Chapter Summaries

Lion defeated and killed Farsight, then left to purge Fetia’s elites while Guilliman received the Phase Three Mission to bring all surviving Primarchs to Terra. Abaddon prepared to attack Vigilus with the Planet Killer, as Calgar faced Chaos advances and unrest before arriving in the devastated Jahar System to evacuate survivors.

• Lion activated his armor, killed Farsight and most of his forces, and escaped O'Vesa’s self-detonation with the Dark Angels.
• Lion set out to purge Fetia’s human elites after judging the T'au threat temporarily ended.
• Guilliman received the Phase Three Mission, which required him to bring all surviving Primarchs back to Terra to unlock the next Database.
• Guilliman considered how to recover missing loyal Primarchs and obtain Sanguinius’s soul fragment from Abaddon’s Vengeful Spirit.
• Abaddon ordered an assault on Vigilus and activated the Planet Killer to destroy the world and close the Nachmund Gauntlet.
• Calgar fought Chaos forces and unrest across reclaimed worlds, then arrived in the ruined Jahar System to evacuate survivors.

Calgar’s forces evacuated survivors from the Warp-corrupted Jahar System, while Captain Carosso and his soldiers reluctantly agreed to leave their home after Minka and a Wolf Warrior explained the mission. The story then shifted to Dante preparing the Blood Angels for Hive Fleet Leviathan’s coming assault on Baal, where he remained deeply uncertain they could survive.

• Calgar ordered his forces to rescue Jahar’s survivors and abandon the corrupted planet as the Warp’s invasion worsened.
• Captain Carosso’s patrol was overwhelmed by monsters, but Minka’s Cadia 101st Regiment arrived with Titans and advanced vehicles to save them.
• Carosso and his soldiers asked to stay and defend Jahar, but a Wolf Warrior persuaded them that evacuation would preserve the hope of returning one day.
• Calgar sent the rescued people to Vigilus and Vigilant Star to reinforce their defenses.
• Dante watched preparations for Hive Fleet Leviathan’s assault on Baal and feared the Blood Angels might not be able to protect the system.

Dante and Mephiston prepared for the Tyranid assault on Baal as the Blood God’s servants threatened to exploit the gathered Blood Angels’ fury. On Baal Secundus, conscripted civilians endured forced labor, while Dante returned to face the assembled Chapter Masters and unite them for the defense.

• Mephiston told Dante that twenty-seven Chapters and fifteen thousand Blood Angels had gathered, while Tyranid shadow and the Great Rift had cut Baal off from Terra.
• Mephiston warned Dante that servants of the Blood God might descend on Baal, and he vowed to perform a ritual to stop them.
• Dante recalled Sanguinor’s promise that hope remained, then asked Mephiston to do what he could to resist the Blood God’s influence.
• Yugi resented his harsh life on Baal Secundus and mistreated his disabled son, who later shielded him from a Servitor’s whip.
• Yugi and his son joined the other conscripts in digging trenches and carrying sand pouches for Baal’s defenses.
• Dante returned to the Fortress of Angels to meet the assembled Chapter Masters and work to unite them against the Tyranids.

Dante gathered the Blood Chapters on Baal, rallied them to stop Hive Fleet Leviathan, and organized the system’s defenses as the Tyranids arrived. With daemons threatening Baal and the Black Rage spreading among the defenders, the chapter ended as the first ground assault began and Yugi and Tiers faced the coming battle together.

• Dante showed the Blood Chapters Sanguinius’s relics, urged them to sacrifice themselves to defend Baal, and presented his plan to destroy Hive Fleet Leviathan.
• Mephiston warned the Chapter Masters that the Tyranids were controlled by a single vast consciousness, while Dante ordered the defense to be fought in realspace at Baal.
• Twenty-eight thousand Astartes gathered in the Baal System, but the Tyranids’ shadow in the Warp cut off communication and the Hive Fleet broke through the system’s outer defenses.
• Mephiston and the Librarians used the Bloodstone Mine to reach into the Warp, where Mephiston saw two Daemon armies fighting for the right to enter Baal.
• As the Tyranids approached, the Black Rage overtook hundreds of Blood Chapters warriors, and Dante watched the condemned Death Company cry out, “Why did you betray us, Horus?”
• Tyranids swarmed the defenses outside Angel Bastion, and Yugi embraced Tiers and told him he loved him before the battle began.

