Chapter Summaries

Qin Mo and Bik crossed the Circle of Gluttony, where Bik revealed his origins and the Book of Insight that guided their route. The book offered a possible way to kill the Dark Gods, but its method was circular and left Qin Mo unimpressed.

• Qin Mo finished slaughtering the demons in the passage, and Bik joined him to open the gate to the Circle of Gluttony.
• Bik guided Qin Mo around the circle’s demons and told him that a benevolent Warp god who created him had been shattered by three Greater Demons.
• Bik suggested that a contract might help Qin Mo trust him, but Qin Mo insisted that Bik keep leading the way.
• Bik used the Book of Insight to explain that the Greater Demon guarding the next entrance had gone to tempt Guilliman in the Real Universe.
• Bik revealed that the Book of Insight recorded past and future events and described a proposed way to kill the Dark Gods: have a mortal kill a god so the Warp gods would accept that mortals could slay them.
• Qin Mo asked how a mortal could kill a god, and when Bik repeated the circular explanation, Qin Mo warned him not to talk nonsense.

Qin Mo crossed into the Ring of Debauchery, exposed its illusion, and destroyed the Greater Demon guarding it along with the demon army. Bik warned him about the Ring of Domination, and Qin Mo continued onward while considering the similar temptation Guilliman might face.

• Bik warned Qin Mo to stay vigilant in the Ring of Debauchery, where an illusion tailored to his preferences appeared.
• Qin Mo recognized the beautiful woman as Slaaneshi filth, seized her chain, and exposed the illusion as a mountain of corpses and malformed demons.
• Qin Mo restrained the Greater Demon with the chain and incinerated the approaching Demon Army, drawing their souls toward himself as his power grew.
• Qin Mo killed the Greater Demon with his Chainsword and devoured its soul while Bik watched.
• Bik warned Qin Mo that the next circle, the Ring of Domination, would tempt him with the false satisfaction of ruling others.
• Qin Mo considered how the Ring's temptation resembled what Guilliman might face, then followed Bik toward the next circle.

Guilliman called Caldor to discuss the Tyran Sector’s desperate situation and arranged for the Ultramarines to aid it under the cover of pursuing Huron. He agreed to attend an Ecclesiarchy ceremony in hopes of finding out whether Qin Mo was alive, while Agrippina’s delegation failed to secure an audience.

• Guilliman told Caldor that the Tyran Sector was cut off and in danger after Magnus was banished, Huron returned from death, and Qin Mo was lost in the Warp.
• Caldor agreed to take the Ultramarines and Macragge's Honour into the Maelstrom to pursue Huron, then redirect toward the Tyran Sector under the pretext of purging their own ranks.
• Guilliman accepted the Ecclesiarchy’s invitation to tomorrow’s Parade Ceremony so it might help locate Qin Mo or determine whether he was alive.
• Arch-Dominus Vik asked Caldor for an audience with Guilliman, but an Ecclesiarchy attendant turned the delegation away.
• Warlord-Dominus Sevyn deliberately struck the attendant as the Agrippina delegation departed.

Guilliman endured an Ecclesiarchy parade while Vik and Sevyn planned to send Forge World reinforcements to Talon without his approval. The chapter ended as a Living Saint prepared to present Guilliman with a Crown.

• The Ecclesiarchy held a parade for Guilliman as Terra's acid rain stopped, while Vik and Sevyn watched from a manor.
• Vik told Sevyn that 279 Forge Worlds firmly supported forming a relief force, and Sevyn urged them to proceed without waiting for Guilliman.
• Vik and Sevyn agreed to refit the allied fleets' Dimension Engines and risk being branded rebels to support Talon.
• Guilliman reflected that he had refused to meet Vik and Sevyn to avoid provoking a schism within the Adeptus Mechanicus, but expected Vik to send reinforcements anyway.
• The Ecclesiarchy pontiff told Guilliman that a Living Saint wished to present him with a Crown.

Guilliman received a Crown that carried an illusion woven by Slaanesh, showing him a peaceful Imperium and Qin Mo alive beside him. After Guilliman broke free and destroyed the Crown’s vessel, he was left still searching for news of Qin Mo, who had disappeared into the Warp.

• A Living Saint of the Ascetic Sect placed the Crown on Guilliman’s head during the procession on Terra.
• In Slaanesh’s illusion, Guilliman saw humanity prospering, then named Qin Mo the Imperium’s new Seal Bearer and proposed that they continue fighting its threats together.
• Qin Mo revealed that Slaanesh had projected the illusion through the Crown, and Guilliman awoke on the Golden Dais.
• Guilliman killed the corrupted Living Saint and destroyed the Greater Demon that emerged from his burning body, while Slaanesh’s essence vanished with the Crown’s fragments.
• Guilliman told the Ecclesiarchy Pontiff that faith in the Sea of Souls could expose people to evil entities, then left the Golden Dais.
• Guilliman recalled that the Emperor had stayed silent and Yvraine had said Qin Mo would die in the Warp, and he wondered where Qin Mo was.

