Chapter Summaries

Qin Xa and his companions reached the Colony Ship’s control center, where Brown took control and activated its Warp Engine. The ship then leaped into the Immaterium, bound for home with everyone and everything still aboard.

• Qin Xa told Brown that medicines aboard the Colony Ship could restore the people whose genes had been damaged, and Brown agreed to deliver them when the group returned to that world.
• Qin Xa’s group fought off Caudicus’s escaped experimental creatures as they traveled through an unexplored passage, and Tethys burned the swarm to ash with his psychic powers.
• Brown and Qin Xa flew through the ship’s industrial zones toward the control center, where Qin Xa realized the Colony Ship could greatly expand the Nuceria Sector’s productive capacity.
• Brown hacked into the control center, bypassed the Emperor Caudicus interface, and severed the control center’s connection to the core.
• Brown activated the Colony Ship’s Warp Engine, and Qin Xa ordered him to take it home.

Qin Xa named the giant vessel the Forge Engine and led it out of the Immaterium into a battle where the White Knight was fighting alongside an unknown Legion. After accepting their invitation, he boarded their flagship and found a Primarch waiting on its Command Deck.

• Qin Xa named the giant ship the Forge Engine and urged the Gladiators to integrate with the Legion, while they recounted a violent dispute with Davarus over what to call Angron.
• Brown brought the Forge Engine out of the Immaterium into a system where the White Knight and an unidentified Legion were fighting the Brotherhood of Destruction.
• Qin Xa contacted the allied fleet, learned that the White Knight had requested their help, and agreed to visit their flagship.
• Qin Xa and Brown boarded the unknown Legion's flagship, where helmeted Space Marines escorted them through cave-like corridors to the Command Deck.
• Qin Xa entered the Command Deck and saw a nearly four-meter-tall Primarch standing by the viewport.

Qin Xa met Number Eleven, the unusually blunt primarch of the 11th Legion, who wanted to meet Angron and learn about his abilities and Biotechnology. After the 11th Legion cleared enemies from the Forge Engine, Brown uncovered records describing the legion’s compassionate history, and he and Qin Xa considered probing Number Eleven for information.

• Number Eleven introduced himself to Qin Xa as Angron’s elder brother or Number Eleven, then openly described his relationships with his brothers and asked to meet Angron.
• Number Eleven offered to help clear the Forge Engine of enemies, and Qin Xa accepted; Number Eleven also arranged for Qin Xa to stay aboard his flagship.
• The 11th Legion eliminated the Brotherhood of Destruction members they found in the Forge Engine, then withdrew without exploring deeper as its fleet prepared for Immaterium travel.
• Brown told Qin Xa that records described the 11th Legion as a rescue-focused force carrying 1.2 billion refugees and praised by Vulkan, Fulgrim, and Guilliman.
• Brown suggested that Qin Xa probe Number Eleven for information, and Qin Xa slowly agreed.

Qin Xa spoke with Number Eleven about his Legion’s refugee rescue efforts, his unusual way of understanding people, and his past on Hellstar. Number Eleven revealed that he called his Legion Sakura and claimed that Number Two died in the Rangdan Campaign, while Qin Xa remained suspicious about what he was withholding.

• Qin Xa watched the Eleventh Legion distribute food and shelter to refugees, and Number Eleven explained that saving them preserved resources for the wider Imperium.
• Number Eleven copied Qin Xa’s expressions and said he wanted to meet the Twelfth Primarch because he had changed the 12th Legion into one that cherished resources.
• Qin Xa asked to learn about Number Eleven’s past, and he shared a book describing how he was raised by an arthropod on Hellstar and helped humans and arthropods live together peacefully.
• Number Eleven explained that pheromones let him communicate with his Legion, which the scholar who taught him had named Sakura, meaning evolutionary theory.
• Number Eleven said Number Two had died in the Rangdan Campaign and had taught him his species’ moral values.
• Number Eleven said the Emperor had refused to teach him biology and had hated his existence, leaving Qin Xa to wonder whether his claims would be confirmed once Angron arrived.

