In a single, weary blink, the two shadows vanished. They didn't disappear in a flash of light, but rather faded like ink dissolving in water, leaving the old sofa empty and cold. The room grew even colder, as if the last warmth of that bitter memory had been siphoned away. In place of the father and son, a single figure now sat casually beside Oldred, as if he had been there all along. A tall, thin man in a worn-out suit, with the head of a jet-black German Shepherd. Its empty eye sockets seemed to draw in all the light from the room.
The creature opened its unnatural jaws, and from its dark throat, it coughed up a pack of cigarettes and a box of wooden matches onto the table. The motion was so calm and ordinary, as if it were the most natural thing in the world. It took one cigarette, clamped it between its fangs, and then lit it. "Krek!" The small, trembling flame illuminated its eyeless, canine face for a moment, before thin white smoke billowed from the end of the cigarette it drew upon. The figure then placed the cigarette pack on the table, directly in front of Oldred. A wordless offer.
Oldred took one. The cigarette felt strange between his trembling fingers. He placed it between his chapped lips. The figure leaned closer, lighting the tip of his cigarette with the flame from its own.
The Dog: "Are you going to stop now?"
His voice was hoarse and grating, as if the words were being ground between the gears of a rusted steam engine.
Oldred: "Rans Augumm has collapsed. There's nothing left to be done..."
He exhaled, releasing the first bitter cloud of white smoke. It danced in the cold air like a restless spirit.
The Dog let out a low chuckle, a sound that rumbled deep in its chest. Thick smoke billowed from its mouth with each soft laugh.
The Dog: "No, no. Rans Augumm never collapsed. Rans Augumm isn't an empire of stone and steel. Rans Augumm is an ideology. Rans Augumm is a worldview... Heh... heh..."
It leaned back, looking perfectly comfortable in the midst of Oldred's personal hell.
The Dog: "Do you think the souls screaming in your ocean of blood will be pleased with that answer? The people you burned, the martyrs who willingly gave themselves to the flames to etch 'her' name upon the heavens... Do you think they would be happy to hear they died for nothing? No, I didn't think so."
The smoke from their cigarettes gathered around them, forming a thin fog that made the room feel like a graveyard. Cold, so cold. There was no warmth here, only burning memories and the empty fire of a cigarette. To regret the past, or to move forward for the sake of the past?
The Dog: "They died for a purpose. They died with the conviction that the impact of their deaths would become real. The same goes for every murder you carried out. You didn't kill for the sake of blood; you killed for the sake of an impact. A consequence that would reshape the world into a new vision. Rans Augumm doesn't rise or fall... It grows inside your soul, forged in the fires of hell..."
Oldred: "...."
He stared at the glowing tip of his cigarette. What has been burned can never be made whole again. The only thing that could give meaning to the ashes was the purpose of the fire itself. A result.
The Dog: "Heh... heh... hehe. I see it in your eye. I always have. The doubt, the uncertainty radiating from that single remaining eye of yours. That is why I am here. Without me... you would never have survived a single day in that hell. I am your will to kill, to survive. So, why don't you try just one more time?"
Its empty eye sockets seemed to stare straight through Oldred's soul, peeling back every layer of his weakness.
The Dog: "Oh?... Or have you decided? That we... were wrong? That everything we did was despicable? Fine. Then how do we pay for it? Ngeh... hehe... Do you think the word 'sorry' is enough? That a few good deeds can cover the ocean of blood and the sea of fire we have created? Will hypocrisy atone for sin? Or maybe... maybe you could do the only honest thing..."
The creature leaned forward, its voice now a sharp, suggestive whisper.
The Dog: "...pursue the future, in order to give life to the past?"