Chapter Summaries

Calgar learned that Guilliman had planned the loss of Vigilus to exhaust the Black Legion and reassured him that the Imperium could still cross the Great Rift. The story then shifted to Andy and the Sons of Sara defending Pandor from Mortarion’s plague forces as a Chaos fleet entered the system.

• Calgar told Sicarius he expected to be replaced and prepared to confess his failure over Vigilus to Guilliman.
• Guilliman revealed that Vigilus had been a deliberate lure, praised Calgar’s achievements, and ordered him to prepare for the next phase of the Indomitus Crusade.
• Calgar and Sicarius agreed to trust Guilliman and fight at his side after Calgar left the study.
• Andy led the orphan-staffed Sara 001st Regiment against plague zombies, flies, and acid rain on Pandor.
• Andy learned that the enemy fleet had entered the Pandor System and saw the Terminus Est attacking the Imperial Void Defense Line.

After three months holding the plague-ridden frontier, Andy and the Sons of Sara withdrew for rest as the Catachan Regiment took over the line. Andy completed quarantine and teleported from the ruined city to a vast domed hall aboard the warship.

• Andy ordered the Sons of Sara to rotate out after the Plague God's forces retreated beyond range.
• The Catachan Regiment relieved Andy's troops, who withdrew through the plague-stricken ruined city.
• Andy and her soldiers surrendered their equipment and underwent medical quarantine, cleansing, and religious rites.
• Andy entered the secured teleportation passage and crossed to the warship.
• An Enforcer ordered Andy to keep moving after she arrived in a vast domed hall.

Andy’s unit reached a rest area aboard a Celestial-class Warship while Mortarion and Ku’gath advanced a plague plan against Guilliman. In the Warp, Jaghatai freed captive souls and decided to return to the Imperium, as a Webway breach triggered a desperate defense watched by Dorn.

• Andy and her unit completed screening, settled into their warship’s rest district, and read reports of conflicts spreading across the Imperium.
• Mortarion and Typhus argued over how to confront Guilliman, while Ku’gath described a plague being prepared to ensnare him.
• Mortarion learned that the plague plan was progressing and visited the imprisoned soul of his foster father.
• Jaghatai defeated an ancient being in the Warp, freed captive human souls, and encountered an old man who urged him to return to his brothers.
• Jaghatai agreed to return to the Imperium as the palace around him collapsed.
• A Webway incursion set off alarms and defenses, and Dorn recognized the immense resistance facing the Emperor’s Webway Project.

Rogal Dorn began the Webway Project in the Beta-Garmon System, where opening a sealed Aeldari passage unleashed a Daemon assault. When Yvraine arrived with an Aeldari fleet offering help, Dorn went to meet her and assess the alliance, leaving the offer unresolved.

• Dorn chose the Beta-Garmon System for the Webway Project and prepared for the dangers posed by Chaos.
• Opening the sealed Webway entrance released Daemons, and Imperial forces used artillery, Knights, and mechanized infantry to contain them.
• Amalrich told Dorn that Yvraine had arrived with an Aeldari fleet to help open the Webway, and Dorn decided to meet her personally.
• Dorn boarded Yvraine's ship with Imperial Fists and Black Templars warriors and questioned her reasons for bringing the fleet near the system.
• Yvraine offered Aeldari aid in the battle, while Dorn remained wary of her people’s motives.

Yvraine brought the Heart of Fire and Aeldari forces to aid Dorn’s assault on the Webway, earning permission to join the battle under strict precautions. The relic halted the daemonic tide, and the Aeldari charged into the Webway as Amalrich asked Dorn how the Imperium should respond.

• Dorn questioned Yvraine’s offer of aid, then allowed the Aeldari to enter the Webway using human teleportation devices and warned her against secret plots.
• Yvraine presented the Heart of Fire, an ancient relic that could create a barrier of flames capable of destroying Daemons.
• Yvraine and her forces arrived at the Webway battlefield, where Imperial troops and artillery held back a massive daemonic assault.
• Dorn urged Yvraine to help open the way into the Webway, and five Aeldari Seers channeled the Heart of Fire to stop the daemon tide.
• Yvraine ordered the Imperium to cease fire and sent the Aeldari Warriors charging into the Webway, prompting Amalrich to ask Dorn what to do.

Dorn’s forces fought through the Webway, repaired a breach, and prepared to advance toward an abandoned Aeldari city. On Baal, Tiers awakened as a new Angel while Dante’s Blood Angels debated whether to confront Magnus or stop the Orks first.

