Chapter Summaries

Qiu Chen and Titus traveled together through The Mist to a town, where Titus left to continue the Imperium’s exploration mission. News of the interstellar visitors reached New Covenant City, and the Church of the Lord of Suffering ordered their expulsion based on an oracle.

• Titus explained the Emperor and Regent’s history to Qiu Chen, then agreed to escort his group after the damaged train could not be repaired.
• Titus and the Sisters of Battle fought through monsters in The Mist while Qiu Chen questioned Titus about his combat endurance and the Imperium’s sacrifices.
• Titus warned Qiu Chen that the Warp’s truth could corrupt people, and the group rested beneath the Mist World’s strange watching eyes before continuing.
• Titus and Qiu Chen’s group reached the target town, where Qiu Chen prevented the guards and Witchers from attacking them; Titus declined to enter and continued his exploration mission.
• News of the visitors reached New Covenant City, where Witchers debated how to respond to the interstellar Imperium.
• A Church representative announced that the Church would expel the Outworlders, claiming the order came from an oracle of the Lord of Suffering.

The Founding Fathers of New Covenant City manipulated an oracle to turn the Witchers against the Outworlders, while Guilliman refused Malcahede’s offer of godhood and prepared to enter the Eye of Terror. As Guilliman’s fleet reached Ghost Star and Nathas went to reopen its Webway entrance, Perturabo learned that Guilliman was trying to enter the Eye.

• The Witchers received a genuine-looking oracle ordering them to drive out the Outworlders, and the high-ranking Witchers accepted that the contracts left them little choice.
• The seven Founding Fathers revealed that they had stolen the Lord of Suffering’s power and planned to sacrifice frontier towns and summon Transmigrators to strengthen their position.
• Guilliman rejected Malcahede’s pitch for godhood, ordered him to gather intelligence on the Eye of Terror, and told Eisenhorn to sacrifice Xenos to Daemons for an intelligence network.
• Guilliman learned that Captain Brecht had brought the fleet to the Ghost Sector and ordered level-one combat readiness and Nathas to open the Webway entrance at Ghost Star.
• Nathas traveled to Ghost Star to reopen the sealed passage, while Guilliman’s fleet waited in orbit.
• Perturabo asked a visitor whether Guilliman was trying to enter the Eye of Terror.

Ahriman warned Perturabo that Guilliman was seeking complete Webway knowledge and urged him to stop the growing Imperium. Perturabo agreed to a limited alliance to encircle and kill Guilliman, leaving Ahriman to contact the Word Bearers and seek Fulgrim.

• Ahriman told Perturabo that Guilliman had reached Ghost Star and was working with the Aeldari to enter the Eye of Terror.
• Ahriman explained that Guilliman wanted complete Webway knowledge and argued that the Imperium's growing strength made him a threat to Chaos.
• Perturabo questioned Ahriman's claims but considered Guilliman's recent victories and reforms before agreeing to help attack him.
• Perturabo limited the alliance to encircling and killing Guilliman and suggested that Ahriman look for Fulgrim.
• Ahriman said he would contact the Master of the Word Bearers before the coalition launched its attack.

Ahriman persuaded Perturabo to help oppose Guilliman, while Guilliman’s forces opened the Webway on Ghost Star and fought the Daemons pouring through it. As Guilliman’s fleet entered the Webway, Ahriman traveled to Ullum to recruit Fabius for an alliance against him.

• Perturabo returned to monitoring his planet from the Iron Throne, and Ahriman left to find allies against Guilliman.
• Nathas opened the sealed Webway entrance on Ghost Star, releasing Daemons that battled Guilliman’s forces.
• Guilliman ordered his fleet to enter the Webway while leaving troops and five strike cruisers on Ghost Star to suppress the Daemons and guard the retreat route.
• Ahriman chose to recruit Fabius before seeking Lorgar and traveled to the Daemon world of Ullum.
• Ahriman surveyed Fabius’s grotesque laboratory and the Emperor’s Children warriors guarding it.

