Chapter Summaries

Qin Xa recognized Avida’s blue artifact as likely connected to Tzeentch but chose not to confront the Thousand Sons, whose faith in the Immaterium remained strong. After Perturabo pressed Avida and Asar for help against the Ork collective consciousness, Qin Xa brought them to the White Knight, where they discussed the Twelfth Legion’s psychic spell, Communion.

• Qin Xa identified Avida’s blue artifact as probably belonging to Tzeentch, then restrained himself and concealed his alarm from Angron.
• Avida prophesied that the Greenskins had hollowed out the planet to build a battle celestial body and described the bodiless Ork collective consciousness controlling them.
• Avida explained the Immaterium’s gifts to Perturabo, who demanded battlefield guidance or direct action against the Ork presence; Avida and Asar said they could not help.
• Angron challenged Perturabo’s expectations of the Legions, and Qin Xa offered Avida and Asar quarters aboard the White Knight for protection.
• At the White Knight library, Avida and Asar praised the Twelfth Legion’s Communion spell and explained that the Fifteenth Legion had failed to reproduce it.

Qin Xa persuaded Avida and Asar to let him guide their souls through The Veil so he could show them the Immaterium’s dangers. Instead, they arrived at a welcoming castle inside a crystal, where Asar’s Spirit greeted them.

• Qin Xa discussed the Twelfth Legion’s Communion spell and explained that he had no Soul Projection, preventing him from forming contracts with Spirits.
• Qin Xa warned Avida and Asar that the Immaterium was dangerous, but they said benevolent Warp Creatures could guide them safely through it.
• Qin Xa revealed that his soul could pass through The Veil and agreed to take Avida and Asar into the Immaterium in spirit form.
• Qin Xa led Avida and Asar across The Veil, expecting to show them hostile Warp Creatures, but found a palm-sized crystal with a castle inside.
• Avida and Asar were welcomed by the castle’s guards and residents, and Asar’s Blue Raven Spirit greeted them.

Avida, Asar, and Qin Xa traveled through the Immaterium in spiritual form, where Avida reunited with his mother’s soul and they were attacked by a Greater Daemon of Khorne. After returning, Qin Xa warned Avida that the encounter could have been a deception, but Avida rejected his suspicions while Asar urged caution.

• Raven led Avida, Asar, and Qin Xa through the Immaterium to a welcoming town, where Avida met the soul of his mother.
• The town and its inhabitants broke into a magical song and dance, and Asar realized he was involuntarily releasing psychic energy.
• A Greater Daemon of Khorne attacked Qin Xa, but Raven and the other Ravens destroyed it before the three visitors returned to the real universe.
• Qin Xa concluded that Avida and Asar’s faith in the benevolent spirits could not be reasoned away and worried that the Thousand Sons would embrace Chaos.
• Avida urged Qin Xa to arrange another spiritual journey, but Qin Xa angrily warned that the apparent kindness and reunion might have been fabricated.
• Avida accused Qin Xa of hoarding knowledge, while Asar decided they should not repeat the dangerous journey and left to rest.

Qin Xa warned Avida that the Fifteenth Legion’s Flesh Mutation came from the Immaterium, but Avida remained convinced that only Warp power could cure it. Avida then encountered two maddened Grey Knights, survived their psychic assault with his Bound Spirit’s help, and received memories meant to show him the dangers of the Immaterium.

• Qin Xa told Avida that the Spirits bound to the Fifteenth Legion caused its Flesh Mutation, but Avida argued that only the Immaterium could provide a cure.
• Avida entered a guarded chamber and found two frozen Grey Knights, who attacked him with uncontrolled psychic blasts.
• Avida saw the Grey Knights’ recent past, and his Bound Spirit, a Raven, dispersed their attacks and woke them.
• The Grey Knights briefly addressed Avida as “my lord,” then gave him a memory of their fight against hostile Warp Creatures in the Immaterium.
• Avida left after understanding why the Grey Knights had gone mad, and they used their psychic power to bring back their own madness.

