The Celestial Way

Chapter 22 - Defending the Way

CHAPTER 22 – DEFENDING THE WAY

"There are innumerable living beings in the universe.

I vow to help them all to Awaken.

My imperfections are inexhaustible.

I vow to overcome them all.

The Dharma is unknowable.

I vow to know it.

The way of awakening is unattainable.

I vow to attain it."

– The Bodhisattva's Vow

At first, Airo didn't even comprehend what Magus had said. Everyone else in the hall was similarly shocked into silence, trying to understand the extreme gravity of the situation after being utterly jubilant only seconds ago.

And then, Airo witnessed something he had never heard since he came to the Radiant Knights' hidden base.

Alarms began blaring across Ilsorin's halls, their urgent wail echoing across the entire stronghold.

"General alert! General alert! Code Blue is in effect! Code Blue is in effect! All active personnel report for duty! All active personnel report for duty!"

"Cloud, what the bloody stars is going on?" Airo asked his power armor's interface, while the alarm message continued to repeat. The crowd of refugees stirred fearfully and if it wasn't for the Radiant Knights who prevented people from panicking, the situation would've turned ugly.

"Commander, what Stellar Dei said is true," came the SAI's oddly subdued reply. "The city of Arcolant was attacked and completely overwhelmed. They managed to send only one message for help before we lost contact altogether."

"Great Cosmos," Airo breathed. "Darkovitz," he snapped, turning to Lylana. "Call Glawlrhain, and call Stamat– call everyone and tell them to come to the command room. We must take immediate action."

He climbed down the platform's stairway and headed toward the hall's exit. Veralla made her way through the crowd to join him. Most of the Knights soon followed.

The reason why Ilsorin's command room was so vast finally became apparent. The stronghold had been made to house ninety thousand Knights during its prime, which meant there had to be a place where hundreds of commanders could meet at any given time, especially when some of them very likely had been dragons. With all remaining Radiant Knights present, the command room still did not quite manage to look packed, yet the atmosphere was very different from when there were only a handful of people present.

Airo stood before the command table with Veralla next to him, and Magus, Lylana, Glawlrhain, Stamat, Kiana, Nightsong, and Zuckeroff ninety degrees to the side, while the rest of the Radiant Knights were in a circle a few meters back. They all listened to Yeoman Cloud's situation report.

"Number of casualties: unknown. Number of survivors: unknown. All communications to the city are severed, including Æther-based and quantum entanglement ones. Attempts to re-establish communication or conduct short-range reconnaissance have failed. Long-range reconnaissance reveals severe amounts of large-scale structural damage and high quantity of exotic emissions.

"Logical conclusion dictates there are no survivors.

"By latest reports, Arcolant housed one-point-nineteen million civilians, twenty-five Union brigades, numbering a total of one-hundred and two thousand soldiers, and ten H'raal dreadnought-class sphereships, with a total crew of three-point-zero-one million.