I Was Banished from Heaven, Now I'm the Demon King's Stepdad?! - Chapter 24 – “The Heart of the Root”

Underestimated, shoved aside, trampled on, and lied to!

The life of a typical nobody like Alix was not an easy one. Mocked for being a poor orphan with no history of his parents, the loneliness was his only kin and kith in the whole wide world filled with magic.

With little time left to live and limited expectations from life, everything suddenly took a quick turn when he was accepted in the royal academy of arcane and taken in as a student of the crown princess who turned him into something that he never imagined he would become.

The young boy discovered something amazing in the vast emptiness of his soul, when his life was in danger and he was at the end of the line, a true monster's powers were awakened in the midst of all the madness, the truth of the past came to light, the mysterious young man finally found a purpose to his life and vowed to bring destruction on those who took everything from him.

“I will kill anyone who stands in my way, you think I am weak? if I were you I would take a look in the mirror, I will show this world what true power looks like” Alix said as his eye glowed blue and red.

A pill, a tiny capsule encased in a biologically harmless water-soluble shell; A shell whose very existence is a result of a century of research and technological advancement. A manmade synthesis of Chemicals and product of complex processes.

And in the end, a means to an end.

A way to deliver a concoction of other Chemicals for an agenda; Vitamins for nutrition, medication for treatment, or… perhaps more.

We trust that what we eat won’t do us harm, and trust that those who are responsible for its creation had the best of intentions. But in the end, it is difficult or perhaps impossible to truly tell what lies within a pill.

That is until one day I entered a research institution as a test subject. All I did was swallow a pill I was told to be a health supplement.

Kurono Maou is a high school student who is sensitive of his sharp eyes and bad expression. No girlfriend but gifted with friends in his own way, he had been living a peaceful life.

Driven by his need for revenge, Lazarus, the Lore’s most ruthless vampire, plots to seize the throne of Wilyra and rule it along with his betrothed, the fae goddess Maeve who thrives in a borrowed body.

Lazarus has a perfect plan—until he finds Emmalyn, a young mortal who is the daughter of the rebel leader of blood vassals in his kingdom and an integral part of his plan. He captures the young girl to cast her soul out for Maeve.

Emmalyn yearns for a better life to escape from her stepmother and an indifferent father. She never imagined that they would sell her to the royals to save her brother’s life.

But there’s only one problem. Emmalyn tempts Lazarus beyond reason. As the time to cast her soul out draws closer, he must choose between his lust for the throne or his irresistible mortal.

Will Lazarus succumb to lust for power and crown? Or will he risk it all to have a future with her?