Chapter Summaries

Succubus Anna visited Alvin and offered Commorragh’s support in exchange for an alliance. Alvin rejected her claims and threatened to kill her unless she convinced him with one final sentence.

• Anna appeared in Alvin’s tent, and he attacked her before she dodged and identified herself as a visitor.
• Anna reminded Alvin that they had met on Alert Star, where she had tried to assassinate him.
• Alvin recognized Anna and suspected she had returned to make another attempt on his life.
• Anna claimed Commorragh wanted to form an alliance and offered its fighters and assassins to serve Alvin.
• Alvin challenged Anna to steal the Emperor’s research data from Terra’s archives, and she could not promise she could do it.
• Alvin gave Anna one sentence to convince him, threatening to hang her head outside his tent if she failed.

Alvin captured Succubus Anna and forced her to reveal that the Archon of Commorragh wanted to befriend him and invite him there. After Anna tried to seduce him instead of explaining the Archon’s final message, Alvin whipped her, leaving her unable to answer.

• Alvin froze Succubus Anna, bound her with a magical chain, and threatened to kill her if she did not talk before the clock ran out.
• Anna revealed that the Archon had sent her to establish friendly relations with Alvin and invite him to Commorragh.
• Anna said the Archon had summoned Haemonculi to make something Alvin would definitely need, but she did not know what it was.
• Anna hinted that the Archon had another message Alvin would agree to hear, then tried to seduce him instead of delivering it.
• Alvin kicked Anna and lashed her with an electric whip until she was bloodied and unable to speak.

Alvin forced the Succubus Anna to reveal that an Archon had commissioned the Haemonculi to make something for him in cooperation with an emissary of the Emperor. He refused to go to Commorragh, branded Anna with Dormammu’s Dark Mark, and sent her back to investigate the object and the emissary.

• Alvin threatened to tear Anna’s soul from her body and offer her psychic power to Slaanesh, frightening her into revealing the Archon’s commission and the Emperor’s involvement.
• Anna said the Archon wanted Alvin’s friendship and had arranged for the Haemonculi to make something specifically for him.
• Alvin refused Anna’s invitation to travel to Commorragh and told her to relay his response to the Archon.
• Alvin branded Anna with Dormammu’s Dark Mark, protecting her soul from Slaanesh while binding her body and soul to him.
• Alvin ordered Anna to return and learn what the Haemonculi had made, what it was for, and who the emissary was, and Anna asked him to whip her again.

Alvin learned that a Dark Eldar Archon held something connected to the extinguished Astronomican, and he resolved to retrieve it from Commorragh despite the danger. After he revealed that the Emperor wanted him to use it to relight the Astronomican, Azrael ordered Ezekiel and the Honor Guard to protect him without pause.

• Alvin let Succubus Anna whip him dozens of times, then called the Dark Angels leaders into his tent after she left.
• Ezekiel explained that he had tracked Anna from the moment she entered the camp, and Azrael said they had watched to learn her purpose.
• Afkar warned Alvin not to go to Commorragh, but Alvin insisted the object was vital to the Imperium and might require him to retrieve it himself.
• Alvin told Azrael and Ezekiel that the object could let him temporarily take the Emperor’s place and light the Astronomican in the Warp.
• Azrael ordered Ezekiel to protect Alvin personally with the Honor Guard and declared that Alvin’s survival mattered more than the Dark Angels Legion.

Alvin and Azrael began rescuing scattered Dark Angels successor Chapters after communications through the Warp partially recovered. As the counterattack gathered momentum, Guilliman and Dante mobilized massive Imperial forces toward Dragon Forest Star, setting the stage for the Dark Angels, Blood Angels, and Ultramarines to reunite.

• Encrypted distress calls from the Dark Angels successor Chapters reached Alvin and the gathered leaders after Chaos's interference weakened.
• Alvin sent Azrael to lead a rescue raid on the Angels of Desolation, whose stronghold was surrounded by Chaos forces.
• Azrael's attack caught the Chaos Legion from behind, and the Angels of Desolation joined the fight to rout it.
• Alvin opened a Warp passage to withdraw the rescuers, then insisted they continue despite his psychic strain and moved on to the Blade of Vengeance's coordinates.
• Roboute Guilliman ordered Imperial fleets and a vast army toward Dragon Forest Star.
• Dante assembled hundreds of Blood Angels warships and led them toward Dragon Forest Star.

As Chaos forces devastated the Orks on Dragon Forest Star, Alvin tried to enlist Bonegrinder by bargaining with an Ork Boy. The messenger set off to find his Warboss, while Alvin and the Dark Angels prepared to try a riskier approach if the offer failed.

