Golden Hall

The Golden Hall, located in the center of the battleship. It's where all meetings, trials, and many gatherings of lower and higher-ranking officers, including the Grand Admiral himself, take place.

This place resembled more of a throne room; some say it looks this way due to Arlok's love for history. The only seats are reserved for Arlok, who sits at the far end of the Golden Hall. No one else has seats. Everyone else stands – once called a training, it's now a formality and a tribute to the past heads of the Treon order.

The huge gates welcomed Arlok. They were golden-black in color. Numerous symbols adorned the gates – words, people's prayers from the past to the future, their injunctions and sins, all gathered and inscribed for memory's sake.

The immense gates always opened with a thunderous noise unlike other doors and gates; these were deliberately incredibly heavy and noisy.

When one's eyes peered beyond the gates into the Golden Hall, they could see a glass ceiling and the sky. It's an illusion of the sky, specifically crafted for the comfort of those present here. Even the times of day were considered. This bright light fell directly onto the golden floor, decorated with hundreds of black symbols, and two lines on either side of the central 'path' to the throne separated the knights from Arlok.

When his feet tread upon this golden floor, many bowed. They all lined up against the wall, on both sides of Arlok. He walked slowly and steadily towards his throne. He didn't look sick; he tried with all his might to appear as the Grand Admiral everyone remembered, not a sick man.

The silence persisted until Carnage sat on the throne; Lucy stood to his right, a beautiful girl with long black hair and raspberry eyes, and to his left, no one.

"Our ranks have thinned," barely 1/10th of all officers were present.

"From 705, there are now only 113," Arlok heard Lucy's response and glanced around. He didn't see many faces.

"I want a report!" Everyone nodded in response.

Lucy stepped forward; she turned to all the officers and began speaking, not reporting to Arlok but to the crew members.

"At present, there are only 3 senior officers on board, four are dead, and another nine are whereabouts unknown," these were horrific news that Arlok didn't even wish to hear.

Four dead seemed unbelievable to him. People who rightfully counted among the top 10 strongest of the Alliance were now diminished. But once realizing what had happened to him, he acknowledged the reality they had entered into.

Hunters-turned-executioners had become the prey. Arlok clenched his throne with anger; he started to envision how his people were dying. Perhaps due to Klaus's diagnosis, Arlok began to get nervous and angry much faster than before.

"Also, we have lost about two hundred thousand crew members, from engineers to knights! Additionally, we've lost contact with the Alliance, only catching signals from our space allies, not from the Council or other administrative bodies of the Alliance!" They all listened; not everyone knew what was happening. Some officers work so 'deeply' within the battleship that their arrival at the Golden Hall is a celebration, but certainly not this day...

Lucy continued the report, detailing attacks on the battleship and the bodies of senior officers, often dying from just one or two blows. About who likely attacked the battleship, energy losses, and multiple malfunctions within the battleship. Staff shortages and the likelihood of starvation due to the extinction of all foodstuffs and grains. She spoke of not all but most of the difficulties Arlok faced.

She mentioned the penetration and loss of the Mechanisms; they were destroyed without a chance of recovery. The strange strength of the attackers. Their Melody, playing ancient instruments, granted them power, but it was unknown where the sound was coming from. Hints of traitors inside the ship because the 'five-headed' girl infiltrated the battleship using markers.

She demonstrated how they fight and began to analyze countermeasures against each of the observed forces. For the violinist, she suggested using precise and powerful weapons; for the girl with the umbrella, she proposed attacking from the blind spot of the umbrella - because, according to the surveillance cameras, it was the umbrella that changed the trajectory of the attack, not the girl herself. The monsters, which she called "PL type," became a separate part of a lengthy analysis of their structure and vulnerabilities. She concluded with:

"For greater certainty, we must wait for the research of the scientific corps headed by Klaus Nebel."

Then she began to analyze the reports of Aria, a red-haired girl with strange attacks, no weaknesses were discovered. The strange man-monster seemed to be the main mind of the "PL type" Monsters.

"It turns out, five criminals - one of whom is already dead," - the faces of those they managed to capture appeared before everyone. - "The remaining four are entered into the registry as Zero Rank criminals - to be destroyed on sight!"

"Thank you, Lucy," - Arlok stood up, and everyone stepped back towards the wall.

"Our fate has become incredibly difficult, I am even afraid to imagine what is happening in the world while we were absent. At this meeting, I give the choice, we have the Council's cipher, which I managed to obtain in a notebook, we have the strange place Naraka and the 'Edge of Truth,' as well as the signals of our officers. Now we will conduct an open vote!"

The answer was obvious, almost everyone on board were Council soldiers, and their choice was the message in the cipher. But even this survey was a formality. Arlok had already ordered to decipher the cipher, to locate the signals of the officers and knights, as well as to find Namaka and the "Edge of Truth."

He was simply assessing how much their thoughts and plans with the crew coincided. He did this rarely, but when he did, he tried to see all the results and changes in the faces of his people.

First and foremost, they were soldiers, but secondly, Arlok considered them brothers and sisters, and hints that there was a traitor among them greatly alarmed Carnage.

When Arlok sat back on his throne, the huge gates opened. There was Klaus and five people; they did not look like people of the ship - they were inhabitants of this planet.

"Sir, I request to add the problem of these beings to today's session of the Golden Hall," - he pointed to the people behind him.

"What are you talking about, they're just people?"

"No! They are semblances of people!"