Chapter 7: Pain and Grief

"Going soft? Preposterous." Two male silhouettes facing each other at the top of a tower. It would seem that the other male was the one who caught Paimon and Philomina at the training field.

"Yes, if you were to see it with your own eyes as well. Making such moves on his student." A dark green haired man replied back to the silver haired man, while flipping a coin continuously.

"This human girl, you said that her name is 'Philomina'. Am I correct?" The silver haired man said while grabbing a small sketch pad and a pencil from his back pocket, he started sketching.

"That's right. This girl seems to be a descendant of Zephyr and now Khione as well." The dark green haired man leaned his back at the windowsill while watching the other man sketching. Taking a peaking at the sketch pad, he noticed the exact look of Philomina, but the only missing is her face. Her hair style, head structure, and shoulder were exactly how he saw Philomina.

"Woah. Don't tell me you're getting rusty?" He continued while looking at the silver haired man's sketch pad.

'This is the first time that I saw his sketch without a face. Normally, he would be able to sketch anything even though he hasn't seen them yet.' He thought while glancing at the silver haired man, who is looking at a distance somehow losing his own thoughts.

"Hmph." The silver haired man cleared his throat and then he closed his sketch pad and placed it back in his back pocket and started to walk away from the dark green haired man. While the dark green haired man just released a sigh and then started to follow his friend.

"Stronger than that, Philomina." Paimon's stern voice roared at the training field while Philomina is standing with both of her hands on her knees, taking a deep breath and release it, small puffs of her breath are coming out from her mouth like you are in a very cold environment.

"Remember, you have to be colder than that. Make it your element that cannot be melt by anything in your way." Paimon continued and Philomina slowly stand straight again placing both of her hands at the side then resuming a defensive stance.

'Be colder. Make your whole body in a subzero element. Cryogenic.' She thought to herself and closed her eyes and try to focus. Visions of a woman wearing a kimono in different shades of blue entered Philomina's thoughts making her eyes dilated. The vision continued to show in Philomina's head, the woman in a kimono held her hand up high and a naginata appeared in her grasp. Philomina held her head with both of her hands and her breath is slowly getting ragged, she is seeing Khione's past; that is what she thought and it is correct.

'Come. O lady of ice.' A cloacked figure appeared in front of Khione and there was also a man behind her. A man with pale white hair wearing a silver armor with a dark blue cape and a snowflake sigil at the bottom of the cape, flowing behind him, looked like a solider. Khione looked at the man with loving, soft eyes and said,

'Protect our people, my love.' The man looked hesitant, his voice cannot be heard inside Philomina's head, but the man turned and left Khione with the mysterious cloaked figure and he went to where their people are. Khione and the mysterious figure clashed weapons together after a few minutes when the man left them.

'Forgive me, my dearest. With this last strength of mine, I will protect you and our people from this threat. And I swore on my life, that there will be someone to continue my legacy. A body so frail and yet can withstand my cryogenic element.' Khione thought to herself and brought out a huge magic circle, trapping the mysterious figure inside it and yielding him in place with her ice. Shards of ice started to raise from the ground within the magic circle that Khione casted, trapping the mysterious figure inside it. The ice shards were so high up and cold that the mysterious figure could've the chance to escape from it.

From the distant, the man in a silver armor felt the ground shook a bit and looked back from Khione's location and his eyes dilated when he saw the giant ice shards from above the forest. Since the people were saved, the man rushed back to Khione's location and there he found the mysterious figure in front of him, trapped within the ice shards and not only that, his body was severely mangled; eyes were wide open but the pupils were colored iced blue, his whole body is filled with scars that were iced blue as well and it looked like one touch of it, his body will immediately fall into pieces; and his mouth looked like he was shouting from pain that ice shards were coming out from it.

The man frantically looked around the area for Khione, thinking that she is just resting at the side; but then he saw her weapon a few feet away from the mysterious figure, then from that location, he slowly move his vision downward and saw a trail of fabric, the ends of a kimono; scared to see what happened and there right in front of his eyes, Khione is laying face down on the ground, as if she was trying to walk back to her people with her right arm, out stretched like she is reaching out. The man grabbed Khione into his arms and shouted, with pain and grief in his voice, like how a man has lost his lover, that all people noticed it as well.

"Philomina!" The visions instantly stopped when Philomina heard a familiar voice, she opened her eyes and saw familiar faces.

"Vian, Yen. Why is everyone here?" She looked around and she noticed that everyone together with their mentors are there as well and they were looking down on her. Now, it came to her that she is laying down on a bed and noticed the ceiling of the clinic.

"W - What happened?" She stuttered with a hoarse voice while trying to sit up from her position. Reine went to Philomina's side and she said,

"Your mentor, sir Paimon brought you here because he said that during your training that you pass out." Vian is assisting Philomina to sit up from her bed.

"I - I pass out?" And then it came to her a sudden rush of flashback from Khione's past, making her head hurt again.

"We're going to give you some time to talk to each other." Lugh said to the other members of the class.

"Wait a minute. Where's sir Paimon?" Yen stated when she noticed that Paimon is the only mentor that is not present at the moment.

"We're going to where he is right now." Zagan stated quickly and went out of the room and following behind him is Amon and Baalberith. Lugh was about to go out as well but then he turn back to the girls and said,

"We'll deal with your mentor. So, right now you need some rest and for the others, try to support your classmate for now." After he stated that he went out of the room and followed the other mentors. A moment of silence went into the room when Lugh and the others went out.

"I've been meaning to ask this Philomina, but what happened to your hands?" Greta pointed out Philomina's hands and then she slowly brought out both of her hands from the sheets, the color blue is slowly disappearing.

"I guess I failed to do it again." Philomina muttered to herself. Catching everyone's attention, Philomina cleared her throat and then took a deep breath.