Avida questioned Asar about the White Knight Master and later watched the Twelfth Legion's Librarians practice Communion, sensing the White Knight Master's shared psychic power. An alarm then sent the Librarians mobilizing, and Avida saw silver Terminator armor being prepared as they assembled for an unexplained operation.

• Avida and Asar discussed what the White Knight Master was, and Asar said the Legion might be trapped by the way it thought.
• Avida meditated in his prepared quarters, then went to observe Chief Librarian Varius training the Librarians in Communion.
• Avida considered whether Communion could help people afflicted by Flesh Mutation survive as spiritual beings, and he questioned Varius about its use of psychic power.
• Avida sensed the White Knight Master's presence in Varius and guessed that the Master could share his psychic power, but an alarm interrupted their conversation.
• The Librarians armed themselves and marched toward their wartime stations, while Avida followed and saw two Librarians in silver Terminator armor and cargo drones carrying more silver suits.

Qin Xa prepared a live-combat test against dangerous Psyker Greenskins, equipping the Librarians and recruits with experimental armor and weapons while Avida tried to stop him. The forces gathered for teleportation, and Avida was assigned a role in the coming battle.

• Qin Xa briefed the newly promoted squad leaders and ordered the Librarians to replace their armor with his experimental Terminator suits, except Varius and Kamas.
• Avida challenged Qin Xa over the untested armor and operation, but Qin Xa left for the teleportation platform and Avida followed.
• Qin Xa questioned the Nuceria Professional Anti-Psyker Organization's representative about the Blanks accompanying its Psyker-fighting forces.
• Qin Xa told the recruits and Spirit Hunters that the weapons and battle were tests, and urged them to fight normally rather than risk their lives.
• Qin Xa greeted the Primarch's Guard, including Yochula, and then turned to Avida, who also had a role in the coming war.

Qin Xa led the Twelfth Legion recruits onto the planet, where the Orks attacked but their transcendent collective consciousness stayed hidden from the Blanks. The Librarians used Qin Xa’s shared psychic power to fight as a coordinated collective, while Qin Xa explained how his abilities powered their armor and weapons.

• Qin Xa noticed psychic power had warped the planet’s laws so orbital bombardment could not harm it, and he teleported the forces to the surface in a blizzard.
• The First Term Champions advanced in Terminator armor as Brown told Qin Xa that his failed gladiatorial bet had cost them 1.2 billion Nucerian credits.
• Brown’s augur predicted an attack, but its readings proved unstable; fifteen minutes later, Orks attacked the humans while the Blanks reached the outpost tunnel unhindered.
• The Orks’ transcendent collective consciousness never appeared, and Qin Xa’s forces fought the swarming Orks without facing it.
• Varius called for Psychic Communion, and the Librarians linked their senses and psychic power to coordinate their attacks as a collective.
• Qin Xa explained to Avida that his psychic gift let him and permitted users draw on his power without backlash, powering the Librarians’ armor and weapons.

Qin Xa led Avida and the others through a dangerous Ork battlefield, then demonstrated a new psychic-powered targeting system called Psychic Circuit. He asked Avida to tell the Master of Prospero that the technology could offer the Fifteenth Legion an alternative to dangerous psychic power, leaving Avida certain that Qin Xa sincerely cared about the Legion’s fate.

• Avida joined the Librarians in battle, and Qin Xa led the group into the outpost to rest and prepare for another engagement.
• Avida questioned why Nucerians had remained enslaved for so long, and Qin Xa explained their contradictory traits and the power of the Ancient Artifacts that had controlled them.
• Qin Xa led part of the group back out to test rifle scopes that marked and automatically fired at the strongest psychic Orks.
• Qin Xa explained that the scopes and Librarian armor used a technology he named Psychic Circuit, which controlled psychic power through stable patterns.
• Qin Xa asked Avida to tell the Master of Prospero about Psychic Circuit as a possible alternative for the Fifteenth Legion, and said the Legion’s fate could affect the entire species.