Mephiston and the Blood Angels Librarians tried to stop Ka'bandha from reaching Baal, but the ritual failed and Mephiston redirected the Daemon to Baal Primus before withdrawing. After the Tyranids' sixth assault on the Fortress of Angels was repelled, Dante received word that reinforcements were trying to enter the Baal System.

• Horus sent Sanguinius and the Blood Angels to Signus, where Chaos ensnared the Legion and Ka'bandha became their enemy.
• Mephiston entered the Warp with his brothers' aid and confronted Ka'bandha at the gate to Khorne's realm.
• Ka'bandha tempted the Librarians as he attacked, disrupting their ritual and killing half of them before breaking through their barrier.
• Mephiston redirected Ka'bandha's gate to Baal Primus, then withdrew with the surviving Librarians and planned to leave for Baal Prime.
• Dante and the defenders repelled the Tyranids' sixth wave, and the Hive Mind withdrew to revise its assault.
• The chief Astropath told Dante that reinforcements appeared to be entering the Baal System.

Dante learned that an enormous Imperial fleet was searching for Baal through the Shadow in the Warp, and Astropath Jeron sacrificed himself to guide it. As Baal Primus fell to Tyranids and Daemons, the Fifth Battle Group of the Indomitus Crusade arrived and ordered Imperial ships to withdraw before Exterminatus.

• Dante learned from Jeron that a vast Imperial fleet could not locate Baal, and Jeron proposed using his soul to draw Daemons and reveal the system's coordinates.
• Jeron exposed his soul in the Warp, drew in Daemons, and helped the fleet find Baal before Dante killed him after Daemons possessed his body.
• Ka'bandha and his Daemons appeared on Baal Primus, where Yor led the Blood Knights into battle while Seth ordered the surviving forces to withdraw to Baal.
• Yor refused to leave, admitted the Blood Knights' past crimes, and led his Black Rage-stricken warriors against the Tyranids and Daemons as Seth evacuated.
• The Tyranids overwhelmed the Imperial fleet, and Flodak ordered the Eternal Essence to draw pursuing Bio-ships away from Baal.
• Vladimir announced the Fifth Battle Group's arrival and ordered Imperial vessels to withdraw because Exterminatus was about to begin.

Guilliman’s fleet arrived and crushed the Tyranid forces in space, while Baal’s defenders continued fighting the swarm on the planet. Dante learned that the Imperium had won the void battle as Imperial reinforcements teleported onto Baal to join the fight.

• Macragge's Honour and a vast Imperial fleet emerged from the Warp and destroyed the Tyranid fleet, disrupting the Hive Mind with weapons and the Ecclesiarchy’s faith.
• Fudalock ordered the Sons of Sanguinius to pursue the fleeing Tyranid ships.
• Yugi died protecting Tiers, and golden light shielded his soul from the Daemons in the Warp.
• Tiers escaped through Angel Bastion’s Void Shield as Blood Angels stopped Death Company warriors from attacking the fleeing civilians.
• Audamair and Dante watched the Death Company charge the Tyranids, where Kaso and many other warriors fought and fell.
• Dante received word that Guilliman had defeated the Tyranid fleet, then watched Imperial forces teleport onto Baal and advance against the collapsing swarm.

Guilliman defeated the Tyranids on Baal, won Dante’s support for sweeping Imperial reforms, and revealed that he intended to resurrect Sanguinius by gathering fragments of his soul. The chapter ended with Seth rejecting Guilliman’s reforms and warning Dante that Guilliman would claim the Emperor’s place.

