Art: ???

—Final Chapter—

"What?"

Zhongli and Venti both said the same thing, in complete bewilderment, and in confusion.

"You're joking right? Xiao?" Venti muttered, as he stared straight at the adeptus, who stared back looking puzzled.

"Does he have selective amnesia?" Zhongli asked, turning to Venti who had his mouth open.

Zhongli didn't look very happy either. The two know the one thing Y/N said she was afraid of, especially with Xiao.

She didn't like being forgotten. And she had been forgotten once by him, and now she had been forgotten again.

What's more, is that she has been missing since Xiao has been asleep from his injuries, and from severe fatigue and pain.

"Tell me, who is Y/N?" Xiao said again, with his eyebrows raised towards the two, who looked at him even more concerned. And hurt, for Y/N. She would be even more hurt if she had known she was forgotten by Xiao. They both knew their close relationship, they knew the two were in love. Which hurts even more.

"Uh— um..." Venti was lost at words, the two gods looked at each other. He sat down on the edge of Xiao's bed rubbing the back of his head, not exactly sure on what to do to help Xiao remember something.

Zhongli opened his mouth to say something.

"Do you really not remember who she is?"

Xiao's mouth was slightly agape. He was shocked to see Zhongli look very... disappointed...

He shook his head no, with a grim look.

"I don't think it's a severe amnesia... I hope his memories return." Venti mumbled.

"I will go and ask Baizhu to take a look." Zhongli got up from his stool and rushed out, quickly heading to Liyue Harbor.

Venti snapped his fingers to go and do something himself.

"I need to go see Ming! Maybe she knows something!" The anemo archon left out the window, casually jumping out of it.

Xiao was confused himself. He never got answers on who this 'Y/N' was. His stronger instincts told him to remember. To try and find out. To see them, and to find them.

Sudden feelings of determination took over. He couldn't even remember who this person was, so they might as well be a stranger. He felt bad... and felt that a piece of him was missing.

Xiao slowly got out of the bed, and winced slightly at the pain on his abdomen, and leg.

He wanted to find this person. But he had no clue on where to go, where would he have gone?

Xiao remembered a few fragments of what he had dreamed about.

A white tiger, and a mountain. And the voice of Zhongli... but what was about it.

What did they all have to do with his memory? Surely there was a connection.

Xiao felt another headache form, but it was a milder one, after he had taken the painkillers that were given, they felt better. But they were certainly bitter.

Xiao dropped his hands on the side of his body, and stared at the wooden floor. He just couldn't remember a certain parts of his memories. Why was he even so injured in the first place? His clothes had been stained with blood. Not human mortal blood, demonic blood. Which was for certain.

Why was he fighting demons? Because they were a threat?

He knows about that... but he still wasn't sure.

What did those two know? Why were they so shocked at him not remembering this person?

Were they that important? Did he hold them dear?

So many questions with obvious answers kept being thrown inside his head. But he didn't know those such, obvious answers.

Xiao bit the inside of his cheek, and his lips formed another frown. He wasn't getting anywhere near remembering anything.

He would have gone to somewhere he's been to with this person if he had any leads. Maybe if he was able to see this person, he would remember something.

That's what he hoped for.

Xiao didn't realize how long he had stood for in the middle of the room, as Zhongli returned with the man from Bubu Pharmacy. Baizhu.

He was told to sit back down, which he obeyed. And let Baizhu take some tests.

"Selective amnesia. I would like to think whatever memory he had lost, was very important. Maybe a bit of a traumatic experience?" Baizhu wrote down some things on a parchment paper, as he pushed his glasses up. "I don't think it is very severe, I'm sure if he sees anything that reminds him of her, then he might remember. But I think the most affective way to trigger it, would be for him to see the person instead... do you know where they are?"

Zhongli looked at his lap, and pursed his lips.

"No, she has been missing for a month. We have yet to know her whereabouts."

Baizhu frowned as well, at the misfortunate situation they faced.

"That's very unfortunate..." Baizhu mumbled.

Venti returned as well, and didn't look very happy as well.

"Have you found anything?" Zhongli asked.

