It was King Aston’s dream to become the king of the Barren firmament…a true king acknowledged by the heavens.

So, if he tried to kill Lucas or destroy his barrier right now using Heaven’s bane stone, his chances of becoming the true king would almost hit zero.

Moreover, he could do whatever he wanted to do after becoming the true king. At the time, killing others who were bestowed a status by the heavens would completely become legal up to some mark.

So, all he needed to do right now, is control his anger and deal with the Heavenly spirit beast before it stabilizes the heavenly power and becomes the true king of the barren firmament.

‘Even though heaven’s challenge stone is a priceless item, I have to use it for the current situations; otherwise, there is no use keeping this heaven’s challenge stone with me after today.’

While Lucas was choosing the best option from the options available to him regarding King Aston’s actions, King Aston was looking at the white coloured stone in his hands and continued to mutter.

‘With this Heaven’s challenge stone, I can take care of this sleeping heavenly spirit beast and I will have enough time to become the true king.’

King Aston was very close to achieving his dream and he was not going to let others take what he was trying to achieve without giving his all.

“I, Aston Crestlance, the duke of the Barren firmament, a title bestowed by the heavens, challenge that spirit beast for a duel using Heaven’s challenge stone.”

Without wasting any time, King Aston threw the white stone in his hands at the sleeping shadow dragon.

Even though the duel can be rejected by the opponent, the shadow dragon, which has become a Heavenly ranked spirit beast can’t reject the challenge issued by Heaven’s challenge stone because King Aston’s strength was one rank lesser than the shadow dragon’s rank.

That’s the reason why King Aston was confident about his plan.

….

‘Here it comes.’

Lucas, who had already thought about all the available options for him and selected the best one from it, was just waiting for King Aston to issue the challenge using Heaven’s challenge stone.

“Star, go for it.”

The speed at which heaven’s challenge stone came was insane and Lucas was barely able to see it.

Moreover, the order he gave for the Star lynx was also late.

“Do you think you can catch the heaven’s challenge stone that I threw?”

King Aston scoffed when he heard Lucas’ words because he was confident in his throw at the shadow dragon that no one could catch.

If he was not confident, he would have not thrown heaven’s challenge stone at the shadow dragon in the first place because he only had a single one and he could not waste it.

‘Swoosh’

However, a black silhouette flashed by as a huge lynx with a star mark on its forehead appeared in front of the sleeping shadow dragon.

It was none other than the star lynx that Lucas ordered to catch Heaven’s challenge stone. 

Actually, the star lynx moved even before Lucas could give an order to it and that’s how it was able to be made in time to catch it.

Lucas already informed Star lynx about Heaven’s challenge stone along with the hidden conditions that come with the stone.

Star lynx was arrogant, to begin with, and liked challenges very much. So, it didn’t even bother to think before accepting Lucas. 

So, it didn’t even wait for Lucas to order it as it slowly moved closer to the shadow dragon and when it saw King Aston throw the white stone, it directly jumped to catch it.

“Roar”

Catching Heaven’s challenge stone in his mouth, it crushed the white stone and released a huge roar as though it was saying, ‘I agree to your challenge.’

“What?”

King Aston, who was scoffing at Lucas a moment ago was shocked when he saw what happened as he nearly fell to the ground, 

“How did..”

“Where did that…”

“How is this possi…”

King Aston was unable to finish his sentences as he felt the entire world was collapsing around.

“Aarrgh”

Finally, King Aston shouted out loud as he looked at Lucas with blood-red eyes  and shouted, “I will destroy your entire town, family and anyone close to you before the Heavenly spirit beast could wake up from its sleep.”

King Aston knew that his dream…his goal…everything got destroyed that easily and the reason for that was none other than Lucas.

So, how could he let Lucas off just like that?

Moreover, he knew that once the Heaven ranked spirit beast wakes up from its sleep, he could do nothing to Lucas; however, before that, he could do whatever he wanted.

