But just as he was thinking that, Ryan could feel his pocket heat up, and panic set in. He pulled his phone out immediately and threw it away, watching it blow up. Richie clicked his tongue, lowering his hand. He had made Ryan’s phone malfunction and had the battery blow up; this was something more than easy enough for a Technomancer to do.

  “Fucking psychopath,” Ryan groaned as Gaia slowly let go of him. They were relentlessly attacking him, intending to kill him without a moment’s hesitation. Sure, Ryan had fought with guys who said stuff like I’ll kill you plenty of times before, but usually that was something they said to sound tough. After being punched a few times, they would shut up and run away. But these guys? They were serious. Ryan knew that the gunman was willing to kill. He had shot his former superior in the back of the head, after all.

  Ryan racked his brain, trying to come up with a solution for this. He couldn’t call for help anymore now that his phone was broken. Richie had probably shut down anything resembling a security system already as well. The spirits couldn’t go and call someone for help, either, since they couldn’t get far enough away from Ryan for something like that. Not that there was anyone who could help in the first place. Ryan had walked there instead of calling for Yamada to drive him as he usually did.

  That meant he really only had one choice, and that was to use the dagger in his hand to do what it had been made for. He took a deep breath, inwardly looking at Maximus, who was getting ready to jump back out. Ryan’s mind was racing, and he could hear the gunman’s footsteps as he carefully walked around Gaia to shoot straight at him. Richie must also have been preparing to try something else right now.

  “Fuck, fuck, fuck …”

  “What’s the matter, Ryan? Getting scared?” Richie scoffed, seemingly trying to pull something out of his pocket.

  “Scared? No, I just …” Ryan grabbed his chest, feeling his heartbeat get faster and faster. “It’s been a while since I got into a proper rumble like this.”

  The gunman’s footsteps stopped, and Richie looked over at Ryan, stunned. All the gnome could see as he peeked through Gaia’s arms was Ryan’s nervous grin with some clear, underlying excitement.

  Almost panicking, Richie pulled the item out of his pocket and threw it at Ryan. He could see that it was some kind of small drone. It was unfolding itself, made of blades that were twisting around each other, ready to rip into anyone they came across.

  But that was fine. Ryan could deal with this.

  Ryan pulled Gaia back into her domain, making the Golem’s body fall apart into strands of green. But even before the mana was even being drawn back into his body, Ryan jumped backward through the mass of mana, then let Gaia’s body materialize again. As Ryan twisted around, he linked with Gaia and had her deploy her three sub-golems, which immediately scattered around the room.

  Though, before the sub-golems even dropped to the ground, Ryan was already facing the gunman again. Dropped to the ground, squatting, Ryan slashed Ripper forward and tore through the side of the man’s knee. As if by reflex, the man pulled the barrel of his rifle downward and released some shots in a jagged line over the ground, drawing closer and closer to Ryan with each bullet.

  Ryan grabbed the grooves of the gunman’s body armor and tried to pull him down, using his own bodyweight, but it wasn’t enough. This man was physically strong and well trained. Even if he wasn’t an Awakened, he was easily strong enough to take Ryan on in a fight. But Ryan wasn’t alone.

  Maximus jumped out of the domain and once more slashed at the gunman. The man tried to pull back out of the range that he expected from the Knight’s blade, considering what happened before, but this time, Ryan unsealed Maximus and doubled his size, meaning that his range also doubled. The spirit cut deep into the man’s chest. Much of the attack was reduced by the tough body armor, but Ryan could still see a deep, gashing wound.

  Ryan reached up and grabbed the new hole that had been created in the body armor and pulled the unbalanced man back, kicking at his injured knee to throw him toward Gaia. The Golem immediately pressed her foot down onto the man’s back before he could try to push himself back up, and her sheer weight was enough to prevent him from getting back up. But the gunman wasn’t the only threat that Ryan had to deal with. The drone was still shooting straight for him. Because of the link with Gaia that allowed him to view the whole space through the sub-golems, he had been able to avoid it pretty skillfully so far, but Richie had just thrown some more into the air, and they were flying straight at him.