Inside Slaanesh’s Domain, Qin Mo saw a devastating possible future for the Tyran Sector and rejected the Change Spirit of Tzeentch’s offer to help him escape the Warp. The Change Spirit’s bargain failed, while Tzeentch remained pleased by Qin Mo’s unpredictable response.

• Qin Mo saw an illusion in which the Tyran Sector fell into chaos, the Stone Men fought for control, and its people suffered through renewed wars and persecution.
• Qin Mo accused the Change Spirit of fabricating the vision, arguing that Tyran and the Stone Men would not behave as shown, and attacked it with lightning.
• The Change Spirit said the vision was one possible future and offered to send Qin Mo out of the Warp in exchange for a contract requiring him to oppose humans and please Tzeentch weekly.
• Bik warned Qin Mo not to trust the Change Spirit, and Qin Mo rejected the offer, saying he had always treated Tzeentch’s demons’ words as bullshit.
• Tzeentch sensed Qin Mo’s deceit and was pleased by the many possibilities represented by his unpredictable actions.

Qin Mo was thrust into Slaanesh’s palace, where he fought through a horde of Greater Demons with Bik’s help and strength from the sector’s prayers. Afterward, he freed the doctor and his daughter from their torment by destroying their souls.

• The Change Spirit sent Qin Mo and Bik through a portal into Slaanesh’s palace, where Greater Demons were torturing the doctor and his daughter.
• Qin Mo and Bik fought sixty-six Greater Demons, with Bik using a living missile to wound many of them.
• Nearly ten billion people across the sector prayed for Qin Mo, strengthening him enough to drive back and kill the Greater Demons.
• Qin Mo and Bik pursued the fleeing demons until Qin Mo killed the last one after Bik’s living missile launcher failed to fire.
• Qin Mo recognized the doctor and his daughter, then destroyed their souls at their request, freeing them from their torment.

Qin Mo carved his mark into Slaanesh's Bedchamber after killing demons and discovering Slaanesh was absent. He left with an Eldar-style sword, while Bik died from Fulgurite's venomous scale after urging Qin Mo to one day kill Slaanesh.

• Qin Mo slaughtered the demons in the palace rooms and freed tortured souls, including the souls of Cadia, by devouring them.
• Bik followed Qin Mo toward Slaanesh's Bedchamber, insisting that he had come for revenge too.
• Qin Mo and Bik found Slaanesh absent from the bedchamber, where Fulgurite emerged with a serpentine demon and an Eldar-style sword.
• Qin Mo struck Fulgurite with lightning, but Fulgurite fled after throwing scales that poisoned Bik.
• Bik urged Qin Mo to leave and remember his method for killing Slaanesh before the venom destroyed him.
• Qin Mo took the sword, carved “Qin Mo was here!” into the bed with the power of the C'tan and the Sword of Faith, and left the bedchamber.

After escaping Slaanesh’s Domain, Qin Mo rested on a strange Warp island carried by an entity that appeared as both a whale and a turtle, then reflected on the mysteries of his survival and powers. He was left mourning the possibility that he could never return to the Real Universe.

• Qin Mo found a strange Sky Island on the back of a shapeshifting Warp entity and lit a fire in a ruined temple.
• The Warp entity asked Qin Mo where he wished to go, and Qin Mo said he only wanted somewhere to rest and think.
• Qin Mo considered why demons had physical bodies in the Warp, why he had not been crushed there, and how absorbing Greater Demon souls seemed to strengthen him.
• Qin Mo questioned why Slaanesh and the Greater Demons had not detected him sooner, but concluded that the Warp’s chaos might explain the contradictions.
• Qin Mo remembered his home in the Real Universe and his time with Mimic, then lost his smile as he feared he would never return.

Qin Mo rested in the Giant Turtle’s temple, then returned to Slaanesh’s Domain with the Crone Sword to continue his campaign against Slaanesh. He appeared between the Tzeentch and Slaanesh armies as they prepared to fight.

• Qin Mo told the Giant Turtle that he sought revenge on Slaanesh and planned to keep attacking the god’s Domain, hoping Bik was still alive.
• Qin Mo recognized the Aeldari longsword as the fifth Crone Sword and sensed that it could help its wielder draw more power from the soul.
• The Giant Turtle gave Qin Mo a black crystal that could transport him between the temple and other places in the Warp.
• Carlos brought a Tzeentch army to Slaanesh’s Domain, claiming he had come under the Lord of Change’s orders to retrieve someone, while Shalaxi threatened him and the armies neared battle.
• Qin Mo arrived between the two armies in a pillar of black light, wielding the Crone Sword and his Chainsword.