After two months with Number Eleven, Qin Xa arrived at Pompeii I to arrange supplies for the 11th Legion and prepare for Number Eleven’s diplomatic visit to Nuceria. As they left the flagship, an unseen figure watched their flyer, while Qin Xa met the Space Marine administrator who governed the planet.

• Qin Xa and Number Eleven left the 11th Legion’s flagship for Pompeii I, where Number Eleven planned to remain with his fleet while Qin Xa arranged supplies.
• Olya reunited with Qin Xa and expressed concern that he had not contacted the White Knight for months; Number Eleven eerily imitated their expressions as Qin Xa recalled feeling watched aboard the flagship.
• An unidentified figure watched the flyer depart from a dark corridor aboard the flagship.
• On Pompeii I, Qin Xa met a Space Marine administrator appointed by Angron and reminded him to remain vigilant while governing the planet.
• Qin Xa ordered the local bureaucrats to supply the 11th Legion’s fleet and offered help to the administrator, who described plans to suppress ongoing sabotage.

Qin Xa investigated the unexplained slaughter of saboteurs on Pompeii I and ordered the system to prepare against the 11th Legion’s unusual movements. As he returned to Nu Star with the Number Eleven Primarch, he asked Angron to use his ability to uncover the Primarch’s intentions, believing the encounter could affect an entire Legion.

• Qin Xa ordered Pompeii I to investigate the dead saboteurs cautiously and request aid from Nu Star if anything unexpected happened.
• The Chief Librarian and a six-man squad teleported to Pompeii I while the White Knight prepared to leave the system.
• Pompeii I reported unusual movements by 11th Legion warships and aircraft, so Qin Xa ordered surveillance and battle preparations; the system’s defenses secretly locked onto the fleet.
• Angron saw the White Knight emerge from the Immaterium and prepared to meet Qin Xa, who appeared through a psychic projection and warned him that Number Eleven was coming.
• Qin Xa told Angron to use his ability to uncover Number Eleven’s thoughts, explaining that the encounter might change an entire Legion’s destiny.
• Qin Xa, increasingly suspicious of Number Eleven because of the slaughter and the 11th Legion’s movements, rose to leave while Number Eleven bowed to him.

Angron met Number Eleven and discovered that his brother had almost no emotions or inner monologue, while Qin Xa remained troubled by a sense of being watched. Angron and Qin Xa found Konrad Curze hidden aboard the White Knight, where Curze asked Angron to ease the distress caused by his Prophecy ability and the other personality within him.

• Qin Xa introduced Angron to Number Eleven, who asked to study Nuceria's Biotechnology and experience Angron's ability.
• Angron found that Number Eleven had almost no emotions or thoughts, and felt frightened by his brother's learned imitation of human behavior.
• After Number Eleven left with Chapter Master Mago, Angron and Qin Xa searched the White Knight for the presence Qin Xa sensed watching him.
• Angron and Qin Xa found Konrad Curze in the library, holding Qin Xa and mocking the Legions' security.
• Angron recognized Curze's wish for help with his Prophecy-driven negative emotions and demanded that he release Qin Xa.
• Curze warned that Nu Star anesthetic would knock everyone out, but Qin Xa challenged him to test it.

Angron and Qin Xa used anesthetic to render Curze unconscious, and Angron entered Curze’s memories to uncover how his Prophecy and sense of justice had shaped him. Curze woke to Angron’s explanation that, beneath his brutality, he had come to Nuceria seeking help.

