It took twenty whole minutes for the tree to show any reaction.
Beidou had tried convincing Sai to give up, but he somehow managed to convince her, instead. That was in part due to Beidou's kindness and part due to her belief in the young man. Another part of it… only Beidou herself knew.
When the remainder of Beidou's energy supply was almost over, the tree started glowing very brightly. Blue veins showed up all over it, each one carrying some sort of magical element.
At the same time, the floor lit up in a circle around her. Sai, who was further away, could see it shine with patterns similar to the ones on the ancient wall.
The tree shone brightly, forcing the duo to practically close their eyes. A gust of wind and energy passed through them, ending as suddenly as it started. Weird sounds reached their ears, such as clinking and cracking.
A few seconds later, Sai managed to open his eyes. And what he saw made him smile.
"There it is!"
"Am I dreaming?" Beidou was stunned.
Standing on the ground in front of the tree were a few items. The first one that drew attention was the Mora. There were possibly a couple thousands of coins over the ground in front of the tree, glinting with golden light. They were the cheap kind of Mora, not the thick coins used for big transactions.
Above it, seven pieces could be seen. A flower, two hourglasses, two feathers, a laurel wreath and a weird mask.
Artifacts.
"Hahahah! Yes! I knew it was possible!" Sai jumped around with glee.
"..."
"Hurry. Help me carry these things. Do you have a bag to keep the Mora?"
"I… uh…"
"C'mon. Don't just stand there!"
"How did you know?"
Sai grabbed the closest item and scrutinized it.
It was a shimmering feather that apparently came from a songbird. It was hazel at the tip, slowly getting lighter as it changed into a soft yellow color. A small yellow flower could be seen tied around it with green laces.
Barely a second into his hand, he felt something. Nothing was visible from outside, but he felt strength rushing through his blood, all the way to his head. His mind cleared, he could see and think better, and his pains subdued.
"Wow!"
"How did you know about this?" Beidou asked again as she approached the treasures.
"Ah, that? Well… It's hard to explain. You could say that I've done this before. Anyways, this thing is incredible."
Sai was getting hopeful. If one of the artifacts they found managed to gift him control of an element, he could accomplish his goal without having to depend on anything else. Though… he knew it was very unlikely.
"You've been to a domain before?" She asked with surprise.
"Yes. But not like this. It was different. Anyways, let me check the other artifacts."
He grabbed the other feather with his free hand. Its colors were similar to the other one, but a little darker. It had a four-leaf clover tied to it in the same manner as the other feather.
Sai once again felt his strength increase a bit when he held it.
"Whoa! This is ridiculous! I feel like I can lift a mountain!"
"Hah! That's your first strengthening artifact?" She smiled faintly.
"Hehe! This was the second." He showed the clover feather. "And this was the first- hold on. What did you just-"
"Interesting. This tree is really fascinating, and so are these artifacts. But let's get out of here first, kid, I'm hungry."
Her tone lacked something that Sai couldn't describe.
"Oh. Yeah, let's get out of here. Help me carry these. You don't have a bag on you, do you?" He asked just in case.
"Nope." She grabbed the mask, the wreath and the flower.
Sai held onto the two flowers and the two hourglasses and went after Beidou (not before trying to fit some mora in his clothes).
The hourglasses looked exactly the same. They were made of wood and glass, with a chord hanging from their edge to facilitate carrying.
The moment he lifted the first hourglass from the ground, Sai was filled with more strength, and the hourglass almost flew from his hand. Unnoticed to him, it shone for an instant, connecting itself with the feather and activating the set effect. The other hourglass, though, didn't do anything at first glance.
Once the duo stood before the floating blue portal, Beidou remarked:
"There's something strange to that artifact you're carrying. I'm having trouble paying attention to you."
"What do you mean by paying attention?" Sai lifted his brows.
"I mean… nevermind, let's get out first. I just need to touch that thing, right?" Beidou walked towards it.
She stood right before it, as if hesitating to enter. However, before Sai had time to say anything else, the hand carrying the mask touched the blue square: she disappeared out of thin air.
"…Huh. She's gone again."
Sai took a good breath, feeling a little lonely all of a sudden. He approached his exit, but before touching it, something drew his attention. The huge wall full of patterns stood beside him, immovable and unrelenting. From Sai's position, he saw that it wasn't like he imagined it previously.
Avoiding the blue light of the 'portal', Sai slowly approached the edge of the stone platform. For some reason, the fear of falling didn't even cross his mind, only pure curiosity. He looked further down.
Sai thought it was enormous before, but he noticed that it was twice as big. Instead of starting at the height of the stone floor, the wall actually commenced much further down, from the empty expanse of nothingness. It floated as if it had no weight, and was inscribed with the same patterns as the ones above.
The sheer scale of the construction humbled Sai. Its creators were definitely an impressive civilization, in a way even comparable to Earth's.
Looking up once again, he saw a semblance of a face.
Whatever it was, it wasn't human. It had three eye-like things to each side of its face, which had no boundaries, to a total of six eyes. A symbol similar to the one in a Mora coin was placed on the position of its forehead.
It seemed incomplete. The whole thing was just a bit… off. The glowing pattern in front of him felt somewhat ominous.
Remembering the ruins and the floating debris, Sai thought: 'All this infrastructure… Who would willingly destroy this place? And more importantly, why?'