Chapter Summaries

Qin Xa visited Number Eleven’s homeworld to check on the Eleventh Legion’s supplies and investigate its Primarch’s biological research. After confirming Number Eleven had stopped prohibited experiments, Qin Xa reported back to The Emperor, who allowed Number Eleven to live.

• Qin Xa arrived at Number Eleven’s homeworld and met the Primarch with his Xenos brother in the forest.
• Number Eleven told Qin Xa that the supply situation was normal and led him to an underground laboratory.
• Qin Xa saw gene-seed samples from several Primarchs, including the second Primarch, and learned Number Eleven wanted World Eaters gene-seed to study communication.
• Number Eleven explained that he had stopped evolutionary research after The Emperor banned it, and Qin Xa found no evidence it had continued.
• Qin Xa reported his findings to The Emperor, who replied that Number Eleven could continue to live.

Qin Xa returned to the Librarian fleet after investigating Number Eleven and ordered it to sail for Nuceria. During a routine meeting, he learned about Farr and discussed the Destiny he had changed for the crew, while the Captain embraced the name Wilson and pledged himself to Qin Xa.

• Qin Xa emerged from the snow aboard the fleet and told the Captain they could leave, so the fleet departed the starport and entered the Immaterium for Nuceria.
• The Captain held the fleet’s routine meeting, where Qin Xa noticed the young conference-room manager Farr and learned of his promising career.
• Qin Xa and the Captain discussed how Qin Xa had changed the Destiny of the White Knight and its crew, and the Captain shared his hopes of raising Osiris and growing old with his wife.
• The Captain revealed that his parents had never named him and that Luther had given him no name, then asked Qin Xa to let him take the name Wilson.
• Qin Xa agreed, and Wilson knelt and pledged to serve him until his last breath before Qin Xa ended the meeting and went to enjoy the journey.

Qin Xa led the White Knight fleet through a sudden Immaterium storm and confronted a manifestation of Slaanesh's power. After the storm repeatedly engulfed the fleet, the Tuchulcha Engine carried the ships through it and back into reality.

• Olya practiced cutting Hrud tissue under Qin Xa's guidance while he recalled learning prosthetic modification from the White Scars.
• A storm shook the laboratory, and Brown took Olya and Quadrant to the shelter while Qin Xa went to the Command Deck.
• Qin Xa found the fleet caught in an Immaterium storm and used Psychic Torrents to clear paths through it, while the Librarians protected the Gellar Field Devices.
• A demon formed from a portion of Slaanesh's power confronted Qin Xa and warned that he could not protect the fleet from the dangers of the Immaterium.
• Qin Xa opened a portal back to the ship, and the Tuchulcha Engine carried the fleet through the storm into reality near a star system.

Qin Xa’s fleet emerged from the Immaterium seven months off course and encountered a silent Death Guard ship, then narrowly survived a prophetic vision of an ambush by three more Death Guard vessels. After finding Captain Garro and learning that a vast Immaterium storm had isolated the Imperium, Qin Xa faced a new crisis.

• The Tuchulcha Engine revealed that the fleet had emerged seven solar months later than intended because the Immaterium storm was too intense.
• Qin Xa sent Varius and a boarding party to investigate an unresponsive Death Guard warship, where they found a tower built from Blank corpses and discovered Captain Garro inside.
• Three Death Guard warships approached and opened fire, but Qin Xa foresaw the attack, moved the White Knight, and ordered a strike that destroyed all three vessels.
• Qin Xa learned from Garro that an Immaterium storm had crippled travel and communications across the Imperium, leaving star systems isolated.
• Qin Xa reacted with alarm to the news and warned Varius that fate was fraught with hardship.

Qin Xa recovered Garro from the Eisenstein, learned that Mortarion was at Cthul, and set out to confront the Primarch. After the Chaos Gods obstructed his attempt to contact Angron, Qin Xa sent Kamas to Nuceria with the Tuchulcha Engine and prepared to carry the Librarian fleet through the Immaterium himself.

