Chapter Summaries

Qin Xa led the Librarians onto Krako One to locate Blood Axe Clan leaders and assess whether the planet could be destroyed with a Cyclonic Torpedo. After learning that something beneath Krako was the real cause of the Greenskin conflict, he teleported the Librarians and their allies to a fortress where Gusa might be found.

• Qin Xa led sixty Librarians through a portal into a Greenskin battle and empowered a rookie Librarian's psychic lightning to wipe out a swath of enemies.
• The Divine Lord Titan charged through the Greenskin armored forces, opening a path that the Blood Axe Clan commandos used to break through the encirclement.
• Qin Xa asked the commando commander about warlords and teleportation, then learned from it that Gusa had warned him not to destroy Krako because something lay beneath the planet.
• Qin Xa realized both Greenskin factions had come to Krako for the thing beneath it and decided to find Gusa before acting.
• Qin Xa opened a portal and transported the Librarians and their temporary allies to a fortress where Gusa might be hiding.

Gusa’s Blood Axe Clan defeated the Ullanor fortress guardian, and Qin Xa discovered that the survivors had grown stronger while returning to Krako. Gusa revealed that he sought an Old One artifact beneath the planet, and Kang explained that Krako’s temples were parts of a warehouse that might contain a device for creating Ancient Orks; Qin Xa learned that Gusa was needed to unlock it.

• Gusa caught the giant beast’s mechanical arm, tore off its head and spine, and routed the Ullanor horde inside the fortress.
• Qin Xa met Gusa and saw that Gusa, the Blood Axe commanders, the warriors, and Sissy P had all changed; Gusa said the roughly hundred survivors were all that remained of his clan.
• Gusa explained that his clan had lost its ships and nearly everything else on the way back to Krako, then revealed that he was following a call from an Old One artifact beneath the planet.
• Gusa activated the hall’s patterns, and Kang identified Krako One as an Old One warehouse rather than a temple, possibly storing a device that seeded Greenskins and Ancient Orks.
• Kang warned that destroying the warehouse might annihilate everything that had appeared within thirty light-years over a five-hundred-year span, and suggested moving the device into the space Qin Xa had created for Salum.
• Kang said the device had likely chosen Gusa as its Emissary, leaving Qin Xa unable to open the warehouse without him.

Qin Xa and Gusa activated the encrypted facilities while the Imperium’s forces battled the Ullanor Greenskins, awakening the ancient divine artifact. As Gusa confronted Qin Xa, he killed Sissy P and beheaded Gusa, then took the artifact into a space within the Immaterium.

• The activated encrypted facilities formed a barrier around Krako I, and Qin Xa ordered the Imperium’s forces to begin their backup offensive.
• The Imperium deployed five Titan Legions and its elite troops, drawing the Greenskins into battle while Qin Xa and Gusa activated the remaining facilities.
• After the final facility activated, Qin Xa, Gusa, and Kang entered the gap between reality and the Immaterium, where Gusa encountered the awakened divine artifact and recovered ancient memories.
• Qin Xa and Gusa began fighting, and Qin Xa used illusions of their past encounters to confront Gusa with its cowardice and lies.
• Sissy P stepped between Qin Xa and Gusa, but Gusa strangled Sissy P; Qin Xa then beheaded Gusa.
• Qin Xa took the divine artifact and placed it in a space he had created within the Immaterium.

Qin Xa and the Librarians escaped the hidden realm as the barrier around Krako One faded, allowing the White Knight to devastate the Greenskin forces with orbital bombardment. As the primarchs prepared to face the surviving Warlords, a strange Titan emerged through a gate and killed all six.

• Qin Xa revealed himself to the Greenskin commander, and Kamas disintegrated the commander with psychic power.
• Kang led Qin Xa and the Librarians out of the gap between realms while the battle continued on Krako One.
• The barrier around Krako One dissipated, and the White Knight bombarded the Greenskin forces from orbit.
• Qin Xa joined the primarchs and told Angron that he had killed Gusa and destroyed the Blood Axe Clan.
• A strange Titan emerged through a towering gate and swiftly killed all six surviving Greenskin Warlords.