Brown detected a vast force of Greenskin War Machines preparing to bombard the Blanks, prompting Qin Xa and Avida to consider withdrawing. With Qin Xa’s psychic power, Avida saw the planet’s fate and the danger posed by the Gork-Mork Incarnate, but Qin Xa revealed that The Emperor had arrived.

• Brown spotted a huge number of Greenskin War Machines deploying artillery aimed at the humans, and he sent the scan data to Qin Xa.
• Qin Xa told Avida that the force was too small to destroy the artillery and planned to withdraw rather than fight to the death.
• Qin Xa lent Avida his psychic power, allowing Avida to trace the planet’s Threads of Fate and see the Greenskin collective consciousness known as the Gork-Mork Incarnate.
• Avida saw the Greenskins’ advanced War Machines, including the Gork-Mork Titan, and foresaw the Ounus Sector being declared exterminated if the planet’s transformation was completed.
• Avida urged Qin Xa to stay and fight, but Qin Xa said he had just received word that The Emperor had arrived.

The Emperor’s fleet arrived in the Ounus Sector after his messages in the people’s dreams organized a massive supply effort. Angron and Qin Xa welcomed Horus and Sanguinius aboard the Resolute Determination, then joined them on a journey to the Bucephalus to discuss the war, while Perturabo stayed behind.

• The Emperor appeared in the dreams of the Ounus Sector’s inhabitants and instructed them to gather supplies for his fleet, easing the panic as the fleet arrived.
• Qin Xa returned safely from the Greenskin planet, and Angron and Qin Xa watched the Emperor’s vessel, Legion flagships, and nearly fifteen hundred ships enter the system.
• Angron invited Perturabo to watch the fleet from the Resolute Determination after Qin Xa teased him about having to float outside the Iron Blood to see through its lack of viewports.
• Horus and Sanguinius arrived aboard the Resolute Determination to invite Angron to the Bucephalus and meet Qin Xa and Perturabo.
• Horus praised Perturabo’s Trench Warfare campaigns, and Angron explained that Perturabo appreciated the praise despite his prickly response.
• Horus, Sanguinius, Angron, and Qin Xa boarded a transport for the Bucephalus, while Perturabo remained behind.

The Emperor gathered the Primarchs and their Legions to destroy the Gork-Mork Incarnate and its Greenskin forces, using the battle to prepare the Primarchs to fight together. After twelve hours of coordinated attacks, The Emperor led the Primarchs and Custodes in a strike on the planet, where he split the Gork-Mork Titan and joined the charge against the Greenskins.

• The Emperor ordered Lion to finish the war before pursuing the First Legion’s next enemy, then told the gathered Primarchs that they would attack the Gork-Mork Incarnate together.
• Angron and Corax discussed their Legions and the Second Primarch, while Qin Xa listened and noticed that the Eleventh Primarch might still be alive.
• The Emperor ordered Qin Xa to remain aboard the Phantom Dream as the Primarchs and their retainers departed to prepare their Legions.
• After twelve hours of coordinated combat, The Emperor teleported Qin Xa, the Primarchs, and the Custodes to the planet’s fiercest battlefield.
• Lion led the Primarchs against the Greenskin warlords as the Gork-Mork Titan fired on the human forces and destroyed a Titan and nearby units.
• The Emperor cleaved the Gork-Mork Titan in two, rallied humanity with a cry of “For humanity!”, and fought beside the Primarchs as their forces surged forward.

The Emperor led humanity toward victory over the Orks, whose WAAAGH!-empowered artifacts and psychic forces could not overcome his power. As the army advanced on an Ork control facility, Qin Xa joked about using WAAAGH! Energy to destroy the planet, alarming the Primarchs until the Emperor confirmed he was not possessed.

