Like Void Water To Me

The wooden floor was riddled with a mixture of vomit and blood. All the kids were sitting and crying on that very mixture. 

Isshin amusingly looked at the scene below him with a smirk on his face.

"We don't have all day. Stand up, trainees!" Isshin ordered and before the pain could take over their bodies the kids used their hands to push them up.

"Good. Now outside this hall, there are two residences with 30 beds in total. You may go there and get yourself washed. We will provide you with the robes as you get out of the hall. You heard me? If you did then say. Yes, commander!" Isshin commanded with vigor.

""Yes commander."" Although the sounds were not loud enough for Isshin's liking, He was still satisfied with their performances as he smiled a little.

"Good. You may now go."

All the kids started walking as soon as they got the order. As they were getting out of the door, a sabertooth team member handed them the demon sect robes. It should have been able to fit most of them.

"If it's too big or too small, tell me alright!" The team member handed them the clothes with a smile on her face.

Everyone took the robes and nodded.

Outside the hall, there were lamps with the flags of the demon sect on them and the residences were on the left and right side of the hall.

The residence on the left of the hall had a name carved on a board, "Eastern Hall". And the one on the right had the name, "Western Hall."

Ivar looked at all of the 12 girls walking towards the Eastern Hall, making it the girl's only residence on everyone's mind.

'They got to choose first huh?' Ivar thought walking towards the Western Hall. He looked at the lamps on the pole and saw the flag attacked near the lamp.

'Oh no. What if the flag burns?! Who even put the lamp near the flag? do they not respect the flag?' Ivar went on a monologue about the respect of the flag, deciding to tell someone tomorrow he continued walking towards the western hall.

Suddenly, he stopped in his tracks, 'Wait a minute…' A chilling thought popped up in Ivar's mind, 'From when did I start respecting the flag?'

But his thought suddenly was interrupted by another one, 'Ah! It's only natural that I respect it. After all, I did join the demon sect today!'

Ivar didn't give much thought to the issue and went inside the Western hall. He saw that there were 15 beds laid neatly next to each other with 7 on one side and 8 on the other. There were also dried mean on the table beside the bed.

On the very end of their hall, there was a door on which the words 'Well' were written. Ivar immediately understood the purpose of the well and dashed there before anyone else could. 

Opening the door, he found a closed space with clear dirt ground, some cupboards to put clothes in, and some towels. There was a well in the exact center of the space with a rope attached to the bucket and a pulley.

Ivar put his robes on the cupboard, folding it nicely, and took a towel with him. He pulled a bucket of water using the pulley and started washing himself.

Creakkk-

Among the sounds of splashing water, the sound of a door opening was heard. Ivar looked at the person who opened the door. It was Cohen.

"Oh, Cohen. Come here. Take a bath." Ivar guestered Cohen as he sat on a nicely shaped stone and poured water over himself.

"You should look at what is happening in the bedroom. You won't like it." Cohen said to Ivar his eyes dark.

"We will deal with it later. Also, the flying things ability you showed was awesome! When did you awaken it?" Ivar was enthusiastic and questioned Cohen.

"Well, It's called telekinesis. I awakened it on the day we met and Isshin attacked." Cohen replied still not excited.

"Anything up Cohen? You seem sad." Ivar decided to directly question Cohen.

Cohen sighed as he poured a bucket of water over his white hair, "Well I killed that person… he was probably innocent too."

Ivar remained silent. Although he didn't feel much impact of killing someone, he knew Cohen mightn't be like him.

"Anyway let's talk about something else. How did you join the sect so quickly and as a rank 8 instead of 9 at that?!" Cohen questioned.

"Well, I woke up earlier than all the others. My guess is that I was already at the maximum point of the initiate stage that Isshin mentioned. So he forced me to climb the stairs and I changed to the Circulation stage. Do you know more about these stages? I don't know much about them so I can only guess."

Cohen put his hand on his chin and started thinking. "Circulation stage huh… Most of the mercenaries older than 25 are in that stage. However, I don't know much about it. I think they will teach us tomorrow. Also, what's all about these stairs?"

"Oh the stairs, You don't know about them huh? So you know how we are at the top of a mountain currently right?"

Cohen nodded.

"So these long snake-like stairs are extending from the base to here. Climbing them wouldn't have been a problem if they were normal but these were the stairs that slightly increased gravity when we took the next step. On the topmost step, the gravity is double."

Cohen's eyes widened with surprise, "Oh wow! I have never heard of something like that."

"Yeah. Me too. Honestly, all this stuff used to be like Void water to me! I knew they existed somewhere but never saw them." Ivar answered honestly.

"Yeah… Although I have seen the Void water Ocean once." Cohen smiled as he started to brag.

Ivar's eyes lightened as he spoke, "Really? When? Also Is it really as scary as people say?"

Cohen started sweating, 'Oh no. I shouldn't have told him that.'

"Well, the thing is…"

Creakkk-

The two were interrupted by a few men opening the door. "Let's go now," Cohen asked.

"Yeah." Ivar agreed.

The two cleaned off their sweat with a towel and wore the demon sect robe with '8' and '9' written on the pupil of the logo.

The two opened the door, only to see all the food at everyone's table gone and some of the men protectively sitting beside a table.

Ivar's stomach rumbled.