Chapter 36: Witch Queen

"Yeah, I've made up my mind. I want to practice dark magic."

A beautiful grin broke out on Emerald's face before it vanished as though it weren't there.

"Are you sure about what you want to do? I know this might be beneficial to me and all those greedy witches, but I'm letting you know that you still have a choice.

"You can back out now, but once you're initiated into the coven, there is no turning back."

Emerald made herself clear. She didn't want Ruby to make rash decisions, even if she would benefit from them. The witches had a lot of problems on their plates as well, so she wanted Ruby to know what he was about to do.

"I've made up my mind. It would be beneficial for me as well. The heroes have been fucking with me lately, and with this, I'll be one step closer to annihilating them!"

Veins popped out of Ruby's head as his eye turned bloodshot. For a moment, Emerald felt a dangerous aura leaking into the air.

"I see, but I just wanted to let you know that I warned you." She said one last time before she grabbed Ruby's hands.

At first, Ruby didn't take the hand. He first stared into Emerald's eyes for any mischievous glint, but he found none, so he took her hands.

'He is still acting like last time, huh? Although those witches might make him do dangerous things for the sake of their greed, I'll not allow them to do anything that would endanger his life.' She inwardly promised herself and proceeded to draw strange green patterns in the air.

Up close, the pattern looked plain, with just a green line of a circle. However, after a silent chant from Emerald, the pattern lit up and radiated a magical pressure, and the duo walked into the enlarged portal.

After stepping into the portal, Ruby lost his senses. His vision was bleak, with nothing but an endlessly white space that seemed endless.

He felt the urge to puke as his head started spinning in circles.

'Shit, why does this feel so wrong. My teleportation isn't like this!' Ruby yelled in his mind.

Sometime later, Ruby opened his eyes and stared around. They appeared in a dark hall with several cloaked figures standing in a circle.

The cloaked figures all had their gazes at the center. Ruby followed their gaze and realized that he was standing at the center of the huge circle.

He stared at his side and noticed Emerald's soft palm still entwined with his own.

"Hmmmmm!"

He suddenly heard a voice from the far side of the circle. Staring in the direction of the voice, Ruby saw a drop-dead gorgeous purple-haired woman casually sitting on a throne.

'I take it she is the one in charge.' Ruby thought. It was easy to depict due to the ice-frozen throne and the air of leadership circulating around her.

"Emerald, you may leave the guest!" The woman spoke.

Emerald seemed to hesitate a bit, but after some time, she pulled her hands from Ruby's grip and walked to the crowd.

'I guess I'm now all alone here.'

Although he was calm and collected, Ruby had already placed safety measures in his head that would let him escape in a flash if these witches did anything crazy.

"Mr. Nightmare," the Queen spoke again. "Hope you know the reasons why you're here."

"Yeah, I heard it from the girl," Ruby replied. His tone was casual, but he was preventing himself from answering her with respect.

There was a heavy aura radiating from the witch queen that wanted to make him fall at her feet, but he resisted.

"I see. We won't be the only ones benefiting from this deal. You'll also benefit since we're giving you one of our rarest magic affinities."

"What kind of magic affinity and how rare is it?" Ruby interrupted her.

The witch queen smiled a little. "I know what you're thinking, little one. I've lived more than 200 years, so I know. But it's not what you're thinking."

'How did she know what I was thinking about?' Ruby thought. He wanted to ask for details about the magic affinity and to know if it was something that would bind him to follow the witches' wishes.

However. He was caught. 'Does she have any ability that can read minds? Javi."

[She has no ability like that]

Ruby was relieved when he heard what Javi said. He still had doubts, though. 'Then how can she know what I'm thinking, or is she just guessing?'

Ruby took the latter. After all, there are ways to read one's thoughts just by staring at their face.

"Yeah, I don't want to be bound to do your bindings like a zombie," Ruby announced since there was nothing to hide anymore.

"Little one, we only have one mission for you to do, and we'll never trouble you, but you can still keep the magic affinity we're offering you."

'I bet it's not an ordinary mission. for them to give me one of their rare magic affinities. It must be very dangerous.' Ruby mused as he spoke aloud.

"I take it the mission is not simple. I'm I right?"

The witch queen nodded her head. "We won't give you our prized possession for nothing."

'Now, it's a prized possession. I wonder what it is.'

"From the way you speak, I take it the mission would be a difficult one, and there are chances of me dying? Or is it not?"

"The chances of you dying are 100000000 percent!"

Ruby couldn't keep up with all those numbers. His heart thumped slowly. 'Should I accept it or not, I still have the Supes to deal with, and I can't just throw that away for some magic affinity.'

"You scared?" A smirk played across the queen's face. She wanted to see if Ruby would pull out of the deal or not.

' Let's see if you're worthy as my daughter said."

'Shit! I need to stay alive to kill those bastards! And this mission sounds like a suicide mission. It's not like I have a problem with dying though, but I still can't die now!'

The complex thoughts were the only thing standing between Ruby and accepting this deal that seemed like it was a guaranteed mission for him to die.

Sometime later, Ruby said, "What are the chances of my survival?" He saw the slight hesitation on the queen's face, so he added. "At least I should know that much, right?"

Taking a deep huff of ice-cold air, the Queen uttered, "00000000001. That's your chance of survival."

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