Vermilion Fish

Following his rendezvous with Aleena, Seth returned to the academy to check out on the other ascended.

As he walked through the academy courtyard, hundreds of students passed by him, bowing respectfully before cheerfully continuing on their way.

‘Did Blair join the academy?’

<Affirmative. Blair’s still dressed as a man and attending Hollie’s class.>

‘Didn’t Hollie finish yet? I saw students from all other classes except air.’

<No. She’s still in class, answering questions from the students.>

With a slight nod to himself, Seth changed direction, heading for the air ascended class. Once there, he entered silently inside and changed his appearance to not get recognized before walking towards Blair’s location.

He found Blair sitting around the middle rows, eyes focused forward, seemingly consuming each of Hollie’s words.

Seeing the desks around her were all occupied by other students, Seth teleported the one sitting on Blair’s left side toward the back of the class and sat down.

His little magic trick was noticed, and some students chose to move away from that place. Hollie, on the stand in front, looked at the sudden commotion with a raised eyebrow before deciding to remain silent about it and continue her lesson.

Blair also lifted her head when she noticed the movement around her, only to spot an unfamiliar face sitting next to her. Finding Seth looking straight at her, she cleared her throat and asked curiously: “Anything I can do for you?”

Seth turned to look forward toward Hollie, who was explaining something from a raised platform and answered her question.

“What do you think about teacher Hollie?”

Blair looked forward as well, not understanding why the sudden unusual question.

“She’s a good teacher?” replied Blair, a trace of uncertainty in her voice.

“That she is, but she’s also an even better ascended. You know what the most interesting thing about air ascended is?” asked Seth, turning back at Blair with a smile.

Blair shook her head, prompting Seth to reply. “Most of them are a bit air-headed, but they have good ears and big hearts.”

Blair appeared even more confused, but when she turned towards Hollie, she found Hollie staring back at the two.

“Who are you?” asked Hollie, her eyes fixed on Seth, not Blair, having obviously heard his earlier words.

“Teacher Hollie, don’t pay me any attention. Some might say I’m nothing more than a lost God that stumbled upon your lecture.” Replied Seth with a chuckle, causing the other students to laugh as well.

A look of realization appeared in Hollie’s eyes, and she moved them to glance at Blair for a moment before continuing her lecture like nothing had happened.

Blair looked between Seth and Hollie for a moment and asked: “What was that?”

“Just what I told you. Air ascended have really good ears. The other classes have already ended, but why do you think yours hasn’t?”

“Because there is more knowledge to cover for air ascended?”

“Not really, no. The theory for air ascended is on the smaller side. The class hasn’t ended because Hollie’s listening to the questions students quietly murmur and answering them in turn. See? Good ears and a big heart. Pay close attention, Blair, and I’m sure you’ll be a great ascended.”

“Who are you really?”, asked Blair with a frown, not understanding why he was telling her all this and even knew her name.

Seth chuckled and stood up before saying: “End here and come home. The others are waiting.”, before teleporting away.

“Your highness?” muttered Blair, finally realizing who it was that sat next to her, the slight nod coming from Hollie also confirming her thoughts.

A quarter of an hour later, in the main lobby of the royal chambers, Seth, Maya, Henrietta, and Tiana were sitting down and enjoying a cup of tea while talking about everyone’s day at the academy.

The main door opened, and Hollie walked inside, coming to sit next to the others.

“Sorry for having you wait. Some of the students are a bit more idiotic than I thought, so I had to go through a lot of extra stuff to save myself the trouble later.”, said Hollie before sitting down. Fixing her eyes on Seth, she continued: “Do you have an interest in that brat? She didn’t seem that smart either.”

“Do you know she’s a girl?” asked Seth with a raised eyebrow.

“Yes. She might try to make her voice hoarser on purpose, but there’s no fooling an air ascended. There’s also quite a lot of girls dressed up as boys in class, so are you going to tell me why the interest in this particular one?”

“Because I know her from the past. Well, sort of. She’s the first air ascended to break into the ninth shell in the former history. Nine shells ascended were known in the past as demi-gods, and the first ones to break into the ninth shell were known as paragons. She was the Paragon of Grace, Blair Innis, and I even fought against her once.”

“You fought against her?” asked Hollie with a raised eyebrow, and even the other girls showed a trace of interest in the subject.

“Yeah. Since destruction knowledge was evolving at a snail’s pace compared to the other energies, I was forced to seek help from a hidden civilization when trying to break through my last shell.”

“That civilization had a habit of taking in the strongest ascended out there, Blair already being a part of them, so they, of course, accepted me as well.”

“Everything went fine, and I broke through eventually, but I was not going to remain a part of their civilization, so after stealing the title of Paragon of Ruin, I tried to run away.”

“Blair caught up to me as I fled, and we fought. We were both at the border of godhood, so our fight was by no means easy.”

Seth sighed and shook his head: “In the end, destruction would always come above the other elemental energies, so she lost, badly.”

“Did you kill her?” asked Maya, noticing a trace of sadness in Seth’s eyes.

“No.” Replied Seth with a shake of his head: “After breaking apart her legs and hands, I left her in a ditch and continued on my way, seeking to take a seat for myself in the ranks of godhood.”

