Chapter 50: In the Belly of the Beast

Synopsis
Angered by Envy calling him "small", Edward Elric repeatedly attacks the Homunculus. Envy ignores the Fullmetal Alchemist, and attempts to calm down the raging Gluttony. It tells Gluttony not to eat the Elric brothers, but says that Gluttony is allowed to eat Ling Yao. Hearing this, Edward uses alchemy to create a huge brick wall separate them from homunculi, leaving Ling to attack Envy while he and Alphonse to Gluttony.

At first, Ling's battle with Envy appears to be going well. Envy leaves its defences open, which allows the prince to slice it in the stomach. Ling soon realizes that it was a trap, as Envy turns its arms into a blade and a snake which wraps itself around Ling. Ling drops his sword from the force of the snake around his body, but is able to kick dirt into the homunculus' eyes. Blinding his enemy, Ling quickly grabs Envy's blade arm and uses it to slice the snake arm wrapped around his body. Reunited with his sword, Ling once again gains the upper hand against his enemy.

On the other side of the wall, the Elric brothers continue to fight Gluttony. Edward creates a deep well under the homunculus' feet, causing him to fall into the depths. Gluttony is able to escape however, by stretching his ribcage so far that he lifts himself out of the well. The two battle come together, with Envy still losing to the Xingese martial arts of Ling. Seeing that it cannot win against the prince using conventional fighting, Envy transforms itself into Lan Fan, causing Ling to freeze up. Gluttony sees this as an opportunity to swallow Ling, a realization that Edward has as well. Edward runs toward Ling in an attempt to save him, which leads Envy to do the same, trying to protect the precious human sacrifice from being swallowed along with the foreigner. Gluttony swallows all three, and realizing the mistake he made, returns to his original form, leaving a distraught Alphonse to cry out for his brother.

Back at Doctor Knox's house, Lan Fan finally comes to the grim realization that her arm is gone. The scene switches to Central Command where Roy Mustang and Riza Hawkeye are attempting to find out who their allies are in the military. While trying to figure out his next move, Colonel Mustang is approached by General Raven. The two begin to talk about Mustang's transfer to Central, and how he is coping with it. Mustang tells Raven he uses a technique that worked well back East, chatting with citizens about what is going on around the city, however preposterous it might sound. He mentions a few bits of gossip, but one in particular catches the General's attention: President Bradley is a homunculus. Raven brings Mustang into a meeting with some of the top men in the military, including the President himself.

Meanwhile, Edward wakes up in a nearly pitch-black room, lying in a deep and seemingly endless pool of blood. After making sure that he is alive and can move, Edward remembers what happened before he was knocked unconscious; he, Ling and Envy were swallowed by Gluttony. But one question remains: where is he?

Chapter Notes

 * A skeleton found in Gluttony's 'stomach' is wearing the same religious clothes of priests in Reole. The man is implied to have been Cray, Cornello's loyal follower.
 * An error in the Viz manga implies that Doctor Knox has more than one child, when in fact he only has one son in the original storyline.