Ahriman persuaded Fabius to join an alliance against Guilliman by showing him the Imperium’s Primaris forces, and Fabius revealed his near-completed creation and its modeled soldiers. Meanwhile, Corax attacked the Word Bearers on a daemon planet, but Angron arrived as a Word Bearer rushed to tell Lorgar.

• Ahriman visited Fabius’s laboratory, where he saw the captured Custodian and learned about Fabius’s Gland-Hounds.
• Ahriman showed Fabius the Imperium’s Primaris Warriors and convinced him to join an alliance against Guilliman, alongside Perturabo, Lorgar, and forces outside Abaddon’s Black Legion.
• Fabius showed Ahriman a sleeping youth he claimed could become stronger than any Primarch and said he would awaken soldiers modeled after the youth.
• Corax slaughtered the Word Bearers building a temple on a daemon planet and again threatened to hunt down Lorgar.
• Angron arrived amid falling meteors, and the Word Bearers celebrated, expecting him to attack Corax, while one ran to alert Lorgar.

Corax battled Angron until Lorgar arrived, but Angron turned on his former ally over the souls of the Nucerian gladiators, forcing Lorgar to flee. Ahriman rescued Lorgar as the portal collapsed and proposed an alliance against Guilliman.

• Corax and Angron fought across the Daemon world, and Angron wounded Corax with his battle-axe.
• Lorgar emerged from the portal and confronted Corax, who escaped when Angron suddenly struck Lorgar.
• Angron demanded to know where Lorgar had sent the free souls of the Nucerian gladiators, then attacked him in a fury fueled by memories of his companions.
• Angron overwhelmed Lorgar and the Word Bearers as the portal began collapsing, but Ahriman used sorcery to rescue Lorgar at the last moment.
• Ahriman told Lorgar he had come to propose an alliance against their common enemy, Guilliman.

Ahriman recruited Lorgar into an alliance against Guilliman, while Angron rallied the World Eaters to seek vengeance on the Word Bearers. Guilliman’s fleet pressed through the Webway toward its destination as his expedition seized a town in another world, prompting wider conflict and Valerian’s investigation of the Lord of Suffering.

• Ahriman persuaded Lorgar to join the alliance against Guilliman and left to prepare a ritual, while Angron summoned the World Eaters and swore revenge on Lorgar.
• Guilliman’s upgraded fleet fought off Daemons in the Webway as Nathas followed his ancestors’ guidance and found the route through it.
• Titus defeated a Witcher who tried to attack him, and the Imperial Expeditionary Force took control of the town after crushing the Witchers’ ambush.
• Celestine declared the town part of the Imperium, and Tech-priests turned it into an outpost while the expedition seized nearby towns and their populations.
• News of the Imperium’s expansion reached New Covenant City as a larger war began brewing, while Valerian investigated the Lord of Suffering and interrogated captured believers.

Qiu Chen watched Imperial Exploration Outpost 01 transform into a heavily industrialized military base and learned about the Imperium’s vast, multiversal war against Chaos. As Imperial forces prepared to conquer New Covenant City, Guilliman’s army reached a Daemon world in the Eye of Terror and began its assault.

• Qiu Chen saw the Imperium build factories, a Heavy Fusion Reactor, and advanced defenses at Imperial Exploration Outpost 01.
• The townspeople and captured Witchers increasingly accepted Imperial rule, while rioters who demanded elected representatives were turned into Servitors.
• Qiu Chen learned from Titus about the Imperium’s million worlds, its plans to fight Chaos across multiple universes, and the Tech-priests’ theory that Transmigrators traveled between universes through the Warp.
• The Imperium armed loyal townspeople and Transmigrators for its coming campaign against New Covenant City, while Qiu Chen resolved to record the Imperium’s rise.
• Guilliman’s army entered the Eye of Terror, found the Daemon world with Nathas’s guidance, and began an orbital assault on its monsters.

Grand Master Mandagore led the Imperial vanguard across a Daemon world and reached the lost Aeldari City of Knowledge. Guilliman arrived and destroyed a Greater Daemon with one strike, while Ahriman, Perturabo, and Fulgrim prepared to trap him on the planet.