“What happened to her in the end?” asked Henrietta.

“She had a life and death ascended heal her and started looking for ways she could defeat me, but in the end, she found out the bitter truth that she could not do it herself.”

“She ended under Vayu’s wing, and he came to challenge me in her stead. I lost and had to run away, barely able to avoid dying. Even a ninth shell destruction ascended couldn’t fight off a god sitting on the Air Throne.”

After Seth ended his story somewhat abruptly, he stood up and said: “Should we continue our tour? Yesterday I failed to show you all your rooms.”

Everyone seemed excited, and Seth took them all to look at their rooms. Nothing like yesterday happened, which made Maya feel a bit awkward, but that all went away when Seth took them all to the large bath he had prepared inside.

“Is this a lake?” asked Tiana softly, eliciting a chuckle from Seth.

The bath was quite large, able to fit more than three hundred people side by side. It was also complete with all stairs on one side, where people could sit down and relax, a small waterfall on one side walls, leading straight to the pool of water, different jumping platforms, and so on. There was even a massage room and a sauna nearby.

Seth had taken everything he could find about baths, pools, and hot springs he knew from the future and combined them into one place. One of the walls on the side even had a giant mirror reflecting the entire pool.

“No, it’s simply a public bath, just for us, where we can relax. Want to give it a try?”

Tiana looked curiously at the bath and nodded shyly; even the other girls seemed intrigued. Seth was about to create some swimsuits on the spot when he remembered Aleena might want to come and said: “I’ll go pick up Aleena, and we can all get in. Wait here for a moment.”

After a quick nod from the others, Seth teleported away, arriving at Aleena’s door. After knocking on the door and it not opening for even half a minute, Seth raised an eyebrow and asked the system. ‘Is she asleep?’

<Negative. She’s cleaning up.>

Seth didn’t ask anything else and waited patiently. A minute later, a red-faced Aleena, dressed in a comfortable-looking nightgown, opened the door.

She appeared pretty antsy, her eyes running away from Seth’s as she even made sure to stay far away.

“Let’s go and have a bath.”, said Seth, stunning her on the spot as he teleported them into the bath.

Aleena looked at the chatting girls, and her cheeks turned even redder, thinking of what she had done for the entire day. Not minding her reaction, Seth created a set of swimsuits for everyone to use and said: “Go get changed, then we can all get inside.”

The girls took the swimsuits from Seth, with Maya looking at hers and asking: “Why are we wearing lingerie and not getting inside naked?”

Her question was also on the others’ minds, and they all turned toward Seth, waiting for an answer. Aleena looked at the skimpy lingerie in her hands, and the red from her cheeks extended to her ears and down her neck.

“This is not lingerie, but swimsuits. They are worn when bathing in public. Every woman wore them in the future.”

The girls nodded and went to the changing room Seth had created on the poolside. Ten minutes later, almost everyone was outside, wearing their swimsuits.

Seth’s eyes looked over the bikini everyone was wearing, a trace of heat appearing in the area between his legs, where his lust source was. After keeping his lust in control, he looked back towards the changing room and asked: “What about Aleena?”

“She said we can get in first, and she’s come right after.” Replied Maya with a giggle, coming forward to press her body against Seth’s. “Shall we?”

Seth smiled, and everyone walked inside the pool with excited looks on their faces. The water was lukewarm at the edge of the stairs, and it only reached about Seth’s waist.

Once inside, Maya was like a fish back in the water, letting herself float upwards, her legs poking through the surface.

A tantalizing image appeared in everyone’s eyes, her massive breasts captivating everyone’s looks as they rose above the water level.

“Ah, this is so good.” She muttered, letting the small current formed by the waterfall carry her into the pool’s depths.

Henrietta and Hollie also started swimming deeper inside, their perky behinds rising to the surface and giving Seth another feast for the eyes.

Seth was about to follow them when he noticed that Tiana seemed rooted to the first flight of stairs. Turning towards her, he asked: “Are you not coming?”

Tiana looked down and shook her head: “I can’t swim.”

“Really?” asked Seth, making his way back to her. “That’s fine. I’ll give you some pointers.” He continued while extending a hand towards her.

Tiana took his outstretched hand and let him pull her into the water. Not that far from the stairs, Seth had her lean forward into the water, supporting her waist to keep her above as he started explaining the basic mechanics of swimming.

He kept practicing with Tiana, leading her deeper inside while she kept trying to float on her back.

Just as he heard a small splash at the pool entrance and noticed Aleena had also entered the water, sneaking away from him into the other side of the pool, Seth felt a pair of hands touching his waist and making their way into his trousers.

Curious about who it was, he looked down and saw Maya’s vermilion hair through the clear water. Before he could even move a hand inside the water to stop her, his flaccid rod was engulfed by a warm feeling, and his hands holding Tiana afloat shook lightly.

“Anything wrong?” asked Tiana while opening her eyes to look at Seth, feeling the sudden shake of his hands.

Seth smiled wryly, doing his best to keep himself from making any noise, as he replied: “Nothing much. I think a hungry fish found its way inside the bath.”