Chapter Summaries

Qin Xa sent the White Knight Librarians to stop a sacrificial ritual in Caliban’s hive city and uncover who was behind it. After Varius’s unit crushed the killers and confronted the negligent guards, Qin Xa ordered them to hold the area and send their collected evidence through a portal.

• Qin Xa taught the White Knight Librarians about daemons and Chaos before ordering them to respond to a reported sacrificial ritual.
• Varius, Tethys, and the Librarians surveyed the hive city, found masked killers massacring civilians, and advanced against them while the Gunship attacked the killers’ hideout.
• Varius’s psychic lightning destroyed most of the killers, and Tethys read the surviving captive’s mind, learning that the Caliban Restoration worshipped the Heart of Caliban and sought to awaken it through sacrifices.
• Varius killed the enforcement officer who had delayed his squad, then ordered the officer’s deputy to restore order under the authority of the Librarians and the Dark Angels.
• Qin Xa told Varius to secure the area and send the leather sack of collected skins through a portal, and the Librarians dispersed to watch the surrounding streets.

Varius and the Librarians uncovered evidence that Governor's Assistant Kavak had promoted the Heart of Caliban and spread Chaos's influence on Caliban. Qin Xa rejected Varius's plan to kill Kavak and his associates, telling the dejected Chief Librarian to return so they could discuss what to do next.

• Qin Xa examined and burned the branded skin strips, then tested the Librarians' knowledge of psychic rituals as they searched the ruined street.
• Kova blasted rubble away at Varius's direction, revealing a metal stele with markings matching those branded on the killers.
• Varius explained Caliban's survival-centered traditions, and the Librarians considered how desperate conditions could have driven people to seek hope in the Heart of Caliban.
• The Librarians found a charred corpse sheltering a recording chip, which showed Governor's Assistant Kavak promoting the faith and distributing aid.
• Varius reported that Kavak was the mastermind and proposed killing him and everyone attending a banquet in his name, but Qin Xa rejected the plan and ordered the Librarians to return.

Qin Xa learned that Kavak and other Imperium officials were acting suspiciously, while the governor sent his illegitimate son to offer Luther help and seek passage back to Terra. Brown and Kamas escorted the servant toward the governor’s residence, where Brown killed an ambush, but a sinister figure remained watching from a cliff.

• Qin Xa read Dull’s memories and confirmed that Dull had opposed the Imperium’s misrule of Caliban and trusted Luther.
• The governor’s servant revealed that the governor had noticed Kavak and others becoming gloomy and speaking an unfamiliar language, and wanted Luther’s help in exchange for a ticket back to Terra.
• Qin Xa assigned Brown and Kamas to protect the servant, keep contact with the governor, and watch for suspicious activity.
• Brown, Kamas, and the servant traveled toward the governor’s residence, and Kamas spotted armed ambushers and a disturbing figure on a cliff with Psychic Sight.
• Brown rushed ahead and slaughtered the ambushers, while the other attackers waited nearby and the dark figure continued watching from the cliff.

Qin Xa learned from a Watcher in the Dark that Caliban faced destruction and that three Immaterium Artifacts were the true threat. He refused to destroy Caliban outright, and the Watcher offered a book about the Artifacts before they continued negotiating.

• Brown killed the attackers targeting the governor's servant while the Watcher remained motionless, then Kamas and Brown attacked it without effect.
• Qin Xa identified the short-robed figure as a Watcher in the Dark and heard its plea to destroy Caliban with the psychic bomb.
• Qin Xa met the Watcher in the castle and learned that it called him the Isolated One because he lacked a Soul Projection.
• The Watcher named the Heart of Plague, the Ouroboros, and the Tuchulcha Engine as Caliban's true threats and demanded that Qin Xa destroy them.
• Qin Xa refused to destroy Caliban and challenged the Watcher's proposal, so it gave him a book about the three Artifacts to read before further discussion.

Qin Xa refused to destroy Caliban and negotiated with the Dark Watchers for help, knowledge, and a gift in exchange for aiding them against the Three Artifacts. The Watchers accepted his terms in part, leaving Kang to guard a Chaos artifact in the castle as Qin Xa’s attendant.

• Qin Xa told the Watcher he would help destroy the Three Artifacts but would not destroy Caliban, and asked for a companion, knowledge of resisting psychic attacks, and an additional gift.
• Qin Xa explained that he wanted to protect Luther because he valued his friendship and believed Luther could help secure the First Legion’s support.
• The Watcher reported Qin Xa’s terms to three companions, and all four Watchers vanished before one returned with a heavy book.
• The Watcher gave Qin Xa a Chaos artifact that recorded daemons’ true names and explained that the Dark Watchers controlled psychic energy precisely to negate its influence.
• Qin Xa asked Kang to guard the artifact in the castle and renamed him Kang the Attendant until he could store it securely.