  Maximus jumped up and swung his blade toward the small, dangerous drones. The knight shattered them with just a single swing of his sword. Ryan also tried to hit them with the sort of accuracy that he needed. Within just a few moments, the gunman was trapped under Gaia’s foot and Richie’s drones were shattered. There weren’t many other electronics there, and without that, Richie wouldn’t be able to do anything.

  “So … want to give me another couple of questions?” Ryan asked, staring at the gnome in front of him.

  “Not particularly,” Richie replied. Somehow, he was far too calm right now.

  “Just tell me what happened. I think I might be able to help you, so just tell me and we can figure something out.” Trying to get the gnome to accept his help, Ryan took a step toward him. But Richie still just stood there, clearly unbothered.

  “I don’t think so, no. I’m rather happy like this. It feels good. So, why would I need your help?” the gnome said with a slight laugh. “Also, don’t be so cocky just because you managed to get rid of some toys I made for fun.”

  Ryan could hear mechanical clicking from a corner of the room. He directed one of the sub-golems toward the source of the noise, seeing a few metal cases set up, as Richie continued.

  “I was going to put them here as an extra security measure to make sure that Maribelle could properly mature in peace, but I guess I might as well use them now.” With a snap of the Technomancer’s finger, the metal cases opened up. Within them, half a dozen half-meter-tall robotic dolls were revealed. They were Roxie models. A lot simpler in their design, sure, but they were very clearly based off the same blueprints, just scaled up a bit. The Roxie robots, which Ryan and Maximus had fought in the past, immediately started running toward the closest spirit. Or, rather, in this case, they were headed straight toward the sub-golems.

  The robots’ bulky hands shifted into spikes that were pushed into the gaps of the sub-golems’ bodies with ease, tearing the individual rocks away from their bodies. One after another, before Ryan could even react properly, his connection to the sub-golems disappeared.

  “Fuck.”

  “That sounds like an appropriate reaction,” Richie said with a quiet laugh, as his hands moved around the air at rapid speeds. He was actively controlling those robots. Immediately, Ryan ran toward Richie. Facing six robots with sharp spikes as hands was far too dangerous. Knocking out Richie should be safer and easier. Meanwhile, Maximus went to try and fend off the robots for at least a moment, though that really didn’t work.

  Somehow, before Ryan even knew it, the robots had closed the distance between them and Richie with ease, surrounding him protectively. Just like the original Roxie, they moved at ridiculous speeds that clearly came from transforming magical energies into kinetic energies, allowing them to accelerate at speeds incomparable to normal.

  “Coward,” Ryan barked out, but Richie simply shrugged.

  “Better a coward than lose my teeth, wouldn’t you think?”

  “Just take it easy, man. Why do you even want to kill me? Just because you guys can’t have the Spirit Keeper class?” Ryan asked. Richie scoffed and shook his head.

  “Why would I care about that? I was just told to get rid of any witnesses.” As Richie said this, he glanced down at his wristwatch again. He seemed to get a bit impatient. “Not that it really matters anymore.”

  As if he was a bit annoyed, Richie turned around. “I don’t really have time to play with you anymore. I would rather not be here while that happens to Maribelle,” he said, glancing over at the gunman under Gaia’s foot. “As for that guy … he already lost to you twice now, apparently. So, just do me a favor and finish him off; I’m sure my supervisors don’t have a use for him anymore, anyway.”

  Ryan glared at Richard as he started walking toward the door of the greenhouse. The robots were blocking the way so that Ryan couldn’t get through. But Ryan quickly felt exactly why he was trying to get away. All the plants in the room were starting to release that sticky black liquid from them as the flower spirit’s corruption proceeded.

  Chapter Forty-Three

  Maribelle

  The ink-black liquid poured out of all the flowers in the room. The petals were being dyed in it, and even the soil underneath them was soaking in all the drops that fell onto it. It was streaming down the edges of the plant beds and forming a puddle on the ground that was creeping ever closer to Ryan.