• Qin Xa helped Garro recover his speech and learned that the Eisenstein had been attacked by ships from the Death Guard's 1st Company.
• Garro told Qin Xa that Mortarion was at Cthul, and Qin Xa said he would go there to kill the Primarch with a psychic bomb; Garro agreed to accompany him.
• Qin Xa's crew repaired the Eisenstein and discovered that its crew and Garro's Space Marines had died from prolonged exposure to the Blank-powered Anti-Psychic Device.
• Qin Xa tried to contact Angron through the Immaterium, but the Four Gods of Chaos stretched the distance to Angron's Soul Projection and blocked the message.
• Qin Xa ordered Kamas to take the Tuchulcha Engine to Nuceria and tell Angron to do what he could while Qin Xa investigated their enemies.
• Qin Xa used the Pocket Universe to store the Librarian fleet, then opened a portal and entered the Immaterium in the flesh.

Qin Xa traveled through the Immaterium to reach Mortarion and planned to assassinate him if he had rebelled. After they fought aboard the Endurance, Qin Xa found no signs of Chaos corruption, and the two cautiously accepted that they had mistaken each other for traitors.

• Tzeentch protected Qin Xa from the other Chaos Gods and carried him through the Immaterium, where the Flesh Compass guided him through a storm toward Khor.
• Qin Xa reached a star system where the Death Guard fleet was assisting damaged ships from other Legions and spotted Mortarion aboard the Endurance.
• Qin Xa entered Mortarion's chambers, where Mortarion had used numerology to predict his arrival and concluded Qin Xa had come to kill him.
• Mortarion attacked Qin Xa with his scythe, but Qin Xa used psychic force to pin him against the wall.
• Qin Xa and Mortarion accused each other of treachery, then stopped fighting after Qin Xa saw no Chaos corruption on Mortarion and both considered the other's explanation.

Mortarion learned that Qin Xa was not a traitor, but dismissed Qin Xa’s warning about Typhon and investigated the fleet’s disastrous passage through an Immaterium storm. Typhon blamed a corrupted Navigator and began rounding up the fleet’s Navigators, then started killing them in the sanctuary.

• Mortarion and Qin Xa argued over their mistaken accusations, and Mortarion admitted he was relieved Qin Xa had arrived amid the storms and the Emperor’s Children’s rebellion.
• Qin Xa warned Mortarion that Typhon was likely behind any betrayal in the Death Guard, but vanished when Typhon entered with the investigation’s results.
• Typhon presented an elder of the Zegenda Navigator family as the culprit behind the fleet’s losses, while the elder claimed a corrupted force had invaded the navigator’s mind.
• Typhon showed Mortarion footage of the mutated Navigator and evidence of ritual corruption, then ordered every Navigator in the fleet arrested and screened.
• Typhon entered the Navigator sanctuary, trapped the assembled Navigators inside a ring of blood, and killed two of them with snaps of his fingers.

Qin Xa exposed Typhon’s betrayal to Mortarion and pursued him into the Immaterium, where they encountered Nurgle’s Greater Daemon Ku’gath. Qin Xa and Mortarion fought together to banish Ku’gath, while Typhon and the Navigators were removed from the sanctuary.

• Mortarion confronted Typhon over killing the Navigators, and Typhon admitted he had betrayed him for eternity and power.
• Mortarion attacked Typhon’s Space Marine followers as Qin Xa pursued Typhon, who fled through a portal into the Immaterium.
• Qin Xa discovered that Typhon’s killings had weakened reality and summoned Ku’gath, Nurgle’s favored Greater Daemon.
• Qin Xa and Ku’gath entered the real universe, where Qin Xa informed Mortarion of the daemon’s identity and Typhon and the Navigators were teleported away.
• Qin Xa and Mortarion attacked Ku’gath together, using psychic power and an anti-psyker relic to destroy its body and banish it.