Qin Mo slaughtered the Slaanesh and Tzeentch forces in the Warp, absorbing their souls with the Crone Sword while Sharasi tried to stop him. As Slaanesh returned to his realm, Sharasi expected the Dark Prince to kill Qin Mo, though she feared punishment for losing the sword.

• Qin Mo attacked both demon armies, killed a Tzeentch Greater Demon, and blasted Carlos away when he tried to stop the fighting.
• The Slaanesh and Tzeentch armies turned on each other as Qin Mo devastated their forces and drew their souls into the Crone Sword.
• Sharasi confronted Qin Mo, but a Tzeentch Greater Demon’s spell weakened her weapons and Qin Mo cut off her shoulder.
• Qin Mo killed the Daemonettes and a Changer of Ways that demanded he return the Crone Sword.
• Slaanesh returned to his realm, and Sharasi stopped attacking Qin Mo and waited for the Dark Prince to arrive.

Qin Mo faced Slaanesh in the Warp and unexpectedly marked the god with a measurable target, making it possible for future godslayers to gauge it. Tzeentch praised Qin Mo’s actions and offered to answer three questions, then explained possible ways to slay or transform the Dark Gods.

• Slaanesh appeared before Qin Mo in its Domain, and Qin Mo sensed the full measure of its power.
• Qin Mo’s Crone Sword unexpectedly branded Slaanesh with a measurable target, while Slaanesh raised its hand to erase him.
• Tzeentch froze everything except Qin Mo, praised what it believed was his deliberate plan, and offered to answer three questions.
• Qin Mo asked how the Dark Gods could be slain, and Tzeentch said they could be marked as slayable or have their governing concepts distorted.
• Tzeentch explained that a plan which made it foolish and ignorant could strip away its wisdom and render it nearly incapable of action.

Qin Mo learned from Tzeentch that his actions in the Warp had weakened Slaanesh’s domain and that absorbing Chaos God essence could make him stronger. After Tzeentch sent him away with a supposed servant, Qin Mo killed the Fate Raven and returned to the giant whale, determined to hunt demons while worrying about the Real Universe and the Tyranids.

• Qin Mo asked Tzeentch whether he could be observed or influenced in the Warp, and Tzeentch explained that Qin Mo’s outsider soul could affect the Warp but could not be affected by it.
• Tzeentch told Qin Mo that his assault on Slaanesh’s domain had weakened its defenses and made Slaanesh a target of ridicule, then urged him to survive and grow stronger by absorbing Chaos God essence.
• Tzeentch used the remnants of his sacrifice to send Qin Mo to another part of the Warp, where the Fate Raven introduced itself as his servant and spellcasting assistant.
• Qin Mo realized the Fate Raven was meant to report his actions and location to Tzeentch, then destroyed it with lightning.
• Qin Mo used a Black Crystal to return to the temple on the giant whale and asked to be taken somewhere full of demons so he could continue hunting them.
• Qin Mo worried that an unknown amount of time might have passed in the Real Universe and wondered what had happened to the Tyranids.

With Lord of Tyran away in the Warp and the war still raging, Grey proposed a Temporary Council to prevent Tyran Sector from falling into internal conflict. The other leaders accepted the seven-seat arrangement, though Adam questioned why one seat should go to the being who was always on fire.

• Grey addressed the sector’s leaders and proposed forming a Temporary Council to manage Tyran Sector until Lord of Tyran returned.
• Grey outlined seven council seats for the Custodians, Navy, Army, industrial and commercial groups, Governors, Lord of Tyran’s assistant, and the being who was always on fire, with an artificial intelligence serving as affairs adviser.
• Grey explained that Stone Men and Iron Men wanted supervisory duties rather than council seats, and that the council’s proposed arrangement remained open for discussion.
• Adam approved the Seven-Person Council, and the other attendees accepted Grey’s proposal.
• Adam questioned the seat for the being who was always on fire, and Grey said it would help retain powerful combat forces in the sector.

Mimic and Burner joined the Seven-Person Council, where Burner demanded seats but ultimately accepted one as the council confronted a worsening war. The council approved requests for aid from the Blood Angels and the Lamenters and adopted a strategy of defending key systems, leaving the sector’s decisions in motion while the Lord of Tyran remained missing.

• Mimic rejected Burner’s demand for three seats and warned that the Celestial Engine could destroy him if he tried to seize the sector.
• Burner accepted a seat after Grey told him to join the council or leave Tyran, filling the Seven-Person Council alongside Mimic.
• A Stone Man reported that Huron had been resurrected on Beisu Prime, Khaban was slaughtering people in the sector’s west, and Huron’s fleet had grown more than twofold.
• Grey proposed requesting aid from the Blood Angels and the Lamenters, and the council unanimously approved the motion.
• Adam proposed concentrating the fleet on strategic-point defense, while keeping the main force committed to the Beisu System, and the council passed the plan.
• After meeting for a day and night, the council members thanked Grey and concluded by declaring their allegiance to the Lord of Tyran and the Tyran One Hundred and Twenty Worlds.