Since he could no longer become the true king of the Barren firmament, he would no longer care about the Heavens or anything.

“Old man, once Heaven’s challenge begins, destroy the entire town. Mainly I want to kill that brat with my own hands. So, keep him alive.”

With an evil look on his face, King Aston ordered the old minister beside him to destroy the town while keeping Lucas alive.

“Yes, your majesty.”

The old man nodded his head and the royal generals behind him also became serious and adamant about destroying the town for destroying the plans of their King.

“But, what about the Heaven ranked spirit beast? Are we just letting it become the king of the Barren firmament?”

The old man didn’t have any problems in destroying the town; however, he wanted to know what his majesty was planning to do with the Heaven ranked spirit beast.

“Just erase the town for now. Heaven’s challenge will begin any time now. I will kill that foolish spirit beast as soon as possible and think of a way to get rid of the Heaven ranked spirit beast.”

If he tried to use force to kill the newly ascended Heaven ranked spirit beast, the heavens would protect it at any cost; however, since he decided to go against the heavens, King Aston planned to find a way to kill the shadow dragon.

However, the main thing he wanted right now was none other than killing Lucas and erasing the Silverstone town.

“Yes, your majesty.”

The old man nodded his head as he waited for heaven’s challenge to start before carrying out King Aston’s orders.

‘Swoosh’

“Aston crestlance and Star lynx, both will be teleported to an open space for their challenge and the loser of the match will die while transferring their strength to the winner.”

All of a sudden, rays of light fell from the sky on both the furious King Aston and the excited star lynx as everyone around them could also hear those words.

“And the challenge will begin now.”

In the next moment, King Aston and Star lynx, both disappeared from their spots.

“Star, I hope you will not disappoint me.”

Looking at the spot where Star lynx was standing a few moments back, Lucas silently muttered to himself.

Lucas was confident in the star lynx that it could defeat King Aston because its strength increased a lot after receiving the benefits from the heavens and it could not wait to test them.

Also, to be on the safe side, Lucas even activated the effect of the [Lynx master] skill to raise the strength of the star lynx.

Star lynx was already a high-level rank 5 spirit beast and even though Lucas’ skill can’t help the spirit beast to become a mid-level rank 6 spirit beast, it would make the star lynx invincible below rank 6 or Heaven rank. 

Nevertheless, Lucas was worried about King Aston’s methods to win the challenge. So, he was hoping nothing could go wrong with the challenge.

“Anyway, I have to worry about these b*stards now.”

Lucas stopped worrying about the star lynx as he looked at the group of men from the Crestlance family and stretched his body.

Earlier, King Aston ordered them to destroy the Silverstone town openly in front of everyone. So, not only Lucas, everyone around him knew what was coming next.

“Everyone, get ready. If we survive this ordeal, we will be ruling this firmament from tomorrow onwards.”

Even though Lucas’ side had numbers, their strength could not make 100 men from the Crestlance family who had the strength of tier 3 and tier 4 higher rank.

What’s more, the old minister and the head of the royal generals have the strength of tier 5 higher mage and higher knight respectively. So, Lucas knew this fight was going to be a tough one.

“We are ready, Family head.”

To Lucas’ surprise, everyone seemed much more energetic than he thought as he turned his head to look at his followers and the townsmen.

“Oh”

Lucas only took a glance and he was surprised to see the excitement in the eyes of everyone standing around him, making him think, ‘Looks like everyone received some good rewards from the heavens.’

That was the only reasonable guess Lucas could think of for the sudden change in the aura emitted by everyone who participated in the earlier evil spirit beast invasion.

“You don’t know when to give, right?”

With an angry chuckle on his face, the old man took out a black stone with mysterious runes on it and threw it at the barrier.

“This Heaven’s bane stone will take care of the barrier and the heavens for some time.”

The old man chuckled as he waited for the barrier to get destroyed.

*****

Magic castle = Three bonus chapters.