• Dorn ordered the Imperial forces into the Webway, where Amalrich and Yvraine led the combined human and Aeldari armies in crushing the Daemons.
• Dorn’s forces repaired a Webway breach with self-repairing Liquid Metal, and Yvraine warned that soulless monsters awaited in an abandoned Aeldari city.
• Tiers awakened from enhancement surgery on Baal, recovered his name and memories, and accepted his role as a warrior under Sanguinius.
• Tiers saw Baal’s rapid reconstruction before Surens explained that the Sons of Sanguinius fought to protect the innocent.
• Dante and Mephiston discussed Guilliman’s victory over Abaddon and the threat posed by Magnus’s Psyker Empire.
• The Blood Angels’ Captains argued over whether to attack Magnus or prioritize the Orks, and Dante considered which threat demanded action first.

Dante ordered the Blood Angels to prepare an expedition against Magnus, while Tiers and his squad cleared Tyranids from Baal and received new orders. In the Pandor System, Jaghatai Khan returned to the Imperium, learned that Mortarion commanded the Chaos assault, and promised a counterattack as Mortarion prepared to lead a spearhead himself.

• Dante chose to crusade against Magnus rather than reinforce Armageddon, and ordered the Blood Angels to bring their recruits and new equipment.
• Tiers and his squad fought Tyranid organisms on Baal, then learned they were to report to the spaceport for an expedition.
• Jaghatai Khan identified himself to the Imperial fleet in the Pandor System and met Admiral Taga.
• Taga explained that Mortarion's forces were spreading plague through the system, and Jaghatai vowed to drive them back.
• Mortarion, frustrated by the Imperium's defenses, decided to lead a spearhead squad through the enemy lines himself.

Mortarion began a sorcerous assault on Pandor Prime, while Jaghatai learned how profoundly Guilliman had transformed the Imperium. Andy’s regiment attacked a Chaos-held Hive City, but Mortarion’s daemons and sorcery overwhelmed the battlefield until Jaghatai arrived and confronted him.

• Mortarion ordered his sorcerers to summon Nurgle’s army and drag the Pandor System into the Garden of Nurgle.
• Jaghatai reviewed the Imperium’s military strength and Guilliman’s reforms, then wondered whether Guilliman intended to conquer other galaxies.
• Andy led the Sara 01st Regiment’s assault on a Chaos-held Hive City and ordered her forces to destroy the enemy’s magically shielded Tower Wagons.
• The Tower Wagons struck the Imperial forces with burning projectiles, and Mortarion’s daemons joined the battle as he personally attacked the Imperium troops.
• Mortarion destroyed Andy’s Troop Transport and prepared to force her to submit, but Jaghatai appeared and challenged him to fight.

Jaghatai defeated Mortarion’s forces on Pandor Prime and pursued Mortarion into the Warp, while Galileo’s diary revealed the dangers and mysteries surrounding a vast tunnel project. Guilliman prepared missions to recover Sanguinius’s remaining soul fragments and learned that the Great Wall Device had reached fifteen percent coverage.

• Jaghatai fought Mortarion, then joined forces with Andy, Primaris Warriors, and other Imperial heroes as orbital bombardments helped rout the Plague forces on Pandor Prime.
• Mortarion fled aboard the Terminus Est into the Warp, and Jaghatai followed him while the disorganized Plague forces collapsed before the Imperium’s assault.
• Galileo recorded the tunnel workers’ strict protocols and learned from colleagues that construction might soon reach its first section, but a scarlet-class alarm abruptly sealed their dormitory.
• Nathas located two of Sanguinius’s missing soul fragments on Davin and Signus, and Guilliman assigned Mandagore to Davin while deciding to travel to Signus himself.
• Guilliman met Degraded Cawl, who reported that construction of the Great Wall Device and Beacon Device had reached fifteen percent coverage, with the first phase projected to finish within five years.

Guilliman rejected Cawl’s proposal to appoint a Fabricator General, weighed the Necron threat, and planned his next campaigns before turning his attention to the T’au’s last stand. As Automata forces attacked T’au Prime and Shadowsun urged Anshi to surrender, Lion watched the battle from the void and waited for the Ethereals to flee so he could pursue the Rangdan.

• Guilliman told Degraded Cawl to keep the Warp Firewall secret, refused to appoint a Fabricator General, and authorized only limited cooperation concerning the Necron prisoner.
• Guilliman planned to revive Sanguinius, reform the Imperium, and confront the Necrons and Orks before turning toward the Eye of Terror; he also ordered Lion to hunt the Daemon Primarchs after exterminating the T’au.
• Anshi gathered the remaining T’au forces at T’au Prime, where he prepared to defend the Empire’s last Sept World against the Automata fleet.
• Shadowsun appeared on the Automata side and urged Anshi to join the Inorganic Entity, but Anshi refused and ordered his forces to fight.
• The Automata overwhelmed the T’au defenses with a seemingly endless fleet, while Lion and Azrael watched from the Rock and waited to see how the Ethereals would escape.