• Guilliman’s forces destroyed the Tyranids, and his voice briefly restored reason to Kaso and the other Death Company warriors.
• Guilliman met with Dante, explained his reforms, and secured Dante’s agreement not to oppose them.
• Guilliman revealed that Sanguinius could be resurrected if his scattered soul fragments were gathered, and Dante gave him the Mask of Sanguinius.
• Guilliman asked Dante to help reform Baal and improve life for its people, then described his plan to lure Abaddon into a trap at Vigilus.
• Guilliman’s new technology made Tiers eligible to become an angel, while several Blood Angels Chapters protested his reforms and left.
• Seth condemned Guilliman’s changes as betrayal and warned Dante that Guilliman would become the new Master of Mankind.

Seth rejected Dante’s acceptance of Guilliman’s reforms and left with traditionalist warriors, while Dante honored the fallen Blood Knights and prepared Baal’s forces for a new era. After learning Guilliman had gone to Baal, Abaddon seized his chance and ordered an assault to destroy Vigilus before Guilliman could return.

• Seth accused Guilliman of erasing Sanguinius’s legacy, rejected the Primaris Warriors, and left with warriors loyal to tradition.
• Dante mourned the fallen Blood Knights, ordered their Chapter rebuilt under a successor to Yor, and watched Baal begin its recovery.
• Dante and the other Chapter leaders accepted the expansion of the Primaris forces, while Dante planned to join the Indomitus Crusade after preparing new recruits.
• Abaddon learned Guilliman had left the Nachmund Gauntlet and decided to press his attack on Vigilus before the Imperium could reinforce it.
• Abaddon ordered his forces to advance on Vigilus and directed the Planet Killer to prepare to destroy it.

Abaddon ordered Erebus to summon power to defeat Calgar, but a flawed ritual called forth Yog-Sothoth, who made a bargain with Abaddon for a future vessel. The Black Legion’s fleet headed toward Vigilus, where Calgar’s forces were gathering against the encroaching Daemons.

• Abaddon confronted Erebus about how to defeat Calgar and forced Erebus to serve as the vessel for a Daemonic power.
• Erebus began a sacrifice ritual aboard the Vengeful Spirit, but a blood-contaminated rune altered the summoning.
• Yog-Sothoth appeared, offered Abaddon power in exchange for a future vessel, and bound Abaddon to the bargain.
• Erebus recognized that the summoned being was an ancient power beyond the Warp Gods, but hid his mistake from Abaddon.
• Calgar’s fleet reinforced Vigilus as Daemon armies advanced from the corrupted Segir system.

Khaine led the Natal 502nd Regiment in reclaiming Styx Hive City, crushing the rebels and securing its vital facilities. As his troops fought through the weapon factory, a cyborg announced that Lord Jolkan’s creation had been born, and Khaine ordered his soldiers to bring it down.

• Khaine’s regiment used superior artillery and equipment to break the rebels’ defenses and advance into Styx Hive City.
• Khaine ordered the city’s inhabitants to surrender, while his troops routed Cultists and secured the Energy Core and food factory.
• Khaine led an assault on the weapon factory, where Daemon-blessed Cultists made a more organized stand.
• Khaine and Heller recognized the rebels’ increased strength, and Khaine ordered every squad to advance with full firepower.
• A Bolter round knocked Khaine down, and a cyborg declared that Lord Jolkan’s creation had been born.
• Khaine rose and ordered his troops to take down the cyborg, insisting that nothing could stop them.

Khaine’s troops retook Styx Hive City’s Weapon Factory, where they fought Chaos Spawn released from a gene workshop, while Khaine vowed to keep fighting the traitors. On Mordo Star, Dorn and Cawl debated Guilliman’s tunnel project and its risks as workers excavated a route through the Warp; the chapter ended with Abaddon challenging Calgar to a duel.

