" I see, good job Athi." Athi nodded and left after reporting to Adrian and Annie.

" What do you think it meant?" Annie asked but Adrian just shrugged. Annie opened her book and asked.

The book flipped itself open and words appeared on a blank page.

" When the virtuous weep in circles of twelve.

The keys shall be born from the wicked’s selves.

Twelve in all and the seal shall break.

The Bleeding Maiden from slumber shall wake."

They both read it again and again but they didn’t understand what it meant, they did to an extent but not fully.

" We’ll need more research on this, it sounds like a prophecy of sort but the last part makes no sense.

I think the bleeding maiden is Bloody Mary but that can’t be right, Bloody Mary is already present.

12 in all means there are 12 keys, I think each key represents one of the seals, this is why I hate prophecies."

He listened to her muttering to herself and hugged her from behind. " You worry yourself too much.

We’ll deal with whatever comes up when it comes up, there’s no point beating yourself over something we can’t wrap out heads around."

She nodded, " You’re right, it’s best we deal with what’s in front of us right now, like the people trying to take refuge here."

" I may have an idea for that, charge them a significant price that will stop them from even thinking about coming here."

She nodded, news spread quickly and when people heard the price to seek refuge within the guild.

They gritted their teeth in frustration, it was too high. It should be mentioned that growing the black elk tree was very hard.

And it took 400 years for one tree to reach maturity and each tree can only create about 100 000 000 Rei.

While the Rai and Rui were significantly higher, they also contained less energy making them less ideal for cultivation.

Even the Rei itself was not very efficient when it comes to accumulating esper, that’s why werewolves and vampires still rely on hearts and blood.

The Rei was mostly useful to races whose only means is either depending on natural growth or pure training like the Espara.

Even then, they don’t use it raw but have the alchemy witches use it as an ingredient to create more potent esper potions.

Of course those potions are very expensive which is why the guild held such an allure to others.

The discount they get when purchasing things like potions was too much to let by. So it stood to reason as to why most were discouraged.

Considering Adrian decided the pride would 10 000 000 Rei, even the top forces hesitated upon hearing this.

So, only the most powerful still had the funds to seek refuge, the guild naturally accepted them.

For some, they didn’t need to pay but would instead owe the guild a dept and they had to sign a blood contract for it.

Most of those marks were leaders and young masters and ladies of those top forces, they were willing to pay whatever price to live.

" We can’t take in any more Adrian, it’s crowded as it is." Annie complained.

He nodded, " I know, besides I hate being locked up here as well." Adrian couldn’t come out.

While the other werewolves could hide their aura using the rings, he couldn’t and so he couldn’t come out either.

Fortunately the strongest person the guild could accept was at level 6, therefore they couldn’t sense beyond the first floor.

The magic circle that separated the two floors prevented even Adrian from sensing anything on another floor.

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While the guild was dealing with it own issues, Sanchez was facing her own problems as well.

Currently she was in the club with Diego and Isabella. Both had reached level 4, they were much stronger than her.

Sanchez was sitting next to a shivering woman with unkept hair and bags under her eyes.

" So, what exactly do you want us to do?" Isabella asked.

" I need your help, she’s an old family friend, I can’t just let her die."

The woman shivered even more when she heard she might die. On her cheek there was a black hand mark as if she had been burnt.

Diego sighed, " Detective, you know as well as we do that we can’t stop those things, there’s only one way to stop it."

He looked at the middle aged woman who was shivering. Sanchez also looked at this woman with a complicated gaze.

She knew she must be guilty of something to be haunted by a Grieved Soul but she also felt she needed to protect her.

" What if I take her to the guild, I heard they can’t get in there?" Isabella shook her head at that.

" The guild is already fully packed, can she even afford the price?" Sanchez grew quiet, she knew Adrian wouldn’t just accept this woman because of her.

" We really can’t help you detective, not with this, you need to leave, the Grieved Soul is making things hard for our customers."

They looked down through the glass window and the people partying on the first floor had stopped.

They were shivering from the cold, most didn’t have a jersey or jackets so the cold was getting to them.

Not to mention the cold winds from ghosts carried an aura of death making them much worse than normal cold.

Sanchez also knew if this continued, some of those people would get a cold which might not heal.

" Let’s go." She pulled the reluctant and terrified woman with her and left. They got in her car and left.

The car had salt inside it, on the doors and windows as well as the floor. Sanchez also had pure iron weapons.

She had inferred about the Grieved Souls from the guild and knew they were spirits and like all spirits can be held back by salt and pure iron.

At least for the first 72 hours, after that, even iron and salt can no longer stop them. She needed to find a solution before then.

They drove to the woman’s house, she was quiet the entire way and just kept shivering none stop.

Sanchez looked at her watch, " 30 min, only 30 minutes are left." She closed her eyes and used pack call.

A few seconds later she opened her eyes and sighed. " I’m sorry, there’s only one way to stop this, we should’ve done this from the start anyways."

The woman shook her head," No no no, please, there must be another way."

Sanchez sighed, " There isn’t, you have to confess to the world."

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Thank you Noir_Krimson for the gifts, much appreciated.