CHAPTER 412: CHAPTER 412.KAILEN VERSUS ANTHONY 2

"Let’s paint something everyone likes."

Anthony Cruz delivered the first stroke on the canvas.

Under the gazes of the onlookers, he worked with flawless ease.

As the ink bled into the picture, emotion flowed through the painting.

It was his signature painting, one that had cemented his position as one of the most accomplished emotional realm painters in the Astral Empire and beyond.

The painting was a simple picture.

A background half shiny, half dimmed, with a shiny droplet of water that looked like a teardrop at the same time.

It was beautiful, yet simple, unsophisticated yet...

A plethora of different emotions rang across the room, toward the crowd.

They could feel it: the doubt, the helplessness, the warmth, the confidence, the peace, the guilt, and other emotions. It hit them all at once, like waves crashing across a shore.

Even Kailen’s friends, who were confident in him, had to admit that this guy was a monster.

Could Kailen really beat something like this?

They couldn’t be blamed for allowing doubt to creep into their hearts.

The emotions they were feeling from the emotional realm painting bordered on the preternatural.

Then, silently unperturbed, ignoring the prideful and confident look in Anthony’s eyes,

Kailen stepped forward and lifted his brush.

He dipped it into ink, calm, deliberate, as though nothing in the world could disturb him.

The hall fell into silence.

He placed the tip against the canvas.

For a heartbeat.

Two.

Three.

Then the brush moved.

Slow.

Unhurried.

Absolutely certain.

The first stroke formed a simple silhouette.

A lone figure. Walking. Forward.

The canvas itself didn’t move.

Nothing rippled, nothing shimmered.

The figure did not lift a foot in reality.

And yet, everyone watching felt it moving.

Their hearts pulled along the path the figure would take.

Their minds filled in the step that had already been decided.

Their breaths tightened as if the future had begun unfolding in their chests.

Kailen’s strokes continued, precise and unshaken.

He drew the path beneath the figure’s feet.

A road that was neither broken nor perfect—simply inevitable.

He sketched a throne in the distance, vague, incomplete, but undeniable.

Not claimed. Not earned. Already existing. Already waiting.

The audience didn’t see motion—but they felt inevitability.

Every observer understood, without words:

This painting carried the truth of his rise.

Not hope. Not ambition. Not a dream.

He will rise.

No matter the obstacles.

No matter the opponents.

It is inevitable.

Some felt awe.

Some felt fear.

Some felt a shiver creep up their spine, recognizing the certainty they could not oppose.

Anthony Cruz’s confident posture faltered.

The Cruz Paradox, designed to pull emotions apart, now felt... irrelevant.

Kailen’s message wasn’t spoken.

It wasn’t written.

It radiated from the strokes themselves:

"Deny me. Challenge me. Resist me. It changes nothing.

I will stand at the summit. My ascent is inevitable."

The time dilation artifact drifted closer, silent now, eyes narrowed in focused curiosity.

"This kid..."

She smiled. She had not made a mistake in choosing him.

He was ambitious, and he should be, for what lay ahead.

The painting remained perfectly still.

But every heart in the hall moved forward, unconsciously drawn along the path Kailen had already claimed for himself.

And in that frozen, silent moment, the truth of it settled across everyone who looked:

Kailen Darkhaven would rise. Nothing could stop it.

In that moment of silence, Anthony Cruz’s pride was crushed.

He stood silent. Broken. Defeated.

He thought he was a prodigy, convinced that amongst emotional realm painters in at least the Astral Empire, he stood at the pinnacle.

But reality proved different.

Kailen Darkhaven was a monster.

Anthony remembered the words of ridicule he had spoken to Kailen before the commencement of the duel.

He felt humiliated and disgraced.

He wanted to find a place to bury his head.

His father sighed.

His son was proud.

But he never spoke a word of it.

Because in his opinion, as long as Anthony had the capabilities to defend his pride, there was no need to berate him for it.

But before him, that pride had been crushed.

He stared at Aurelius Zeynar in shame.

Aurelius Zeynar stared back at him, with a ridiculing look.

Then said nothing.

But the look of ridicule hit him hard, bruised his ego more than anything, and made him come to a terrifying realization:

Aurelius Zeynar had seen through his plan earlier.

He had suggested the duel to humiliate the young painters in the Astral Empire.

Use them as a stepping stone to make his son shine even brighter.

But Aurelius Zeynar had outwitted him.

He had fallen into Aurelius Zeynar’s trap.

Aurelius Zeynar knew that Kailen could beat his son.

So he suggested Kailen Darkhaven represent him, and Kailen Darkhaven had utterly crushed his son.

Forget about the appraisal artifact.

Everyone in the hall knew that Kailen Darkhaven was the winner of this duel.

The emotional intensity and the clarity between the two paintings was like sky and land.

At this point, as he was in deep, defeated thoughts, Aurelius Zeynar sent a thought transmission to Kailen.

"Thank you for agreeing to the plan, Black Flask."

"Let’s not sweat the small stuff, sir," Kailen replied.

When Aurelius had asked Kailen to represent him, he had sent a thought transmission, hinting at Borga Cruz’s underlying motive.

Kailen had agreed swiftly and executed his part of the plan without hesitation.

This was something he was grateful for.

Kailen Darkhaven valued relationships deeply, just as he would go to any extent to give his enemies hell.

Kailen gave Anthony Cruz a calm, nonchalant glance before averting his gaze, as if he didn’t even exist.

Then Ross Kadmen broke the silence, with a pleased smile on his face.

"What wonderful pieces of artwork. Let the appraisal artifact judge the outcome."

Everyone knew the judgment of the appraisal artifact was just for formality.

Kailen Darkhaven had definitely won.

But for the sake of formality, it had to be done.

Everyone waited for an appraisal with an outcome they already knew.