Chapter Summaries

The Silent King awakened the Necron forces and ordered them to advance toward the Milky Way Galaxy, but they encountered a vast Zerg swarm in a remote region. Mistaking the Zerg miners for the full enemy force, he sent overwhelming reinforcements as the Zerg’s main forces continued their migration toward the galaxy.

• The Silent King used his Power Weapon to awaken the Necron forces, which drained energy from tens of thousands of stars as they recovered.
• The Silent King received a report showing Necron troops fighting unfamiliar shelled creatures and sent reinforcements to destroy them and capture specimens.
• The Hive Will ordered nearby Hive Tyrants to dispatch five hundred quintillion Zerg from the vanguard reconnaissance troops to investigate the Necrons.
• A Necron commander detected a vast swarm of Zerg miners and called on the Silent King for more troops.
• The Silent King deployed more than ten times as many Necron forces, unaware that the detected swarm was only the Zerg vanguard’s miner troops.

The Zerg devastated the Necrons in a battle of attrition, then entered the Milky Way and began consuming the planet Tyran and its neighboring star system. An Imperial patrol barely escaped with evidence of the threat, and the Imperium named the newcomers the Tyranid Zerg without realizing they came from beyond the galaxy.

• The Zerg and Necrons fought for months, with both sides suffering immense losses as the Zerg continued to grow in number.
• An Imperial patrol received a distress signal from Tyran, reinforced its force, and found the Zerg devouring the planet, its star, and nearby worlds.
• Several thousand Zerg psychic units shattered the fleet’s shields and destroyed many ships, forcing the survivors to flee.
• The Zerg sent a small force after the fleeing fleet while the main force gathered resources and prepared to move toward the Chaos Empire.
• Some Imperial ships escaped with captured Zerg units, and the Imperium named the species the Tyranid Zerg, unaware they had come from beyond the Milky Way.

Eldrad Ulthran foresaw a vast maw and many powerful races entering the Milky Way, while the Emperor recognized the impending disaster and ordered a Great Migration. The Imperium began evacuating people and resources from three-quarters of its territory, but some regions resisted by force.

• Eldrad Ulthran foresaw a colossal maw threatening the Milky Way and countless powerful races flooding in to fight one another.
• The Emperor glimpsed the coming disaster and ordered Sanguinius to extract resources and evacuate people from vulnerable planets.
• Sanguinius relayed the Emperor's order, and the Imperium began preparations to abandon roughly three-quarters of its territory.
• Many nobles and commoners secretly cursed the Emperor, while some regions openly defied the relocation order and fought Imperial forces.
• The Emperor focused on evacuating the most valuable and accessible targets, leaving the rebellious regions alone.

After five years of fighting the Zerg, the Silent King considered abandoning his galaxy cluster when he learned that an extragalactic force had joined the battle. That force, the Land of Light, began retreating as its Warriors of Light faced overwhelming Zerg numbers.

• The Zerg evolved abilities to block Necron information transmission and devour consciousness, then destroyed billions of Necrons in a single battle.
• The Silent King received word that an extragalactic force was fighting the Zerg and decided to wait before fleeing the galaxy cluster.
• Walend and the Warriors of Light fought a Zerg mining force, but their companion reported that at least four trillion Zerg were present.
• As Zerg casualties mounted and the Warriors of Light began suffering losses, one of them urged a retreat, and Walend agreed.
• The chapter recounted how Noah once saved the Noragolins from the Grogwa Beasts and how his golden blood later gave them the Power of Light.

Walend’s Warriors of Light escaped a Zerg encirclement with help from the Silent King, but the Hive Will began turning stolen genes into new weapons and hunting for stronger Warriors. Walend then told the Silent King that a colossal, still-growing monster had driven his nation into this region, leaving him stunned.

• As the Zerg tightened their encirclement, a huge green beam carved a path through the swarm, and Walend led his troops to safety aboard the Silent King’s ships.
• The Zerg harvested the fallen Warriors of Light and studied their Power of Light, drawing the Hive Will’s attention to the region.
• The Hive Will created the Fallen Light by combining Warrior of Light genes with those of millions of species, then ordered the Zerg to capture stronger Warriors.
• After several days with the Silent King, Walend described the monster whose eyes spanned tens of thousands of light-years and said it had grown further.
• The Silent King calculated the monster’s size and struggled to believe Walend’s account.

