Genshin's Wish

Chapter 714: The Promise at the End of the Star Track 2

 Chapter 2: The Promise at the End of the Star Track

Bennett and Mika stood side by side on the dome of the "Astrology Tower", with bronze star tracks winding like the Milky Way under their feet. This tower built by ancient astrologers was emitting a low roar, and the 709 floating stairs were slowly shrinking, like the throat of a giant beast swallowing and spitting out the galaxy.

"Mika, are you sure you want to leave the "Destiny Compass" in the Abyss Mine?" Bennett held the warm bronze compass in his arms, and the lines embedded with stardust were burning his palms. This object was dug out from the depths of the Star Track Hub three days ago. When Mika's ice pick just broke the rock layer, the compass automatically attached to her chest, and the twelve star tracks entangled the fate of the two like a chain.

Mika's blue hair fluttered in the turbulent energy. She slammed the prospecting hammer into the seam of Star Track: "Remember our agreement in the Frost Star Mine? You said that every adventurer should have an eternal lamp." Star Track suddenly trembled violently, and she was lifted into the air by the air wave before she could finish her words. When Bennett pounced over, he only grabbed the ice crystal pendant hanging around her waist.

The compass automatically unfolded in the chaos, and the twelve star maps were projected in the air to form a complete Orion shape. Bennett watched Mika flip her body in the air, her ice-blue robe surging like waves, and she actually used the shock wave to jump to a higher star track platform. When he stumbled to catch up, he found that she was using a dagger to write something on the metal surface of the star track.

"Don't touch it!" Mika shouted without turning her head, a string of sparks splashed from the tip of the knife, "This is the text of the ancient stars, I am rewriting the energy return path." The symbols she carved glowed with a faint blue light, like frozen lightning crawling all over the bronze surface. Bennett then realized that she was wearing a new mechanical armor on her left hand - the hand that was pierced by the energy flow when she repaired the star track last week.

The star track suddenly burst into a dazzling light, and the 709 steps completely shrank into a beam of light. The two fell into the suddenly opened elevator shaft, and Bennett subconsciously used his body to protect Mika. During the fall, he heard the crisp sound of ice crystals condensing above his head. Looking up, he saw Mika weaving a frost shield above their heads, but fine cracks were spreading on the surface of the shield.

"Your right hand!" When Bennett grabbed her bleeding wrist, he felt abnormally cold. Mika broke free from his hand and continued to cast a spell: "The temperature of the core of the star track is enough to make steel. If you don't want to be melted into a candle, just stay still." Half a bandage slipped out of her sleeve. It was the roll left when she bandaged his wound last night.

At the bottom of the elevator shaft was a boiling sea of ​​star sand, with hot metal bubbles constantly exploding. Mika suddenly pushed Bennett into a concave metal tank: "Hold that!" What she threw was the strawberry milk she bought at the supply station that morning, and the packaging bag instantly deflated under the high temperature. Bennett looked at the ancient star map that emerged at the bottom of the tank, and suddenly realized that this was the key to activate a certain mechanism.

"Three, two, one!" Mika jumped into the smaller groove next to him, and the two of them unscrewed the milk carton at the same time. The moment the milky white liquid came into contact with the star sand, a violent reaction occurred. Countless ice crystals burst out from the liquid nitrogen mist, laying out a winding ice bridge on the molten metal sea. Bennett felt the back of his neck burning. Mika's blood was seeping into the compass along the star track pattern, and those constellation patterns suddenly began to rotate clockwise.

The moment the ice bridge extended to the other side, the whole space was filled with a crisp sound like glass breaking. Bennett saw the star track behind Mika was disintegrating, and the twelve ranger constellations turned into streams of light and sank into her blood-stained armor. "Go!" She pushed him towards the glowing core area, but she was suddenly entangled by the broken star track at her ankle.

When Bennett looked back, he saw Mika breaking the hot bronze shackles with her bare hands. Her ice blade vaporized and condensed in the high temperature, and every time she exerted force, she left bloody fingerprints on the star track. "Don't look at me!" She roared in a steamy voice, "Remember the agreement we made when we repaired the first star track—"

The memory suddenly flashed back to the rainy night three months ago. The two drenched adventurers huddled in the abandoned observatory and swore to the short-circuited navigator: "Next time we run into trouble, we must escape more calmly than this time!" At this moment, Mika's oily face showed the same smile. When she broke the last star track, the entire space began to collapse.

Bennett felt the compass in his arms melting, but the flowing stardust formed new constellations in the sky. He suddenly understood the prophecy that Mika had engraved on the star track: when the twelve constellations return to falsehood, the true star map will light up in the heart of the brave. He turned and rushed towards the collapsing core area, and Mika's smiling sigh came from behind: "Stupid, I didn't teach you to jump into the lava-"

In the torrent of hot star sand, something hard hit Bennett's hand. He took out half of the ice crystal pendant and found tiny words engraved on the inside - the ancient blessing words that Mika taught him to recognize on the rock wall when they were hiding from the avalanche in the Frost Star Mine. The pendant suddenly emitted a blue light, and the collapsed star track in front of him unexpectedly recondensed into a staircase. Each step showed the adventure scene they had experienced together: legs entangled by poison ivy, sharing the last half of a compressed biscuit, and holding hands tightly in the eye of the storm...

When Bennett stepped onto the last step, the compass in his arms suddenly turned into a stream of light and sank into his chest. At the end of the star track, the vast starry sky unfolded, and the 709 steps stretched upward like golden wheat ears, connecting to a flickering constellation at the end of the universe. He heard familiar footsteps behind him, and turned around to see Mika leaning against the door frame, throwing and catching two strawberry-flavored hard candies, with his left eye still covered with the old eye mask embroidered with ice crystal flowers.

“Welcome to the real star track terminal.” Her smile as she crushed the candy was brighter than a supernova explosion. “But don’t get me wrong, I just came back to get this—” She spread out her palm, on which lay half a piece of compass debris, with twelve star track patterns slowly growing.