A Western Kid’s Journey into the Eastern Cultivation World

The beam of light and dark energy from the Starfall Altar engulfed Jack, lifting him a foot off the ground. His body arched backward, muscles taut as if caught in an invisible vice. The merged orb in his chest pulsed like a heart in overdrive, sending tendrils of energy snaking through his veins, while the hilt on the pedestal began to transform, metal stretching and reshaping with a sound like a thousand nails scraping across glass.

Inside Jack's mind, a nightmare landscape unfolded. He found himself standing in the middle of a desolate battlefield, the ground littered with the bodies of his friends. Lyra lay at his feet, her eyes dull and lifeless, a dagger—his dagger—embedded in her chest. "You did this," a voice hissed from behind him. He spun around to see a shadowy figure that looked exactly like him, its eyes glowing with a malevolent purple light. "You're the destroyer, not the savior."

Back in the real world, Lyra's condition worsened. The dark matter infection had spread up her arm, turning her skin a sickly shade of gray. Veins bulged beneath the surface, pulsating with an otherworldly energy. She gritted her teeth, trying to hold back a scream as the pain became almost unbearable. "I... I can't control it," she gasped, her dagger - wielding hand twitching involuntarily.

Aelion rushed to her side, his own shadow - veined armor creaking with each movement. He placed a hand on her shoulder, and a faint glow of light emanated from his palm, attempting to push back the encroaching darkness. But the shadow veins on his armor flared in response, as if protesting the use of his dwindling light. "Fight it, Lyra," he said through clenched teeth. "We're so close."

The Keeper, meanwhile, had her hands pressed against the ancient 符文 on the chamber walls. Her eyes were wide with alarm as she watched the symbols shift and change. "This isn't right," she muttered. "The forging is disrupting the balance of the seals. If we don't stop it, the entire abyss could break free."

As if on cue, the ground began to shake violently. Cracks spiderwebbed across the floor, and dark tendrils of energy seeped through, reaching towards Jack like grasping hands. Elias' lifeless body was jostled by the tremors, a cruel reminder of the sacrifices they had already made.

In Jack's mind, the shadowy figure lunged at him. He instinctively reached for his sword, but it was gone. All he had was the hilt of the Elysian Requiem, which now felt like an extension of his arm. He swung it, and a wave of light and dark energy shot out, shattering the figure into a million pieces. But as it dispersed, the nightmare landscape began to collapse, replaced by a vision of the Shadowlord, laughing maniacally as it consumed entire worlds.

"Jack! Snap out of it!" Lyra's voice pierced through the chaos of his mind. He opened his eyes to see her standing over him, her face pale but determined. The dark matter infection seemed to have stabilized, at least for the moment. "We need you," she said. "The altar... it's going to explode."

Jack looked around. The pedestal was now a seething mass of energy, the crystal on top cracking under the strain. The merged orb in his chest was still pulsing, but he could feel a newfound clarity. He had faced his fears in the nightmare realm, and he wasn't going to let them defeat him.

"I can do this," he said, his voice steady. He reached out with his mind, trying to control the energy of the merged orb and the Elysian Requiem. The tendrils of dark energy on the floor began to recede, and the shaking of the ground lessened. But the battle was far from over. The Shadowlord's laugh still echoed in his mind, a constant reminder of the threat that