Chapter Summaries

The fleet paused near Olympia after Nisha Andrasta received a warning from a Raven not to cross a dangerous vortex in the Immaterium. Angron persuaded Perturabo to meet Caliphone, his beloved adoptive sister, and the chapter ended with Perturabo still doubting whether her affection was sincere.

• Nisha Andrasta saw a Raven emerge from the vortex and warn her that a storm had recently appeared there, so she guided the fleet away from it.
• The fleet exited the Immaterium near Olympia, and Angron asked Perturabo to take him down to see the planet.
• Angron sensed Perturabo's longing to see a relative and urged him to fulfill that wish before departing for war.
• Perturabo agreed to meet Caliphone aboard the Resolute Determination and introduced Angron as his blood brother.
• Caliphone greeted Perturabo warmly and asked about his life, while Angron sensed that she genuinely loved him.
• Perturabo continued to suspect that Caliphone's affection was meant to draw him back to Olympia and exploit him.

Angron helped Perturabo recognize that Caliphone’s requests came from genuine affection, and Perturabo agreed to build a floating city to protect flood-stricken Olympia. Meanwhile, Qin Xa met Caliphone aboard the Resolute Determination and offered her a way to seek help, while keeping her future fate secret.

• Caliphone gave Perturabo her design for a Steampunk-style floating city and asked him to fulfill her promise to Olympia’s flood-threatened people.
• Perturabo agreed to help, and Angron told him that Caliphone truly loved him and that his inventions could help people rather than harm them.
• Perturabo acknowledged that he had long wanted to use his inventions to help others and remembered the oversized creations he had made for Caliphone.
• Caliphone wandered aboard the Resolute Determination and met Qin Xa, who said he was waiting for her and explained that Perturabo was researching her floating-city idea aboard the Fourth Legion flagship.
• Qin Xa told Caliphone the fleet would remain on Olympia and advised her to ask for the White Knight Master if she needed help.

Perturabo built Caliphone’s elaborate coal-powered engines for the Floating City and watched the city take shape, revealing how much he cared about helping Olympia despite his complaints. As the fleet prepared to leave, Caliphone asked to travel with him, but Perturabo refused.

• Perturabo assembled a Steampunk engine and ordered the Tridents to produce twenty copies before Olympia’s dusk.
• The Iron Warriors used the engines and Olympia’s special materials to build a floating platform for a city above the floodwaters.
• Perturabo regretted that rapid geological changes had weakened his flood-control dam, while Qin Xa and Angron concealed the orbital platform’s potential role in reshaping the terrain.
• Angron called out Perturabo’s hidden happiness about helping the refugees, and Caliphone laughed in agreement.
• Qin Xa teased Perturabo about his reluctance to admit his feelings, and Angron urged him to be more honest.
• Caliphone asked Perturabo to take her beyond Olympia, but he refused and said the fleet should continue on its way.

Mago’s Eighteenth Company tested Anke’s advanced forces against a rebel city protected by Void Shields, but their missile strike failed and the Ankeans pressed on despite his withdrawal order. Mago requested Legion reinforcements as the company surveyed a planet dotted with shielded island cities.

• The Standard Bearer blamed the Eighteenth Company’s earlier defeat on giving the planet time to prepare, while Mago weighed the company’s differing approaches to conquest.
• An officer showed Mago footage of the Anke People’s advanced aircraft, armor, and long-range weapons, and Mago allowed them to test their capabilities against a weak target.
• The Ankean air group fired a missile volley at the island city, but its Void Shields stopped the attack, so Mago ordered the Ankeans to withdraw.
• Mago explained that the city’s shields could only be overcome by overloading them or destroying their cores from inside, then asked the Legion for reinforcements.
• The Ankeans continued their assault by approaching the island across the sea, while Mago’s tactical display revealed many other island cities protected by Void Shields.

