An echo reverberated throughout the throne room as the double doors of the main entrance were swung open.

Opening them was a lean old man with long silver hair braided in golden threads. His azure eyes glimmering with mana were fervently expressing all of the happiness and devotion he felt without even needing to speak.

Adorning his frail body was a deep blue Archmage robe patterned with celestial bodies moving across it, accurately portraying the rotations and revolutions of their real counterparts.

“Did you hear Her voice as well, Alaric?”

Seated on a luxurious throne, the muscular middle-aged man being called shifted his attention off of the blue Status Screen he was looking at.

“Of course, I heard her, Thaelin. If the Goddess speaks, there’s nobody that Her voice can’t reach.”

In Empyrean Realms, the game lore stated that the world was created by the Goddess Aria. As such, all non-evil sentient races worshipped Her.

The two NPCs conversing with each other, completely oblivious to the fact that they just gained sentience, were under the impression that the monotonous female voice that delivered the System Announcement was none other than their Goddess Aria.

“Right, you are. I can’t begin to speculate on all of Her profound reasons for sending us here, but we must do what we can to nurture Her Chosen. Surely this must be in part a trial for them to grow.”

“Mm. I’m sure there are a great deal of Quests we can give to them in this current predicament.”

King Alaric stroked his beard as he pondered how to help the Players grow while figuring out the situation of his Kingdom.

“Oh, speaking of that, Meruem vanished when we appeared here, along with a number of servants. I was half expecting you to be missing too. We can issue a Quest for the Players to find them.”

“That’s a rather casual method of letting me know the Archbishop is missing…”

King Alaric scolded his Court Archmage, but he didn’t look particularly perturbed at the news despite his words.

“Whatever the case is, it’s the will of the Goddess. Together with the Players, we must all accept and overcome Her trials.”

The two of them performed solemn hand gestures over their hearts and their heads, indicating their devotion to Aria.

“Is there anything else, Thaelin? I need to issue some orders to everyone.”

There was nobody around to issue orders to, but the Archmage perfectly understood what Alaric was referring to. Despite just becoming self-aware, the NPCs had been operating within the game as artificial intelligence the entire time, and they both had memories of it as though it was them living their lives.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Thus, their familiarity with making use of the System was instinctual, making them know all sorts of ways to use it that the Cultivators had yet to learn. For instance, the Feature Reward & Punishment that all Kings have mentions on the System Screen that it can provide Buffs and Debuffs in response to the actions of subordinates, but the use extends beyond that.

The kings could preemptively establish a reward or punishment for a specific action, and it would automatically be implemented whenever one of their subordinates committed the said act. It could be left indefinitely or be removed when no longer needed.

So, Alaric planned on issuing orders by setting rewards for what he wanted his subordinates to do, such as gathering information, securing the peace of their citizens, and making their way to where he was located if they were teleported away.

The tasks were relatively easy, so he was limited by the System in how much he would offer and would only be granting minor temporary Buffs. Still, he could make it so they would all be notified by the passive presence of the reward and would understand it to be an order from their king.

“Well, there is something, actually. I was wondering if Your Majesty would like to accompany me to a nearby location radiating a fascinating aura.”

Alaric rolled his eyes at his Archmage addressing him as “Your Majesty.” He may be the king, but they both viewed each other as equals.

“Well, let’s go then.”

There was no regal air exuding from him as he casually stood up to go off without any guards on a small adventure with his pal. The aura coming off of them was the only thing befitting their positions, their lax attitudes, not so much.

It didn’t take them long to reach their destination; it was just outside of the palace.

“Magnificent.”

Entering the building, they found themselves on an enormous circular platform. The runes etched across its surface successfully captivated Archmage Thaelin the moment he set his eyes on them.

There were many spells within the game that neither the Mage nor Bard Class had access to. Instead, they could only be used by learning how to inscribe the corresponding runes on scrolls and artifacts. Anybody could learn them, but the Intelligence Attribute required usually greatly limited the number of non-Mages.

“Do you recognize them?”

While his friend’s blood boiled in excitement, King Alaric instead found himself wary. The magical energy being emitted from the platform brought a great deal of pressure and he didn’t quite like the fact that his palace ended up directly next to it. He looked around cautiously for the presence of guards but found nobody in sight.

“No, but some of them resemble a few unique runes present on Spatial Pouches. I think this may actually be a legendary Spatial Array… I may finally be able to unravel the secrets of teleportation.”

A spark of greed briefly occupied the King’s eyes before being replaced by even greater wariness.

“Can you place a barrier over this entire building?”

“Alaric?”

Thaelin broke off his obsessive gaze towards the runes at his friend’s words.

“If this array can teleport others in here, given its sheer size, who knows how many hostiles can appear on a moment’s notice at our doorstep? I need it contained. Immediately.”

“Very well.”

With a wave of his hand, the Archmage was suddenly clasping a wooden staff, its end coiling around a glowing white crystal orb. Standing near the pinnacle of power within the game, Thaelin had knowledge programmed into him that few other NPCs possessed.

There were no spells available to cast permanent barriers, but he had a way to get around physically inscribing runes. By reaching a level of mastery in any of the elements, they themselves could serve as the ink while the Mage willed them to take on the forms of various runes.

Thaelin excelled in wind magic; numerous hand-size tornados danced around the platform. Rather than destruction, these miniature whirlwinds left orderly markings connecting to create a profound array. In the end, an invisible, potent film sealed off the perimeter of the platform.

He couldn’t control what got in, but hopefully, nothing would be getting out.