• Chaos forces hunted Bonegrinder and his Orks, driving Bonegrinder to flee as his clans were crushed.
• An Ork Boy ambushed Alvin in a swamp and demanded his shiny clothes.
• A Dark Angels Honor Guard member subdued the Ork Boy and frightened it into obeying Alvin.
• Alvin offered Bonegrinder a chance to lead a bigger, better war against the Daemons in exchange for helping him.
• The Ork Boy accepted Alvin's message and ran off toward Bonegrinder, while Alvin considered forcing his way to the Warboss if the plan failed.

Alvin Valshius met Bonegrinder Saraka in the Ork camp and persuaded him to join a war against Chaos by promising the chance to defeat Angron and build a galaxy-spanning Waaagh. The chapter ended with Bonegrinder embracing Alvin’s offer of an alliance with the Dark Angels.

• Alvin entered Bonegrinder Saraka’s swamp camp with his guards and was brought before the Ork Warboss.
• Bonegrinder threatened Alvin, but Alvin flattered him and proposed a war against Chaos.
• Alvin invoked Angron, whom Bonegrinder remembered nearly killing him, and promised the Warboss a chance to claim Angron’s head.
• Alvin urged Bonegrinder to envision a vast Waaagh against Chaos, and the Orks roared with excitement.
• Bonegrinder agreed to the alliance Alvin offered on behalf of the Dark Angels.

Alvin tried to persuade Bonegrinder to ally with him by pointing out the Warboss’s failures and the danger facing his Orks. When Bonegrinder threatened him, Alvin revealed his power by sending the giant Ork crashing through his throne.

• Alvin proposed an alliance and offered to pay Bonegrinder for his war clans’ help against the Chaos forces.
• Bonegrinder accused Alvin of trying to trick him into sacrificing his Orks, but Alvin argued that Bonegrinder could not win alone.
• Alvin warned that the Daemons would burn the Ork spores, Bonegrinder’s boyz would be wiped out, and other Orks might replace him as Warboss.
• Bonegrinder charged Alvin, but Alvin stopped his guard from activating the teleportation beacon and stood his ground.
• Bonegrinder asked why Alvin was not afraid, and Alvin called him weak before flicking him through the ruined throne.

Alvin used his psychic power to subdue Skulltaker and secure an alliance against Chaos and Angron, despite Azrael’s objections to the dangerous plan. The alliance was made, and Alvin left the Orc camp with his guard worrying about the consequences.

• Alvin pinned Skulltaker to the ground with gravity and persuaded him to ally with the humans by promising loot and warships.
• Skulltaker agreed to join Alvin and fight the Red Cans after Alvin swore on the Emperor that he kept his word.
• Alvin reassured his guard as they left the Orc camp, while the guard worried that the Lion would be furious about the alliance.
• Earlier, Azrael rejected Alvin’s plan to negotiate with Skulltaker, fearing for Alvin’s safety and the consequences of allying with Orcs.
• Alvin argued that he could escape danger through the Forest and insisted the Dark Angels were necessary for the Imperium’s future wars in the Imperium Nihilus.

Alvin tried to persuade the Dark Angels' successor Chapter Masters to accept his alliance with the Greenskin Orcs against Angron's forces. He warned that the Stone Fortress and Dragon Forest Star's destruction could unleash a second Eye of Terror, then declared he would bear the burden of heresy to save the Imperium.

• Alvin gathered the successor Chapter Masters and admitted that he had made an alliance with the Greenskin Orcs on behalf of the Dark Angels.
• The Vengeance Angels' Chapter Master and the Hooded Guardians' Chapter Master condemned the alliance as a betrayal of the First Legion's honor, while Alvin used psychic pressure to silence the assembly.
• Alvin accused the Unforgiven of valuing their secrets and honor above the Imperium, provoking the Chapter Masters' fury.
• Alvin revealed a psychic vision showing Chaos destroying the Stone Fortress and Dragon Forest Star, creating a vast rift and a second Eye of Terror.
• Alvin asked the Chapter Masters to choose between their honor and mankind's future, then declared that he would accept the label of heretic without regret to save the Imperium.

Daemon Prince Seragrim learned that the World Eaters' Fifteenth Company had been routed and the First Absolver Chapter rescued, while Alvin remained impossible to track. With the Blood God's feast two days away, Seragrim ordered the Great Tower's location exposed to lure the Dark Angels into attacking it.

