The Archive of Sins was located in the sub-basement of the library, three levels below the restricted section. It wasn't a room filled with books, but a graveyard of "Soul-Shards"—crystallized records of every student who had ever defaulted on their tuition or been expelled for moral rot.
Kaelen moved through the dark, the Sovereign's Ledger acting as his sonar.
[NOTIFICATION] [Detection Risk: 45%.] [Environmental Effect: Dampened Divinity.] [Note: The 'Trial of the Scale' measures the weight of your Karma. To pass, you must balance your Debt with an equal mass of 'Stolen Merit'.]
"I need a ghost," Kaelen whispered, his eyes scanning the glowing jars on the shelves.
He didn't need just any soul. He needed a "Heroic Void"—someone who had died with massive positive Karma but had never been recorded by the higher Heavens.
He stopped in front of a jar that was pulsing with a faint, dying amber light.
[TARGET: Soul-Shard #09-42] [Identity: Leonis the Brave (Expelled 100 Years Ago)] [Merit Balance: +500,000 KP (Frozen)] [Cause of Death: Betrayal by Church Officials]
Perfect, Kaelen thought. A saint who was framed. The System still owes him, but he isn't around to collect.
He reached out his ringed hand to touch the glass. Suddenly, the shadows in the corner of the room lengthened.
"You're a long way from the chapel, Saint."
Kaelen didn't jump. He recognized the voice. It was Alaric, his "Error-Knight." The boy stood in the doorway, his skin flickering with the black static of the System Virus. He looked less like a human and more like a tear in the fabric of reality.
"I'm doing research, Alaric," Kaelen said, not turning around. "The kind that keeps us both from being deleted."
"You're going to steal that man's life," Alaric said, his voice overlapping with a digital hiss. "You're going to wear his merit like a mask."
"I'm going to invest it," Kaelen corrected. He shattered the glass jar with a sharp tap of his cane.
The amber light spilled out, swirling around Kaelen's arm. He didn't absorb it into his heart; he channeled it into a new, temporary skill slot.
[SKILL ACQUIRED: 'The Martyr's Overcoat' (Lv. 1)] [Effect: Masks the User's Debt with a layer of +500,000 KP for 12 hours.] [Cost: 50,000 KP (Deducted from future earnings).]
"There," Kaelen said, his aura suddenly shifting. To any divine sensor, he now looked like a man of staggering, legendary goodness. "The Scale won't see a trillion-point debtor. It will see Leonis the Brave."
"And when the 12 hours are up?" Alaric asked, his black eyes flickering.
"Then I'll need to have earned enough 'Real' Karma to cover the difference," Kaelen said, turning to face his Proxy. "Which means tomorrow's exam can't just be a pass. It has to be a massacre of virtue."
He walked past Alaric, patting the boy's shoulder. The contact caused a shower of black sparks.
"Get ready, Alaric. Tomorrow, we show the President that some things are too heavy to be weighed."