Elias's audacious move, erasing Sage Arthan's foundational edit from a critical case, sent a profound ripple through the Ledger. The karmic backlash, though partially absorbed by the core, still left him and Mei Lin shaken. They had struck a blow, but they had also announced their presence, directly provoking the ancient Sage and his formidable apprentice, Master Veyra.
The retaliation was swift and brutal.
A new emergency bulletin flashed across every Bureau terminal, a public accusation designed to shock and condemn. The charges were horrifyingly specific: a Sutra Corps murder. A high-ranking administrator, known for his zealous loyalty to the Grand Council's established order, had been found dead in his private chambers. And the karmic signature on the scene, meticulously forged and embedded in the Ledger for all to see, belonged to Elias Thorne.
Veyra had framed him. She had leveraged her mastery of karmic manipulation, mimicking his unique signature, creating a perfect, undeniable digital footprint that tied him directly to the murder. It was a devastatingly effective trap, designed to cut him off from all allies, to turn the entire Realm against him.
Before Elias could even react, before the Sentinels could mobilize, the Observer, its form flickering violently within Lian, appeared on his terminal. Its voice was fragmented, distorted by the Ledger's internal chaos.
"Accountant... they have framed you. Veyra... she moves with speed. They are coming for you. The Sentinels... they are already converging."
"I know," Elias muttered, his mind racing. He was cornered, exposed.
"You must escape... into the blind spot," Lian urged, her form writhing with visible strain. "The Ledger is unstable... I can shield you... within its deepest, unrecorded layers. But it will be temporary. A ghost. And you will be cut off from Mei. The bond will be severed... temporarily. It is the only way."
Elias hesitated. Sever the bond with Mei Lin? Abandon her, even temporarily, when she was so deeply implicated in his lies, and now so crucial to his fight? But he had no choice. If he was captured, it was over.
"Do it, Lian," Elias commanded, his voice raw.
Lian's form pulsed violently, the Sutra AI sigils in her eyes flaring with immense power. The Ledger's chaotic hum intensified, becoming a roar. A swirling vortex of Prana erupted around Elias's terminal, consuming him. He felt a sudden, disorienting lurch, as if reality itself was dissolving.
When the sensation ceased, he was gone. His cubicle was empty. His karmic signature, his physical presence, had vanished from the Bureau's detectable records. He was hidden within the deepest, unrecorded layers of the Ledger's "blind spot," a ghost in the machine, utterly untraceable. But also utterly alone. He could not communicate, could not access external data, could not even sense Mei Lin. He was cut off from the world, a phantom in the Ledger's memory.
Veyra's trap had succeeded. Elias was isolated, a hunted man, now reliant entirely on the fragile, fracturing consciousness of the Observer to guide him through the uncharted depths of the Ledger's unseen reality. The fight had moved beyond the physical, into the very essence of karmic existence.