• Curze tried to escape the anesthetic, but collapsed near the library doors while Qin Xa and Angron fell asleep.
• Angron woke, dragged Curze beneath the library’s chandelier, and used his power to enter Curze’s consciousness.
• Curze relived his early life on Nostramo, where his sense of justice drove him to kill criminals as the Midnight Haunter.
• After a girl he had rescued betrayed him, Curze grew more ruthless and used fear and slaughter to suppress crime across Nostramo.
• Curze’s Prophecy showed him bleak futures, and he came to believe that the futures he saw could not be changed.
• Angron told Curze that his subconscious had brought him to Nuceria to seek help, while Qin Xa reminded him that he could have openly asked for it.

Angron used his ability to absorb Konrad Curze’s negative emotions, giving him peace and inviting him to stay on Nuceria for help with his visions. He then brought Curze into a memory-recreating cube and showed him how repeatedly experiencing and digesting others’ pain had tempered his mind.

• Angron absorbed Curze’s pain and dark emotions, leaving Curze calm while he endured the burden himself.
• Angron explained that he had trained his endurance by sensing and digesting the pain of others, and said Curze’s peace could last about half a year.
• Curze agreed to stay on Nuceria, and later joined Angron in the ancient cube’s recreated mental world.
• Angron showed Curze a massacre from the Nuceria Uprising War, where the Praetorian Guard killed a village and left a boy among the corpses.
• Angron relived the boy’s pain and fury, then digested those emotions, showing Curze how he tempered his mind.

Angron showed Konrad Curze how he had avenged the boy’s murdered family by slaughtering the Praetorian Guard, then revealed that the boy grew up to become a World Eaters champion. The chapter ended with Angron resuming his training in absorbing and processing others’ negative emotions while Konrad observed.

• Angron explained that sharing the murdered boy’s feelings made him want to avenge the boy, and he replayed what happened after the boy climbed onto his shoulders.
• Angron carried the boy to a military camp and slaughtered the guards and Praetorian Guard while declaring his identity as Angron of the City-Swallowers.
• Kleist joined Angron after the massacre, and she agreed with his plan to kill the High-Riders and Praetorian Guard responsible for the Antema region’s executions.
• Angron told Konrad Curze that the boy later became the champion of the first class among a hundred World Eaters recruits.
• Konrad Curze learned how Angron had adapted Nuceria’s Arena contests into a recruitment system, and Angron then continued training his ability while Konrad watched.

Angron shared his emotional perception with Konrad Curze, first showing him the suffering of humans tormented by Xenos and then explaining how he endured overwhelming emotions. Curze gained trust in Angron, who began showing him a memory of the bonds he had formed during the Nuceria Uprising.

• Curze asked whether Angron could share his ability, and Angron brought him into a memory of the Xenos-tortured humans.
• Curze experienced the humans’ suffering in the Hate Storm and nearly collapsed before Angron ended the simulation.
• Curze learned that Angron had exterminated the Xenos, then questioned whether his own weakness made him inferior to Angron.
• Angron told Curze not to compare their different struggles and urged him to find ways to overcome them.
• Angron showed Curze a memory from the Nuceria Uprising, where a pregnant Gladiator and the bonds among the City-Swallowers formed part of the experience he wanted Curze to see.

After witnessing the birth of Antota, Konrad Curze understood the family Angron had formed with the Gladiators and imagined the community he might have had on Nostramo. Angron pressed him to face his Prophecy, and Konrad Curze revealed that he had seen Angron killed by a sword.

• A female Gladiator gave birth to a son, and Qin Xa cleaned the infant before the family named him Antota.
• The female Gladiator said she wanted Antota to live in an age without High-Riders, and Angron and Konrad Curze ended their shared memory.
• Konrad Curze understood why Angron would die for the Gladiators and imagined having a similar family on Nostramo.
• Konrad Curze said his Prophecy would prevent him from forming such bonds because he would foresee his companions' deaths.
• Angron demanded that Konrad Curze face his Prophecy, and Konrad Curze saw Angron being killed by a sword.

Angron explained to Konrad Curze that prophecy revealed only one of countless possible Threads of Fate, then outlined how he was reorganizing the Flagship Legion for the Great Rift operation. The chapter left Konrad Curze disengaged from Legion management while Qin Xa worried about the Eighth Legion.