  He looked over toward Maribelle. She was seated atop the largest flower in the greenhouse, leaning against its petals like sitting on a throne. Her pale green skin was almost completely white, and the dress made of petals was black and torn, like the petals were too weak to keep themselves together anymore, rotting away on Maribelle’s body.

  Her wings were similar. Before, they had been a light floral pink and mostly translucent, but now, they were almost completely torn apart, barely still hanging on to the spirit’s back. It was a truly infuriating sight to Ryan. He could feel his anger well up inside of him more and more.

  “Shit.” Ryan pulled his bag off his back and pushed his hand inside. He luckily didn’t have to search for the bottle for all too long. He pulled the bottle of slightly-golden liquid out of the bag. It was still mostly full, and should be enough to help Maribelle out. He just had to find a way to properly give it to her. He couldn’t tell for sure, but this corruption was different from the one that Kindly had been afflicted with. While for the mimic, it was like a slug or a parasite that had latched on to him from the outside, Maribelle’s was more deeply ingrained, just as Richie’s was. It permeated her whole body, inside and out, pulled deep into the roots. And it wasn’t just her own body. All the plants in this space were affected by the corruption.

  Ryan figured that Maribelle had some kind of ability that gave her control over all the plants in, at the very least, this greenhouse. He had to cure those of the corruption as well. He glanced down at the gunman, who was still being pressed down under Gaia’s foot, unable to get up from under the tight trap.

  “He left you behind,” Ryan pointed out, squatting in front of the man, who groaned in pain but, in the end, just laughed.

  “As he should. I’m jeopardizing the mission,” he pointed out. His voice still sounded as disgusting as Ryan remembered it, so he really wasn’t able to hold back a scowl.

  “And you’re not worried you’re going to be corrupted? It hurts like a bitch, you know.”

  The man actually hesitated for a few moments. “Then so be it.”

  “… Fucking hell, do the Shadows have some kind of dirt on you? Are they blackmailing you? Holding someone hostage?” Ryan asked, grimacing. “Or are you just that much of a bootlicker that you see these big guys with power and think you have to do anything you can do get on their good side?”

  “Money.”

  “What?” Taken aback, Ryan stared down at him.

  “They pay good money; that’s all.”

  With an annoyed groan, Ryan stood back up. He didn’t have any time to waste on a guy like this anymore. He had hoped the man would maybe be able to tell him something to, at the very least, get him to stop fighting back until all this was solved, but that clearly wasn’t going to work. So, instead, Ryan just shut him up another way. With a swift kick from Gaia, he was knocked out long enough for Ryan to pick him up. He was pretty damn heavy with all that body armor, but Ryan still managed to drag him over all the way to the entrance. If he couldn’t convince this psychopath not to interrupt Ryan, at the very least, he could throw him out. Of course, he would have liked to call Yamada or Runar or maybe even the police to have this guy arrested, but with his phone blown up by Richie, that wasn’t an option either. And it wasn’t like Ryan could just kill this guy. Even if he seemed like the kind of guy that would be welcomed in a VIP suite in hell, the idea of killing someone made Ryan sick to the pit of his stomach.

  “Oh, come on!” Ryan yelled out as he tried to push against the greenhouse’s door to open it. It was locked. Considering the electronic lock on the door and the half-dozen robots standing guard right outside of it, it was obvious that Richie had locked Ryan in there. The greenhouse’s windows were safety glass as well, and Ryan wasn’t strong enough to shatter it cleanly to get this guy outside; plus, the Roxies could attack him if he tried.

  So, instead, Ryan threw the mercenary to the ground and looked around. There were some vines that seemed sturdy enough. While Ripper was still usable, Ryan walked over and cut off as much of the vines as he could. They were pretty damn sturdy, but he managed to cut through it easily enough anyway with the saw-like blade. Using those vines, Ryan tied the mercenary up by the door, strapping him to some metal railings. He managed to do it just in time for Tiar’s skill to run out, and Ripper fell apart on the ground into its individual pieces.