The Aeldari arrived through a Webway Gate to discuss the Ullanor Imperium, and Angron sensed their schemes and Eldrad Uslan’s offer to help humanity use the Webway. Uslan led the primarchs into the passage, where he revealed they had traveled from the captured Gorgon System to Gorgon Three.

• The Aeldari emerged from the Webway and asked to discuss the Ullanor Imperium, while Lorgar and the primarchs prepared to fight them.
• Eldrad Uslan arrived, proposed cooperation, and offered to help the primarchs travel through the Webway.
• Angron sensed that the Aeldari had planned to destroy both humanity and the Greenskins using an Old Ones artifact, and Uslan promised to help humanity instead.
• The primarchs agreed to test Uslan’s offer, withdrew their forces, and entered the Webway with him while Qin Xa recorded the journey for the Emperor.
• Uslan led the primarchs through the Webway and revealed that they had reached Gorgon Three in the captured Gorgon System.

Angron and the primarchs used the Webway to reach a besieged supply system, where their fleet swiftly defeated the Greenskin attackers. Afterward, Mortarion and Number Eleven pushed to launch a direct strike on Ullanor, while Angron asked the primarchs to stay until they could consult their brothers and The Emperor.

• Uslan explained that the Webway was faster and safer than Warp travel but could not be fully understood and could be breached from within.
• Angron and Qin Xa arranged a secret Webway voyage from the Krako System, using a psychic ritual to make the Navigators believe the fleet was traveling through the Warp.
• The fleet traveled safely through the Webway and reached the besieged supply system in less than a week.
• The human Imperium fleet overwhelmed the Ullanor Imperium force and ended its orbital bombardment.
• Mortarion proposed taking the fleet directly to Ullanor to kill Ullanor Ullag, and Number Eleven supported him.
• Angron asked Mortarion and the others to remain until they could meet with their brothers and The Emperor, but Mortarion challenged Angron's authority to command him.

The Emperor announced that he would leave the Great Crusade to build a human Webway and appointed Angron and Horus as candidates for Warmaster. He set a contest: whichever brother first killed Ullanor’s Ullag would win the title, while Horus led the main force and Angron continued to command the vanguard.

• The Emperor summoned the primarchs and praised Angron and the vanguard for their successes in the Ullanor War.
• The Emperor revealed his Webway Project and explained that the Imperium existed to gather resources for it.
• The Emperor created the title of Warmaster and named Angron as his chosen candidate, surprising the primarchs who expected Horus.
• Perturabo and Guilliman voiced support for Angron, citing his concern for his brothers and their Legions.
• The Emperor made Angron and Horus rival candidates, declaring that the first to kill Ullanor’s Ullag would become Warmaster.
• The Emperor withdrew from command of the Great Crusade, assigned Horus to lead the main force and Angron to lead the vanguard, and ordered both to prove themselves.

The primarchs debated why Angron had been chosen as a Warmaster candidate, concluding that his influence and service to the Imperium mattered more than his combat ability. As the World Eaters prepared to help Angron win the title, Kiel confronted officers whose violent past could stain their Legion and agreed to let them seek redemption in battle.

• Jaghatai argued that Angron had become a representative of the primarchs through his work during the Dawnstar Conflict, and Guilliman explained that Angron's willingness to aid others made him a serious Warmaster candidate.
• Kiel told the World Eaters officers that Angron would compete against the primarch of the Luna Wolves Legion, with the first to kill the Ullanor Xenos Emperor becoming Warmaster.
• Kiel warned that the World Eaters must become an example for the Legions and accused roughly a hundred officers of being living stains because they had slaughtered for pleasure and lost control.
• The accused officers said there were about twenty thousand like them and asked to fight in the coming battle under the War Hounds' old Great Company organization to wash away the Legion's stains.
• Kiel agreed to let the officers take part in the battle and offer one final service to Angron.