Shadowsun allied with the Automata to overthrow the Ethereals, but Lion arrived at T'au Prime, disabled the machines, and ordered the planet exterminated. On Mist World, Qiu Chen watched Imperial engineers emerge from a newly activated Blackstone Gate, leaving the Transmigrators wondering whether they might return home.

• Anshi's fleet was defeated, and he fled to T'au Prime as the Automata destroyed the T'au defenses.
• Shadowsun revealed the Ethereals' Rangdan deception, allied with the Automata, and led an assault to overthrow them.
• The Automata disabled Anshi and captured T'au Prime, but the Ethereals escaped before Shadowsun could reach them.
• Human forces led by Lion shut down the Automata, killed Shadowsun, and began exterminating T'au Prime while capturing An Sa and the Duchess.
• Lion sentenced the Duchess to become a Servitor and told An Sa that he would live to witness the Rangdan's destruction.
• On Mist World, Qiu Chen and other Transmigrators gathered at the Blackstone Gate and watched engineering mechs emerge from its newly formed passage.

Qiu Chen watched the Imperium establish a tunnel and learned that it planned to use Transmigrators’ soul coordinates to reach other universes. Titus recruited him for the dangerous expedition, and Sage Stern began explaining the plan to the assembled candidates.

• Engineering mechs emerged from a tunnel and built a polished passage as trains carried Imperium personnel and supplies through it.
• Qiu Chen left the site after the Imperium ignored the gathered Transmigrators, then Titus summoned him for an urgent mission to explore another universe.
• Titus explained that the Other-Universe Project had found a new coordinate in a Transmigrator’s soul, and Qiu Chen joined him aboard a gunship.
• Qiu Chen arrived at the base and joined seven other Transmigrators before Agemman opened a briefing on the Extra-Universal Exploration Squad.
• Sage Stern explained that the Imperium hoped to use traces of the Transmigrators’ native universes to find routes to other universes, despite the danger of their physical laws rejecting the Imperium’s arrival.

Qiu Chen attended a briefing on the Imperium’s plans to explore other universes and was assigned to guide an expedition into his former universe. On Terra, Imperial Chancellor Penny reviewed evidence of corruption in the Imperium’s research system and prepared to address it.

• Sage Stern explained that universal Guardians could arise from the survival instincts of living beings and that Outworlders could help the Imperium enter their universes.
• Agemman arranged eight Exploration Teams, and Qiu Chen was assigned to one tasked with entering the universe where he had once lived.
• Qiu Chen and the other Transmigrators remained in the spire to study the Warp and undergo modifications for their missions.
• The chapter described Terra’s growth and Hero’s Plaza, where the Imperium imprisoned and publicly displayed traitorous Primarchs.
• Penny reviewed secret recordings showing senior researchers abusing their authority, manipulating authorship, and arranging positions and credentials for their allies and children.

Penny ordered the Inquisition to purge scholars and officials who defended Chaos or abused their positions, but the crackdown sparked a wider Imperial storm. Meanwhile, Guilliman’s fleet reached the enslaved Signus System and destroyed its defenders, preparing an airborne assault because a fragment of Sanguinius remained on the surface.

• Penny watched videos of Imperial scholars defending Chaos and criticizing the Imperium, then ordered the Inquisition to investigate and purge those who crossed the line.
• Penny rejected a clerk’s plea for leniency, arguing that the scholars’ achievements depended on Guilliman’s reforms and that their abuses threatened the Imperium.
• The Inquisition rapidly investigated educational institutions, sending serious offenders to the Penal Legions and stripping many others of their positions, but an unprecedented storm spread across the Imperium.
• Guilliman’s fleet emerged in the Signus System, where the Cultists’ warships opened fire on the approaching Imperials.
• Guilliman ordered the fleet to destroy the defenders, and Imperial warships annihilated the twisted vessels in the void.
• Guilliman prepared an airborne assault on Signus because a fragment of Sanguinius remained on the planet.

Guilliman’s forces conquered Signus, Diego captured Chiris, and Guilliman secured a fragment of Sanguinius’s soul, leaving Davin as the final step toward the resurrection. Elsewhere, Mortarion captured Typhus’s soul and coerced Ku’gath into helping him, while Theresa prepared protests against Guilliman using a forged interpretation of Sanguinius’s history.

• Diego led the Grey Knights and Imperial forces in an assault on Signus, defeating Chiris and imprisoning the Greater Daemon.
• Guilliman entered Sanguinius’s desecrated hall, recovered the Angel’s Feather containing a fragment of Sanguinius’s soul, and ordered Diego to help return more Imperial heroes from the Warp.
• Guilliman left forces to rebuild Signus and departed for Davin, where Mandagore was seeking the final fragment needed to resurrect Sanguinius.
• Mortarion attacked Typhus, killed him, captured his soul in a bottle, and pressured Ku’gath into joining his fight against Jaghatai.
• Theresa and a nobleman plotted to use the History of Emperor Sanguinius to undermine Guilliman, and Theresa planned protests that would provoke the Imperium into killing students.