  With that in mind, Ryan rushed back toward the greenhouse’s main space, where Maribelle was patiently waiting for him. She stared down at Ryan from her flower throne. This corruption was different from the ones that Ryan had experienced so far. The one that had taken over Energizer was one that caused a rampage. It was similar to the one that had seemingly affected the berserker that ended up destroying part of the Channel. And then there was Kindly’s corruption; while it didn’t take him over and make him act off, the corruption itself was physically much more aggressive, trying to take over the mimic.

  The first kind corrupted reason, making them mindless monsters. The second corrupted the body, breaking it down. And this one? Based on looking at Richie, it was like it corrupted their personality, twisting them into something worse. At the very least, they were clearly much more in control. The corruption, once it took hold, wasn’t as aggressive as before. Frankly, it was probably the best thing for the White Shadow Society’s goals. But it was also much more dangerous. Ryan couldn’t imagine what would happen to the spirits with him if they were to be infected by this.

  “Maribelle, are you okay?” he asked, taking a few steps toward the flower spirit. Gaia, Maximus, and Gregor were inside their domains, where they were a bit safer.

  Maribelle snarled at Ryan. That bright smile from earlier today turned into a sharp, predatory growl.

  “Listen, I can help you; you just have to let me. Please.” Ryan looked up at the spirit. She was sitting higher up than before. Much higher, really. It had happened without Ryan even fully noticing. Was Maribelle larger than she was earlier, too? Initially, she was Gaia’s size, about a meter tall, but now she had to be around as tall as the average human.

  A deeply uncanny sensation ran through Ryan’s mind. Things were off, really, really off. He didn’t know when it had happened, sometime on the way back there from the entrance, but the greenhouse was larger than before, the flowers taller and more plentiful than when Ryan first arrived. The air had become extremely saturated with mana in an all-too-familiar way. It was like this place was being turned into a dungeon. Or at least something similar to it. If he had to pinpoint it, it was actually closer to … a domain.

  Domains were spaces that all spirits were supposed to have, not just the ones with Ryan. Like a representation of their magic, their essence, and most importantly, their concept. Were dungeons and domains similar in that way? Though that idea was interesting to Ryan, he didn’t have the time to really think about that right now. He knew of Maribelle’s powers, and inside their domain, a spirit was basically a god. And if Maribelle could deploy that domain there, then her powers would be just that much stronger there than normal.

  Regular spirits’ powers seemed to act rather different from those of the spirits that were awakened through the Spirit Keeper class. Frankly, a normal spirit should be much more powerful than the spirits with Ryan. They shouldn’t have the sort of restraints that they had at the moment, but frankly, that might again be part of the seal that had been placed on them. And Maribelle, as a flower spirit, could manipulate many different plants, plenty of which were starting to get uncomfortably close to Ryan. Roots were crawling over the ground like snakes, slithering toward his legs, and leaves were speedily growing to cover the greenhouse’s windows, blocking out the tiny bit of light coming from outside. The only thing that was left was the soft, ethereal glow of the bioluminescent flowers growing around this space. This light was waving and shaking back and forth, throwing dark shadows in all directions. The pink glow of the flowers was the only thing that Ryan could use to see at this point.

  “Come on; you don’t have to do this!” Ryan exclaimed, trying to talk to Maribelle. By now, he was surrounded by tall leaves and flowers and wasn’t able to see the spirit anymore. Not that he was necessarily trying to see her, either. Rather, Ryan was just trying to push through without touching the corruption, though there was already much less of it freely flowing around, like it was being fully absorbed by all the plants.

  “You were grown by Gaia, right? I came here because you wanted to see her again! Just get rid of all these plants, and we—” Ryan started to say as he pushed away the large leaf in front of him. But when he did, a large vine whipped at him. It hit Ryan straight in the stomach, throwing him backward. He was still carefully holding on to the corruption cure. If Ryan lost or broke this bottle, then he was screwed. He had to be careful.