Arch-Dominus Vik launched the unauthorized Pilgrim Expedition from Agrippina toward the Tyran Sector. On Cadia, Creed responded to a Red Corsairs raid by ordering a war mobilization and sending forces to support Talon.

• Vik addressed the assembled Forge Worlds and promised rewards for their support of the expedition.
• Vik led a fleet of twenty-one Ark Mechanicus vessels and seven hundred accompanying warships through a Warp Rift toward the Tyran Sector.
• Kyle informed Creed that a Red Corsairs warship had raided an industrial world in the Cadian Gate defense zone and been driven off.
• Creed called a Lord Commander meeting to discuss placing Cadia on a war footing and his authority as supreme Lord Commander.
• Creed ordered one-fifth of the Cadian Shock Troops, transport ships, militia units, and his personal guard sent to support Talon.

Huron ordered the Red Corsairs to ambush the reinforcements he foresaw arriving in the Aerona System, despite his growing struggle with the Four Gods’ whispers. After three days concealed in the asteroid belt, the fleet attacked a warship emerging from a Warp Rift.

• Huron ordered a veteran to send forces to Aerona and prepare an ambush for Talon's reinforcements.
• Huron’s whispers overwhelmed him, and he drove the concerned veteran from the bridge.
• The veteran led more than three hundred warships into Aerona and concealed them in the asteroid belt using a Blue Feathered Ship.
• The veteran waited three days before an enemy warship emerged from a Warp Rift and launched drop pods toward Aerona One.
• The veteran ordered the hidden fleet to attack, and more than a dozen EMP torpedoes struck the enemy warship.

The Weeping Legion was ambushed by the Red Corsairs at Aerona, and Sanguinius arrived to rescue them as Blood Angels and Ultramarines reinforcements entered the system. The Red Corsairs faced attacks from multiple fleets as Caldor ordered the Five Hundred Worlds Fleet to strike.

• The Daughter of Storm entered the Aerona System, where the Red Corsairs shattered its shields and trapped the Weeping Legion on the planet below.
• Fros and the Weeping Legion fought against overwhelming Red Corsairs forces, while Kaelon’s Dreadnought battled the attackers and Daemon Engines.
• Sanguinius descended onto Aerona One, destroyed the Skull Lord threatening Fros, and led the Weeping Legion against the Daemon Engines.
• Blood Angels warships emerged from the Warp Rift and forced the Red Corsairs fleet to split its forces.
• Macragge's Honour arrived with the Five Hundred Worlds Fleet, and Caldor ordered an assault on the Red Corsairs.

The allied fleets defeated the Red Corsairs at Aerona, while Sanguinius appeared on the battlefield and reunited with Mephiston. Sanguinius could not say whether the Lord of Tyran was alive, but his prophecy gave Fros hope that those Qin Mo had protected would repay him.

• A Red Corsairs veteran ordered his ship to ram Macragge's Honour, but the Daughter of Storm emerged from dimensional space and destroyed it.
• Caldor ordered the Ultramarines to continue deploying troops on Aerona One and attack Aerona Two and Three while the Blood Angels took responsibility for the fighting on One.
• Fros and Sanguinius fought across Aerona One until Mephiston arrived and recognized Sanguinius as his Primarch.
• Sanguinius silently approved of Mephiston's resistance to the Red Thirst and his support for Dante.
• Mephiston asked whether the Lord of Tyran was alive, and Sanguinius said he did not know whether Qin Mo was in the Warp.
• Sanguinius told Fros that those Qin Mo had protected would repay him in the future, giving Fros a glimmer of hope.

Qin Mo reached the Warp counterpart of the Tyran Sector and discovered Nurgle's demons attacking its planets and fighting the souls of fallen Tyran Army soldiers. Enraged by the dead being forced to keep fighting, he charged the demons with his Chainsword and Crone Sword.

• Qin Mo repaired the temple on the Giant Turtle's back and asked the giant whale to take him to Talon.
• The giant whale carried Qin Mo to the Warp counterpart of the Tyran Sector, where he saw a breach in the veil and a Nurgle Demon Army invading.
• Qin Mo learned that the soldiers resisting the demons were souls of dead Tyran Army soldiers who had gained power in the Warp.
• Qin Mo saw Nurgle's sorcery infecting soul projections on the planets and grew furious at the demons' assault on the dead.
• Qin Mo leaped from the giant whale's back and charged the Nurgle Demon Army with his Chainsword and Crone Sword.