"Let me explain to you." She continued and explained to the others about Khione and what happened during her training. Everyone was listening intently to Philomina and there were some light tears shed from Khione's back story.

"Wow Philomina, you're improving your skills. But..." Yen said but her voice trailed off slowly and then Vian continued,

"You have to be careful of yourself as well. We all know that we have an examination but do try not to push yourself so hard." Philomina nodded and then she looked back to her hands and noticed that it went back to normal.

"I wonder if our persona's will evolve as well just like Philomina's persona." Greta said out loud making the others look at her.

"It will. We will just have to work hard but not too hard." Yen said in a positive tone and the other nodded in agreement.

"What do you think is going on with out mentors?" Reine suddenly brought up another topic, bringing another tense atmosphere inside the room.

"Sir Paimon was with us when we were still outside your room." Vian said while the others nodded, Philomina looked at them confusingly.

"I wonder where did he go." Philomina said and the others just shrugged their shoulders and some just shook their heads.

"So, how long are you going stay there?" Lugh said in front of an office door with Paimon's name written on a silver plaque. The others just remained silent while looking at the door as well. Behind the door, Paimon is sitting on his couch with his head down.

"We're going inside. I can't take this attitude of yours!" Zagan exclaimed from the door and slamming the door wide open. Paimon didn't move from his position and the others went inside and sat in front of Paimon.

"What's going through your head right now, Paimon?" Amon said shortly while crossing both of his arms in front of him.

"I..." Paimon's voice is shaky and you can notice that he was scared, heck, he's a nervous wreck right now. The members of the Seven deadly sins, Lugh, Zagan and Baalberith looked at their leader.

"This is new to our leader." Baalberith commented at Paimon's state.

"Would care to give us a brief explanation as to what happened to your trainee?" Lugh said and everyone was looking at Paimon intently.

"She was..." Paimon started to explain to the others what happened while it is still fresh in his mind and at the same time its still playing inside his head.

-FLAHSBACK-

"I... I..." Philomina stuttered while holding her head with both of hands, her breathing is getting more and more ragged, her eyes are losing its focus, and her legs were slowly moving backward on its own.

"Philomina?" He noticed his student wasn't focus and something was wrong, he quickly went towards her but then ,

"STAY BACK!" She shouted and sharp ice shards quickly sprouted from the ground going towards Paimon, he immediate evade the attack.

"Hey! Philomina! Stay with me! Focus!" He exclaimed and attempting to go back towards her again but more and more ice shards are sprouting from the ground, it looked like it is blocking and covering his path to Philomina, not really attacking him.

"Stay. Away. From. Me." Philomina slowly stated, remaining from her current position but she is bending down and looking at the ground.

"Damn it. Philomina!" Paimon exclaimed and then he casted an orange magic circle around Philomina, she grunted and then some of the ice shards that were trying to sprout out, were slowly moving out from the ground like it was in slow motion.

Philomina's vision is slowly getting blurry and its darkening. She can hear her mentor's voice and his silhouette is making its way towards her direction.

"I... Can't... This pain... that I... feel..." She slowly muttered as she is slowly fall down on the ground, Paimon immediately caught her in his arms.

"Hey! What's wrong?! Philomina!?" He continue to exclaimed but Philomina couldn't hear Paimon's voice that much it was as if she is slowly losing her hearing.

"I... Can't feel... Anything... There... Is... Nothing... But... Pain... and... Grief... Her life... Is it going to be..." She slowly said before losing consciousness. Paimon looked at Philomina in his arms, his whole body is shaking. He mustered all of his strength and teleported to the clinic and frantically asked for help from the medical staff.

The medical staff took her, leaving Paimon behind, alone at the lobby of the clinic. Thinking that he almost lost his student. Her life? It must have been Khione. He didn't expect that Philomina would see a vision of Khione's past.

Its all my fault

I pushed her too hard

-END OF FLASHBACK-

"So, your student was able to see a vision of Khione, the evolved form of Zephyr, her persona." Baalberith stated and Paimon just nodded silently.

"Compared to the other students, she is getting even more stronger. Knowing that she was able to unlock her potential and to see visions as well." Lugh continued and silently went back to thinking again.

"The more you are getting stronger, the more pain and suffering you will experience. And everyone won't be able to escape from this if you want to grow even stronger." Zagan stated seriously and Paimon just remained motionless from his place.

"That's the reason why sir Hyodo asked us to mentor these students. He knew from the very beginning that something like this were to happen. And we are here to train them." Amon continued.

"I... Didn't want her to feel this immediately. I know that it would be, soon, but this is rather..." Paimon retorted in a shaky voice but got interrupted,

"That's why you are there. You are her mentor. You train, teach, guide and help her. Don't you even think of preventing her from getting even more stronger." Zagan grabbed Paimon by the collar of his clothes, growled lowly and his ears and tail are starting to get pointed, like he is getting more aggressive or should I say furious,

"Hey, hey. Calm down Zagan." Baalberith calmly said, trying to prevent a fight to occur.

"There is already an issue. Don't go start another one." Amon coldly said, making Zagan click his tongue and throw Paimon harshly back on the couch.

"We'll give you some time, Paimon. Just remember this, you can't keep her from all of the pain, grief and suffering of the world and the path that she has chosen for herself." Lugh said and they went out of the room but Zagan remained inside his office.

"I'm not the only one who is feeling this but the others as well. We have rules Paimon. Get it together." Zagan stated shortly and slammed the door shut. Leaving Paimon, staring at the ceiling, thinking back all of his time with Philomina; her expressions, improvement, gracefulness. Then her smile appeared inside his head, Paimon covered his face with both of his hand and sighed deeply.

"I guess I'm starting to..." He muttered silently under his breath and continue to stare at his ceiling blankly.