• A Chronicler filmed the battle and made copies of a photograph that incidentally captured two 12th Legion Librarians using Communion.
• The Emperor turned an Ork psychic attack back on its source, incinerating tens of thousands of Orks and rallying the human army to charge.
• Vulkan called for his Melta squad as Kill Cans and Gork's Titans appeared, and Qin Xa's Divine Lord Titan smashed through the Ork machines before vanishing.
• The Emperor ordered the army to advance on the Planetary Control Facility, while Perturabo and Vulkan explained how the Orks' belief could make theoretically possible technology work.
• Qin Xa joked that WAAAGH! Energy could let him imagine a super bomb to destroy the planet, prompting Perturabo to aim his cannon at him.
• The Emperor confirmed Qin Xa was not possessed by the Gork-Mork Incarnate and walked toward the Ork artifact.

The Emperor, Qin Xa, and the Strongest Blank destroyed the Gork-Mork Incarnate and the Greenskin artifact, ending the battle. The Emperor celebrated the victory with a speech and propaganda photographs before he and Qin Xa shared a knowing reaction to an image of two World Eaters Librarians.

• The Emperor and Qin Xa charged the possessed Greenskin Warlord as the Emperor trapped the Gork-Mork Incarnate in a psychic confrontation.
• Qin Xa brought the Strongest Blank onto the battlefield, annihilating the Gork-Mork Incarnate and its linked Greenskins and causing the artifact to collapse.
• The Emperor climbed a mound of Greenskin corpses and gave a speech celebrating victory and urging humanity onward, while Angron realized Malcador had coached him.
• After the battle, the Emperor reviewed the Chronicler’s photographs and sent her to the War Council with them.
• Qin Xa spotted two World Eaters Librarians making the Fusion Technique pose in a photograph, and the Emperor later inspected the image and muttered, “Nerves...”

After the Emperor concluded that Qin Xa was an ancient Eternal, he told Malcador to avoid spying on the Twelfth Legion and to give it preferential treatment. Meanwhile, Qin Xa’s plans to gain the Emperor’s trust advanced as Angron prepared to return toward Nuceria, while Perturabo refused an invitation to travel with them.

• The Emperor showed Malcador a photograph of two Twelfth Legion Librarians casting a Psychic Spell and concluded that Qin Xa was an Eternal born no later than the 1980s by Terra’s ancient calendar.
• The Emperor rejected spying on the Twelfth Legion because Angron might detect the agents, and instructed Malcador to prioritize the Legion’s equipment and avoid provoking it.
• Qin Xa explained to Angron that he had made a meme from tens of thousands of years ago, which only the Emperor understood, and reflected that being considered an Eternal could help him warn the Emperor about the Horus Heresy.
• Angron confronted Perturabo about having pointed a gun at Qin Xa, while Qin Xa teased Perturabo about Decimations and Angron’s flying kick.
• Qin Xa told Angron that the Ounus Sector was secure and proposed creating a Nuceria Sector; Angron welcomed a return to Nuceria, but Perturabo refused to join them on the way past Olympia.

Perturabo joined Angron’s fleet and tried to command the Twelfth Legion, but Lottara Saling defied him and Angron stopped the confrontation. Meanwhile, Qin Xa experienced a memory in which doctors confirmed his congenital heart problem, and Keli’s presence in the memory shifted to another woman.

• Perturabo ordered the Iron Blood to sail ahead of the Twelfth Legion’s flagship and entered the Resolute Determination’s command deck.
• Lottara Saling refused Perturabo’s order to plot a course through Olympia and asserted the Twelfth Legion’s independence.
• Angron exposed Perturabo’s attempt to divert attention from joining him, and Perturabo stepped aside before Angron could fight him.
• Perturabo gave Angron his book on defensive and trench warfare, and Angron ordered Saling to contact his brothers and The Emperor before departure.
• Qin Xa relived a memory of his former life as a medical technology leader and met doctors who confirmed his congenital heart condition.
• Qin Xa asked Keli why she appeared in his memory, and the scene replayed with a bronze-skinned doctor in her place.

Qin Xa revisited memories of his childhood, including learning that his congenital heart condition could not be cured and meeting the young couple who had once cared for him. After The Emperor experienced those memories, Qin Xa discussed his past and his uncertain origins as a Space Marine with him, then woke in the library as The Emperor departed.

