"I don't believe this." Dagan wiped his hand down his face and looked away from Attis... Things were happening too fast for him, when he had met with Nike it did not seem like a fight of any kind had just happened or anything, and things seemed normal (enough), too; he also was not sure what to think of how Attis phrased his words... Like The Legionnaire, The Seeker, The Maestro, and himself were the only ones who mattered or whatever; actually, that was pretty off putting and insulting, but Dagan let it slide for now.

“Are they going to try and catch Nike? -- What about Sera?”

Although he knew that Nike and Sera would be traveling together and that they would be heading to that other world, he did not say so out right, but it was sort of obvious. Still, ... Dagan was concerned about the two, specifically the latter.

Nike and Sera claimed to be his friends, friends he had forgotten... Dagan was not about to let his friends be harmed, regardless of circumstances.

"Of course!" Attis exclaimed, "He-- he attacked the Legionnaire in cold blood . . . and-- and I'm afraid he might try to involve Seras, too."

Though it seemed that Attis, unlike the Seeker or any others, hadn't ever called the Legionnaire "king" for the entire time that Dagan had known him. Despite this, he still put some degree of emphasis on the general importance of the Legionnaire. Even if he didn't fully recognize his throne, there was still value in the man's life. A value imperative to the life of all the people of this city-- however scant that number may be.

Sadly, though, he had no concrete answer for what'd become of Nike, let alone Seras. Attis didn't know how involved Seras was, but he was afraid Nike would try to involve her if he were working alone. Or worse, she was already involved to begin with . . .

"Dagan, I-- I'm sorry. I know they're your friends, and this has to be hard on you-- but if Nike's attacked the Legionnaire, there's no telling what else he has in mind," Attis reasoned, "And if he's bringing Seras down with him . . . I just-- I have no idea what to do about this . . ."

But one thing was for sure:

"I'm just afraid of what'll happen if the Seeker finds them before I do."

"The Seeker, huh?" he thought out loud. "No way are you going to find them before Seeker, but I might be able to get between them soon after they meet.” And buy Nike some time, he finished in thought.
To be frank, Dagan really and truly wanted to hit The Seeker at least once, because he seemed to really need a good punch in the face; not to mention, Seeker was owed one by Dagan ever since they had first met. -- There was no need to tell this to Attis, though. That would only serve to worry the guy, Dagan was sure.

“I need to find Nike, and Sera might be with him. And... “ he sighed, but it was time to tell Attis: “Plus, I know where they’re going and so does The Seeker if The Legionnaire told him.” he looked back towards Attis: “The Real World.”

Something Dagan said struck a chord in Attis, leaving the man staring at Dagan incredulously. He didn't know what to think of this, only that it had to be bad.

"Th-- the Real . . .?" Attis trailed off.

That was a detail the Seeker left out. A detail that struck Attis as almost entirely senseless. Why? Why would they go back there?

"After how they came back . . .?" Nike and Seras were utter wrecks when they showed up in the city. They'd succumbed to these strange real world vices, and ultimately were banned from ever going back there again. It was for their own good!

Attis couldn't even begin to explain why they would ever want to go back to that place. It was obviously too much for Nike and Seras to handle-- so why? But no matter. That was an issue he could attend to later. First and foremost, he needed to talk with Nike. Soon.

"Dagan, I--" he wanted to reach out and take hold of the man as if to somehow make his point seem more imperative, but he refrained for now. "I can't stop you if you're going to go after them. All I can do is ask that . . . if you find them before the Seeker or I-- please bring Nike back. To me, not the Legionnaire. I can talk to him. I can talk to them both. I can set things right. But not if he's gone . . ."

Dagan smiled sadly and shook his head, but not to deny or reject Attis' words: "And if you can't? What if this isn't fixable, or what if The Seeker pushes for something severe? I still don't know him well, but he seemed to really respect The Legionnaire... "

He couldn't claim to be right, but Dagan really did get that impression: The Seeker seemed to genuinely respect The Legionnaire, before that day Dagan would never have dreamt to see The Seeker lower himself to his knees for another living, breathing person.

In the end, Dagan was a pretty simple person, though, and maybe he was just too quick to judge such things.

“I can’t make any promises.” he admitted sincerely, but continuing: “I’ll only do what I feel is right at the time...”

The New Arrival was about to wave to Dagan cheerily, as if to tell him to have a good time wherever it was he was going, but then Attis stopped all of that short.

"Dagan, wait," Attis said as he reached out to take Dagan's forearm.

Attis had a firm grip on the man-- not quite authoritative, nor at all discomforting, but enough that it would be very clear that Attis had something important to say. Something that Dagan needed to hear and take to heart beyond all things he'd ever heard in this city.

