Darius

Darius is a soldier in the Amestrian State Military and one of the four Human Chimera commissioned to bodyguard and report to Solf J. Kimblee during the State Alchemist's mission to the northern area of Amestris. Through a series of occurrences, however, Darius ends up in the company of Edward Elric and his allies along with his partner Heinkel.

Appearance
Darius is a tall, tanned, well built muscular man with short dark hair and sideburns. In his chimera form he has the appearance of a gorilla, albeit much more humanoid and bipedal.

Part in the story
Darius is first seen in Briggs, protecting Kimblee with other chimera.

When Edward Elric and Kimblee fight in an abandoned mining city, Ed saves he and Heinkel from being crushed by falling debris. They help Ed remove a steel pipe from his abdomen and agree to help him. After taking time for Ed to recover from his injuries at a clinic in North City, the trio go to Central to see if anybody else has returned to their old safe house. There they encounter Ling Yao, who soon changes to Greed, and form an alliance with him.

When traveling around Central's slum area, they are attacked by Pride, who has taken Al as a hostage. After a brief fight, Ed causes a complete blackout, enabling Heinkel to attack Pride.

Gluttony joins the battle, and Darius fights him in his chimera form. Just as Gluttony tries to absorb Greed, Ed, and Darius to his fake Gate of Truth, Lan Fan appears and saves them. Some slum dwellers appear with a lantern, providing Pride a source of light. Pride tries to kill Heinkel but Ed saves him and tricks Pride to divert his shadows to Al. Fu uses a flash-bang to destroy Pride's shadows, and Darius and Ed take Al's armor to safety. Sensing he is losing the battle, Pride eats Gluttony, gaining his remaining lives and his sense of smell.

Hohenheim joins the battle and creates a plan to beat Pride. While Hohenheim distracts Pride, Al sneaks behind him and attacks.



As Pride captures Al, Hohenheim creates a dome of earth around them, deriving Pride source of his shadows. After a night of rest, Jerso, Zampano, Scar, and Dr. Marcoh arrive. Although Darius gets into a heated argument with Jerso and Zampano who initially believed that he and Heinkel were still working for Kimblee, everything was quickly straightened out and the four Human Chimeras agree that they are better off with their new friends.

The two groups join and start to plan their next movement. While Dr. Marcoh and Heinkel stay back, the other chimera, Scar, Ed, Hohenheim, and Lan Fan leave for Central. Central is overrun by masses of soldiers, so the group can't use the old entrance to Father's lair. They use the tunnel under the third research facility to enter the lair. The group splits in two, Hohenheim and Lan Fan in one, and Ed, the chimera, and Scar in other. Ed's group comes to a big gate and only then does it immediately open.

From the other side come masses of Homunculus like zombies that try to eat them. During the fight, Darius battles with his brute strength and even resorts to using Barry the Chopper's discarded meat cleaver when he starts to get tired. The group fight the Homunculi but after a long battle, they just can't kill enough of the seemingly invulnerable creatures. Roy Mustang then appears and burns their legs off (incinerates them completely in the anime) and the team continues through the gate. He next appears to assist everyone when the rejected Führer candidates have captured them, taking out a couple on his own. He then cheers on the stronger fighters during the final battle. He is last seen in a photo next to Heinkel and Yoki, seemingly working at a circus.

Powers and Abilities
Darius is a chimera fused with a gorilla. As such, he has the ability to morph into a steroid-enhanced version of himself with more simian-like features. This version gives Darius super-enhanced strength and speed, as well as hightened senses, particularly in the case of smell. Even in his default form, Darius has immense strength, as well as enhanced senses (but apparently not as good as Heinkel's).

Trivia

 * Darius is portrayed as being attracted to men in the 4-Koma Theater shorts. In episode 16, Roy Mustang gropes him, thinking he is Hawkeye, and continues. Darius blushes and allows Mustang to continue.
 * In another episode, he is upset when he finds out that Heinkel's Chimera form does not have paw pads, implying that he has a fetish for it.
 * Darius and Heinkel's transformations are the most humanoid of the Chimera transformations to appear, next to that of Roa.