Would You Forget?

Leaning against a tree trunk he finally took a break as he looked at the grassy field in front of him. His body was managing to slowly heal all the injuries it had suffered in battle thanks to some help. "How are things going?" Not a single soul was near him, he was just talking to himself. Strangely enough though even while being alone a quiet voice managed to give a response. "I'm managing." The two of them were making their way to the next City for directions. "That's good." He needed the man to be at full power as soon as possible.

"After losing to the boy, we had to run with our tail between our legs....So damn pathetic."

"I see you're still whining about it after all this time. I know you're obsessed with defeating him but maybe-"

"Shut it."

The old man sighed as Zelfin completely cut him off. "This is why memories are such a tedious thing." Defeating Xilo was what drove Zelfin to go as far as he had and that was good. It also shackled him down into one thing and stopped him from doing anything else with his life. "Revenge is something I understand all too well though." The Old Man couldn't blame him for his behaviour, he was in the same position himself. "That boy was very strong." In their first little fight he had gained some interesting information. "I guess it's time to talk about it." Maybe it could lead them down a slightly different path but he doubted it.

"Zelfin, when you were fighting Xilo did you happen to notice any oddities?"

Watching a few people pass by on the road nearby Zelfin thought back to that fight, it was something he had thought about thousands of times. There wasn't anything odd about it though that he could think of. "He was way stronger." Beyond that it seemed like the old Xilo he remembered. Just a monster that didn't care what happened to all the people around him. "No, I didn't notice anything off." Answering the Old man, he shut his eyes as he let himself get a little rest. "I see..." If Zelfin didn't notice it then it was more serious than he thought.

"When you were fighting, I happened to notice something weird about the boy."

"Huh? If you did, why didn't you tell me earlier? Spit it out.

"I wasn't sure about telling you at the time. You were too injured and out of control. Now that the boy is far away though I can safely tell you without worrying about you trying to go get yourself killed."

"..."

Zelfin knew he was right about that.

"When you were fighting him, I was examining his body and the energy he held. You might honestly be right about him being a monster. That energy he has isn't normal Astral Energy. It's different from anything I've ever seen. That isn't what my main concern is though. There were hints of multiple different energies inside of him that weren't his own and two of them were in his mind. I don't know what one of them was doing but the other seemed to be a lock of sorts. I've seen a few in the past that were similar."

"What was the lock there for?"

"If I'm right, it was put there to lock away memories hidden within him. I tried to explore it deeper and it seems he's missing probably 9ish years of memories. That's a lot of memories to lock away and just forget. Not just anyone could put that on him. So I was curious as to if you might know anything about that since you knew him since you were young."

Zelfin was a little shocked to hear that someone could lock away memories from someone.

"I didn't even know that kind of thing was possible. Regardless, I don't know anything. Xilo arrived in our clan when he was young, our leader brought him in and raised him. No one there ever brought up his past and no one ever asked. It was an unspoken rule of sorts. Why are you so curious about this kind of thing? Isn't it just a couple of memories? That doesn't sound like a big deal."

"Usually I'd say you are right. Nowadays it seems most people don't lock away memories anymore. In the past though, a lot of people would use that technique, on themselves or others. They would block out memories in order to exchange, get stronger or....to just forget. No one had ever erased that much before though and that's what concerns me. It's like someone was trying to hide something away from the boy and others."

"Huh? That sounds absolutely stupid. Why would forgetting something make you stronger? The people of your time just sound like idiots to me."

The Old man rolled his spiritual eyes as he listened to Zelfin.

"There's too many reasons as to why someone would want to forget something boy. If you had the ability to get rid of all of your hate for Xilo would you?"

"No way, that's the only thing I have left."

Hate seethed into his words, he would never want to forget Xilo.

"Alright my bad, that wasn't a good example. Maybe a better example would be the girl you call Yilel that lurks around your memories or even the place you used to call home. if you could forget those would you?"

There was no instant replay as Zelfin's body froze thinking about Yilel. He started to shake as the thought of forgetting her tortured his mind. "Would I...want to forget her?" All the emotions he felt for her, all the time he had spent with her. The home he had grown up in, those kinds of things were something he didn't want to forget. He also knew that they tied him down like right now, even just thinking about her had stopped his breathing. "Can I forget?" The Old man listened to his thoughts as he replied. "If you really want to forget, I can help you." That temptation was dangled right in front of Zelfin.

"Stay out of my thoughts....and stop snooping around in my memories."

"Well do you see the appeal of forgetting now? Emotions can be a powerful tool that pushes you forward, it can also lock you down in place though and freeze your world. It works both ways, so if you forget the bad ones, you'd think things would be so much easier. That you could push forward and be better."

After a moment of silence Zelfin pushed out a reply.

"Well...did it work for them in the past then? Did forgetting really help them?"

"For some it did help, for others though they became worse. Each of those people who chose to forget had one thing in common though, they weren't the same as before. Memories and emotions are fickle and one small change could lead to something big. It was a risk they were willing to take or not even care about however so they did it. I also think they were fools just like you..but in the end, I get it."

"Did you also want to forget something?"

"At one point in my life, yes."