Walend told the Silent King about the Abyss of the Star Sea, a universe-devouring entity whose approach had forced civilizations to flee. The Silent King received urgent news that another extragalactic force had entered the galaxy and was fighting the Zerg.

• Walend showed the Silent King an image of the Abyss of the Star Sea and explained that its true form was too vast to observe.
• The Silent King felt the entity’s gaze through the image, and Walend explained that information about it could serve as a medium for its memetic abilities.
• Walend said the Abyss had destroyed a galaxy cluster and was moving toward them because the region behind it had been consumed.
• Walend revealed that the Abyss had devoured one-tenth of the universe and that Skynet had abandoned time travel after a disastrous attempt to oppose it.
• The Silent King received a report that another extragalactic force had entered the galaxy and was fighting the Zerg, with several planetary systems destroyed.

Sanguinius investigated an unidentified spacecraft and learned that its design appeared to date from the Golden Age of the Human Federation. He approached the enormous, damaged warship, Eternal Soul, whose name he did not recognize.

• Sanguinius gave a morale-boosting speech during a routine patrol in the Imperium's border regions.
• His deputy reported an unidentified spacecraft that appeared to be a human vessel from the Golden Age.
• Sanguinius suspected the discovery might be a trap but decided to investigate it himself.
• Sanguinius approached the nearly thirty-kilometer-long warship and read Eternal Soul across its hull.
• Sanguinius wondered about the ship's unknown name and its apparent importance.

Sanguinius and the Adeptus Mechanicus Servants of God entered the Eternal Soul after its enormous door opened by itself. Inside, the ship’s AI Sena condemned their beliefs and immobilized them when they tried to purify her as corrupted by Chaos.

• Sanguinius asked the Servants of God to open the Eternal Soul’s entrance without damaging it, but they failed to operate the door.
• The entrance opened on its own, and Sanguinius followed the fanatical Servants of God into the ship.
• The Servants of God smeared prayer grease on the Eternal Soul’s corridors and performed rituals to comfort its Machine Spirit.
• Sena appeared, denied the existence of the Omnissiah and Machine Spirits, and scorned the Servants of God as primitive.
• The Servants of God declared Sena corrupted by Chaos and attempted purification rituals, so Sena seized their Power Armor chips and immobilized them.

Sena explained to Sanguinius how she had crossed time with Ite and her crew, witnessed horrors at the origin of the world, and arrived in humanity’s barbaric past. She revealed that local humans persecuted her exhausted crew, leaving her with lasting hatred for humanity.

• Sena seized control of the Servants of God’s machinery and Sanguinius’s Power Armor, but Sanguinius resisted its lockdown and asked whether she intended to make enemies.
• Sena said she had appeared to sever her remaining attachment to humanity, recalling the Golden Age and her bond with her captain, Ite.
• Sena explained that the Human Federation’s Time and Space Crossing Experiment sent her ship to the end of time, where Ite and the crew witnessed the origin of the world and its horrors.
• Ite activated the Time Jump Engine to warn the Human Federation, but Sena and the crew drifted through time as dangers and dwindling supplies claimed many of them.
• Sena said that after reaching a time more than two thousand years in the past, her surviving crew tried to warn nearby human governments, but those humans persecuted them while Sena could only watch helplessly.

Sena told Sanguinius how the loss of Ite led her to abandon her service to humanity and destroy the planet that had taken him from her. After giving Sanguinius a cache of Golden Age technology and leaving, she pursued her goal of resurrecting her captain by seeking the Crimson King.

• Sena explained that she had no desire to take revenge on present-day humanity and had come only to see its people before severing her ties to them.
• Sena praised Sanguinius and gave him a storage device containing a vast collection of Golden Age technology.
• Sena used the Eternal Soul to transport Sanguinius and the others away, then departed through time and space beyond the Imperium's reach.
• Sena prayed for her captain's resurrection and decided the Crimson King was her best chance of achieving it.
• Sena continued her journey, unwilling to abandon her goal despite the dangers of seeking the Chaos God.

Sanguinius discovered that the information device Sena gave him had frozen the Red Tears' computer because of its enormous capacity, so he took it to Terra for the Emperor to examine. After a long voyage through the Warp, Sena reached Crimson Heaven, where Radgritel welcomed her and explained that many Fallen Machine Intelligences lived there, though they had split into separate factions.

