The pumps started up with a loud droning sound, pushing the water inside of the tanks throughout the greenhouse. Ryan wasn't sure exactly how well things would work, with the space of the greenhouse being distorted by Maribelle's domain, but it didn't take long until the sprinklers closest to Ryan got started.

  The corruption that was clinging to the plants closest to the pump room was being largely washed away, though there was of course another issue. This breed of corruption had taken much deeper hold on all these plants than Kindly's corruption had. Washing things away on a surface level wasn't enough. The cure-water needed to be pulled in and truly flow throughout the plants, but that was really just a matter of time at this point. As the water seeped into the ground, the plants would absorb it and hopefully get cured. But that wasn't all. It was like the air itself was being cured of the corrupted atmosphere as the water was shot out of the sprinklers.

  Of course, this didn't change anything about the fact that until Maribelle herself was properly cured, she would still attack Ryan and try to kill him. Vines and roots were already climbing their way into the room, getting ready to pounce like some wild animal. But now that there was a constant cure flowing through the space, Ryan didn't have to act defensively anymore. He held forward his hand and finally let out Maximus. He appeared with the greatsword Granfell already tightly grasped, and Ryan didn't hesitate to undo the seal on Maximus, doubling the knight's size and allow him to more effectively cut down the plants trying to invade the room. For now, Ryan wanted to take a quick breather in here. He had to wait until the sprinklers properly spread everything throughout the greenhouse. Plus, this was the first time he had the opportunity to think about what he actually had to do right now.

  What if this corruption was different, and couldn't be undone in the same way that Kindly's had been? It seemed generally effective, but that was mostly in regard to the black gunk that was dripping from some of these plants. He really had no idea what happened to someone of the corruption to that sort of deep hold on a spirit.

  "Gaia, do you know anything? Even if it's not something you remember, you're the one that created the flowers that can cure corruption. Plus, you apparently grew Maribelle's flower," Ryan pointed out, speaking to the spirit as she sat in her domain contemplatively. She was already trying to figure out the same thing, apparently. But in the end, Gaia just shook her head, albeit rather hesitantly.

  "Really? Nothing at all?" Ryan asked again. He was a little desperate at this point. He didn't want to hurt Maribelle, but if she couldn't be cured from this right away, then using force to subdue her seemed like one of the few things he could actually do. Tie her down, or maybe he could steal her flower and bring her somewhere she couldn't hurt anyone while they figured out something else. But it didn't seem like Gaia had any sort of an idea of how to help Maribelle if things didn't work out with the corruption cure. Though, she seemed rather apologetic. Ryan quickly shook his head.

  "No, don't worry, we'll figure something out if we need to. For now, let's just hope that the cure works," Ryan muttered, walking back over to the water tanks. He filled up the bottle that the cure was in earlier with some of the water. It wasn't as effective this watered down, but it should still be enough to work in an emergency if either Ryan or Maximus got hit with some corruption.

  Maximus was currently fighting back against the plants that were trying to come into the room. Ryan was watching them carefully, trying to see any sort of sign that something could be going on with Maribelle. And when all the plants in the main part of the greenhouse started to practically shiver, Ryan realized that this was as good a signal he was ever going to get.

  Together with Maximus, he rushed out of the room. The knight skilfully moved around and cut through any leaves or vines that were blocking the way or trying to attack, while Ryan made sure to keep the both of them out of the way of the remaining pitcher plants that were trying to pour acid down onto them. That being the case, as Ryan and Maximus ran through the space, it was already extremely clear that the corruption really was being washed away. Maribelle's control over this area was fading away. And Ryan doubted that the corruption did anything to enhance the flower spirit's powers, but rather, it was just that now that the corruption's influence had weakened, Maribelle was starting to fight back against it.

  Spirits weren't weak beings. While they seemed prone to being corrupted in this kind of way, once they had a proper hold on what was going on, they should be able to fight against it. It was the same with Gaia; a splinter of her core had somehow managed to simply fight off the corruption placed onto it and even created a cure for corruption in the process.

  It didn't take long until Ryan and Maximus got back to the greenhouse's main area. The massive leaves still blocked out most of the light coming in from outside, but the light from the luminescent flowers had gotten much stronger than when Ryan left earlier. By now, he was completely drenched in water carrying the cure, so even if he got touched by any of the corruption here, he should be able to fend it off to some degree. Which was good, because even if the rest of the greenhouse seemed to be steadily cleansed, Maribelle herself wasn't quite yet. Some of the water was dripping through, but the flower spirit had pushed leaves over her head and was protecting herself from the sprinklers. Herself and the flower that she came from were the only parts there that weren't being hit by the cure just yet, but it seemed to be enough to make the corruption in Maribelle wane.

  Ryan looked at the spirit in front of him, practically staring into her eyes, "Come on, Maribelle! You can do this, you can fight this off!"

  Maximus walked around the area, circling to a different part of the room as Ryan continued to speak to the flower spirit. Of course, Maribelle was still affected by the corruption, and it was something that was very clearly shown to Ryan as more and more vines and roots slithered into the area from surrounding parts of the greenhouse. It was like Maribelle was trying to focus all of her influence onto this one spot. The pitcher plants were moved closer toward Ryan as well, basically creating a circle around him to prevent him from getting anywhere. But instead of pouring it all down onto Ryan, Maribelle was hesitating.

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  At this point, Ryan really just had to buy some time for Maximus. Maribelle was completely hyper focused on Ryan, so the knight was able to practically sneak around, cutting away the leaves and roots in his way. Maximus soon reached the other side of the room, climbing up some of the plants until he got close enough to the pipes. With a quick slash, Maximus cut through the thin metal pipes and let out a powerful stream of water that was gushing all over the small dome of leaves that Maribelle had created to protect herself from the water.