• Qin Xa learned from the doctors that his congenital heart condition was incurable, though treatment might extend his life, and one doctor also raised concerns about his mental health.
• Qin Xa met the couple who had briefly taken him in as a child, recalled their kindness, and offered them his phone number in case they needed help.
• On the Welfare Institute rooftop, Qin Xa told the doctor he did not hate the people who had abandoned him or the institution that raised him.
• Qin Xa realized the doctor was The Emperor, who had experienced his memories with Qin Xa's consent, while his memories of arriving in the universe remained sealed.
• Qin Xa told The Emperor he did not know whose gene-seed he carried and gave a misleading account of how he had become a Space Marine.
• Qin Xa explained that Angron had come to see The Emperor as a slave master after his arrival on Nuceria, and The Emperor left, saying they would meet again.

Qin Xa summoned the White Knight’s Captain to address allegations of corruption, hoping to recover the money Brown had lost. The Captain admitted to misconduct and agreed to surrender his property, while Qin Xa kept him in command for now and remained puzzled by how he had made his fortune.

• Qin Xa decided not to rely on The Emperor’s supposed foresight and resolved to cover Brown’s 1.2 billion loss without asking anyone for help.
• Qin Xa summoned the White Knight’s Captain and confronted him with accusations of favoritism, selling military supplies, and other abuses.
• The Captain denied harassing a sailor’s daughter, admitted to some corruption and favoritism, and offered to surrender his property and resign.
• Qin Xa chose to keep the Captain in his position temporarily while he observed him.
• The Captain ordered his wife and Adjutant to prepare Crown equivalent to 1.5 billion Nucerian currency, and his wife angrily accused him of blaming her.

The Fourth and Twelfth Legions docked at an ancient starport whose inhabitants worshipped and maintained it as a sacred gift. When Avida brought the mutating Asar to the Twelfth Legion for help, Qin Xa recognized the Fifteenth Legion’s gene-seed curse and directed them to the White Knight.

• Brown explained that the immense starport was built during humanity’s Golden Age, while Perturabo questioned his account.
• The fleets docked at the starport, where local worshippers carefully maintained its enormous structures and Brown lamented that humanity’s inheritance had become an object of worship.
• Saling reported that Avida and Asar of the Fifteenth Legion had requested contact, and Angron ordered them brought aboard for treatment.
• Avida arrived with Asar, whose concealed face, trembling hand, and feather-like growth revealed signs of Flesh Mutation.
• Qin Xa told them to take Asar to the White Knight instead of the medicae chamber, and Angron agreed.

Qin Xa brought the possessed Asar to the Grey Knights for help after tests confirmed a Warp Creature was influencing him. A Grey Knight’s ritual eased Asar’s symptoms, though the feathers remained.

• Qin Xa had the Olena Sisters examine Asar and learned that a Warp Creature was clinging to his soul.
• Qin Xa and Avida carried Asar to the storage hold, where two Grey Knights were resting.
• One Grey Knight recognized Asar’s possession and began a ritual while his companion ran crazed through the hold.
• The Grey Knight drew a circle around Asar with chalk and chanted Imperial Proverbs as he performed the ritual.
• Asar stopped feeling cold, began sweating, and his feathers shrank, prompting Qin Xa to call the method “the wisdom of future generations.”

Asar recovered from his madness, and Qin Xa arranged to observe him while he studied his unusual soul. Meanwhile, Angron challenged Perturabo’s teaching methods and made him agree to provide clearer lessons without traps or insults.

• Avida and Asar were attacked by two mad Grey Knights, and Qin Xa helped them escape by sealing the Knights inside the chamber.
• Qin Xa examined Asar and asked him to stay for observation; Asar agreed to remain while he recovered.
• Qin Xa told Angron that Asar was stable, while Perturabo interrupted their call and resumed teaching Angron defensive warfare.
• Perturabo explained his complicated defensive inventions while insulting Angron, who eventually brought up Rogal Dorn as a better teacher.
• Angron refused to continue unless Perturabo rewrote the lessons as clear theory, and Perturabo admitted he had gone too far and promised not to set traps or insult him.