• The Dark Tech-Priest reported that the Dark Angels had routed the World Eaters' Fifteenth Company and rescued the First Absolver Chapter, and Seragrim killed him in anger.
• Seragrim demanded to know why his forces still could not locate Alvin, whose Dark Angels repeatedly appeared through the Warp to strike Chaos targets and vanish.
• Seragrim recognized that the arriving Greenskins and the Dark Angels' regrouping were worsening the Chaos Legion's position on Dragon Forest Star.
• Seragrim ordered the Dark Tech-Priests to reveal the Great Tower's location so the Dark Angels would be forced to attack it.
• Seragrim declared that he would give his forces no more time and intended to offer the Great Tower as a gift to the Blood God at the feast.

Alvin and Azrael identified the Great Tower on Dragon Forest Star as Chaos’s exposed source of power and recognized it as a trap meant to lure Alvin. Alvin decided to exploit Chaos’s bait and the Orks’ ambitions, leaving the Great Tower as the target of a coming war.

• Alvin explained that the Great Tower sustained Dragon Forest Star’s profane state and allowed Chaos forces to enter reality.
• Azrael agreed that Chaos had exposed the tower to lure Alvin, but warned that destroying it would mean walking into a trap.
• Alvin argued that leaving the Great Tower alone could turn the Idolater System into another Curse Scar and destabilize the Imperium further.
• Azrael questioned whether the Orks would honor their pact, and Alvin admitted that neither side intended to keep it.
• Alvin predicted that Bonegrinder would join the battle to prove his standing among the Orks, and decided to let him believe he was the last hunter.

Alvin discovered that the nineteen Dark Angels Chapters lacked the heavy weapons and aircraft needed to fight the Chaos Legion, and Azrael explained that their supplies had been destroyed or cut off on The Rock. Alvin promised to find the equipment they needed for the assault, leaving the Chapter Masters hopeful as he prepared to spend nearly his entire stockpile.

• Alvin ordered the Chapters to report their personnel, supplies, and equipment before the battle council.
• Alvin learned that the Chapters had almost no armored vehicles, artillery, or aircraft, though they still had more than nine hundred sets of Terminator armor and ninety Dreadnoughts.
• Azrael said Chaos had destroyed much of their equipment and that The Rock held enough supplies to rebuild the Dark Angels three times, but the Warp prevented contact.
• Azrael listed the forces they needed for the Great Tower assault, including hundreds of tanks and transports, a hundred aircraft, and fifty super-heavy tanks.
• Alvin promised to lend the equipment and demanded that the Chapters return everything after the battle.

After days of mysterious preparations, Alvin returned with enough equipment for the Dark Angels’ battle against the Great Tower and the Chaos Legion. He unveiled a portal bringing in Transformers, vehicles, and fully mechanized Tech-Priests, leaving Azrael to accept their help and order the whole affair kept secret.

• While the Great Tower drained the planet’s ley lines and pulled Dragon Forest Star closer to the Warp, Alvin disappeared for several days as the Dark Angels continued their investigation.
• Alvin returned and announced that the requested supplies were ready, then opened a massive portal in a hidden canyon.
• Transformers marched through the portal, followed by armored vehicles, tanks, and hundreds of Knight-sized mechanical warriors.
• Mechanicus-like mechanical Tech-Priests emerged chanting hymns to the Omnissiah, prompting Asmodeus, Azrael, Ezekiel, and the Techmarines to react with alarm and anger.
• Optimus Prime introduced his group as children of the Omnissiah, Primus, and Cybertron, while Alvin asked Azrael whether the supplies were enough.
• Azrael accepted the equipment and ordered the Dark Angels to keep the heretical revelation secret.

Alvin directed the Dark Angels’ precise bombardment of Chaos defenses across the Hive City, using his psychic abilities to identify targets without reconnaissance. Although the attack devastated the defenses, Daemon Prince Seragrim refused to leave the Warp-protected Great Tower, and Alvin prepared to confront him there.

• The Dark Angels launched a sudden, heavy missile barrage that destroyed Chaos defensive positions throughout the Hive City.
• A World Eaters commander watched his company suffer heavy losses before a shell killed him, leaving him wondering how the Dark Angels had found their positions.
• Daemon Prince Seragrim blamed Alvin for the precise strikes, killed the Dark Tech-Priest who could not explain them, and refused to send his forces outside the Great Tower.
• Alvin used a holographic map and his psychic abilities to call in accurate artillery strikes, astonishing the assembled Dark Angels Chapter Masters.
• The Supreme Grand Master noted that Seragrim had not taken the bait, and Alvin said the Dark Angels would go meet the Daemon Prince next.

Alvin led a Dark Angels assault into the Chaos-controlled Hive City to reach the Great Tower, where Seragrim awaited him. The Dark Angels broke through the Chaos defenses as Alvin vowed to kill Seragrim.

