Will of Nation

Chernov felt tinnitus. After a few seconds, his ears heard some familiar sounds. The sound of artillery shells on the battlefield rang in Chernov's ears.

Opened his eyes and raised his head, Chernov felt shocked.

"This place is... Leningrad."

Dragon knights flying in the sky, undead cavalry is charging at them, and BMP shooting at them at its position. All those lost faces of his task forces and comrades from the airborne division, and the sound of BMP canon shooting.

His instinctive reaction is to join the fight with his comrade. But what happened next, is just like before, the undead cavalry stopped charging but slowly moved toward them. Stepping on all those mines, the protection effect from their magic starts losing. In the end, standing still on the ground, getting killed by the soldiers.

"What happened?"

Even though this is the second time he experienced it, he still does not understand what has happened. But with the experience before, he looks closely and in detail at those undead and realizes that they are all looking toward a direction, the high point, where he is protecting now.

"What is affecting them?" With his doubt, he looks at it as well and sees something he has never seen before.

The 'Red Ghost', strong red energy stream from all directions gathering to him, making him more and more powerful, all those undead are forced to show submission to him.

The 'Red Ghost' seemed to realize someone was looking at him, and found out that it was Chernov. The next moment, everything around Chernov, the void, starts to break like glasses. 

The 'Red Ghost' appear in front of him, as all the energy stream gather together. The energy stream builds his body, his hand, his head, and at last his face. A face that Chernov was very familiar with.

"Comrade... Comrade Lenin? This can not be real. You are Lenin, aren't you? Vladimir Ilyich himself?"

Chernov expressed it incredulously, even narrowing his eyes and slapping his face a few times to ensure he wasn't dreaming.

"Hahaha, stop slapping yourself comrade, you are in a dream, or else how would you see me? Yes, people used to call me Lenin, that was my name when I was still alive. But now, I have no name or perhaps you can call me the National Will."

"National Will? What is it that I don't understand, why are you so powerful and why did those undead show submission to you? Why am I in this dream?" Chernov continued to ask, he was materialistic for all time, even though different worlds came with different changes, but still a shock and questions for him.

"Well, let me explain to you in more detail, I am the embodiment of all the collective in the Soviet Union. Did you see those energy streams, it is the faith of our people, I am so powerful because our people still believe in communism and socialism, my power comes from the people. With the power of people, it will not be a problem for me to crush those undead, their magic is weak in front of our strong faith. In easy words, I am the Soviet Union itself, the Soviet Union is me."

"You wondered why you were in this dream and met me. But why don't you ask yourself, do you consider yourself as a tried and tested man loyal to socialism? You did not give up your body when the enemies tried to take it, you proved your loyalty to the country when the enemy invaded us. And most importantly, you are the one that experienced the most magic in this world, making you see me."

Chernov remains silent, the 'National Will' has had a big impact on him. 

"Well, I see you, and what do you want me to do?"

"No, Comrade. I ask only that you remember, what was your thoughts when you joined the army, and I hope you will always keep that even many years. The choices you make will decide whether the Soviet Union's ideals endure, or whether they fade into oblivion."

"Even the smallest cog can shift the mightiest machine. You are not just a soldier, you are a symbol, a vessel for the unyielding will of the people. In you burns the steel resolve of the workers and the soldiers, the dream of equality and justice. As long as you can do what I said, I promise you many years later, you will help me to keep the country on the correct path."

After listening to 'National Will' saying the last sentence, Chernov feels like this somehow becoming a puppet of it, but it was formed by people, as a soldier, he serves the people and people can also be explained as their master. So, it is still the same as what he was doing right now, but with the help from the people, so why reject? Yet he still has some questions.

"I don't understand, I am just a soldier, A pawn in a game far larger than myself. Why place this burden on me?"

"Then my turn to ask you some questions? What do you think of the Soviet Union now? Do our high-ranking officers still believe in socialism? Are they still willing to share the rights of the country with our people? Of course, I see Andropov is doing something to make everything go back on the path, but what comes after him? Some of our elites seem tired of sharing the power of our country with our people. The country seems to become someone else's country instead of ours."

"I want all these to be prevented, maybe you do not know yet. The future of our country has already been changed, at least, from my view. Something bad may not happen, but the problem is still there. Andropov's anti-corruption is just a temporary way, something needs to be changed to solve the problem."

"The ideology of Communism is strong, under our strong ideology, even those capitalist country had to compromise, they improve themself, giving their workers and people a better life, better working condition, without us, do you think they will do these? But think of ourselves, we are not improving, and the ideology inside our country is going backwards, look at what the Soviet Union did in the past 10 years, we are more like a Red Russian Empire instead of a Union of Soviet Socialist Republic."

"Of course, there may have been some mistakes I made while I was still alive. If Stalin, Trotsky, Bukharin, and others had united, perhaps many of the negative events could have been avoided, leading us to a different present. I hope to change this, and you will do it for me, for our country and our people."

"And now, let me ask you once again, are you willing to accept my quests? Comrade."