The Eighteenth Company received Perturabo and the Fourth Legion as reinforcements, and Perturabo took command of the campaign against the planet protected by Void Shields. He rejected a straightforward military victory in favor of a conquest designed to make the population fear rebellion for generations, leaving Mago worried about the consequences for his company.

• A month after the Eighteenth Company began blockading the system, Perturabo and the Fourth Legion arrived aboard the Hound's Tooth.
• Perturabo told Mago that the Fourth Legion had come alongside the 12th Legion, and he allowed the Eighteenth Company to keep the planet's resources and Void Shield technology.
• Perturabo took command and criticized the Eighteenth Company for being held up by a planet whose defenses were otherwise primitive.
• After learning that the planet's city-states had united to resist the Imperium, Perturabo ordered a conquest meant to make rebellion terrifying to generations of locals.
• Mago feared Perturabo's plan would violate Angron's wishes and leave the Eighteenth Company to deal with the aftermath, but Perturabo began planning without listening to him.

Perturabo’s invasion forces conquered the planet, but Mago urged him to spare civilians and Perturabo abandoned his plan of mass punishment after confronting his own doubts. After speaking with Caliphone about his desire to become as unyielding as iron, Perturabo ordered the Void Shields sent to the Hound's Tooth and left without waiting for the Twelfth Legion.

• Iron Warriors, World Eaters, mortal troops, and Titans broke the planet’s defenses and captured its cities and Void Shields.
• Mago pressed Perturabo to execute the rulers rather than slaughter civilians, but Perturabo completed a plan of controlled killings and reprisals.
• Perturabo hesitated over the punishment plan while imagining Angron condemning his rule, then smashed the Dataslate and ordered Dantiok to seize the Void Shields.
• Perturabo spoke with Caliphone about feeling rusted and unable to meet his own demands for an iron heart, and her words made him question his ideals.
• Perturabo ordered Dantiok to send the Void Shields to the Hound's Tooth and announced that his forces would leave without the Twelfth Legion fleet.

Qin Xa and Angron learned that Perturabo had aided the Eighteenth Company before leaving, then planned to establish a Nuceria Sector and bring two Thousand Sons to Nuceria for treatment. The Twelfth Legion made contact with a human civilization seeking to join the Imperium, but Korlag's delegation discovered that its towering locals were classified as Xenos while their slave was classified as human.

• Qin Xa told Angron that Perturabo had helped the Eighteenth Company, secured a rebellious world, and departed in another direction.
• Angron and Qin Xa discussed building a Nuceria Sector and agreed to let Asar and Avida accompany them to test Nuceria's treatment for Thousand Sons mutations.
• Saling reported that a previously undiscovered human power wanted to join the Imperium, and Angron ordered standard procedures.
• Korlag led a diplomatic party to the planet, where its towering locals welcomed the World Eaters and offered them a life-extending medicine through a slave.
• A Mechanicus representative scanned the locals and the slave, finding the locals registered as Xenos and the slave as human.

Korlag uncovered a rebellion against the planet’s tall inhabitants, whom a soldier claimed were Xenos who had genetically altered humanity. Angron entered the soldier’s memories and began sensing the planet’s history and the Emperor’s past intervention, but the full truth had not yet resolved.

• Korlag negotiated the planet’s submission while questioning a local representative about the enslaved-looking people, then received the agreed terms from one of them.
• A mute slave led Korlag to a Rebel soldier, who claimed the tall inhabitants were Xenos and that the altered people had organized resistance after generations of captivity.
• The soldier said a prophecy had taught the Rebels about the Imperium and promised that an Imperial emissary would come to save them.
• The White Knight Master summoned the soldier to the flagship, where Angron touched him and began reading his memories and emotions.
• Through the soldier and the Rebel leader’s memories, Angron witnessed the Emperor’s psychic promise to the humans and began sensing a storm of connected memories across the planet.

Angron felt the suffering of the humans enslaved and biologically altered by the Xenos on Ouros, then ordered their extermination. The Imperium began its assault on the Xenos’ settlements, with Space Marines and Knight Titans smashing through their defenses.