• Khaine and his soldiers killed the augmented humans, fought through the Weapon Factory, and discovered a gene workshop run by fallen Tech-priests.
• The Tech-priests released Chaos Spawn, forcing Khaine’s troops to retreat until Raider tanks broke into the factory and destroyed the monsters.
• Khaine captured the workshop, ordered the remaining rebels in Styx Hive City hunted down, and headed out to continue the fight.
• Galileo arrived on Mordo Star as a recruited worker and learned the tunnel project’s strict safety rules before beginning work as an artificial Blank.
• Dorn questioned the danger of Guilliman’s plan to build a passage to other universes, while Cawl defended the project as a necessary path to survival and a broader understanding of the Warp.
• Abaddon challenged Calgar to a duel aboard the Victory Laurel.

Calgar agreed to Abaddon's challenge as a chance to kill him, while Erebus and the Black Legion prepared an assault on Vigilus. Guilliman revealed that Vigilus was bait in a plan to draw the traitors into a costly battle, and Sicarius asked him to explain the “Group Buying Strategy.”

• Anvil warned Calgar that Abaddon's duel invitation was a trap, but Calgar accepted it and asked the Aeldari to prevent Abaddon from escaping by sorcery.
• Erebus awoke from terrifying visions, learned that Abaddon planned to lure Calgar away from Vigilus, and agreed to attend a war council aboard the Vengeful Spirit.
• Abaddon gathered the Black Legion's commanders, ordered them to unite, and heard Honsou explain Vigilus's defenses and Ashur's plan to twist reality with a Chaos ritual.
• Abaddon approved the plan to use the Warp to breach Vigilus and urged the commanders to destroy the planet before the Imperium's Beacon Project was complete.
• Guilliman told Sicarius that Vigilus was bait intended to make the traitors commit their forces, then called his tactic the “Group Buying Strategy.”

Guilliman explained his strategy for wearing down Abaddon’s forces and agreed to meet with Eldrad Ulthran after the war for Vigilus. On Vigilus, Imperial commanders stayed alert while Chaos cultists spread rebellion and prepared a ritual beneath Styx Hive City.

• Guilliman explained to Sicarius how the Group Buying Strategy would lure Chaos forces into committing more troops and resources.
• Nathas delivered Eldrad Ulthran’s request for a meeting, and Guilliman agreed to meet after dealing with Vigilus.
• Admiral Merida updated the Vigilus defense data as Imperial forces prepared for an expected Chaos attack.
• Chaos cultists infiltrated Styx Hive City, preached rebellion against the Imperium, and planned a ritual at the city’s lowest level.

Greta and a vast cult gathering on Vigilus summoned Chaos Daemons, plunging the planet into darkness and disabling its global shield. Honsou’s forces poured through the resulting Warp rifts and seized most Imperial positions, leaving the Chaos invasion with an overwhelming early advantage.

• Greta and the old woman rallied nearly a thousand believers to denounce the Imperium and prepare a ritual to summon the Gods.
• At the Orbital Temples, Keer Phaeron and Ashur watched the cultists’ sacrifice stir the Warp and advance their plan to invade Vigilus.
• The cultists drank Holy Blood, and the deaths of the loyal Imperial soldiers coincided with the system’s star dimming and darkness spreading across Vigilus.
• A Divine Servant appeared in the factory beneath Styx Hive City, and cultists who drank the blood broke apart as Daemons emerged and devoured them.
• Chaos darkness disabled Vigilus’s global shield, allowing Daemons and traitors to pour through Warp rifts and force Imperial troops back through the Hive Cities.
• Honsou learned that the invasion had captured more than ninety percent of the Imperium’s positions without confronting the Void Defense System.

Honsou drove Chaos forces toward the final Imperium-held areas on Vigilus while preparing the Blackstone Crown, and Abaddon lured Calgar to the Vengeful Spirit. On the Victory Laurel, Calgar consulted the hidden figure identified by his golden Aquila and azure Power Armor, who ordered him to prioritize capturing the Vengeful Spirit over Abaddon.