Venti shook his head as he jumped through the window again and walked over to the men.

"Ming, or anyone for the matter was nowhere at the mountain. I don't know where they could have been... but didn't you say there were demons all over Liyue?"

"Demons...? Ah yes, Xiao and the others were fending them off..." Zhongli's voice trailed off, as he started getting another thought. "Demons? Why would there be many demons all over Liyue?"

"Could somebody have summoned them maybe?" Baizhu suggested.

Zhongli's hand made its way to his chin again, as he was deep in thought once more.

"Summoned?"

Venti sat on the edge of the bed again, as Xiao was still confused. Demons? Summon?

"Was that the reason why I was injured?" Xiao asked Zhongli.

"Yes, it was actually." Zhongli nodded.

He was injured because of demons? What kind of demons?

He started seeing some hilichurls with a menacing aura around them. And him, attacking them... but that's about it. One part of his memory returned.

"There's only one other person who had been able to summon such demons, and they have pass—" Zhongli stopped himself again, earning looks from the other two men.

Xiao quirked another eyebrow, at his sudden realizing look on his face. He heard Zhongli mumbling a few things, along the lines of, "No, they have been killed..." or "How could they..."He couldn't make out the rest.

"Do you have an idea of who it is, blockhead?" Venti chimed in first, in hopes of knowing what he was frantically worried about.

"I think I should take my leave. If there are any other problems, please come to Bubu Pharmacy." Baizhu nodded and left. He was a very busy man indeed.

"Dolos, the god of manipulation. He lived thousands of years ago, during the archon war. And he was capable of summoning thousands of demons." Zhongli explained briefly to Venti.

Xiao knew that name from somewhere. He heard it from someone else, and he knows he hates that name. Or whoever they were. He subconsciously gripped the bed sheets, in anger. Why was he so angry?

"Do you think he was the one who did that then?" Venti asked him, and Zhongli wasn't quite sure himself.

"Y/N have long sealed him, or killed him a long time ago. He is somebody to be aware of certainly. He had once abducted her before."

It was Venti's turn to scrunch his eyebrows in confusion.

"That's terrible. Whoever he is, I'd like to have a word with them." Venti crossed his arms, looking genuinely angered himself. And an angry face plastered over his usual cheerful calm facial expression was quite rare. He wasn't the one to hold such grudges.

Xiao knew that, so Y/N must be very important to them. And they both must hate this Dolos, as much as he felt the need to hate whoever 'Dolos' was. He released the bed sheets from his strong grip, and looked at his blood stained shirt. Until something caught his eyes.

The small jar with something bright was inside. The jar had a string attached, which was hooked onto the side of his lower torso.

Intrigued, he undid the string to bring the trinket close to his eyes, and saw the star, ball of light.

It felt important...

He found peace looking at the jar.

"If you ever feel like you are being succumbed to the darkness, look at this star. It will help you cope with it. And if you feel up for it, feel free to wish upon it, and this star shall guide you to your answer. Done."

Those words repeated in his head, something engraved into his mind. He heard a cheerful and reassuring voice. Of a women. But of who? Could this be the person that is known as Y/N?

Would he still find an answer even though he wasn't necessarily succumbed by the darkness? Would this star really guide him to his answer?

Zhongli looked at the small star in Xiao's hand. And his eyes softened as he saw how closely Xiao was staring at it. He was trying to remember.

Venti was still ranting on the many ways he would make Dolos suffer.

Zhongli closed his eyes with a small smile, and nodded lightly, in recognition.

"Xiao, why don't we take you to her mountain?" He suggested.

Making both Xiao and Venti look at him questionably. Venti already went there.

"But I thought it would be more affective if we show him Y/N? But she's currently missing..." Venti mumbled as he chugged the 3ft bottle of wine. The same one Y/N always drinks.

Xiao looked at the bottle, and saw a flash of an image of the same wine bottle and a small cup. And half of the face of somebody laughing as they drank from their own cup. And then the vision blacked out, as they fell towards the table. It might have been a memory of his own.

