11. Dashing Heroics

After the cultists depart, Jason cautiously returns to the platforms and reaches Gary’s cage. He unlocks it with stolen keys and learns Gary’s suppression collar blocks abilities but not his physical strength. Jason finds an Awakening Stone of the Feast and pockets it.

They ascend to Jason’s old platform, where he retrieves another stone. When three cultists arrive, Gary casually throws two into the blood pool. Jason feigns surrender to the third, then low-blows and shoves him to his death, wrestling with the morality of killing as Gary urges pragmatism.

On the next platform, Jason frees Rufus, who arms himself with Jason’s “suspiciously sharp” trowel. Alicia Vane confronts them; Rufus engages her, and on command from above she retreats. Rufus and Gary execute a practiced move—Rufus tosses the trowel, Gary hurls it—killing Alicia as the blade pierces her throat.

They reach the top platform where Lady Cressida Vane and Darryl Caruthers await. Darryl blasts Rufus and Gary into the wall and binds them with glowing chains. Jason trades barbs, needling Darryl’s melodrama and Cressida’s resentment at being sidelined, provoking an argument between them while he edges closer.

Despite painful backlash from using another gold spirit coin so soon, Jason surges with power, steps between the bickering leaders, and strikes them both, launching them into the chamber walls with lethal force. With Cressida and Darryl defeated, the cult’s leadership collapses and Jason secures a decisive, if costly, victory.