Cataclysm: Undead Dragons and Zero Empire

The Death Cult priests prayed at the alms table for the disaster victims, while in the twilight, people gathered around the campfire, waiting to be fed their empty stomachs.

With each such meal, people endured another day, the flame of hope burned a little brighter, and then more people joined the priests in reciting scriptures.

After Lin Zimo awoke, the doctrines and scriptures of the Death School were urgently revised. In addition to the original worship of death and the great being, many chapters were added to encourage people to do good, love each other, and overcome difficulties together.

These are scriptures personally written by Terence, which drastically changed the long-standing beliefs of the Death Sect, allowing the ancient sect to adapt to the changing times and take root and thrive in new soil.

The sermons were updated seven days after the day of catastrophe. For some reason, Howard felt that the reason these verses were written the way they were was because the dragon high above the moon had genuinely helped this planet on the verge of destruction.

Howard was increasingly unable to understand Terence, the leader of the Death Faction. Should he be described as fanatical or rational?

Regardless, after witnessing the magnificent torrent of psychic energy descend from the heavens, quell the disaster, and reshape the earth, even as the leader of the "Riders of Death" who had never offered his faith in dragons and had only ever worshipped death, Howard would sincerely express his admiration for the beings high above.

Human civilization is nearing its end, and calling the present apocalypse is most appropriate. Unlike the believers of the death party, Howard is unwilling to place all his hopes on dragons. He has always been committed to the path of human awakening, human self-salvation, and human revival.

He led the surviving forces of the "Death Cavalry" to reorganize a new stronghold, but this time they were not fighting against the company's armed forces, but against the dangerous natural environment.

Compared to the last major earthquake, those struggling to survive also faced the challenges of oxygen deprivation and cold. Howard could clearly sense the drop in atmospheric pressure, as if he were in a high-altitude region, requiring longer rest periods for each activity.

Fuel shortages meant that no trees could be seen in any human settlements. They had either been buried deep underground by earthquakes and would become new coal mines in the future, or they had been dismantled by survivors for firewood. Campfires became the last guarantee of human lifeline.

Decline and despair are the most prominent labels of the post-disaster era. Although the death party and the "respect for death cavalry" have been providing relief to refugees and organizing production, using their usual work-for-relief strategy, people still choose to end their lives every day, and more mounds of earth are added to the cemetery.

The corporate war, of course, ended without a word. In the face of nature's overwhelming fury, the infighting among humans seemed insignificant. However, Howard had been wary of the giant corporations but had never found any trace of them; they had vanished quite completely.

The company's armed forces were all bewildered by the disappearance of their superiors, so even when the "Death Cavalry" passed by them, the two former enemies chose to tacitly ignore each other, and even exchanged supplies in order to survive.

Many factories originally used for munitions production were destroyed by the earthquake and storm. Unlike the arms race that followed the first major earthquake, this time all the remaining productivity was used for survival, including dismantling military factories and using high-quality raw materials to build new factories for reproducing materials.

As time went by, human civilization gained a foothold, and the power of corporations gradually crumbled. Many survivors who had once lived under the control of corporations spontaneously formed new towns, but chaos was always occurring.

Without regulation, humanity seems to have returned to ancient times, where everything is decided by force, and a piece of bread can trigger a bloody conflict affecting hundreds of people.

Fed up with these days, people flocked to the towns under the rule of the "Death Knights," forcing Howard to expand his camp and even nominally take over the chaotic cities. He was overwhelmed with these forced conquests.

Many of the company's armed forces abandoned their independent strongholds and surrendered to their former adversaries, because firing bullets only brought death and could not bring real food. Even in human-inhabited cities, they could not find enough ready-made bread. Their only food was their fellow countrymen.

However, the problem remains unresolved. Despite a significant decrease in population, the remaining human productivity is still insufficient to meet the most basic food needs.

Even with Howard's strict rationing system and the concentration of all efforts on restoring production, food couldn't magically grow from the ground. Snails, earthworms, and all sorts of insects that could be found in the soil were wiped out, leaving the fields cleaner than after a locust plague.

One human tragedy after another suddenly arose after the disaster. Compared with such a catastrophe, the great famine that Howard had seen seemed insignificant.

He, the leader of the "Death Cavalry," had effectively become the leader of human civilization, but he was simply overwhelmed with tasks. As a soldier who was always good at warfare, he had to work day and night to deal with the various events that were being submitted to him in the face of a global population that was desperately in need of food.

Howard had become a de facto emperor in the military tent, issuing orders with iron discipline to govern the chaotic new forces. However, he did not enjoy his power at all; all that awaited him was endless responsibility and obligation, and he even felt that he did not have time to die.

He could only find some encouragement when he saw the people in the settlement working hard and striving for tomorrow. The image of the mother he had rescued from the ruins, holding her baby in her arms, always flashed through his mind.

The Death Cult priests were always very active, and peace was much better wherever they were. Howard had to acknowledge the positive effects of faith at this point, but every time he looked up at the night sky, the dragon's shadow looming over the moon would make him gasp for breath.

The deity worshipped by the Death faction seems to be continuing His grand project on the moon. Regardless of how this Lord of Death, whether benevolent or indifferent, will treat humanity on Earth, Howard must at least protect the flame of civilization for the time being.

Terence disappeared again after making that call. He didn't know what the Death Faction was up to this time, but the observations were correct, as evidenced by the increasingly cold weather.

In order to survive the unprecedentedly long winter and even break new low temperature limits, Howard ordered the construction of towering structures, fueled by coal and powered by readily available and primitive steam boilers, in preparation for the inevitable harsh winter.

Teams of coal miners worked day and night in earthquake-ravaged areas, searching for exposed veins that had been uprooted. These mineral deposits, once considered untreatable, have now become a source of hope for human survival.