• Konrad Curze saw a prophecy in which Angron was pinned to a wall and vowed revenge alongside him, but Angron explained that it showed only one possible Thread of Fate.
• Angron told Konrad Curze that his adoptive father could examine Threads of Fate beyond The Veil, and argued that even powerful prophecies were not inevitable.
• Angron described the reorganization of 120,000 Legion warriors into chapters, plans for armored forces and recruitment across Greater Nuceria, and ways to assign recruits who failed augmentation.
• Qin Xa urged Angron to have one of his brothers learn about Legion management, while Konrad Curze joked about inviting himself and then ignored the discussion.

Konrad Curze confided his dissatisfaction with the Eighth Legion, and Angron warned him that Nostramo’s corruption could infiltrate its ranks. Qin Xa began the Great Exploration Campaign to secure the Forge Engine, with Curze agreeing to help before they teleported into the ancient warship.

• Konrad Curze criticized the Eighth Legion’s criminal recruits and compared them unfavorably with the Emperor’s Children and the 12th Legion.
• Angron warned Curze that Nostramo’s old criminals could undermine his rule and corrupt the Eighth Legion through its recruitment system.
• Qin Xa proposed the Great Exploration Campaign, and Curze agreed to help explore and organize the Forge Engine in return for Angron’s psychological treatment.
• As they walked, Curze reflected on his empathy for Angron’s companions and his agreement with Qin Xa’s belief in necessary evil.
• Qin Xa teleported himself and Curze into the Forge Engine, then joked that Curze needed a friend; Curze conceded that he might be right.

Qin Xa explained to Konrad Curze why ordinary people needed hope and a stable order rather than punishment alone, using the people of Nu Star to challenge Curze’s beliefs about mediocrity and evil. Curze began to reconsider how his rule had failed Nostramo.

• Qin Xa led Curze through the operations base and explained that bounty hunters helped explore the vast ancient warship because the 12th Legion lacked enough manpower.
• Curze questioned whether ordinary people motivated by money could be trusted, and Qin Xa argued that their work toward a shared goal mattered more than their motives.
• Curze insisted that people who compromised with evil to survive were evil, while Qin Xa asked whether Nu Star’s people deserved the same judgment for enduring the High-Riders’ rule.
• Qin Xa recounted how the people of Mahe City rose against the High-Riders after Angron and the Gladiators demonstrated that rebellion could succeed.
• Curze asked whether Nostramo’s people were likewise waiting for hope, and Qin Xa argued that Curze needed to build an accepted order that protected ordinary people instead of relying on fear and slaughter alone.
• Curze acknowledged that Nostramo still had good people and began reconsidering why his efforts to destroy evil had not changed the planet.

Konrad Curze helped Qin Xa explore the ancient Forge Engine, using his prophetic ability to map its passages while Qin Xa explained why Nostramo’s people had failed to sustain change. They discovered a vast shipyard and learned that the vessel was a self-contained world with working climate and life-support systems.

• Konrad Curze recalled Shen, a Nostraman child who had cheered him while he executed a criminal, and considered how Nostramo’s people had lacked the strength to resist evil collectively.
• Qin Xa explained that Nostramo’s return to crime would not prove change impossible, and urged Konrad Curze to understand the causes rather than be crushed by prophecy.
• Qin Xa and Konrad Curze went deeper into the Forge Engine, where psychic interference prevented teleportation and Konrad Curze’s visions revealed the destinations and dangers of hundreds of passages.
• Qin Xa used Konrad Curze’s visions to mark safe routes on the walls, and the two continued exploring for thirty-one solar hours without seeing any prophecy of Qin Xa’s death.
• Konrad Curze and Qin Xa found a vast shipyard where cliff-like structures could form ships from metal in one seamless piece.
• Qin Xa described the Forge Engine’s functioning ventilation, water cycle, seasons, crop-growing zones, and other features that made it a self-contained world.