• Honsou learned from Keer Phaeron that the Blackstone Crown ritual still depended on seizing several Imperium-held nodes.
• Honsou ordered the Chaos Warlords to unleash their reserves and crush the Imperium’s remaining resistance on Vigilus.
• Abaddon lowered the Vengeful Spirit’s shields and challenged Calgar to board and confront him.
• Calgar and the Victory Laurel arrived in the void to face the Vengeful Spirit.
• Calgar addressed the hidden figure on the Victory Laurel, who ordered him to focus on the Vengeful Spirit because the ship mattered more than Abaddon.

Calgar led a Primaris assault aboard the Vengeful Spirit to kill Abaddon, but Erebus immobilized him with a power that erased spacetime data. As Abaddon prepared to finish him, Calgar revealed his own contingency and a colossal will descended in a blinding light.

• Guilliman sent Calgar and veteran Primaris Warriors to board the Vengeful Spirit while he waited to intervene if needed.
• Calgar's squads teleported to their targets, fought through the corrupted warship, and reached a hall where Abaddon and Erebus awaited them.
• Calgar overpowered Abaddon in their duel until Erebus used a sealed Chaos god's power to freeze Calgar and begin erasing him.
• Calgar told Abaddon he was not the only one with a contingency, and an overwhelming will descended, melting Daemons and leaving the traitors terrified of a blue sun.

Guilliman stopped Yog-Sothoth from entering the universe, defeated Abaddon’s forces aboard the Vengeful Spirit, and ordered the ship to be taken in search of Sanguinius’s soul fragments. Yog-Sothoth abducted Abaddon and threatened Guilliman, who resolved to face the new enemy as the universe continued to evolve.

• Guilliman’s arrival overwhelmed the Daemons aboard the Vengeful Spirit, and he severed Yog-Sothoth’s passage into the universe.
• Guilliman confronted Erebus and Abaddon, explained that even gods had limits, and repelled Abaddon’s attacks before declaring that he would be imprisoned on Terra.
• Yog-Sothoth opened a black hole and dragged Abaddon away before Calgar could capture him, then threatened Guilliman.
• Guilliman told Calgar to tow the Vengeful Spirit away and search for Sanguinius’s soul fragments.
• Guilliman reflected that Yog-Sothoth’s knowledge and power were not beyond change because truth and the universe continued to evolve.

Guilliman destroyed the corrupted Vengeful Spirit after dealing with its traitors, then ordered the Imperium to return home. On Vigilus, Honsou committed Chaos’s remaining forces to the assault while Imperial commander Khaine held the defenses, and Huron ordered his last Blackstone Fortress to crash into the planet.

• Guilliman had Calgar remove Sanguinius’s statue from the Vengeful Spirit, capture its traitors, and dismantle its living Machine Spirit before ordering the ship destroyed.
• Guilliman had the Vengeful Spirit towed into an unstable star and ordered the Imperium to return home.
• Honsou rejected Samukwan’s warning that Vigilus might be bait and ordered every Chaos faction to commit its remaining troops.
• Khaine commanded the Imperial defenses north of Styx Hive City as Chaos forces bombarded the city and charged its lines; he ordered a counterattack.
• Huron, whose fleet was losing to Imperial firepower, ordered his last Blackstone Fortress to crash into Vigilus.

The Imperium evacuated its forces from Vigilus before Huron’s Blackstone Fortress destroyed the planet, leaving the Nachmund Gauntlet cut off as Chaos retreated. Calgar, believing the campaign was his failure, was summoned to meet Guilliman.

• Admiral Merida ordered the Imperium’s fleet to stop the Blackstone Fortress, but a Wrath Colossus destroyed it and it broke apart in the void.
• Khaine’s forces repelled Chaos attacks, then received General Claude’s order to evacuate as Vigilus faced destruction.
• A moon-sized fragment struck Vigilus, shattering the planet; Imperial forces evacuated while Chaos troops were left behind.
• Honsou and Keer Phaeron escaped through a prepared Warp passage, and Abaddon declared Vigilus’s destruction a strategic victory.
• Calgar learned that Vigilus had been destroyed, blamed himself for losing the Nachmund Gauntlet, and prepared to resign when Guilliman summoned him.