• Angron experienced the suffering and hatred of the humans on Ouros, who had been kept as livestock and modified to provide better soul-food.
• Angron ordered the Xenos exterminated, and Qin Xa concluded that their worship might be tied to a Dark God.
• Korlag relayed Angron’s order as the fleet’s alarms summoned the forces preparing for war.
• Korlag led the 21st Company’s Terminators onto the planet, where they attacked Xenos in the streets with Bolter fire.
• The soldier watched Knight Titans charge through the ice and breach the Xenos’ high walls as Space Marines attacked settlements across Ouros.

Qin Xa led the Knight Legion in destroying a Chaos-influenced Xenos city and captured its inhabitants alive, then entered the underground complex with the World Eaters. Avida joined the search hoping the Xenos’ biotechnology could help Asar’s mutation, while the group encountered more Xenos armed with living weapons.

• Qin Xa identified the city wall as flesh shaped into an architectural structure and recorded his suspicions that the Immaterium and a Dark God had influenced the Xenos.
• Qin Xa ordered the Knight Legion to destroy every Xenos artifact, and the Knights and Space Marines swept through the city as its inhabitants fled.
• Qin Xa refused Quadrant’s request to study the Xenos biotechnology and descended from the Divine Lord Titan to confront several hundred survivors.
• Qin Xa used psychic power to incapacitate the surviving Xenos and left them alive, warning that humans from the ranches would soon reach the city.
• Qin Xa questioned Avida about joining the underground mission, and Avida admitted he hoped to find a way to treat Asar’s mutation rather than possession.
• Qin Xa and the World Eaters encountered underground Xenos using living weapons, which reminded him of Tyranid bio-weapons.

Avida told Qin Xa that he believed the Xenos’ biotechnology could cure the Thousand Sons’ Flesh Mutation and begged to see the treatment data. Qin Xa identified the Xenos’ faith and evolutionary history as tied to Tzeentch, then destroyed the flesh-built sanctuary and its hidden machinery rather than let the technology tempt the Legion.

• Avida explained that the Xenos had cured their own genetic disease and pleaded with Qin Xa to let him inspect their treatment data for Asar and the Thousand Sons.
• Qin Xa agreed to Avida’s request, then secretly reached the Xenos’ holy land while using his psychic power to make everyone believe he remained with them.
• Qin Xa examined the murals and concluded that the Xenos’ pursuit of evolution and change connected them to Tzeentch, not Nurgle.
• Qin Xa found and destroyed a DNA-verifying device that had been made from a human, causing the sanctuary’s walls to rise and reveal a vast flesh-built machine.
• Qin Xa decided the cure was likely a Tzeentchian trap and summoned the Divine Lord Titan’s spear, which struck the underground structure and brought it crashing down.

Avida confronted Qin Xa after the Divine Lord Titan destroyed the Xenos sanctuary, then learned his guardian Raven had preserved the Flesh Mutation treatment. He found Asar rapidly mutating aboard the Resolute Determination and insisted on trying to save him, despite Asar's fear that sorcery would only repeat the Legion's mistakes.

• Avida blamed Qin Xa for destroying the Xenos sanctuary and losing the apparent cure, while Qin Xa explained that the treatment relied on sacrificing people to Warp Creatures and warned Avida against trusting his Spirits.
• Qin Xa left Avida after their argument, and Avida's guardian Raven revealed it had obtained the Xenos treatment before the sanctuary was destroyed.
• Avida helped the 12th Legion seize two Xenos fortresses, then returned to the Resolute Determination intending to leave with Asar.
• Avida entered his room and found Asar transformed into a towering, rapidly mutating monster who had been cutting his own flesh.
• Asar questioned whether he could be saved and condemned sorcery, but Avida insisted he would try to cure his brother because they were bound by their shared Legion and Primarch.