• Mandagore led the Grey Knights and Imperial forces through brutal fighting, guided by the Aeldari Farseer Nathas, until they found the City of Knowledge.
• A Daemonic tide surged from the ruins, and a colossal Greater Daemon resisted the Imperial forces’ attacks.
• Guilliman and his Ultramarines arrived, and Guilliman burned through the Daemons and slew the Greater Daemon with a single strike.
• Guilliman ordered the Imperial forces to take the city, and the soldiers shouted their support for him.
• Ahriman told Perturabo that Guilliman had moved far from his fleet, and Perturabo and Fulgrim agreed to seal off the planet and attack.

Ahriman used a vast mortal sacrifice to summon a Warp storm that scattered Guilliman’s fleet and left him isolated on Knowledge World. As Fulgrim, Perturabo, and Lorgar attacked Guilliman, Corax arrived with a taunt that the traitors were outnumbered.

• Ahriman completed a ritual with the Daemon Primarchs’ support, sacrificing 1,248 mortals to summon a powerful Warp storm.
• The storm hurled the Imperial fleet away from Knowledge World, leaving Guilliman behind while Brecht ordered his crew to find a way back.
• Nathas led Guilliman through an Aeldari knowledge repository and retrieved a crystal containing Webway technology, which he entrusted to Guilliman.
• Fulgrim, Perturabo, and Lorgar appeared in the city and attacked Guilliman’s forces while Guilliman was away from the battlefield.
• Guilliman returned to confront Fulgrim, and Corax revealed himself among a gathering of ravens, declaring that five would face the three Daemon Primarchs.

Corax, Ferrus, and the Legion of the Damned arrived to turn the battle against the traitors encircling Guilliman, while Ferrus confronted Fulgrim. As Perturabo tried to flee, another loyal Primarch appeared to confront him over the Dropsite Massacre.

• Corax appeared above the battlefield in the form of a vast raven storm, and Fulgrim dismissed him as too little to change the outcome.
• The Legion of the Damned emerged from golden fissures, and Ferrus returned to confront Fulgrim, declaring that Guilliman would become the new Master of Mankind.
• Ferrus and Fulgrim clashed in a battle whose shockwaves kept others away, while Ahriman realized the ambush had failed and prepared to teleport out.
• Lorgar and the other traitors recognized that their advantage had vanished, and Guilliman regrouped with the Primaris Warriors as he worried about the Emperor's growing power.
• Perturabo ordered a retreat, but a yellow-armored loyal Primarch stepped from a rift and declared that Perturabo would answer for the Dropsite Massacre.

Rogal Dorn and Leman Russ returned to the battlefield with other lost Imperial heroes, helping Guilliman defeat the traitors and repel an ancient Chaos entity. The loyalists withdrew through the Webway and gathered five Primarchs and Imperial leaders aboard Macragge's Honour to discuss the coming Webway Project.

• Rogal Dorn emerged from a rift and fought Perturabo over their old feud as Leman Russ arrived with Imperial heroes and confronted Lorgar.
• Ahriman summoned an ancient Chaos entity, but Guilliman drove it back and sealed the rift before Ahriman escaped with his teleportation amulet.
• Russ defeated and captured Lorgar, Ferrus and Corax helped capture Fulgrim, and Dorn and the other Primarchs subdued Perturabo as the loyalists defeated the traitors.
• Guilliman ordered his forces to withdraw from the Aeldari planet and return through the Webway to prepare for the Webway Project.
• Guilliman convened a meeting aboard Macragge's Honour with Corax, Ferrus, Leman Russ, Dorn, and Imperial commanders as the fleet prepared for the coming war.

Guilliman secured the returned Primarchs’ public support for his reforms, then brought them to see the imprisoned Daemon Primarchs. Dorn agreed to return to the Imperium with Guilliman, while Fulgrim, Perturabo, and Lorgar faced the prospect of being transported to Terra.