Qin Xa brought Watcher Kang to identify Chaos-corrupted Navigators while Mortarion confronted Typhon about his betrayal and the fate of the Barbarus-born Death Guard. After learning the truth, Mortarion rejected Typhon, and Qin Xa killed him with the Sirius Sword.

• Qin Xa returned with Watcher Kang and Librarians, and Kang identified Navigators corrupted by Chaos.
• Varius led the corrupted Navigators away under the pretense of treating them, while Mortarion recognized the deception.
• Mortarion questioned Typhon, who admitted his plan to summon Nurgle’s emissaries and explained why many Barbarus-born Marines had sided with him.
• Mortarion deduced that most Barbarus-born Death Guard had been turned by Typhon, though more than twenty thousand remained loyal to him.
• Qin Xa used the Sirius Sword to sever Typhon’s head and destroy his soul and body.

After Typhon’s death, Mortarion prepared to fight the traitorous Second Company fleet as unrest weakened his battered forces. Qin Xa’s Librarian fleet ambushed the enemy, but Mortarion questioned why Qin Xa had kept it hidden until then.

• Qin Xa confirmed Typhon was dead, and Mortarion ordered his forces to prepare for battle when the Second Company fleet arrived.
• Mortarion’s storm-damaged ships faced violent unrest, and he ordered the Captain to suppress the sailors by force.
• Mortarion’s fleet exchanged fire with Grulgor’s Second Company fleet, then retreated toward Kerl as the enemy proved stronger.
• Qin Xa warned that the fighting must not reach Kerl, then teleported away while Mortarion halted the retreat.
• Qin Xa’s Librarian fleet appeared behind the Second Company fleet and attacked, trapping two enemy warships together with psychic power.
• Mortarion confronted Qin Xa about hiding the fleet, and Qin Xa said he had not deployed it earlier because he did not fully trust the Terrans.

Garro and Varius led the boarding action against the Death Guard Second Company and killed Grulgor, discovering that Typhon had ordered him toward the 0901 system to fight Barbarus-born loyalists. After Grulgor died, Nurgle transformed him into a Chaos Spawn and then remade him with a fragment of Typhon’s soul into a Daemon Prince.

• Mortarion and the Librarian fleet captured enemy ships, while Garro joined Varius’s boarding force despite the Eisenstein’s damage.
• Garro and Varius fought through the cruiser and confronted Grulgor, whom Garro killed after scattering the Blank’s ashes.
• Varius and Garro found Typhon’s order revealing that Barbarus-born loyalists were fighting in the 0901 system and that Typhon had sought the Emperor’s Children’s aid against them.
• Mortarion learned that an organized force of Barbarus-born loyalists still existed and welcomed the news.
• Nurgle took Grulgor’s soul, transformed him into a Chaos Spawn, and used a fragment of Typhon’s soul to remake him as a Daemon Prince.

Mortarion oversaw the cleansing and absorption of captured traitor warships, then resolved to fight for the people of the Imperium’s northern territories. Aximand arrived with news that loyal Death Guard were under siege in system 0901, but Mortarion suspected a trap and threatened him with surrender or death.

• Mortarion and Qin Xa inspected the captured ships as their crews and equipment were reorganized and Chaos-cleansing operations began.
• Qin Xa explained that Imperial Truth supplies could help restrain Chaos influence, and Mortarion decided to fight for the people who needed him.
• The Librarian forces, Blanks, and Mechanicus personnel cleansed the captured warships, while Qin Xa gave Mortarion an anti-Chaos manual.
• Nearly a hundred warships joined Mortarion’s fleet, and he prepared to rescue loyal Death Guard in the northern territories.
• Aximand arrived and reported that the Emperor’s Children were besieging loyal Death Guard in system 0901, offering to guide Mortarion there.
• Mortarion questioned Aximand’s account and threatened him with the Endurance’s firepower unless he surrendered or died.

