Semua Bab The Last Moonbane: Bab 101 - Bab 110

Seraphina’s POVI thought about Stephen sometimes.Not the way I used to—no long, spiraling tangles of worry or longing. Just flickers. Passing thoughts.A year ago, I would’ve found it unthinkable to grow distant from him. We had, after all, shared a womb, a house, and a history carved from the same brutal script. I’d believed we would face everything together—because how could we not?Now, we barely shared words.It wasn’t his fault.He was still fighting.Just… not beside me.I’d chosen a path that curved away too fast and too far in directions I couldn’t explain—to him or to anyone. And the more I walked it, the less room there was for anyone else.After retrieving the antidote formula from the blood mirror, I had refused Professor Dryden’s offer to simply hand me the materials. He’d respected that—mostly. But he still taught me what I would need to survive the process of collecting them.Some of the ingredients weren’t dangerous so much as difficult. Take the Farse Wild Hare, for

Seraphina’s POV“Let’s start,” I said.I didn’t really know what else to say.Like Headmistress Avienne had told us, no matter how hard we searched, we couldn’t find anything concrete about the Looping Town. From the name alone, it sounded almost laughably simple—yet it was obvious the scenario would involve some form of repetition. Maybe the key to clearing it would lie in breaking that repetition. But for now, all we had were guesses.Simulated reality, Professor Dryden had called it. S-rank. No pre-briefing, no mission context. We knew the name of the scenario and its difficulty. That was it.The Looping Town.Elias adjusted the strap of his pack. “Simulation time?”Nyra glanced at the time crystal embedded in the arch beside us. “Eleven o’clock sharp.”I didn’t know what that meant yet. None of us did.We stepped through the veil.The world smelled of pinewood and clean hearthfire.Bright morning sun poured over a cobbled path. It ran like a thread through a small town nestled at

Seraphina’s POVThe first strike hit the door so hard that the frame shuddered.My breath caught in my throat, the sound vibrating straight down my spine.Another came, claws dragging, wood splintering.They were here.The townsfolk—no, things—we had seen smiling that morning were back, their bones twisted, their skin stretched thin, their voices reduced to low, guttural snarls.“Hold the door!” Thalia’s voice cracked like a whip. She was already braced against the wood, muscles taut.I moved without thinking, slamming my shoulder into the panel beside hers. Elias came next. Nyra stood back, her hands weaving an iridescent shield in the air—layer upon layer of magic pressed against the door like invisible stone.The thing outside slammed again.And again.The sound wasn’t quite right. Too flat, like a drum beaten with rotting meat.And then—something unexpected.It stopped.The snarls didn’t fade; they were still there, ragged and too close. But the blows ceased. The air on the other

Seraphina’s POVWe spent most of the morning arguing over the safest way to test our theory.The four of us sat around the inn room’s small oak table, sunlight spilling across maps and scraps of notes Nyra had been obsessively keeping. The smell of the baker’s bread still drifted faintly from outside, that same too-sweet mix of wheat and honey we’d smelled on every loop since arriving in this cursed place.“This room’s not unbreakable,” I said, my fingers tracing the edge of the table. “The hits we heard last night… they were stronger than the first night. I could feel it in the wood under my feet.”Elias leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms. “Which means it’s not a permanent shelter. But we don’t know how fast it degrades.”“That’s exactly what we need to find out,” Nyra said, flipping through her notes. “If the room’s barrier works like the rest of the cycle, maybe it needs the reset at dawn to stay intact.”Thalia blew a strand of hair out of her face. “So what, we all just

Seraphina’s POVThe first light of morning crept through the shutter slats, gray and reluctant, but to us it was salvation. The sounds had ceased hours ago—the scraping claws, the pounding fists, the guttural screeches outside our door. For the first time, all four of us were still breathing when dawn returned.Relief swelled in my chest, sharp and fleeting, because it came with another realization: survival wasn’t victory. Not here. Not in this cursed town.Thalia stretched stiffly, leaning against the wall with her sword across her lap. Her face was pale, hair plastered to her temples with sweat, but she managed a grim smile. “We made it.”Elias gave a low laugh, more exhale than amusement. “Barely. But yeah. One night.”I wanted to echo them, to let relief have its place, but my eyes drifted toward the door. The iron-banded wood sagged on its hinges, deep cracks running along the grain where claws had raked again and again. In the center, a splintered hole had appeared, no bigger t