  Maximus jumped down onto the leaves and cut them apart with some quick slashes, letting the water hit the flower spirit directly. She was drenched in the water, and as if dye was being washed off her, her hair and the petals on her body turned back to their originally vibrant pink. Her skin was also lightening more and more, but Maribelle's eyes were still a thick, deep black. The space shook as the spirit lashed out in pain, and whips of roots and vines were thrown at Ryan from all directions.

  He protected his face against them, and even as the pitcher plants emptied themselves and a puddle was formed below Ryan's feet, he held out against the onslaught until the acid fully tore apart the plants that were whipping Ryan instead. The moment he could move, he jumped out of the way, but his shoes were completely ruined. Rather, all of his clothes were. He was in complete tatters. At the very least, he wasn't particularly injured. Just some surface-level acid burns from the pitcher plants.

  Ryan jumped away from the acid, standing closer to Maribelle than he had before. She was gripping her head, trying to hold out against the pain she was feeling right now. Ryan saw the flower spirit who was trying her best to fight back. He rushed up to her, as she sat on the throne that was her flower, and pulled her down, pulling her into a hug.

  He knew how painful and scary the corruption was, and especially this kind that affected the mind in a much different way to regular corruption, must be extremely scary to deal with. At this point, Ryan really didn't know if there was anything that he could do to help Maribelle anymore. It felt like, at this point, she had to do the rest of it herself.

  The small spirit that was the size of a small child pressed herself against Ryan's chest, trying to deal with the pain of forcing out the corruption.

  "It's alright, don't worry," Ryan said, smiling lightly, "You can do this."

  Maribelle shook her head, as if saying that she couldn't. Ryan could see the roots of her hair slowly grow black again. And this time, while she was directly pressed up against Ryan.

  "No, really, it's alright," he said, trying to reassure her without an ounce of fear in his voice. As he said so, Gaia stepped out of her domain. Ryan weakened her seal as well to allow Gaia to stand by his side. The golem wrapped her arms around Ryan, embracing both him and Maribelle in her stone arms. The water flowing out from the pipes above was dripping down Gaia's body and further onto Maribelle. And every single drop that passed by Gaia's body seemed to clear out more and more of the corruption on Maribelle.

  It didn't take long until the pained grip of the spirit as she held onto Ryan's clothes relaxed, and Maribelle simply let herself sink into the hugs. For a while longer, they stood there like that, until Ryan noticed that the space around them changed again. The mana in the air wasn't as potent anymore. The greenhouse was no longer fused with Maribelle's domain, and the spatial distortions completely disappeared.

  The plants that had been artificially grown by Maribelle returned to their former state, though frankly, many of them were cut apart now as a side-effect of Maximus slashing them apart as him and Ryan ran through the building. A lot of damage had been done, but it seemed as though Maribelle didn't care right now. She just looked up at Ryan with a smile on her face. Him and Gaia pulled back to let Maribelle go, and the flower spirit quickly gave Ryan a hug, and then turned around to look at Gaia.

  With a sort of glee that Ryan was honestly quite rare to see, Maribelle flew at Gaia and held onto her. It didn't seem like she wanted to let go either, as if there was a lot they had to catch up on. Once Ryan realized that things were over, he dropped down onto the ground. This was exhausting. Now he just had to get home. With a loud groan, he rubbed the bridge of his nose. How was he going to explain what happened to him to his mom? Maybe he could avoid her, but if she somehow happened to see him, she would freak out immediately. Ryan was basically half-naked, since the acid ate through his clothes so easily. And the burns, even if Ryan knew they weren't anything serious, still looked pretty rough.

  But for now, he just had to take a breather.

  "You okay, bud? Did you get any acid on you?" Ryan asked, looking at Tiar's patterns on his arm.

  "(づ￣ 3￣)??"

  "All good, huh? Alright, I'm glad," he smiled lightly, sighing a breath of relief. As he sat there, Maximus approached him. He was back at his regular scale, and was holding the remains of Ryan's phone right now. It was completely blown to pieces thanks to Richie. But he should still take it with him, maybe he could at least salvage his old pictures. And then, Ryan realized, "Oh fuck, the Roxies are still out there..."

  With a loud groan, Ryan pressed his hands into his neck before getting up. They were too dangerous to deal with, so maybe Ryan should just wait them out. Or better even, call his uncle, Yamada, or Anders, and have one of them take care of them. They would probably want to come over here to take a look at everything later anyway.

  "Maybe that fucking psycho has a phone on him," Ryan pushed himself off the ground and headed over to the entrance where the gunman was hopefully still tied up. But when he got there, the vines that he tied around him were gone, and the door was slightly ajar. It looked like the Roxies left with him as well. At least that meant Ryan could leave without being scared he was about to be impaled all of a sudden. And so, Ryan quickly returned to where the spirits were waiting.

  "Sorry about this, Maribelle, but we have to go right now. We'll be back later with some people that can check on you properly," Ryan explained, and the flower spirit hesitantly let go of Gaia's arm. Both of them seemed rather dejected, but since Gaia couldn't be all that far away from Ryan, there was really no other choice.

  Maribelle waved them goodbye as Ryan walked out of the greenhouse, trying to carefully head back to the botanical gardens' exit. If he was spotted in here like this, then he would probably get in trouble.

  Though, an uncomfortable feeling settled in the base of Ryan's beck as he turned around the corner. The security guards, which were somehow all gone earlier, were now gathered at the front of the botanical gardens, and of course, quickly spotted Ryan and the massive golem next to him.

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