

Gotta go to Roy. Gotta go to him.

Hughes briefly stopped the bleeding, stumbled to his feet, and walked down the alley in the shadows.

But the movement of stepping forward suddenly stopped, and he turned to look back.

"Strange. I haven't left the city yet, but there is no one left."

"Don't you go forward? Lieutenant Colonel Hughes? ”

In the shadows, a woman walked out with an Ouroboros tattooed on her chest.

The woman stretched out her right hand, which was not human, and her fingers were not visible, only sharp blades.

Hughes pressed against his chest, where he hid a knife.

"Beauty, are you a barber?" Hughes diverts the woman's attention.

"I'm no stranger to cutting hair." The woman smiled: "Is it okay to cut the hair and head together?" Lieutenant Colonel Hughes?"

The woman swung violently, several flashes of knife light, and Hughes threw his dagger at the same time.

The dagger struck the woman in the center of the eyebrow, stabbing the woman in the forehead, and from there it stabbed down, and bright red blood flowed down the wound.

But Hughes was also stabbed, and his shoulder was cut by sharp blades, and those sharp blades cut through his flesh and blood vessels, and a strong pain hit.

Hughes glanced at the manhole cover on the ground and walked slowly towards it.

As long as you can get to that place, if you can get to that place.

But halfway through, the woman pulled out the knife from her head and looked at it with a sinister look.

"Lie to people, aren't you dead like this?" Hughes held his heart pounding.

He had turned into a bloody man, and he looked hideous and terrifying.

"I'm sorry. Alicia's dad can't seem to accompany you to a picnic."

The "cut" woman touched her wound and swung her blade at Hughes's head once more.

Hughes closed his eyes when cold water sprayed on his face.

It was sprayed from above, the water pipe burst, and a tall figure stood on the top floor of the three-story building.

Hughes recognized the man as the Alchemist of the Frozen Ice, Isaac McDoug.

The water was not squirted at Hughes, but at the mysterious woman.

Isaac pressed his hand to the pipe, and the water that shot out quickly froze, and the woman's movements froze, and white frost appeared on her face, and the ice quickly enveloped her, making her into an ice sculpture.

Isaac then used the ice slide to smoothly slide down the third floor, picked up Hughes, and ran away with him.

"Isaac, are you going to make another fuss when you come back?" Hughes asked in a weak voice.

Isaac's hand released a blue arc of electricity, and he used the freezing method to give Hughes an emergency hemostatic treatment.

"I said it a long time ago." Isaac said: "The president, and the country's Central Command, are the culprits of everything. ”

"You know what? Who is that woman? Hughes asked.

"She's an artificial human." Isaac said, "It's a human being who was created, and it's been alive for at least two hundred years. ”

"Two hundred years?! Can an android live so long even though he looks so young? ”

"Those guys have the Philosopher's Stone in their bodies."

Isaac jumped straight into the river, which froze under his refining array, and he stepped on the ice to cross the river in his special boots.

"Yes." Hughes said, "So we're all wrong about you."

Voices of people could be heard above, and they seemed to be in the place where the crowd had gathered.

They were now under the deck, a wide stone arch that obscured Isaac and Hughes.

Isaac stopped and placed Hughes by the wall.

It wasn't that he had reached his destination, but that someone was standing in his way.

It was a little boy in a suit, and he appeared in this place very abruptly, and he walked along.

"The adopted son of the great president?" Hughes's eyes widened: "Hey, it's really fake, isn't it even that kid"

"Rust still has too little experience."

Beside the boy, an unknown black shadow appeared, an ominous black shadow squirmed, with countless eyes and mouths.

"How can you let the prey escape?"

As he approached, Isaac was on the verge of an enemy.

At his feet was the river, and the water froze under his alchemy.

An ice snake rises from the ice and slams into the boy.

However, the ice snake was strangled by the black shadows, which were sharper and more malleable than ice, like the darkness of the entity.

Isaac then tries Ice Spike and Ice Pick Shooting, using ice to restrain the boy's movements, but is unsuccessful.

"Am I not an opponent yet" Isaac accepted the incident and gave up the attack.

"Very sensible judgment." The boy laughed, "In return, I'll let you die as decently as possible." ”

Isaac didn't pay attention to him, but took a whistle off his neck and blew it hard.

A shrill whistle pierced the air, and the boy frowned slightly, he didn't feel the breath of any other life.

"Bluffing?"

Just as he was thinking this, something suddenly slammed out of the water.

It was a strange fish made of ice sculptures, about three or four meters long, like a cannonball, and it crashed into the boy.

"The same trick won't work."

The black shadow spun like a meat grinder, slicing towards the strange fish.

The ice on the outer layer of the strange fish was shattered, and the ice slag fell like a broken eggshell, revealing its body.

"Not true. Not ice! The boy was surprised.

The black shadow was knocked open by the strange fish, and the black shadow that could chop through the solid ice was easily stuck and even broken when it hit the body of the strange fish.

"How is that possible! What kind of substance is this! ”

When he was surprised, the strange fish had already landed on the ground, and the crystals of the clear quickly spread on the ground, drawing a huge and precise refining array, and the position where the boy was located was the center of the refining array.

"Drink !!" Isaac crouched down and pressed his hands on the edge of the refining array, inputting energy.

Countless red threads catapulted out, binding the boy and binding his body to the ground, pulling outward.

"What kind of refining array is this!"

"Don't. Philosopher's Stone. No way! No way!!! ”

The finely crumbled Philosopher's Stone was detached from the boy's body, spreading a layer of fine red sand on the ground.

No matter how much he struggled, it didn't work, this was a special attack formation created for them androids.

Under the effect of the refining array, these stones were restored to the soul of the deceased, and the soul floated towards the atmosphere.

The boy's body quickly became smaller and crumbled, and all that remained was an empty suit.

Isaac gasped and sweated.

Using this refining array, the physical exertion was still too great for him.

Fortunately, he only needed to guide the input of energy, and if he was allowed to learn the pattern and principle of refining the formation by himself, and really use it by himself, I am afraid it would take several years.

"What the hell are these guys made of?" Hughes gasped as he stared at the place where the president's adopted son had disappeared.

He felt fear from the bottom of his heart, what is this country controlled by? (End of chapter)