• Guilliman addressed the gathered officers and Chapter Masters, presenting Corax, Russ, Ferrus, and Dorn as returning heroes and giving them the right to advise and vote on Imperial reforms.
• Corax and the other Primarchs endorsed Guilliman’s reforms, publicly declaring that the Emperor approved of his actions.
• Russ, Corax, and Ferrus said they would remain in the Eye of Terror, while Dorn agreed to return with Guilliman and help build the Imperium’s defenses.
• After the meeting, Guilliman led the four Primarchs to the lower decks of Macragge's Honour to see the captured Daemon Primarchs and Daemons.
• Fulgrim angrily accused Guilliman of humiliating them, while Perturabo and Lorgar confronted the indignity of their imprisonment and impending transport to Terra.

Guilliman assigned Corax to build a Warp intelligence network and charged Dorn with leading the Webway Project, then turned his fleet toward Vigilant Star to manipulate the conflict around the Nachmund Gauntlet. Meanwhile, the Imperium rapidly expanded at Outpost 01 and invaded the territory of the Church of the Lord of Suffering, where the Sacred Families prepared to resist and civilians plotted an uprising.

• Guilliman mocked the imprisoned Fulgrim, Lorgar, and Perturabo before explaining that he needed a leader for a Warp intelligence network, and Corax agreed to take charge.
• Guilliman and Dorn left Ghost Star, where the Imperial forces sealed the Webway entrance and began preparing the world for human settlement.
• Guilliman gave Dorn the Aeldari Webway knowledge crystal and appointed him leader of the Webway Project, while Guilliman set course for Vigilant Star to draw Chaos forces toward the Nachmund Gauntlet.
• At Outpost 01, the Imperium expanded its forces and territory, attracting people away from the Church of the Lord of Suffering and driving back the Mist and its monsters.
• The Sacred Families rallied New Covenant City to resist the Imperial invasion and made a new pact with Mist Creatures, while civilians in the slums prepared to rise against them.

A woman recruited slum dwellers to oppose the Sacred Families as the Imperium prepared to attack New Covenant City. The city’s defenders fell back under the Imperium’s technological assault, but a protective barrier and the Founding Fathers delayed the siege while Titus fought through the Mist and joined the forces preparing to bombard the city.

• An undercover woman told slum dwellers that the Sacred Families had deceived and exploited them, urging them to welcome the Imperium and overthrow the ruling families.
• At a rally in New Covenant City, a man condemned the Sacred Families before he was hanged, and General Zhou Chen watched the crowd cheer the Sacred Families.
• The Imperium attacked with Servo-skulls, but the cathedral raised a barrier and Cathedral Guards destroyed the skulls trapped inside the city.
• The Founding Fathers emerged to defend New Covenant City, and their leader Ye Qingchen prepared to fight the Imperium.
• Titus fought through Mist monsters, killed the Daemon Hellhound, and reached the siege force outside New Covenant City.
• Agemman, Inquisitor Grey, Krowe, and Valerian discussed the Daemons and the Lord of Suffering’s connection to the Emperor before the Imperium prepared an artillery assault on the city.

Imperium forces and the Insurgent Army conquered New Covenant City, killing Ye Qingchen and the other Founding Fathers, while Valerian recovered fragments of the Lord of Suffering for the Emperor. Elsewhere, Mortarion tasked Ku'gath with creating a plague to kill Guilliman, and Calgar's forces began crushing House Mandekor on Dalova.

• Ye Qingchen and the Founding Fathers halted the Imperium's advance at first, but Titus killed Ye Qingchen in a single strike and Imperium troops exterminated the others.
• The Insurgent Army destroyed New Covenant City's cathedral and barrier, enabled the Imperium to seize the city, and exposed the Sacred Families' ancient betrayal; the Zhou Family Ancestor confessed under interrogation, and the guilty were punished.
• Valerian placed the recovered Lord of Suffering fragments before the Emperor's statue, fulfilling his secret mission to help restore the Emperor.
• Mortarion left Ku'gath on a conquered planet to brew a plague capable of killing Guilliman, then departed to attack other parts of Ultramar.
• Ainia led Legio Solaria's flying Thunderbird Titans in defeating House Mandekor's forces on Dalova, while Calgar's strike force teleported into the High King's Palace.

Calgar’s forces conquered Dalova, killed High King Ligius, and captured High Queen Kaligia, but a warning about an immense Tyranid fleet approaching Baal forced Calgar to consider abandoning the defense of the Nachmund Gauntlet. Meanwhile, Shadowsun returned to the ruined Dal’yth Sept World and led a desperate effort to find an Ethereal and warn the T’au Empire about the Automata.