The vanguard fleet used the Webway to reach the Ullanor system, where the primarchs discovered that the Greenskins had turned Ullanor One and its moon into heavily fortified worlds. As Perturabo planned an assault on the moon, Qin Xa and Konrad Curze prepared a decapitation strike, joined by twenty thousand World Eaters who donned the War Hounds insignia before teleporting to the surface.

• Qin Xa confirmed that Uslan had found a Webway route into the Ullanor system, and the vanguard fleet prepared to emerge near the core world.
• The fleet appeared inside Ullanor's void defenses and overwhelmed them, while Angron ordered the primarchs to focus on Ullanor One and Ullanor Moon One.
• Perturabo proposed seizing Ullanor Moon One and using it as a weapon after bombardment failed against the worlds' layered Void Shields.
• Angron ordered preparations for both an assault on the moon and a decapitation strike, which Qin Xa and Konrad Curze agreed to lead.
• Konrad Curze selected Sevatar and other Night Lords for the strike, while Angron arranged the rest of the force.
• Twenty thousand World Eaters replaced their Legion insignia with War Hounds symbols, answered Qin Xa's call to battle, and teleported to the surface with the assembled forces.

Konrad Curze and Qin Xa launched a decapitation operation against Ullag, using attacks across the palace to draw away his guards. Their assault reached the throne hall, but Ullag and the Custodes Greenskins resisted the Blank, forcing Qin Xa to teleport his forces out as the chapter ended.

• Konrad Curze infiltrated the palace and located Ullag in the throne hall, while Qin Xa coordinated the operation through psychic power.
• Qin Xa deployed Quadrant’s synthetic humans, Security Iron Men, and World Eaters to draw palace guards into battle, while Sevatar’s Night Lords assassinated Greenskin commanders.
• Qin Xa teleported into the hall with a Blank, but Ullag and the Custodes Greenskins endured its effects by gathering their WAAAGH energy.
• Ullag charged Qin Xa, and Konrad Curze and Brown attacked him from above; Ullag evaded Curze and knocked Brown away.
• Qin Xa sent the Blank away and teleported himself, Konrad Curze, Brown, and the World Eaters out while the synthetic humans covered the Security Iron Men’s retreat.

Qin Xa and Konrad Curze returned from their failed assassination attempt as the landing battle for Ullanor I intensified. Qin Xa tested whether he could teleport a Cyclonic Torpedo into the Ullanor Imperial Palace, then led a squad of Eleventh Legion guards in an attack on a Greenskin Warlord.

• Qin Xa explained that the Ullanor Custodes had resisted the Blank because they shared a bond with Ullag, and he told the primarchs he would prepare another assassination attempt using the Blood Drinkers and ancient relics.
• Perturabo restrained the Eleventh Legion's suicidal assaults, then ordered the Resolute Determination to use its Void Shield's teleportation function to deploy more troops and asked Qin Xa to target the fortress's commander.
• Qin Xa sent a Cyclonic Torpedo through a portal toward the Ullanor Imperial Palace, but it vanished and reappeared in low orbit beyond Ullanor I.
• Qin Xa and eleven Eleventh Legion Primarch's Guard warriors reached the hall of the Greenskin Warlord, where the guards fought his bodyguards and one was cut in half.
• The apparently slain guard warrior rose unharmed and killed the Greenskin Warlord with bone spikes extending from his palms.

After the decapitation strike, Qin Xa discovered that Number Eleven’s Guard warriors had been transformed with experimental biotechnology that gave them bone spurs and rapid regeneration. Number Eleven defended his effort to evolve the Eleventh Legion, and Angron agreed to report the technology to the Imperium’s council while supporting its human origins.