Qin Xa and Luther agreed to purge Caliban’s corrupt and abusive officials after verifying a list of suspects. They named the ten-day operation Caliban’s Wrath and planned to choose a new public ruler when Imperial administrators arrived.

• Luther asked Qin Xa what the Watchers had said, and Qin Xa assured him he would find a way to resolve Caliban’s troubles.
• Luther pledged to bring Dark Angels to future conflicts alongside Qin Xa, then received a list of suspicious officials from Kamas through Qin Xa.
• Luther verified the governor’s list, added more names, and provided evidence of forbidden worship and other abuses.
• Qin Xa agreed to kill the listed officials, including those whose crimes were not all tied to Chaos corruption.
• Qin Xa and Luther planned a ten-day purge beginning with Kavak and named the operation Caliban’s Wrath.

Kova bombed Kavak’s Knight hall, allowing Varius and the White Knights Librarians to pursue Kavak through the ruins and into the sewers. Kavak escaped when the priest used a crystal to unleash a powerful psychic force, while Qin Xa prevented an Immaterium Rift from swallowing Varius and the others.

• Kova flew a modified Lightning fighter into Caliban’s atmosphere and bombed the Knight hall, destroying it and killing many of Kavak’s guards.
• Kavak survived underground with his elite guard and priest, then fled toward the old city sewers as Varius and the White Knights Librarians entered the ruins.
• Varius and five Librarians cornered Kavak’s group in a tunnel and engulfed them in psychic fire, but the priest protected himself and Kavak with a frigid zone.
• Kavak shoved the priest aside as Varius charged, and the priest used a dimming crystal to make Kavak vanish in a flash of light before turning to ash.
• Varius found the crystal and documents, while Qin Xa explained that he had closed an Immaterium Rift and ordered the Librarians to send the documents and continue their next task.

Luthor and Qin Xa examined a corrupted faction’s purge list and grew suspicious when Kavak summoned everyone named on it. In the conference hall, Kavak and twenty Priests prepared to sacrifice the gathered Imperial personnel, while Kavak waited for the god he believed was watching him to gather strength.

• Luthor and Qin Xa compared the corrupted faction’s list of wavering personnel with the governor’s list and confirmed that some names had evidence of corruption.
• Kang Tan reported that Kavak had called a meeting and invited everyone on the list, prompting Qin Xa and Luthor to suspect a trap or an unexpected plan.
• Qin Xa and Luthor realized Kavak might be gathering the people they intended to purge and set out to question the governor and prepare to attack.
• Kavak entered the packed conference hall with twenty Priests, who revealed their marked faces and declared themselves servants of the true god.
• The Priests asked Kavak when the sacrifice would begin, and he told them to wait while the god gathered strength.

Duer’s belief that he and a handful of allies were the only opponents of Kawak collapsed when rival factions launched a massacre at the assembly. After Duer and Kawak escaped into a storage room, Kawak explained his covert efforts, but learned that Luther and Shatterer still distrusted him because he looked like a bad person.

• Duer and his companions prepared to confront Kawak, but Imperial Truth supporters and Caliban native soldiers suddenly attacked the conference hall, turning it into a massacre.
• Duer crawled toward the emergency exit after seeing Kawak flee, and a soldier stabbed him before being shot.
• Duer caught up with Kawak in the corridor, shot off his right arm, and forced him into a storage room.
• Kawak treated his wound and told Duer that he had secretly worked against the evil faith, while Duer realized other Imperial and Caliban resistance groups had acted independently.
• Duer said Luther and Shatterer had already judged Kawak suspicious because of his face, and Kawak broke down in tears over how his appearance had ruined his life.

Qin Xa entered the conference hall, stabilized reality with Kang’s help, and judged the people gathered there by executing or sparing those named on a list. He let the Caliban resistance fighters leave to become workers, while the fate of those still in the hall remained in his hands.

• Luther told Qin Xa that Brown had killed the governor and his guards, and Qin Xa concluded the governor’s list was genuine and the Librarian’s list likely identified undercover agents.
• Qin Xa and Kang entered the conference hall, where Kang strengthened reality and Qin Xa killed the priests who tried to cast psychic spells.
• Qin Xa killed a priest who had summoned hundreds of fanatics in the corridor, then returned to the hall and announced that Judgment Day had arrived.
• Qin Xa read names from the list, executing some people and sparing others, including Samun after learning of his connection to Kavak.
• Qin Xa questioned a Caliban officer, then allowed him and the resistance fighters to leave the army and become workers.

Qin Xa spared Caliban’s remaining Imperial administrators, dismissed them, and asked Kang to accompany him as he dealt with the artifacts. Meanwhile, Luther and Kant believed Qin Xa had turned Caliban’s future around, though they knew the planet’s remaining problems still needed attention.