"I've seen that bottle before..." Xiao said, looking at Zhongli hopeful, and hoping Zhongli could follow on with what he was talking about.

"Right. You were having a drink with Y/N, and you were unconscious by the time I had arrived, you had fallen fast asleep." Zhongli nodded at his own memories, and recognizing that he was most likely correct.

Venti stopped his chugging and looked at the bottle he was holding, in sudden realization that they were talking about the wine bottle. And that was coincidentally the same one that Y/N had usually.

Dandelion wine. Though she definitely drinks the ones from Liyue as well.

Xiao looked back at the star he clutched in his palms tightly.

"Take me to the mountain." He paid no mind that he might have sounded rude towards Zhongli. But he didn't quite care at the moment, and faced the fact that he needed to remember. There was no other choice. And the closest for him to remember was going to places, since the person in question was missing.

Zhongli of course, didn't mind with the tone of his voice at all. In fact, he was more glad that Xiao was determined. Being a proud father like figure, he nodded happily in agreement, and pat his shoulder firmly. An action and feeling he couldn't put to words.

Xiao slowly got out of the bed again. The cold air hitting the skin under the fabric of his clothes. He still didn't care about the blood stains. He could wash them another time.
And as Xiao was currently wrapped in many bandages, he looked like a wreck truthfully. But he still looked handsome as ever, as his face was not the part that was covered.

The three made it to the mountain.

It looked like the one in Xiao's dream.

"It looks like how it did 3,000 years ago." Zhongli said in slight disbelief.

Venti sighed as well. "Yeah, it didn't look very clean when I came here a few moments before. What happened?"

"There is no sense of life around here..." Xiao mumbled as he looked around again. Feeling nostalgic, at each look he had seen.

Maybe because of the drastic change in how the environment looked, he didn't remember anything that time he first came to the mountain? Though, how come Y/N lied about how she's only heard of him when she already knew him from before?

"3,000 years prior, it was all foggy. There wasn't much life around. And was infested with certain spirits. Later on, while Xiwangmu was around, it had gotten better slowly. But now, even after only a month, it does not look as beautiful as it did before..." Zhongli walked forward towards the shrine that had appeared through the thin mist and fog.

Xiao and Venti followed the man.

Venti didn't like very eerie looking and foggy places at all.

Xiao liked it. He just felt deja vu, and nostalgia. He felt like another jigsaw puzzle piece had fit inside his own memory. And if they kept going like this, slowly but surely, he would regain his memories.

"There really is no one here... hm." Zhongli hummed as he took a peek inside her shrine home. No signs of living there.

"See? Told you. Nobody is here. I don't get why even Ming isn't." Venti put both of his hands on his hips as he searched the area.

"Ming is very loyal to Y/N. I doubt her and the others would up and leave. Unless she felt like she had been abandoned somehow..." Zhongli could only feel bad for them all.

Xiao walked inside the large shrine as well. To be honest, he felt helpless, and useless. He felt guilty to make the two help him regain his memories. But they seemed more than willing to do so.

The floor boards and the bamboo floor would creak, and make sound whenever he walked on such a surface. He probably should not be snooping through somebody's home without their consent. Especially while they are absent. He convinced himself that it was for a good cause.

He came across a large room, with only one window, that showed the surroundings of the mountain. Which was just fog.

There, was a tall red cabinet. He probably shouldn't look through there.

He looked around again, and saw a wooden flute displayed on the wall, safely. He's seen that flute as well. He's played it.

Xiao reached for it, but hesitated.

"Go for it." Venti suddenly appeared behind the young adeptus and he flinched, at the sudden voice.

"The flute..."

"It's part of your memory, so you should go ahead and play it. I won't judge." Venti chuckled as Xiao gave an annoyed look at the bard who turned the other way with his hands clasped together behind his back, as he whistled away.

Xiao drew his attention back to the flute. The structure and everything, he knows about it. He held the flute in his palms, hoping to feel something. And as soon as he lined up his fingers over the holes, and he blew into the flute. The low, sound of the melody he plays was the same one he's yearned to hear once more. Not played by himself, but by someone else.