Avida tried to save Asar from his flesh mutation using a cure obtained through a dangerous ritual, while Qin Xa watched helplessly from outside the warship’s Geller field. Asar injected the medicine himself, and a psychic shockwave shut down the ship’s systems as the mutation reached a crisis.

• Avida escorted the mutated Asar past the sailors and Olena Sisters, then brought him aboard the 15th Legion warship with Qin Xa’s help.
• Avida apologized to Qin Xa for their earlier argument, and Qin Xa explained why he had helped them before returning to the Immaterium to watch Asar’s soul.
• Qin Xa discovered Avida performing a ritual with ninety-nine Xenos to create a golden liquid, but the Geller field prevented him from intervening.
• Avida hesitated to inject the liquid into Asar and considered testing it on himself, but Asar seized the syringe and injected himself.
• Asar saw the Warp’s malice above him and told Avida to treat his fate as a lesson before a golden psychic shockwave disabled the ship’s engines, Void Shield, and Geller field.

Avida faced the Changer of Ways aboard the crippled warship, and Qin Xa intervened before the daemon could kill him. With Asar’s mutation worsening and Avida’s soul draining away, the brothers completed a ritual that let Avida take Asar’s shell, then Avida burned Asar’s body and watched his soul return to the Immaterium.

• Bluebird revealed itself as a Changer of Ways and pierced Avida’s soul, but Qin Xa struck the daemon and shielded Avida and Asar.
• Qin Xa battled the Changer of Ways while Avida found that Asar’s mutation had worsened and that his brother remained conscious.
• Avida told Asar about a ritual from their Gene-father that could transfer his shell, and Asar agreed after Avida explained he could not survive with his damaged soul.
• Avida completed the ritual using Qin Xa’s psychic power, taking Asar’s shell as Asar’s mutation-stricken body became a small mountain.
• Avida burned Asar’s body, watched his soul return to the Immaterium under golden psychic protection, and vowed to bring glory to his name.

Qin Xa fought a Greater Daemon of Tzeentch in the Immaterium while Avida protected the stranded sailors. Qin Xa sent Avida and the survivors back to the real universe, then prepared a new way to defeat the daemon.

• Avida attacked the Greater Daemon with a psychic meteor, but the daemon dissolved it and tormented him with an abstract assault.
• Avida realized that direct intent could defend against attacks in the Immaterium, while Qin Xa found that thought alone could not destroy the Greater Daemon.
• Qin Xa moved Avida and the surviving sailors into battleship wreckage, and Avida raised a barrier to protect them.
• Qin Xa swept the wreckage through a Warp Rift into the real universe, where Avida organized the survivors and found that the Rift had closed.
• Qin Xa continued fighting the Changer of Ways in the Immaterium and revealed that he had prepared a plan to defeat it.

While Qin Xa’s body sat vacant aboard the White Knight, his soul battled the Changer of Ways in the Immaterium and used a modified Eldar artifact to tear away part of the daemon’s essence. He returned to his body and ordered the lower decks cleared before vanishing in a storm of wind and snow.

• Olya, Olena, Brown, and Quadrant gathered around Qin Xa, and Olya sensed that he wanted her to bring him something.
• Brown retrieved Qin Xa’s belongings, and an Eldar artifact floated from the bundle into Qin Xa’s hand.
• Qin Xa used the artifact against the Changer of Ways, discovering that it could not bind the daemon completely but could weaken and strip away part of its essence.
• Qin Xa tore off a portion of the Changer of Ways and sent it into the artifact, then left the Immaterium and returned to his body.
• Qin Xa ordered the lower decks cleared and vanished in a storm of wind and snow.

Qin Xa summoned the Changer of Ways into the White Knight’s lower decks, where the Librarians and Grey Knights beat it into submission. He began a ritual to bind the daemon as his slave, leaving it trapped between obedience and seeking death or banishment.

