"Just a little more..."
Lake was completely focused on the task at hand as he controlled the mana around him to attack the rift.
The rift was shaking violently as it kept folding and twisting under the pressure of Lake’s bombardment.
Suddenly, a figure shot out of the rift, quickly plummeting towards the ground but in an instant, a pair of large black wings extended from its back stopping its fall as it rode on the updraft.
Lake carefully observed the creature.
Its body was humanoid with a hunched back. Its skin seemed to be made out of a stone like material as its eyes glowed in a ferocious red.
The creature’s appearance reminded Lake of a gargoyle.
After looking through its fate, he acquired the information he needed before immediately acting.
In an instant, the gargoyle that had just regained its bearings was surrounded by mana that quickly encased its body in a box-like structure only leaving its head visible.
It seemed to be infuriated at its sudden imprisonment as it roared loudly, struggling to get out of its bindings. However, the box like structure seemed to be incredibly sturdy, not budging in the slightest no matter how hard the gargoyle struggled.
Some cracks did seem to form in its structure but they were quickly repaired by the surrounding mana.
Noticing this, the gargoyle seemed even more furious as it released another roar.
The roar seemed to shake the world as an ominous black energy shot out from its body, trying to corrode the block of mana that had encased it.
Seeing this, Lake casually waved his arm as the surrounding mana instantly shifted again, destroying whatever the black energy was.
The gargoyle seeing this had a hint of fear in its eyes but Lake paid no attention to it as his eyes returned to the rift.
After a few seconds, another creature jumped out. This time, however, as soon as the creature jumped out of the rift, as if sensing something was wrong, it immediately dashed away.
Lake didn’t seem surprised by this as he waved his arms again, just like he did for the gargoyle.
The creature had already flown more than a hundred meters away but in an instance, a box seemed to appear around it before encasing it just like the gargoyle.
Lake’s mana had already taken control of more than half of the surrounding storm. Even if the creature managed to run hundreds of meters away, so long as it was in the storm, it had already entered Lake’s domain.
The captured creature was dragged back towards the rift before being placed right beside the gargoyle.
This time it wasn’t a gargoyle, but a tiny imp-like creature with black scales.
The gargoyle, upon seeing the imp, was momentarily surprised before trying to communicate with it in a strange language.
The imp seemed to reply to the gargoyle’s communication but Lake didn’t care, he just continued to stare at the constantly shrinking rift.
As time went by, the rift was quickly shrinking and would most likely disappear within the next few seconds.
No other creatures came out of it during this time but Lake was already silently preparing as the mana around him continued to surge.
When the rift was only a few moments from closing, the final figure seemed to fly out.
Upon seeing the figure, Lake didn’t immediately act but waited patiently as he observed their fate.
The figure looked like a normal human child, albeit with a few additional accessories. She had pitch black hair and pale skin. Two small black horns protruded from her temples as bat-like wings fluttered behind her accompanying the long tail that swung from side to side behind her.
She seemed extremely meek and her bright red eyes were looking around with a weary gaze as her hands trembled. She was embracing a red book and looked extremely weak.
As she looked around, she seemed to have noticed the imp and gargoyle encased in a block of mana.
She seemed delighted at the sight of their faces but was even more weary seeing them encased in mana.
As she cautiously flew over towards the gargoyle and imp, the rift behind her had already closed.
Lake, who had just finished reading through her fate, waited no longer before making a move.
In an instant, Lake appeared behind the demon girl.
The Gargoyle and Imp who could now see Lake were shocked at his sudden appearance and hurriedly shouted out something towards the demon girl.
Unfortunately, Lake had reacted faster than she could as he stretched out his hands, grabbing the girl by the throat.
The demon girl, surprised by the sudden ambush, had fear written all over her face as she looked at Lake’s cold face.
The little girl seemed to be muttering some incomprehensible gibberish at this moment but Lake didn’t give her a chance as he tightened his grip on her throat, causing her to stop.
He was momentarily surprised when he found out, but he wasn’t going to give this little girl a chance to chant because he knew this seemingly harmless demon girl was a mage.
Realizing that she could no longer cast her magic with Lake’s hand clutching down on her throat, the demon girl seemed to have given up as tears welled up in her eyes.
The Gargoyle and Imp seemed to be furiously shouting out something behind Lake, but he paid no attention to it.
He looked at the little demon girl before him as his mind started to race.
Too many things had just happened and his plans had been changed several times as a result.
Now that he had everything under control, he could finally take the time to think and go through the information he had acquired.
Originally, his plan was to fly up into the sky and open the rift forcefully.
Using the mana storm as cover, he would hide before letting the beasts that fell out fall to the ground.
In most cases they should have died but even if they survived the fall, they would have to deal with the terrorist that had appeared in the auditorium below.
Of course, he had accounted for the chance of flying beasts as well, in which case he would let them fly out before purposely leading a few down towards the auditorium.
The hunters in the city would have picked up on the beasts appearing in the sky and rushed over in either scenario, which was Lake’s goal.
However, when he arrived in the mana storm and realized he could control it to an extent, his plan had been modified again.
He was planning to use the mana storm to control the creatures.
He would force a few of them down towards the auditorium, in which case he could have a greater control of the damage.
However, his plan had changed once again upon seeing the Gargoyle fly out and reading through his fate.
The rift these three monsters came from only had the three of them contained within it.
Although he could send all three of them towards the auditorium, Lake doubted he could actually pull it off as he had already seen that each of them was extremely intelligent after going through their fates.
Manipulating them like normal beasts would have been hard, even for him.
However, all of that changed once again when he saw the fate of the little demon girl before him.
"Demon King’s daughter..."
Lake wasn’t sure how to react when he found out the identity of the little brat in his hand.
The little girl was the daughter of the Demon King of what appeared to be another world.
After her father was killed in battle against a hero, she had barely escaped and had been hiding away in a secret bunker in the demon castle with her two trusted aides, the Gargoyle and the Imp.
When Lake figured this out, he was deeply shocked as it had once again confirmed the theory of parallel worlds.
A world where the demon king ruled, the humans fought back, and the hero eventually slayed the king.
The existence of such a world was truly a wonder to Lake.
After the battle between the demon king and the hero, a few years passed and the little princess stayed locked away in the bunker.
It wasn’t until a sudden shift happened in the dimensional boundary causing the demon king’s castle to be sent to a separate space did she appear here.
Lake knew that this was most likely the time when the demon king’s castle had separated from the world and became a rift.
However, none of that mattered right now.
Lake still had to hurry up and deal with the vile woman on the stage below so he didn’t have time to research into the history of another world.
Looking at the shape of the little girl’s fate, Lake’s eyes gleamed in an evil glow.
The fate was in the shape of a black crown, with thorn-like protrusions sticking out of it.
It was a fate Lake was all too familiar with.