• Number Eleven’s Guard warriors killed the Warlord’s bodyguards, and one warrior regenerated after being cut nearly in half.
• Qin Xa returned to the flagship and questioned Number Eleven about the Guard’s biological modifications, alarming the other Primarchs.
• Number Eleven explained that he used ancient human biotechnology to improve his descendants and argued that humanity needed to evolve.
• Angron confirmed that Number Eleven’s techniques came from human archives and said he would report the Eleventh Legion’s condition to the Imperium’s council.
• Number Eleven accepted Angron’s arrangement, believing The Emperor would support his work, while Angron doubted that Number Eleven understood The Emperor.

Perturabo and Angron deployed the World Eaters’ specialist siege force, the City-Swallower, with Titans and Knights to breach the Greenskins’ Void Shield array. After the force advanced successfully, Angron discussed modular armor and hinted that the Legion’s versatility might expand further.

• Perturabo arranged for the World Eaters’ siege companies to form the City-Swallower, with Dantiok serving as a strategic adviser and the Iron Warriors providing bombardment and fire support.
• Angron and the command group raised the City-Swallower banner, sewn by freed civilians, as the siege force prepared to leave the fortress.
• The City-Swallower advanced with the Knight Titans and universal-pattern Titans, using coordinated fire and assaults to cut through the Greenskin forces toward the Void Shield array.
• The City-Swallower reached the array, aiming to create a breach large enough for an orbital Lance shot to destroy it.
• Angron proposed modular Astartes armor, and Lorgar suggested the World Eaters could form forces resembling several specialized Legions; Angron denied it was possible, then added, “At least not yet.”

Perturabo weakened Ullanor I’s Void Shield with sustained bombardment and began designing a new weapon while Angron’s forces prepared to seize the satellite. When Corax was trapped by a huge Xenos fleet, Angron sent Mortarion and several Legion fleets to rescue him, accepting the risk to his own campaign for the Warmaster title.

• Perturabo calculated the Void Shield’s shifting weaknesses, ordered the fleet to bombard Ullanor I, and watched its shield collapse so the fleet could destroy fortifications.
• The primarchs learned that Corax’s Raven Guard fleet was engaged by an enormous Xenos force, and Corax told Angron he could break out of the encirclement.
• Angron asked Mortarion to lead the World Eaters, Death Guard, and Eleventh Legion fleets through the Webway to help Corax, and Mortarion agreed.
• Perturabo protested that the fleets were needed at Ullanor I, but Angron chose not to abandon Corax for the sake of victory or glory.
• Angron reflected that he would never abandon a brother if he became Warmaster.

Perturabo’s device enabled a devastating bombardment of Ullanor One before Angron, Qin Xa, and their allies led a decapitation strike against Ulag. They found Ulag dead in a laboratory, where Gusa revealed himself and then killed himself while asking Angron to pass on a message.

• Perturabo explained that his engineering installation could invert Ullanor One’s Void Shield, allowing the fleet to bombard the planet’s defenses and palace.
• After the bombardment, Qin Xa and Angron led the primarchs and their forces underground to hunt Ulag, who had survived by hiding beneath the surface.
• The decapitation force fought through Greenskin defenses, while Horus sent hundreds of Silent Sisters to help overcome the Custodes Greenskins.
• Horus arranged for an Ordo Sinister psychic Titan to attack Ulag, shattering its defenses, but Ulag continued toward a laboratory.
• Angron and Horus found Ulag dead beside a control console, while the surviving giant beast identified himself as Gusa and asked Angron to tell the Butcher that he sought a greater cause before killing himself.

The narrator washed their hair at noon and forgot to close the window. Their head hurt badly, and their mind spun.

• The narrator washed their hair at noon.
• The narrator forgot to close the window.
• The narrator felt a severe headache and dizziness.

After Ulag’s death, Angron and Horus were named joint Warmasters, and the Ullanor region was renamed Armageddon. The Emperor then punished Lorgar and Number Eleven for spreading worship of him, leaving them pinned to the ground as the others departed.