• Qin Xa gathered the Librarians and two Grey Knights on the White Knight’s lower decks and summoned the Greater Daemon using the Eldar artifact’s essence.
• The Librarians and their Psychic Giant attacked the Changer of Ways, while the two Grey Knights regained their sanity and drove it back with their psychic powers.
• Qin Xa ordered the Librarians to withdraw and used the book granted by The Emperor to begin a ritual binding the daemon to him.
• Qin Xa declared that he would enslave the daemon, experiment on it, and eventually use a Blank to kill it, making the Changer of Ways fear for its survival.
• The two Grey Knights stayed silent as Qin Xa continued the ritual, which was designed to leave the daemon bound unless it found a Blank or escaped back to the Immaterium.

Qin Xa captured a Greater Daemon with the Emperor’s book and explained daemons and the Agony Circuit to the Librarians and Grey Knights. After the Grey Knights left, Qin Xa and the White Knight rescued Avida and more than a hundred thousand survivors from the drifting wreckage, leaving Avida ashamed and overwhelmed when he faced Qin Xa.

• Qin Xa captured the Greater Daemon in the Emperor’s book, which revealed its name as Changer of Ways and displayed a golden psychic wave.
• Qin Xa explained daemons to the Librarians and identified the glowing object at his waist as the Eldar Agony Circuit, while the two Grey Knights accepted his methods and admitted their confusion and loss.
• Qin Xa sent the Grey Knights to their new quarters with Kamas and told Varius to accompany him to retrieve Avida.
• Avida struggled to keep the damaged wreckage intact and maintain safe air for more than a hundred thousand people until the White Knight arrived.
• Qin Xa used his psychic power to draw the wreckage alongside the White Knight, and the crew evacuated and treated the survivors.
• Avida emerged last while supporting an injured man, then faced Qin Xa, lowered his head, and closed his eyes.

Avida told Qin Xa that he was Asar living in Avida’s body after their souls were exchanged, and Qin Xa warned him to keep the sorcery secret. After explaining the dangers Magnus and the 15th Legion faced in the Immaterium, Qin Xa asked Avida to help accuse Magnus, leaving Avida to consider how to save the Legion from its rush toward destruction.

• Avida revealed to Qin Xa that Asar’s soul now inhabited Avida’s body after they exchanged bodies, and Qin Xa warned him that the Imperium would kill him if it learned of the sorcery.
• Avida asked whether his former soul would still suffer at the demons’ hands, and Qin Xa explained that Avida’s destruction of his original shell had released him from that fate.
• Avida regretted the 15th Legion’s trust in the Immaterium and told Qin Xa Magnus’s parable about prisoners mistaking shadows for reality.
• Qin Xa countered with an allegory comparing the Immaterium to dangerous radioactive cosmetics, arguing that Magnus was leading the Legion into a trap.
• Qin Xa asked Avida to join others in accusing Magnus, promising that united testimony and captured evidence could preserve the 15th Legion.
• Avida feared the Imperium would destroy the Legion, and Qin Xa warned that it was already accelerating toward destruction.

Avida decided to return to the 15th Legion and eventually accuse Magnus, while Qin Xa and Angron dealt with the aftermath of freeing a human world from Xenos rule. The chapter left Angron preparing to transform Nu Star, its neighboring systems, and the 12th Legion with Qin Xa’s help.

• Tethys arranged transport for Avida, and Qin Xa told him he did not have to bear responsibility for the 15th Legion alone.
• Avida declared himself a member of the Human Historical Research Association, confirming his resolve to accuse Magnus, and returned to the 15th Legion.
• Angron punished a captured Xenos after the 12th Legion’s forces ended the fighting, then mourned the Resistance Leader, who had died after learning of their arrival.
• Qin Xa told a local soldier that the humans’ genetic defects could be treated, and promised temporary medicine and eventual genetic engineering under Imperial rule.
• Quadrant explained that he could only prolong the locals’ lives until Nu Star could alter their genes, while Qin Xa and Brown discussed the 15th Legion’s reliance on the Immaterium.
• Angron announced plans to transform Nu Star, its neighboring systems, and the 12th Legion, saying Qin Xa had everything he needed.