Once they reached the end of the stairs, what awaited them was a beautiful leafless tree.
It stretched to about ten meters high, standing beneath five golden crowns. Behind it, an incredibly beautiful wall stood, displaying a huge variety of patterns in blue and in gold. It reached even higher than the tree, at maybe 50 meters high.
To their sides, the familiar yellow flame lamps and another two stone structures that seemed… incomplete.
The duo chose to avoid the transparent floor around the immediate vicinity of the tree. Although it reflected a light blue from time to time, as if it was actually a floor, they didn't know for sure if it would withstand them. They decided to take a closer look at the wall behind it.
They approached carefully, since barely a meter away was the empty expanse of the limitless dawn sky. From their position, the wall looked very impressive.
On its surface, a circle pattern filled with wind-like drawings was what drew their attention at first. It shone on a different kind of golden light. Stronger, almost throbbing, demanding their attention.
'Does that exist in the game as well? How come I never noticed it?'
Shaking off his stupor, he looked elsewhere.
In front of the wall, Sai saw the most beautiful thing he had seen in the past few days.
There were four floating hollow cubes of different sizes, glowing a light blue. On the floor beneath it, a circle shone on the same color.
"It's our exit!" He exclaimed.
Beidou noticed his line of sight and asked:
"That thing?"
"Yeah. We can leave if we touch it. Probably."
"Probably?" She didn't really like his lack of confidence in things.
"Yeah. But wait, there is something I want to try, first."
He led her back to the end of the staircase. Standing in front of the tree, he crouched and probed the blue floor. And just as in the game, it felt like a real floor.
"It's safe. Come here." He called Beidou.
"What are you doing?"
"Just come here for a sec'."
He walked right over the transparent ground. Looking down, he saw the rest of the tree, floating just like everything else on the domain. Although he wasn't scared of heights, he couldn't help but shiver a little. After all, he had no clue on the principles behind it, so there was no way of knowing if it stopped working all of a sudden.
When he raised his head, Beidou was by his side, an impressed look on her face.
"This is pretty cool."
"Right? Okay. Captain, look at the tree."
She glanced at him and then at the tree a couple of meters ahead. Nothing happened. She turned her head to him and raised her brow.
"This is a petrified tree. Try wishing for treasure, or artifacts." Sai asked.
"What?"
"We might get something cool. Just try imagining it in your head."
"..."
Beidou closed her eyes and did as he said, but nothing happened. She looked at him again, pondering if he had gone crazy.
"Ahem. There should be a way for us to get an artifact out of this tree. I just don't know how exactly…"
Sai said and approached it. He stretched his hand to touch it, and when his fingers were almost scraping it, someone held his arm from behind.
"What?" Sai was alarmed.
"Step back. That tree…"
Sai took a step back reluctantly and waited for an explanation. She dragged him outside the transparent floor.
"Let me see your hand." Beidou asked. "This… it really sucked your energy."
"Sucked my energy?" He frowned.
"When you touched that tree, I felt your energy being drawn towards it. It is still being drawn, actually, but much slower."
"I didn't touch it, though." He said, confused.
But he soon understood. The tree could suck energy from its immediate surroundings, and the closer it got, the more it sucked. It was the most logical conclusion, but one scary enough for any normal human.
"I don't even have elemental energy, how is it sucking my energy?"
"You really don't. Not even a little bit. At least so far you didn't. 'Cuz now, I feel like there's some kind of Dendro elemental energy flowing from you to that tree."
Sai ignored the rude comment and focused on the later sentence.
"Some kind of Dendro energy?"
"Right. But it's not exactly Dendro… It's… weird."
Sai looked at his hand, failing to notice anything at first glance. But after looking closer, he saw that the very tips of his fingers were darker and drier than the rest of his skin.
At that moment, he felt something. His neck seemed… wet. He reached it with his hand, to discover that it was dripping blood. His injury at the back of the head had opened again, once again wetting his make up bandages with blood.
"Sh&t…"
Feeling a little dizzy, he supported himself on Beidou, who was already a little better.
She didn't say a word. Sai was thinking about the weirdness of it all.
'Petrified tree, Dendro energy and dried fingertips…'
Suddenly, he connected the dots.
'The rewards from the domain require resin in order to be given. I can only assume that it's the tree that absorbs it, in order to release its petrification, perhaps. But it seems to be reacting to my internal energy instead, one that I didn't even know existed… Anyways, now I know what is going on.'
"Beidou."
Sai looked at her with determination, but once he saw her tired look, his excitement died down.
"Can you… try feeding it elemental energy?"
"..."
"If I'm not wrong, we may get something really good out of this."
"..."
"Are you out of energy?"
"...No."
"Then… just try it? Please?"
"Haaah. Fine. Stay still."
Contrary to Sai, Beidou could feel her elemental energy being drawn. It's just that compared to Sai's energy, the tree wasn't nearly as desperate to eat it. She knew it would take considerable effort to satisfy it, if it even could be satisfied.
Beidou stepped onto the transparent floor and gathered her energy.