Aximand escaped the White Knight’s Pocket Universe and reached Fulgrim’s flagship, where he falsely promised that Typhon and Mortarion would arrive as allies. As Qin Xa prepared the fleet to emerge into the system, Aximand remained intent on escaping the coming battle and returning to his Gene-father.

• Varius imprisoned Aximand among the Blanks and began probing his mind, while two released Grey Knights identified him as a traitor.
• Aximand vanished from the Pocket Universe through an unknown artifact and appeared aboard the Emperor’s Pride as Qin Xa observed the system.
• Qin Xa discovered that Fulgrim’s Emperor’s Children and part of the Death Guard were bombarding a planet defended by loyalist Death Guard.
• Aximand told Fulgrim that Typhon had corrupted Mortarion and that the Death Guard would come to fight alongside them.
• Fulgrim celebrated the promised arrival, while Aximand reconsidered the mysteries surrounding his escape and hoped to teleport away before the battle.

Mortarion’s fleet ambushed Fulgrim’s forces after Abaddon exposed their plan, while Qin Xa deployed the Librarian fleet and went to aid the loyalists on the planet. Mortarion then appeared in the blizzard before Durak Rask and ordered him to withdraw.

• Fulgrim contacted Mortarion and Typhon, mistaking Qin Xa’s psychic disguise for their true forms, while Eshmand prepared to attack him.
• Abaddon entered the Emperor’s Pride, killed two Emperor’s Children, warned Fulgrim of the ambush, and prompted Fulgrim to order his fleet to fire.
• Mortarion’s fleet struck the Emperor’s Children before their shields were raised, and Qin Xa brought the Librarian fleet behind them before heading to the planet.
• Durak Rask rejected a traitor’s demand to surrender and organized the fortress’s defense against the attacking mortal auxilia, Emperor’s Children, and Death Guard.
• Qin Xa’s blizzard reached the fortress, and Rask followed it to the Endurance, where Mortarion told him to withdraw.

Mortarion questioned the rescued Rask and Aximand to learn why the Death Guard and Emperor’s Children had rebelled. After discovering that Typhon had deceived the lost Death Guard and hearing how Fulgrim changed after encountering Laer relics, Qin Xa and Mortarion decided to find Abaddon before seeking Horus.

• Mortarion learned from Qin Xa that Rask had rescued more than thirty thousand loyal Death Guard, while roughly ninety thousand had joined the rebels alongside the Emperor’s Children.
• Rask explained that Typhon had exploited rumors and the lost Legion’s isolation, while Rask and his followers had resisted, attacked the traitors, and been trapped on a planet.
• Qin Xa and Rask concluded that Typhon could travel between star systems through the Immaterium, rather than splitting himself in two.
• Aximand recounted that Fulgrim changed after obtaining a Laer sword and armor, and Qin Xa speculated that an Eldar had placed a rune on Aximand to activate the Pocket Universe.
• Mortarion and Qin Xa agreed to stop speculating about Horus and confirm his allegiance, but Qin Xa proposed capturing Abaddon first and Mortarion agreed to the plan.

Abaddon left Fulgrim after abandoning his plan to help him, but Qin Xa intercepted his ship and learned that Horus had been taken by Tzeentch’s forces. Qin Xa ordered Abaddon to help him rescue Horus, threatening to kill him if he refused.

• Abaddon confronted Fulgrim over Mortarion’s escape, then left the Emperor’s Children fleet and entered the Immaterium.
• Qin Xa stopped Abaddon’s ship, pulled it into realspace, and controlled Abaddon as Luna Wolves and Justaerin forces converged on them.
• Qin Xa read Abaddon’s memories and learned that Horus’s ship had been overwhelmed by Warp Creatures and that Kairos had instructed Abaddon to capture Mortarion in exchange for Horus.
• Qin Xa struck Abaddon for following Kairos’s plan, while Abaddon defended his attempt to save his Primarch.
• Qin Xa told Abaddon to come with him to rescue Horus and raised him with psychic power when he resisted.