Ku'gath completed the Divine Plague but was ordered by Rotigus to abandon the campaign in Ultramar and return for Nurgle's final alliance. Meanwhile, Jaghatai joined Phicris's plan to lure Mortarion to Iks, and Guilliman began a ritual at Davin to summon the Archangel.

• Ku'gath tested the Divine Plague and watched it rot Daemons and their souls before Rotigus appeared and announced Nurgle's order to withdraw from Ultramar.
• Rotigus described a plan to corrupt the Imperium through a woman shaped by Guilliman's reformed education system, but Ku'gath refused to abandon his own campaign without spoils.
• Phicris showed Jaghatai the Holy Blade and explained that Iks was the key to Mortarion's ritual, then asked him to draw Mortarion there while Phicris and Uriel Ventris struck the outer nodes.
• Jaghatai accepted the plan to confront Mortarion at Iks and said he would capture his traitorous brother for Guilliman.
• At Davin, Guilliman ordered the gathered Imperial and Aeldari forces to begin the ritual and summon the Archangel.

Guilliman used a ritual on Davin to recover Sanguinius’s scattered soul fragments and return the Archangel to life, while the Lion exterminated the Rangdan survivors and set out to investigate reports of Night Haunter. Sanguinius returned to the battlefield, and the Lion’s hunt for Curze began.

• Guilliman entered Sanguinius’s memories, gathered his scattered soul fragments, and destroyed the Horus illusion with the Emperor’s Sword.
• Guilliman summoned Sanguinius’s restored soul into a technological body, and Sanguinius returned to life and attacked the Daemons on Davin.
• The Lion ordered the Rangdan’s refuge bombarded, offered An Sa death or exile to the same world, and directed Azrael to destroy the planet completely.
• Ezekiel reported suspected traces of Night Haunter, and the Lion left the Rock to find out whether Curze had returned.

Phicris led an Imperial airborne assault into the Adium System’s corrupted Hive City, where his Primaris Warriors destroyed the Death Guard guarding their landing site. The Imperial forces advanced toward Mortarion’s Warp construct, intending to sever his corruption nodes and drive him toward the final battle on Iks.

• Jaghatai led an Imperial fleet to besiege Iks and force Mortarion into battle while Phicris and Uriel Ventris attacked other strategic targets.
• Phicris’s gunships faced heavy fire over the Adium Hive City, and enemy sorcery destroyed several Thunderbird war machines.
• Glenn sensed a powerful Warp presence deep within the Hive City, so Phicris ordered his warriors to jump from their gunship and attack on foot.
• Phicris and his Primaris Warriors defeated the Death Guard at the landing site while Imperial forces destroyed the city’s defenses.
• Phicris identified Mortarion’s Warp construct in the grand tower and ordered the advance to continue so the Imperial forces could sever the corruption nodes.

Phicris and the Primaris Warriors destroyed Mortarion’s Warp device and drove the Death Guard from the Hive City, while Qiu Chen continued his arduous journey through the Warp with an Imperial expedition. After the victory on Davin, Guilliman assigned Sanguinius to capture Magnus and began planning how to turn Angron against his master.

• Phicris’s squad fought through Plague Zombies and Death Guard defenses, killed a Bellringer, and planted a Warp-annihilating bomb in Mortarion’s device, clearing the city of its Warp-tainted forces.
• Qiu Chen recorded his thoughts as he traveled ancient paths through the Warp with an Imperial exploration team and learned that time there had no reliable meaning.
• Guilliman and Sanguinius celebrated humanity’s victory on Davin, and Guilliman asked Sanguinius to capture Magnus in Imperium Nihilus.
• Sanguinius accepted the mission and left to bring Magnus back to Terra for trial.
• Guilliman considered using the enslaved Daemon Prince Cherubael to help him provoke Angron into rebelling against his master.

Valano met the Emperor, who revealed that humanity needed a new ruler and commanded the Custodes to protect the Thirteenth. Valano accepted the order, and the chapter ended with him agreeing to meet Penny as tensions between Terra’s factions threatened to escalate.

• The Emperor appeared to Valano and explained why he had been unable to communicate with the Custodes for ten thousand years.
• The Emperor told Valano that his era had ended, described humanity’s ancient war and curse, and ordered him to serve the Thirteenth as the Imperium’s new Emperor.
• Valano accepted the Emperor’s command and agreed to meet Penny after repeatedly refusing her audience.
• Penny prepared to suppress the Loyalist Faction and take the blame herself if Valano refused to meet her.
• A Custodes attendant told Penny that Valano would receive her in his private reception room.