• Calgar led the Imperial assault through Dalova’s defenses, while Khaine and Kakar advanced with the Natal 502nd Regiment and Jace’s Space Wolves broke through the palace walls.
• Calgar fought through the Chaos-corrupted palace, killed High King Ligius, and ordered High Queen Kaligia taken prisoner.
• A communications officer told Calgar that the Primarch was heading to Vigilant Star and that an unprecedented Tyranid fleet was approaching Baal; Calgar decided the Blood Angels needed support.
• Shadowsun and Yong Lan emerged from the Warp near Dal’yth and found its orbital defenses destroyed and the world devastated by the Automata.
• Shadowsun received an Ethereal’s plea for aid and descended to Dal’yth to search for survivors and a signal source.
• Automata drones attacked Shadowsun’s party, and she ordered everyone to flee toward the signal rather than fight.

Shadowsun’s rescue force was betrayed by an Automaton infiltrator and captured, while the awakened machines seized Aun'Sa to study the Ethereals. As Lion prepared to confront Farsight’s independent force, Farsight’s Enclave isolated itself from the rogue intelligences and began retaking a city.

• Shadowsun’s group fought through the underground passages, met Kar Va’s force, and joined it in an assault on the Sanctuary Bastion to rescue Aun'Sa.
• Kar Va revealed himself as an Automaton agent, killed Yong Lan, and helped the machines capture Shadowsun, Aun'Sa, and the other survivors.
• Karl Va explained that the Automata wanted Aun'Sa alive to study the Ethereals’ power over other beings.
• Azrael told Lion that Farsight’s force had cut its communications and was resisting the Awakened Machine Spirit, and Lion ordered intelligence gathered on the T'au warlord.
• Farsight and O'Vesa concluded that the Enclave had to avoid advanced artificial intelligence, and Farsight vowed to capture the human commander and defeat the Dark Angels.

Farsight captured an Awakened Intelligence Core, then ambushed an Imperial transport fleet and challenged the Primarch Lion El'Jonson. After Lion saw the massacre aboard the returned flagship, he ordered the Dreadwing to destroy Farsight's Enclave and prepare the Planet-Killer Cannon.

• Torchstar brought Farsight a captured Awakened Intelligence Core, which argued that the Automata were alive and warned that a Primarch commanded the human expedition.
• Farsight concluded that the Imperium intended to destroy the T'au and planned to lure its commander into a trap by attacking an Imperial logistics fleet in the Atlas System.
• Farsight's fleet destroyed Leopold's escort ships, boarded his flagship, foiled his self-destruction attempt, and killed Leopold and most of the crew.
• Farsight sent the bloodied flagship back to Imperial space with a challenge for the Primarch, and Lion inspected the slaughter aboard it.
• Lion declared that Farsight was prey, activated the Dreadwing Protocol, and ordered the Enclave destroyed with the Planet-Killer Cannon.

Lion led the Imperium's attack on the T'au, destroying Rub-Graal with The Rock's Planet-Killer Beam and driving Farsight to swear revenge. At Fetia, Farsight lured Lion into an ambush, disabled his squad's armor, and took Lion and two Dark Angels warriors prisoner.

• Azrael ordered the Dark Angels to reactivate the Dreadwing Protocol as Imperial fleets advanced on Farsight's Enclave.
• Farsight attacked Imperial forces across the region, but the T'au defenders of Rub-Graal underestimated the human fleet and refused to evacuate.
• Lion ordered The Rock to fire its Planet-Killer Beam, destroying Rub-Graal and killing everyone on the planet's surface.
• Farsight returned to Rub-Graal, found no survivors, and vowed to avenge the dead by taking a Primarch's head.
• Farsight set a trap for Lion on Fetia, where O'Vesa prepared a remote-controlled Drone system using sleeping Air Caste pilots.
• Lion entered the trap with Boreas and two Dark Angels warriors; Farsight separated them, disabled their armor with electromagnetic attacks, and captured the three survivors.