• Alvin rejected Azrael’s offer to accompany him and left command of the reinforcements to the Supreme Grand Master.
• Alvin teleported a Terminator company and an assault company into the Hive City, where the Dark Angels recognized its Caliban-like ruins and erupted in fury.
• Alvin ordered the First Company to defend the area, the Second and Third Companies to charge, and the Fourth Company to maintain contact with headquarters.
• Surrounded by World Eaters, traitor Chapters, and Daemons, the Dark Angels launched their attack in the name of the Lion and Caliban.
• Lauren Haley’s Desolator Dreadnought smashed through the Chaos fortifications while Terminators protected its advance.
• Alvin challenged Seragrim, who laughed and welcomed him from the Great Tower.

The Dark Angels advanced through the Chaos Hive City as Alvin realized the Khorne Legion was deliberately wearing down his forces to draw him toward the Great Tower. Alvin unleashed his psychic power and drew the full assault onto himself, leaving the Dark Angels’ line buckling under overwhelming numbers.

• A mortally wounded Chapter Serf killed a Bloodletter, then sacrificed himself with a Meltagun grenade to destroy a World Eaters commander.
• Alvin realized the Chaos forces were depleting the Dark Angels so that he alone would reach the Great Tower, and accepted that the attackers were bait.
• Alvin destroyed a Blasphemy Cannon with Psykana Lightning and unleashed powerful psychic attacks against the Chaos forces.
• The Khorne Legion launched a massive assault, targeting Alvin at the center of the Dark Angels.
• The Dark Angels struggled to hold their line as Bloodletters, World Eaters, and Daemon Engines inflicted heavy casualties and overwhelmed their defenses.

Alvin discovered that Bonegrinder’s Orks were hiding beneath the Hive City and tried to draw both the Orks and Chaos into exhausting themselves. As the Dark Angels neared collapse, Bonegrinder finally launched the Orks’ ambush against the Chaos Legion’s exposed flank.

• Alvin sensed the Orks concealed in the Hive City’s underground conduits and realized Bonegrinder was waiting for both armies to weaken.
• Skulltaker Saraka ordered the Orks to stay hidden while Bonegrinder planned to claim the battlefield’s spoils and take revenge on Alvin and Yarrick.
• Alvin ordered the Dark Angels to attack the Khorne Legion despite mounting casualties, and the Terminators charged into the enemy’s heavy-weapons formation.
• The Khorne Legion overwhelmed the weakened Dark Angels’ central line, while Alvin strained to repel its sorcery and lightning attacks.
• Bonegrinder unleashed the Orks and their War Machines from openings across the ruins, striking the Chaos Legion’s exposed flank.

Alvin used the Greenskin Orks’ assault to break the Dark Angels out of the World Eaters’ encirclement and direct the Orks toward the Great Tower. The Dark Angels and Orks then joined forces against the Khorne Legion, leaving the World Eaters fighting on two fronts.

• Greenskin Orks led by Skulltaker Saraka attacked the Khorne Legion, tearing through Iron Warriors’ defenses and disrupting the World Eaters’ fight with the Dark Angels.
• Alvin blasted a gap in the World Eaters’ encirclement with psychic fire and lightning, then ordered the Dark Angels to break toward the Great Tower.
• Alvin used psychic power to highlight the Great Tower and direct Skulltaker Saraka and the Orks toward it.
• Skulltaker Saraka led the Orks toward the Great Tower, while Alvin rallied the Dark Angels to clear a path and attack the Chaos Legion.
• The Dark Angels and Greenskin Orks launched a coordinated assault that shattered the Khorne Legion’s lines and forced its warriors to fight both groups.
• The World Eaters’ Archon and the Dark Angels exchanged accusations of heresy as they fought amid the combined battle.

Alvin summoned the tortured souls trapped in the Human Emperor Banner to turn the battlefield into chaos and draw Daemon Prince Seragrim out of the Great Tower. As the souls attacked both sides and gathered more spirits into the banner, Alvin challenged Seragrim to face him.

• Alvin raised the Human Emperor Banner and unleashed black mist that brought hundreds of ghostly Space Marines onto the battlefield.
• The ghostly warriors repeatedly re-formed after being killed and attacked the Orks and Chaos forces while shouting Khorne's battle cry.
• Royce recognized his former Company Commander, Matthias, attacked him, and explained that he fought for his own freedom rather than the Blood God.
• Alvin used the banner to absorb the souls of fallen Chaos Space Marines, loyalists, and Orks as the ghostly fighters sought to claim enough souls to escape the banner.
• Alvin smashed an attacking Bloodletter with the banner's flagpole and taunted Daemon Prince Seragrim to come out of the Great Tower.