Qin Xa restrained Abaddon and set out alone into the Immaterium to rescue Horus, recruiting Samus as his guide to Tzeentch’s Domain. The chapter ended as Tzeentch’s crystal realm appeared before them.

• Qin Xa had Librarians chain and restrain Abaddon, then promised the Luna Wolves he would attempt to rescue Horus while they followed Mortarion’s command.
• Qin Xa released the fleet in the Kerr system and entered the Immaterium, where he visited Salum in his psychic domain.
• Salum gave Qin Xa a rune-inscribed stone that summoned Samus, who agreed to guide him to Tzeentch’s Domain.
• Samus asked about the Dark King’s plans, and Qin Xa said the Gods’ game would fail.
• The avatars of the Four Gods surrounded Qin Xa as Samus directed him onward, and Tzeentch’s crystal realm appeared beneath his feet.

Qin Xa entered Tzeentch’s Domain to free Horus, but rejected Tzeentch’s demand and was forced out without him. He returned to Cal, where Uslan Eldrad warned that the sector would become a war zone and offered to help humanity travel through the Webway.

• Qin Xa met Tzeentch’s mouthpiece, Kye, and demanded to see Horus, then witnessed Horus’s tormenting visions of repeated lives ending in tragedy.
• Tzeentch offered to release Horus if Qin Xa caused nine to the ninth power changes, but Qin Xa cut down the mouthpiece and tried to escape with Horus.
• Tzeentch kept Horus bound in his Domain and blasted Qin Xa out into the Immaterium, where Samus warned him against trying again without certainty.
• Qin Xa asked Samus how to cross the Immaterium storm, then used a compass to travel through The Veil to Cal.
• Qin Xa found Mortarion evacuating Cal’s people and heard Uslan Eldrad predict that the sector would become a war zone.
• Uslan told Qin Xa to gather the loyalist Primarchs and Legions, then offered to help humanity travel through the Webway.

Qin Xa traveled into the Webway with Uslan and Mortarion, then met the Laughing God in the Black Library. The Laughing God proposed a deal that could help Qin Xa gain Immaterium power without becoming a slave of Chaos, and Qin Xa chose to accept the risk.

• Uslan brought Qin Xa and Mortarion to meet a Harlequin troupe, whose Veilwalker invited Qin Xa to meet the Laughing God and told Mortarion that a follower had guided Aximand out of the storm.
• Qin Xa traveled with the Harlequins to a vast structure in the Webway and watched a play depicting the Laughing God's deception of the Outsider, Saranoqa.
• The Laughing God appeared beside Qin Xa, led him through the Black Library, and spoke plainly about Qin Xa's inability to rescue Horus.
• The Laughing God proposed that Qin Xa might gain power from concepts in the Immaterium without necessarily being corrupted by them, and offered a deal through a door.
• Qin Xa considered the risk and told the Laughing God to open the door.

Qin Xa entered the Black Library with the Laughing God and received the Book of Chaos, which revealed four paths to godhood that might let him claim Chaos’s concepts and destroy the Four Gods. The Laughing God explained that he was helping Qin Xa because he was a problem.

• The Laughing God guided Qin Xa through the Black Library and warned him not to perceive the shifting place with ordinary human senses.
• The Laughing God led Qin Xa to a floating book called the Fourfold Trial, and Qin Xa read its four riddles tied to the Chaos Gods.
• Qin Xa and the Laughing God discussed the trials’ demands, including gathering knowledge, showing courage, saving others, and pursuing perfection.
• The Laughing God explained that completing a trial might let Qin Xa claim Chaos’s concepts and potentially kill the Four Gods at their root.
• Qin Xa hung the Book of Chaos at his waist and asked the Laughing God why he was helping him.
• The Laughing God replied that Qin Xa was a problem.