"It might not look like the Seeker, Maestro, or Legionnaire respect me, but," Dagan released the man's arm, "Without me, they'd have never survived this far. And they still depend on me. I am responsible for the safety of all this city's residents, royalty included. They'll listen to me."

It was the most serious Attis had ever been with Dagan. Perhaps the most serious he'd ever been with a person in a long, long time. It was as if he were saying that the Legionnaire and the others would sooner adhere to Attis's words than deal with the consequences of ignoring him . . .

Dagan gave into Attis' tug and listened to his revelation, but he still did not understand how much influence Attis had--however, he did at least understand to an extent and if Attis thought he could settle everything, fairly... Well, that was the most Dagan could ask of anyone, really!

Smiling, Dagan nodded again, but this time was a bit more cheerful than the last: “Alright,” he said in acceptance. “I trust you.”

He turned one last time to the New Arrival, back to Attis, and then about-faced, leaving the premises. His destination would be easy for Attis to discern, even before he left: The North Gate. It would be from here that he would travel in much the same way as when he first left the grey, unnamed city. Finding Nike and Sera in the barren wasteland was probably not going to be an easy task, but Dagan had an advantage, at least: he knew exactly how to get to where they were going. In fact, he only needed to travel north, if memory served him right, and hopefully he wouldn’t be too late...

Dagan would find no one at the North Gate, a large tower at the north end of the city, melded into the walls. It appeared to have a time piece on the front of it, with the hour hand pointed directly at 'one.' The minute handed pointed close to this, just a little further down. It was unmoving, apparently stopped dead at '1:12.' The tower was highly ornate, with a large circular sheet of glass covering its main design at the top.

The wastes beyond, too, seemed empty-- but that was no difference from before. Even out this way, beyond their city was little more than a flat expanse. Further on, though, the expanse differed from the last one Dagan experienced (the southern expanse). There were not any shadows like those that tripped out him before, nor any erected structures to promote curiosity. Instead, the expanse narrowed. It gained walls, however far apart they may be. Dagan was walking within a wide fissure. Walls of rock framed its eastern and western edges far off in the distance, giving it a much more limited look than Dagan's last experience out beyond the walls of the unreal city.

There was, however, a point that might have seemed troubling to him. After walking north for long enough, he'd feel something under his feet. It was no earth quake, and it certainly was not a constant. It was . . . a blip. A momentary twinge in this one section of earth that reflected somewhere in Dagan's soul. And then, up above, he might catch a glimpse of something-- an instance of color within the gray around him.

A small, turquoise bird flew overhead in the distance, its direction southbound. With only a blink, though, Dagan would find the bird, and the feeling from the earth below his feet, gone.

With determination hard pressed against the forefront of his mind, Dagan could not be bothered to pay much attention to the buildings and structures of the unnamed city; however, they did not go unseen--he saw them, but he did not dwell upon them. Time was not something he could squander at the moment, and he knew it.

It was not until he was away from the city and traversing the wide, eye-catching fissure that he started to take in his surroundings. To Dagan, who had limited experience with the world outside of his home city, it was pretty shocking to suddenly find himself walled between terrain, but not enough to slow him down: he was running at a full sprint, just as fast (if not faster) as when he left the city with The Seeker months prior, but his urgency was justified as his motivation was no less important than before.

However fast he was moving, though, was no where near as impressive as how fast he stopped; in fact, it was near on a dime that he came skidding to a halt, a confused look on his face.

What--?

Unsteady, Dagan looked around and to his feet, it was gone now, but he was sure he felt something unreal... Or maybe it was just foreign, he wasn’t sure.

Looking up, a flash of blue caught his eye, more vibrant than anything else he had seen in his life, with only one or two possible exceptions, and though short-lived, it left in him an uncanny feeling he couldn’t quite explain with words and thoughts alone.

He continued on, lingering for just a second.

Eventually, though, Dagan would have to come to another stop. There was a point where he simply could go no further. The ground just . . . stopped. It dropped off. Fell into forever. The fog before him cut off his vision long before the pit came to an end. Looking beyond it, he'd still find nothing. There was nothing out there, just a limitless expanse of darkness. The rocks had stopped and dropped off.

But while that may have been the first thing Dagan might have noticed, the second would strike him as something far more important than that . . .

Nike and Seras stood side-by-side at the ledge. Nike still wore his armor, and it looked like Seras had joined his newfound sense of fashion. Or old sense of fashion. There was no way to tell. She wore half-plate armor just like Nike, a metal breastplate, skirt, and shoulders. There was a small knife, a dirk to be precise, sheathed at her hip, and even stranger, a wooden bow behind her back, joined with a quiver full of arrows.