The sound. He definitely remembers now. He played this flute. And the same image of the woman playing flashed by his mind again. It wasn't something just from imagination. He couldn't think of such specific details from a mere thought of his head. As it had to be a memory involving 'Y/N.'

Venti was outside looking around the fog, as he didn't want to just stand there waiting for something to happen. But he seemed sort of... lost?

Zhongli had wandered off somewhere, except he knew where and what he was doing. Following the path of footsteps, he found himself in front of the 'void.' That might have Y/N trapped in.

A certain few domains, don't allow adeptis, or people like Y/N to use her powers, as such. And cannot leave the place.

One hour in there, results to one month here. Therefor, she's been inside of there for about an hour.

This part was deep in the mountain, and nobody other than him and Y/N would have been able to make it here. Apart from Ming, maybe.

Feeling certain, and confident with how to find this again, he decided to make it back to where the two anemo users were.

Zhongli took another good look at the chunk of the void. And there was malice there.

Zhongli was not sure what it was, but he felt chills down his spine just by looking deep into it. What was it? He felt like he heard a few screams of terror. But not of Y/N's voice, meaning someone, or some others might be in there. He was fully aware of how twisted Dolos was.

Zhongli looked around again, taking in the view.

Well, there really wasn't a view. It was all foggy and you couldn't see where the ends of it was, the further you go inside the mountain, the thicker the fog becomes. So Zhongli can't see anything, at the moment.

Who let him walk around all by himself?

Xiao found himself sitting on the rock that was near a lake. A very familiar... lake. He wasn't sure what about it was so familiar. Was it the scenery? He rested his hands on his knees, as he stared at the water, as it reflected his face on there. A few flowers were a float. A glaze lily was grown on the side of the rock, although it was a very small one, it still has room to grow fully for it to reveal, and open up.

Xiao rested one of his hands on his forehead, as he kept his elbow on the top of his knee, while he tried to suppress another minor headache.

Red started to creep up his pale cheeks, as he saw another image. But they were not... clothed. Was it the same one he has been seeing before? Did he really see an exposed woman? If he had, he wouldn't have thought much of it, but he did...

He shook his head to rid of his thoughts, and turned his attention back to the water. The fog looked like pecks of the snowflakes that vary in Dragonspine. He turned around but only saw nothing but of the mist, we call fog.

Feeling delusional, he turned back around. The bandages on his arm, head, and torso aren't exactly needed. But he felt safe wrapped in them. He felt like somebody had embraced his small body, to keep him safe and protected when he needed it most— and so he didn't feel vulnerable.

He wouldn't think he was scared he felt worried. Worried for someone's wellbeing?— seemed so...

"Xiao! Have you seen that old man anywhere? I think he might have become lost in the fog." Venti hopped over to the contemplated boy, who looked up to see the green bard moving his head around to try and find Zhongli.

"He has not returned?"

"No."

Xiao stood up from his seat on the rock.

It was quite obvious someone would have become lost here.

"The fog around here isn't that thick though." Venti reasoned, as he put a hand under his chin in thought.

"I doubt he would get lost if he saw where he was. So if he was not able to sense or see his surroundings, that would mean the fog was thicker than here." Xiao said, again.

Venti snapped his fingers in realization, and enlightenment.

"Smart boy!" He gave him a cheeky smile, to which Xiao sighed. "But where exactly would he be then?"

"If you walk into the mountain, you would see that the fog had become much more thicker, and you cannot see your surroundings. So he must be deep in the mountain."

Venti hummed in thought.

"Do you think if I use anemo to blow the fog away, we would be able to see where he went?" Venti asked.

"Possibly. And I could use elemental sight to see any traces of him." Xiao gestures for Venti to use his anemo to blow half of the fog away.

Xiao squinted his eyes, and saw a faint swirl of yellow in one direction. He started following the trail, as Venti quickly followed behind him.

Venti would occasionally blow the fog away to prevent bumping into a tree. The more closer they got to where he was, the more thicker the light was. And mixed with it, was purple. And it wasn't a very pretty one to say.

And the final blow, revealed Zhongli who seemed to be