Qin Xa and Konrad Curze explored an ancient colony ship to stop the potential awakening of its cloned Caudico. After Curze prophesied that Emperor Caudicus would conquer Nuceria, Qin Xa persuaded him to stay and try to change the future.

• Konrad Curze marveled at the ship’s artificial sun, abandoned city, and simulated ecosystem as Qin Xa explained its purpose as a colony ship filled with Caudico clones.
• Qin Xa and Curze spent a month and a half mapping clone-storage chambers, identifying elite Caudico, and planning to kill Caudico’s original body before developing a genetic weapon to destroy the clones.
• Curze entered a prophecy and saw Emperor Caudicus commanding Battle Caudico and living war machines on Nuceria.
• Curze urged Qin Xa to leave and warn others, but Qin Xa sent a recorded message ahead and insisted they stay to prevent the prophesied conquest.
• Curze agreed to continue with Qin Xa, who promised to use a new prophetic method to investigate Curze’s ability and whether his visions could be changed.

Caudico awakened after a journey through the Immaterium that had lasted a hundred centuries and prepared to attack Nuceria, but Qin Xa and Konrad Curze confronted him aboard his ship. After experiencing a possible encounter through Konrad Curze’s Prophecy, Qin Xa and Konrad discovered they could observe fate changing in real time and use it to anticipate the outcomes of their actions.

• Caudico awakened on the Emperor’s Throne, learned that a hundred centuries had passed, and ordered the ship’s AI to prepare an attack on Nuceria once his people were ready.
• Caudico vowed to personally fight the Nuceria Group official who had insulted him and asked the AI to locate his armory.
• Qin Xa and Konrad Curze confronted Caudico in a corridor, where Caudico used psychic powers to teleport away and his Custodes Caudicos fought the intruders.
• The AI’s psychic interference caused Konrad Curze to suffer, but Qin Xa pulled him free before the Custodes Caudicos and Caudico escaped.
• Qin Xa and Konrad Curze emerged from the Prophecy and realized Qin Xa’s influence could alter its visions as they observed the Threads of Fate in real time.

Konrad Curze and Qin Xa devised a plan to kill Caudico by teleporting him into the void and amplifying his psychic presence until Warp Creatures attacked him. They left Caudico being drained by a soul-devouring wasp while Curze learned of Magnus’s reputation as the King of Stings.

• Qin Xa explained that Caudico could be killed by forcing him to use psychic power outside the ship, where the ship’s core could not protect him from Warp Creatures.
• Qin Xa used Quadrant’s teleportation device to send Caudico from the corridor into the void while Konrad Curze confronted him.
• The transport clone killed two Custodes Caudicos with psychic power, and Qin Xa opened a view of Caudico struggling to survive in the void.
• Qin Xa amplified Caudico’s psychic power and Soul Projection, drawing a soul-devouring wasp that attacked him.
• Qin Xa told Konrad Curze that Magnus was known as the King of Stings.

Qin Xa and Konrad Curze killed Caudico and discovered tiny living people trapped in bottles among his collections. After taking Caudico’s hair, Konrad returned to Nu Star, reflecting on his bond with Angron and warning Qin Xa about the Legions’ political future.

• Qin Xa explained how soul-eater bees hunted Psykers, then erased the bee and Caudico after they killed him.
• Qin Xa and Konrad Curze entered Caudico’s collection room and examined his preserved family keepsakes.
• Konrad Curze found living people trapped in bottles, and Qin Xa translated their messages warning them to leave and beware of Caudico.
• Qin Xa took Caudico’s last hair for a genetic sample and opened a portal to Nu Star for Konrad Curze.
• Konrad Curze praised his decision to join the Eleventh Legion’s flagship, then warned Qin Xa that the Eighth Legion’s closeness to the Twelfth and Thirteenth Legions could bring pressure from The Emperor.