Seras was the first one to notice Dagan incoming. She glanced over her shoulder, showed the profile of her face, and looked away with a downtrodden expression.

"Hey, Nike . . ." she whispered.

"I know," was all he said. "I'll take care of it."

And with that, Nike spun around to face Dagan . . .

Though Nike spun to face Dagan, Dagan did not quit advancing towards him and Sera. It was true he was out of running room, but he was no longer running: he was walking, fast. Each step he took was heavy, but smooth enough to see him no resistance from the terrain or anything at his feet.

Good, he thought. I found them before The Seeker did.

“Nike!”

It was not until the distance between the three was considerably shorter that Dagan called out. His voice did not hold the tone of a greeting or of anger, but urgency, instead.

“What the hell did you do? -- What are you doing?”

There were a lot of things he wanted to ask and say, and he did not know why Sera and Nike were even still here... They should have just left, if Dagan got here first then the Seeker was not far behind, he was sure. It didn’t take a genius to come to that conclusion.

Even still, now he didn’t know if he should urge them to hurry up and leave or if he should force them into Attis’ care.

"Just gettin' ready to leave, actually," Nike said-- but that was where friendliness came to an end. "I could ask you the same, though . . ."

Nike took a step forward, prompted Seras too turn and face him quickly. She reached her arm out to him, but he shook it off. Without a word to her, he took several more steps, putting distance between he and Seras and closing the gap between he and Dagan-- until he stood within six feet of his friend. It was then that he stopped, and likely where Dagan, too, stopped, if only because Nike was not going to let him go any further.

Seras sulked her head and shoulders and dropped her arms by her sides helplessly. This was a conflict she wanted to avoid. She'd already hurt Dagan too much. She didn't want to do it again. She didn't even want to risk breaking his heart a second time. She'd already shattered it once; she didn't need to stomp on the pieces left behind. They didn't need to do that.

But at the same time . . .

"Problem is, I already know the answer to that," he said, his voice stern and serious, "Your king's upset, and he sent you to bring us back."

“I haven’t even spoken to him, but I hear you did a number on him.” he replied bitterly. “And I’ve only spoken to Attis, and he only asked me to bring you back because I was already coming out here. I don’t know if you wanted trouble to follow you, but it is.”

Nike may have thought he was keeping Dagan back, away from Sera, but if the two really had been friends, then Nike probably already knew that if Dagan wanted to go further, there was very little he or anyone else would have been able to do to prevent it. Especially with him all riled up like he was now...

“If you really did attack The Legionnaire, ... “ Dagan’s voice trailed off.

Attis? Hm. That wasn't something Nike was expecting, but by the way he loosened up a bit and ultimately seemed far less willing to draw his sword on his friend, it was clearly a pleasant surprise. It still wasn't anything to smile about, though. He knew Attis. He knew who Attis was and he knew the people Attis was affiliated with. Right now, he felt Attis was a person that should also be avoided, but at least not quite as avoided as the Seeker or the Legionnaire. Those were the last people he needed to see right now.

Nonetheless, Nike wasn't moving yet.

"I did," Nike replied, "He wasn't going to let us leave. He was going to fight it and bar our exit himself if we tried. I made sure he didn't have the chance to . . ."

Nike put his hand over the hilt of his longsword. He'd no intentions of drawing his blade on his friend if he'd no reason to, but he'd no intentions of drawing his blade on his king, a man to whom he'd been completely loyal before, either. If necessary, he had been willing to fight his way out of that city.

"You give a man so much of yourself, 'til there's nothing left to give, and then he refuses you the last thing you could ever hope for," Nike uttered under his breath, only to raise his voice shortly thereafter, not angrily, but as a stern question: "Would you have done any less?"

"Who knows?" he replied casually. "Maybe, maybe not--It hasn't happened so I can't say I would or wouldn't, but you've opened a can of worms with this."

Dagan momentarily slipped into silence and started to think about the situation. He trusted Attis’ to try his best to resolve things peacefully, but it would still probably have a pretty bleak result for Nike and Sera: they wanted to leave. And that was what started everything, anyways!

“Ergh!” furiously, he scratched at the back of his head before finally shrugging; it was good he didn’t come here with anything specific in mind, because he really didn’t want to admit defeat...

“Look, honestly... I didn’t even come here to stop you, it was just what Attis’ wanted me to do, and you know how Attis can be. I came here because The Seeker has got to be on his way... I don’t even know how I beat him here, but if you’re leaving you need to leave now.”

Balling his fists, Dagan turned around and crossed his arms; he did not quite leave just yet, but instead he ‘looked the other way.’ He had no intention of stopping them.

“Wait any longer and I really will have to try and take you to Attis ... It’s one or the other.”

It was the only way to be safe.