[color=goldenrod][i][h2][center]Gerard Segremors[/center][/h2][/i][/color]

[@VitaVitaAR]

[color=goldenrod]"Captain! Path's open!"[/color] Gerard called, a moment after his fallen quarry took his last shuddering breath. His own came in short bursts, unintentionally forcing his voice to resonate in the cavity of the upper chest— his call became a rough shout. Doubling back after pulling his blade free of skull, blood, and brain, Gerard scanned the ground, amber searchlights trying to focus upon— [i]there[/i]. A small trinket upon the ground, catching the dim light in [i]just[/i] such an unnatural way.

He ran a three and a half strides and scooped up the talisman the man had brandished, moments before little Tili's knife had made a home within the hinge of his elbow. Whatever it did, this alien arcane focus could not be allowed to fall back into the hands of the enemy. Deny them their strengths. The very basest of a warrior's principles, one that extended to all levels of combat— from man-to-man to nation-versus-nation. At a guess, it commanded the reanimated dead that the Captain and Knight Serpenta had been bogged down by. Perhaps not the key to their twisted mockeries of a second life at their cores, but likely that which directed whatever ghost lied within the machine.

Could he use it against its former masters?

[color=goldenrod][i]No.[/i][/color] 

As a man of faith he would not stoop to it, and as a man of practicality, he could not waste time chancing it. He probably would need to turn his back upon the Goddesses if he wished to harness this power, turn towards something blackened, turgid, evil. It would be a trifle in exchange for something unforgivable. He was wholly unwilling.

He dropped the trinket, its garnet glittering as it clattered again to the floor—

And crushed it beneath his boot, grinding his heel into the stone tiling until he heard [i]something[/i] give before setting off further down. Whatever was happening down there wouldn't stop itself. Hopefully his fellows could rejoin him soon, but as it stood now, he needed to take this opportunity he'd earned. To gain more ground for them all.