Nobela ni XIN GUO

Seraphina’s POVThe clash was wrong.Steel met steel, but it sounded like glass shattering inside my skull.Every motion I made—every snarl, every strike—echoed back at me an instant too late, like time itself stuttering.My claws met hers.My teeth tore through my own reflection’s throat.But she didn’t fall.She split into ash—then reformed, eyes blazing silver.The clock above screamed its first toll.One.The vibration shook the air, rattling through my bones. My other self lunged again—stronger this time, faster, her movements perfectly aligned with mine. We collided, claws locking, blood hissing where our power met. Sparks flared violet and gold.“Break formation!” Elias roared somewhere behind me. His blade rang, meeting another copy’s sword. “They’re mimicking everything!”“I noticed!” I snarled, ducking as my double’s claws slashed across my face. Blood splattered, hot and real. The scent burned through my senses. She smelled like me. Fought like me. Felt like—“Focus!” Nyra’

Seraphina’s POVThe flames were dying.Ash curled upward in the suffocating dark of the library, thin spirals of smoke clinging to the vaulted ceiling like desperate prayers that refused to rise. The last of the glowing pages fell into cinders on the stone floor, and the light it had given us—the fragile, blessed shield—dissolved into nothing. Beyond that circle of dying fire, the monsters closed in, shadows weaving between bookshelves, claws dragging over wood and stone, eyes like fragments of the abyss.I felt the pull in my chest, that feral, searing ache that had become all too familiar. The wolf was there, close to the surface, demanding release. And though my body trembled with exhaustion, though my throat still burned from the iron taste of my own blood, I gave in.The shift tore through me. Bones cracked, skin split, and my breath left me in a ragged snarl as claws extended from hands that no longer felt human. Pain, always pain—but behind it came

Seraphina’s POVThe clock struck six.The sound rolled through the library like thunder, shaking dust from the rafters. My breath froze in my throat as the last rays of sunlight bled away, swallowed by the sudden dusk that always marked the beginning of the nightmare.It was happening again.The warmth leached out of the air, leaving only a chill that gnawed at my bones. The silence broke—first a whisper, then a groan, then a chorus of distorted wails rising from the streets beyond. The townsfolk were changing. Their memories of laughter, trade, and music were long gone. What remained of them clawed their way into the night.And now, they were here.The shadows between the shelves shivered, took shape. Limbs bent at unnatural angles, torsos stretched too thin. Their eyes—those terrible golden eyes—burned in the dark. I gripped Lynora’s diary tighter against my chest. Its leather cover was cold, but beneath that cold, I swore I felt a heartbe

Seraphina’s POVThe sun had dipped lower, bleeding the sky in copper and crimson. Each toll of the clock outside the inn dug its claws deeper into my nerves. Only half an hour left, then the air itself would rot into nightmare, until the townsfolk’s faces would twist into fanged mockeries.And we still hadn’t reached the library. “We move fast, no distractions,” Elias said as we stepped into the street. His voice carried the steady edge of command, though I saw the fatigue shadowing his eyes.The town was too quiet. Not the quiet of peace, but the quiet of waiting. Empty windows stared down at us like hollow eyes, shutters swaying though there was no wind. I could almost hear echoes of what this place once was: the laughter of merchants, the clang of blacksmiths, the hum of a life long gone. The knowledge of it twisted like a knife.I knew the story now—their story. This town had been alive once, vibrant and bustling, famous for its star-iron mines. And it had all been snuffed out in

Seraphina’s POVThe silence of the altar chamber pressed in on me like a physical weight. The air was stale, heavy, as though even the dust motes dared not move without permission. My chest rose and fell in shallow breaths, and each beat of my heart sounded too loud in my ears. Hours had passed since the ritual, hours since we pressed our own blood against the cold stone, watching the fragments hum with that faint, haunting glow of gold.And yet, despite the unnatural calm that blanketed the chamber, I could not shake the sense that something lurked just out of sight. It was the kind of presence you couldn’t name but couldn’t ignore either, like the air itself was waiting for the moment to strike.No one spoke anymore. Our words had been spent, burned away by exhaustion and urgency. Because the truth was—time was running out.Last night, we had barely managed to hold the monsters at bay, buying survival at the cost of our own blood. That fragile barrier, woven with pain and sacrifice,

Seraphina’s POVWhen my eyes opened, the first thing I saw was the table. Papers lay scattered, curling at the edges, stained with smears of rust-brown. Not everything was legible, but enough remained for us to piece it together. The sheets were placed so deliberately, it was as if someone wanted to make sure they’d be noticed at first glance.We quickly pieced it all together. In the last cycle, we had discovered that this safehouse — the inn room we always woke up in — would gradually deteriorate with each night’s assault. But we never learned what happened once it finally gave way. Would the dungeon end outright, or would the loop simply reset, forcing us to start over again and again?We didn’t want to gamble on it. And honestly, failing an S-rank dungeon like that would be pathetically unworthy. Even with all this recorded information, we still didn’t understand the true cause behind Requiem Town’s endless cycle.And that, clearly, was the key.Fortunately, the clue from the last