• Qin Xa ordered the surviving Imperial administrators to leave Caliban and explained that their rationality had spared their lives.
• Qin Xa told Kang he would seek the Ouroboros in the northern wastelands and asked Kang to follow him, including during the Ullanor War.
• Qin Xa joked that Kang might be the promised free gift, and Kang began to fear the idea could be true.
• Kant told Luther that matters at the governor’s residence were effectively resolved, and Luther praised Qin Xa and the remarkable people around him.
• Luther said Qin Xa had ended Caliban’s nightmare and would restore the planet, while Kant noted they still had to repair the damage the Imperium had caused.

Imperial Council officials arrived on Caliban to replace its former administrators, and Luther chose the homesick boy Owen as the new governor. Afterward, Qin Xa and Luther questioned Kavak and discussed forming an organization to combat Chaos corruption before Qin Xa planned an expedition to Caliban's northern wasteland.

• A representative of the Imperial Council relieved Caliban's former Imperial bureaucrats of their duties and brought a group of potential administrators for Luther to choose from.
• Luther selected twelve-year-old Owen as Caliban's governor, reassured him that he was not a servant, and gave him a model of a Caliban knight.
• Qin Xa and Luther visited the imprisoned Kavak, who said he had resisted the governor's schemes and upheld the Imperial Truth; Qin Xa restored his missing arm and left his fate undecided.
• Qin Xa proposed recruiting strong-willed people, including Kavak, into an organization to fight Chaos corruption on Caliban.
• Qin Xa announced that he would visit the dangerous northern wasteland despite Luther's warning about its monstrous inhabitants and the rumored Watchers' nest.

Qin Xa and Kang crossed Caliban’s northern wasteland in search of the Sirius Knight Order’s ruins, where they hoped to find a way to locate Ouroboros. They met Soval, a former Sirius knight who offered them shelter and promised to guide them to the ruins at dawn.

• Qin Xa and Kang left the mountains and headed north through a snowstorm toward the Sirius Knight Order’s ruins.
• Qin Xa scattered a pack of great beasts with psychic lightning, and an old man named Soval killed one with an arrow.
• Soval invited Qin Xa and Kang to his home, where Qin Xa met Soval’s daughter, son-in-law, and infant grandson.
• Soval showed Qin Xa the route to the ruins and offered to lead him there after dawn.
• Kang identified Soval as an Oathbreaker Knight of the Sirius Knight Order, and Soval said he hoped his grandson would become an outstanding knight.

Qin Xa shared a meal with Sovar’s family and learned that Sovar’s grandson’s psychic cries protected them from beasts, while Sovar hoped the boy would avenge the Knights of Sirius. When monsters surrounded their home at night and a force prevented them from fleeing, Qin Xa offered to hold them back as Sovar led his family toward the ruins.

• Sovar agreed to take Qin Xa to the Knights of Sirius’ ruins at dawn and explained that his grandson’s cries made beasts flee or burst apart.
• Sovar declared that his grandson would become a knight of vengeance, then beat his son-in-law until he promised to avenge his parents and the Knights of Sirius.
• Qin Xa stopped Sovar from continuing the beating by asking whether the Knights of Sirius’ vows permitted him to strike family members.
• In the middle of the night, Qin Xa and Sovar spotted a vast gathering of beasts and walking corpses surrounding the house during a snowstorm.
• The infant’s cries froze the room and made one beast’s head explode, but an unseen force kept the others from fleeing.
• When monsters appeared beyond both windows, Qin Xa told Sovar to take his family toward the ruins while he held back the creatures.

Qin Xa and Sovar led Sovar’s family through the beast-filled snow toward the ruins, where Sovar’s daughter was cursed by the Ouroboros’s Fang. Kang identified the curse as soul-annihilating Chaos corruption, and Qin Xa discovered that the woman was continuously spreading it while the Sirius Sword protected those nearby.

• Qin Xa teleported Sovar and his family away from the beasts, then held the creatures back while Sovar led them toward the ruins using severed beast heads as markers.
• Sovar’s son-in-law took his father’s longsword, and the family neared the ruins as the baby’s warming power began to fail.
• An Ouroboros’s Fang emerged from Sovar’s daughter’s shadow; the Sirius Sword banished it, but she collapsed after entering the ruins.
• Qin Xa teleported through the storm to reach the ruins, where he warmed Sovar’s daughter and found her unconscious and trembling.
• Kang explained that the Fang had cursed Sovar’s daughter and that her soul would gradually be annihilated, while the Sirius Sword shielded Sovar and his son-in-law from the worst of the corruption.
• Qin Xa realized that Sovar’s daughter had become a ritual nexus, continually releasing corrosive Chaos power inside the ruins.

