Adrian Vane, the empire's peerless alchemical prodigy and the architect of dragon blood alchemy, was betrayed and slain by his own protégé, Sebastian Kraven. His soul became bound to A.V.001, a discarded Class F iron golem in his abandoned laboratory — where he made a staggering discovery: the golem's frame allowed him to channel alchemy directly, with no transmutation array required.For three years, Adrian lay low in a desolate scrapyard, reforging his golem body from scrap through alchemy while plotting to infiltrate the Imperial Alchemy Association and exact vengeance on Kraven. His seclusion broke when Lena Holloway, an expelled academy dropout scavenging to survive, stumbled into his refuge. The two forged an unlikely alliance.Thus emerged a most unassuming pair: a disgraced student and her battered Class F golem. They would step foot into the Imperial Alchemy Academy, and set off a storm that would rock the very foundations of the empire's alchemical world.