• Angron declared that he and Horus had slain Ulag together, and the gathered Primarchs and troops applauded.
• Qin Xa told Angron that Alpha had been found first and raised by Malcador, explaining why the Alpha Legion Primarchs stayed hidden.
• The Emperor ordered Perturabo to build a palace on Ullanor’s ruins and renamed the region Armageddon, confirming that Angron and Horus would both become Warmasters.
• The Emperor crushed Lorgar with psychic pressure and confronted him for worshipping his father as a god and spreading that faith.
• The Emperor questioned Number Eleven about ordering his Legion and fleet personnel to believe in him, then pinned both Number Eleven and Lorgar to the ground before departing.

At the ennoblement ceremony, the Emperor crowned Angron and Horus as co-Warmasters and assigned the primarchs and their Legions under their commands. The ceremony ended with the Emperor ordering Perturabo to reclaim the palace and its contents as raw materials.

• Lorgar and Number Eleven watched the palace rise from makeshift shelters while the Emperor tacitly allowed them to enter.
• Kiel and the World Eaters officers prepared for the ceremony, while Qin Xa explained his knowledge-copying chip and lent it to Fabius Bile.
• Qin Xa joined Angron at the Ritual Hall, where the Emperor praised the six primarchs who had led the Ullanor vanguard and announced that Angron and Horus would become Warmasters.
• Qin Xa lifted Angron's robe hem as the Emperor placed golden laurel crowns on Angron and Horus, prompting applause from the assembled Legions.
• The Emperor assigned Lion, Mortarion, Corax, Lorgar, Number Eleven, Rogal Dorn, Sanguinius, Ferrus, and Fulgrim to Horus, with the remaining primarchs serving under Angron.
• The Emperor declared the ceremony over and ordered Perturabo to reclaim the palace and everything inside it as raw materials.

Angron learned that the Emperor wanted him to destroy the perfect city to stop Lorgar’s worship from empowering the faith that could turn the Emperor into the Dark King. The Emperor warned that humanity might perish if a god was born among them, leaving Angron to face the order and its consequences.

• Perturabo accused Angron of compromising at Ullanor, while Angron credited Perturabo and Qin Xa for helping shape his victory and explained that he wanted to spare those who should live.
• The Emperor summoned Angron alone and ordered him to destroy the perfect city, shocking him because Perturabo treasured it.
• The Emperor explained that Lorgar’s worship of him was spreading through Number Eleven and the Eleventh Legion, and warned that faith could bring about humanity’s destruction.
• Angron sensed that the Emperor genuinely feared becoming a god, and the Emperor explained that he was resisting the Black King but that Lorgar’s faith was undermining that resistance.
• The Emperor said that destroying the perfect city could spare its billions from certain death, while Angron understood the city’s connection to faith and the Immaterium.

Angron and Qin Xa discussed the Emperor’s fear of ascending as the Dark King and agreed that Angron would only destroy the Perfect City under a written imperial decree. During a World Eaters briefing, Angron showed how the Ultramarines’ attempt to evacuate the city had spiraled into a massacre and promised his Legion a plan to prevent the same outcome.

• Qin Xa explained that the Emperor’s potential ascension as the Dark King could consume humanity, and Angron concluded that the Emperor feared accepting too much faith before completing the Webway.
• Angron refused to use Leman Russ as cover for the operation and agreed with Qin Xa that they would not proceed without a written imperial decree.
• After the Emperor sent the decree, the World Eaters fleet traveled through the Webway toward Khur, and Angron and Qin Xa briefed the Legion’s officers aboard the Resolute Determination.
• Qin Xa showed an illusion of the Ultramarines’ evacuation order escalating into a massacre after a mortal threw a wine bottle and an Ultramarine opened fire.
• Angron explained how one spark could trigger mass violence, then promised his officers he had a way to calm the people and evacuate the Perfect City obediently.