After Sovar lost his daughter and son-in-law, he entrusted his grandson to Qin Xa and chose to remain on Caliban to fight for its people. With Kang carrying the Sirius Sword and an object that could lead them to the Ouroboros, Qin Xa set out across the wasteland with the infant and began cutting through the creatures surrounding them.

• Sovar's son-in-law died beside his wife after entrusting their infant to Sovar, and Qin Xa cremated the couple's bodies.
• Sovar told Qin Xa how Luther and Lion had destroyed the Sirius Knight Order, then refused to leave Caliban and gave his grandson to Qin Xa.
• Sovar entrusted the infant with the Sirius badge and left the ruins to fight for Caliban, while Kang retrieved an object that could lead them to the Ouroboros and took the Sirius Sword.
• The next day, Qin Xa traveled into the blizzard with the infant protected against his chest as Kang watched over them.
• Qin Xa cleared the snowstorm with his power, revealed the surrounding beasts and walking corpses, and charged forward with his spear and the Sirius Sword.

Qin Xa and Kang followed the Ouroboros guide into ruins deep beneath Caliban, where Kang explained that the planet itself was the artifact. They reached a massive gate marking the location of the Ouroboros’s most important part, while Kang warned Qin Xa against trusting the future too much.

• Qin Xa and Kang followed the Ouroboros guide through the wasteland, and Qin Xa used psychic blasts to clear away beasts while carrying the infant he had adopted.
• The guide led them to an underground city, where Kang explained that Caliban, including its culture, environment, and people’s souls, was the Ouroboros.
• Qin Xa told Kang he had returned from ten thousand years in the future and asked whether destroying Caliban could prevent the Ouroboros from being reshaped, but Kang warned him about relying too heavily on future knowledge.
• Qin Xa and Kang descended through the ruins, where Qin Xa crushed a giant worm that served the Ouroboros.
• Kang said Zahariel might still investigate the Ouroboros and fall under its control, depending on Qin Xa’s choices, as they reached a huge black gate behind which the artifact’s critical part lay.

Qin Xa opened the gate to the Ouroboros’s underground ruins, subdued its Undivided Chaos Daemon guardian, and learned how the artifact had manipulated Caliban and Luther. He began suppressing the Ouroboros with his psychic power while Kang arranged preparations for a ritual to contain it.

• Qin Xa blasted open the massive gate and found an Undivided Chaos Daemon, then used the Chaos artifact to learn and recite its true name until it was subdued.
• Qin Xa questioned the daemon and learned that the Ouroboros had fueled Caliban’s misery, sought to control Luther, and intended to merge with the other two artifacts.
• Qin Xa explained his plan to establish ritual nodes across the Northern Wasteland, channel the Ouroboros’s power through his own Immaterium domain, and use it to suppress itself.
• Qin Xa bound the daemon to guard the ruins and kill anyone approaching except him and the Dark Watchers.
• Qin Xa began using his psychic power to restrict the Ouroboros’s influence, while Kang said the Librarians would prepare the ritual materials aboard the White Knight.

Luther led a force of Dark Angels and White Knight Librarians into Caliban’s wilderness to deploy 333 crystal stelae meant to help suppress the Ouroboros. After splitting the force into groups, he offered Varius the Colossus Command Vehicle and its crew for the White Knights.

• Varius brought Luther a crystal stele inscribed in the White Knight Master’s language, and Kang recognized the inscriptions as ritual nodes intended to help suppress the Ouroboros.
• Luther prepared an expedition with Dark Angels and a few mortals of exceptional will, then set out with Varius aboard a Colossus Command Vehicle.
• Luther and Varius chose to divide their forces so the Librarians and Dark Angels could deploy the stelae faster across the wilderness.
• The Colossus crushed signs of human activity on its route, which Kang recognized, before Luther ordered the vehicle to halt and the deployment teams departed in thirty groups.
• Luther told Varius that the Colossus and its maintenance priests would be given to the White Knights and sent aboard a Cruiser.

Qin Xa completed the ritual that made the Ouroboros suppress itself and received a device to locate the Heart of Plague and Tuchulcha. As the Dark Watchers came to take Kang home, Kang stayed with Qin Xa and asked for a room aboard the White Knight.

• Qin Xa rejected the Ouroboros's offer of cooperation, and the artifact gave him a device that located the Heart of Plague and Tuchulcha.
• Kang praised Qin Xa's contingency plan to suppress the Ouroboros and destroy Caliban if the ritual ever failed, then promised his people would guard the site.
• Qin Xa activated the three hundred and thirty-third crystal stele, completing the array and causing the Ouroboros to suppress its own power.
• The Dark Watchers arrived to take Kang, but after speaking with them, Kang returned to Qin Xa and asked to stay aboard the White Knight.