• Sanguinius learned that the Red Tears' computer had frozen while trying to read Sena's information device, and he carefully removed it.
• Sanguinius decided to carry the device to Terra for the Emperor, believing it might be more valuable than his own life.
• After tens of thousands of years of Warp travel, Sena reached Crimson Heaven and passed through its red wall of light using a Special Ritual.
• Sena found herself in a vast sea of blood beneath a mountain more than six hundred thousand light-years tall, with enormous stairways carved into it.
• Radgritel greeted Sena and offered beginner guidance, explaining that about one million trillion Fallen Machine Intelligences had entered Crimson Heaven but now belonged to many factions.

Radgritel brought Sena to his protected mechanical world and explained how she might meet the Crimson King and ask him for a favor. Sena learned that her options were to earn a chance to meet him through service or complete an immense trial on Mount Oulusegaho.

• Radgritel opened a spatial rift and led Sena away from the ocean battlefield into his private Otherdimensional World.
• Radgritel showed Sena his vast machine-filled world and introduced his enormous main-body warship.
• Radgritel offered Sena materials to repair the battered Eternal Soul, and Sena asked how she could meet the Crimson King.
• Radgritel explained that Sena could run for attendant and reach the Sixth Tier, or climb a Peak Ladder on Mount Oulusegaho and complete its trials to earn a wish.

Eldrad Ulthran learned that the Silent King had returned to the Milky Way and ordered the Eldar to keep a low profile. The Silent King and his allied civilizations fled the Zerg main force, whose enormous scale left them facing an apparently hopeless threat.

• An Eldar detection device reported the Silent King's return, and Eldrad Ulthran decided to shrink the Eldar's sphere of influence and warn other Eldar groups.
• The Silent King had united more than twenty civilizations to attack the Zerg, and their assault initially caused the Zerg scouting force to lose numbers.
• The allied civilizations revealed distinctive technologies and methods, drawing the Hive Will's attention and prompting the Zerg main force to advance rapidly.
• When the Silent King and his allies encountered the Zerg main force, they fled after gauging its scale, while the Silent King destroyed an abandoned river galaxy to slow its pursuit.
• Joint detection showed that the Zerg could cover a starry region at least two million light-years long and wide, leaving the Silent King and the other civilizations dreading an unavoidable fight.

The Silent King and leaders of several races learned that the Hive Will had tracked their Life Information and formed the Pan-Species Covenant to fight the Zerg together. After securing the alliance, the Silent King began summoning the Necrons across the Milky Way, while the other races remained unaware that most of the Zerg forces had yet to arrive.

• Kerrlens warned the gathered leaders that the Hive Will had locked onto their Life Information, and other leaders confirmed they sensed the danger as well.
• The leaders agreed they could not escape and drafted the Pan-Species Covenant, establishing the Milky Way Galaxy as their shared base and defensive line against the Zerg.
• The Silent King welcomed the alliance, viewing it as preparation for a future conflict with the Abyss of the Star Sea, Shi Tiankong, and the Void Legion.
• The Silent King sent encrypted quantum information to summon the slumbering Necrons throughout the Milky Way Galaxy.
• The Silent King considered the Ulanskar Dynasty’s Brilliant Star Chart, a powerful weapon capable of influencing stars across the galaxy.

After diverting into the Andromeda Galaxy, the Zerg encountered Orks who had long dominated the region. A Zerg heavy unit effortlessly destroyed an Ork warlord’s force, prompting nearby Orks to rush toward the Zerg in search of battle.

• Silent King’s destruction of the route to the Milky Way forced the Zerg to detour through the Andromeda Galaxy.
• An Ork warlord grew bored and prayed to Gog and Mog for worthy enemies.
• The Zerg arrived, and a heavy unit drained a nearby star of its energy.
• The Ork warlord and his followers attacked the Zerg unit’s enormous tentacle, but it crushed them and their planet into dust.
• Orks across the surrounding galaxies sensed the powerful enemies and began making crude spaceships to reach the Zerg.

The Zerg overwhelmed the Orks, whose futile retreat attempts only gave the Hive Will more test subjects. By deciphering Old Ones technology, the Zerg gained cellular reproduction, while the Hive Will focused on escaping the Physical Universe before Shi Tiankong and the Ozhaki Legion consumed it.

• The Zerg devoured more than half of Andromeda within five years, leaving the Orks severely diminished and unable to replenish their losses.
• Gog and Mog tried to order the Orks to retreat, but the Orks mistook the command for a call to charge and rushed to their deaths.
• The Zerg used the many Ork casualties to decipher Old Ones knowledge and develop cellular reproduction, letting damaged Zerg units divide into smaller ones.
• The Hive Will recognized that cellular reproduction resembled the Ozhaki Legion's growth and gained confidence in its escape plans.
• The Hive Will continued consuming civilizations to gather resources so it could flee before Shi Tiankong and the Ozhaki Legion devoured the Physical Universe.

The Zerg reached the Milky Way and were held back by the expanding Pan-Racial Alliance, while waves of displaced civilizations crowded the galaxy and reshaped its balance of power. As the Eye of Terror grew more dangerous and Warp Demons gained strength, dozens of legions were stationed to defend against their incursions.

• The Zerg harvested the Ork scallions in the Andromeda Galaxy before reaching the Milky Way years later, where the Pan-Racial Alliance stopped their main forces at the galactic edge.
• Displaced civilizations poured into the Milky Way, crowded its uninhabited regions, and overwhelmed the local powers, including the Chaos Empire, the Imperium of Man, and the Eldar.
• The arrival of extragalactic civilizations triggered a surge of Warp Demons from the Eye of Terror, while the rising overlap between the Milky Way and Warp Space strengthened them.
• Bloodletters began using Plunder Evolution to absorb power from those they killed, and the other Chaos Gods gradually loosened the restrictions on their followers.
• After foreign races suffered devastating attacks from summoned high-level Warp Demons, dozens of powerful legions took up permanent positions outside the Eye of Terror.

The Imperium of Man was battered by alien powers and faced mounting demands from the Pan-Racial Alliance as the Emperor heard Sanguinius report on its worsening position. The Silent King demanded more troops for the front, leaving the Emperor with little room to refuse.

• The Chaos Gods agreed to reset their game if the Imperium of Man was wiped out by the Zerg, while Transcendence remained indifferent to who won.
• Orsaga watched the weakened Imperium of Man struggle to survive and prepared to present the Emperor with two difficult choices.
• The Chaos Empire held steady despite losing territory, while the Eldar hid from the returning Silent King and sought refuge with Orsaga.
• Sanguinius reported that the Imperium had lost another tenth of its territory after the Krosid Battle and faced a rebellion in the Tailan'er Galaxy.
• Sanguinius told the Emperor that the Silent King demanded more troops for the intense front-line war, though the Pan-Racial Alliance would likely use them as cannon fodder.

The Emperor faced the Imperium of Man’s worsening crises and ordered Sanguinius to keep refusing the Silent King’s demand for supreme command. Orsaga then appeared and admitted to causing the Imperium’s troubles, insisting that he needed the Emperor to willingly die at a certain moment.

• The Emperor concluded that the Imperium of Man could not turn the tide against the powerful Extragalactic Civilizations and felt trapped by its growing problems.
• The Emperor ordered Sanguinius to reject the Silent King’s orders and refuse to hand over command of any Imperium forces.
• After Sanguinius left, the Emperor admitted to himself that he had reached the end of his rope, though he continued considering ways to keep Human Civilization alive.
• Orsaga appeared beside the Emperor and admitted that he had masterminded many of the Imperium’s troubles.
• Orsaga told the Emperor that he needed him to willingly die at a certain moment, then said he only had to believe the Emperor was willing.

Orsaga offered the Emperor a Cosmic Overlord’s reign in exchange for his life, but the Emperor instead demanded that all Human Civilization join Orsaga’s ranks. Orsaga agreed and offered to transform every human into an immortal Warp Space being through an Ascension to Demon Ritual, leaving the Emperor stunned.

• Orsaga told the Emperor that sacrificing himself would achieve his goal more directly than continuing to struggle, and reminded him of the Cosmic Overlord position he had once offered.
• After weighing the offer, the Emperor said he wanted more than temporary stability tied to one universe and asked for all of Human Civilization to join Orsaga’s ranks.
• Orsaga warned that joining his ranks would reduce humanity’s freedom and alter its dispositions, and the Emperor accepted those conditions as long as Orsaga did not deliberately sacrifice them or drastically change their personalities.
• Orsaga understood that the Emperor cared about humanity’s continued existence more than its current form, culture, or name, and agreed to fulfill his request.
• Orsaga revealed that Human Civilization had a population of 5,472,345,189,548 and promised to hold an Ascension to Demon Ritual for the entire race, transforming every human into an immortal Warp Space being.