Chapter Summaries

He Shenyan barred Steve from returning to the fighting and told him to recover from the Warp’s influence. Meanwhile, Givadoron reached a firing position beneath the battlefield, but a Tzeentch demon stopped him; he detonated an enchanted magazine with the demon in his grasp, and Angron noticed the blast in the throne room.

• He Shenyan showed Steve how the Warp had damaged him and ordered him to focus on recovery instead of fighting.
• Givadoron crawled through a hidden passage carrying enchanted Bolter magazines and broke through a ceiling above the battlefield.
• Givadoron prepared to contact Angron so he could alert the Adeptus Custodes, but a Tzeentch demon seized control of his hand and immobilized him.
• The demon taunted Givadoron about Nurgle’s forces making a deal with Tzeentch and its god targeting Givadoron’s master.
• Givadoron tore off the demon’s claws, pulled it against his chest, and detonated an enchanted magazine, creating a Pillar of Fire.
• Angron looked up in the throne room.

Angron and the defenders destroyed the daemonic tide as the Emperor left the Throne Room and met He Shenyan. The Emperor chose to die rather than become a god, then departed to confront Tzeentch, leaving Guilliman grieving beneath a rising golden sun.

• Angron unleashed scarlet fire on the Nurgle daemons, and the Emperor’s voice then annihilated the remaining daemons from inside the Throne Room.
• The Emperor emerged, sent Trajann and the others away, and transformed the ruined Throne Room into light and heat.
• He Shenyan met the Emperor and pleaded for a way to prevent his death, but the Emperor refused to become a god and said humanity must shape its own future.
• The Emperor donned his golden armor and took up his sword, explaining that he would kill Tzeentch even though a god would die in the process.
• Guilliman fell to his knees and wept as a golden sun rose over Terra, marking the Emperor’s farewell.

He Shenyan realized that humanity’s faith was turning the Emperor into a new god and resolved to pull him back from ascension. He gathered Guilliman, Angron, and the surviving Astral Beacon Court psionicists to enact a plan that would connect humanity’s minds through the Astral Beacon.

• He Shenyan saw that the Emperor’s soul had been reforged by humanity’s worship, and learned that the Emperor would fully ascend in three hours.
• He Shenyan told Angron that the fight was not over, then summoned Guilliman and asked for his help.
• Guilliman summoned the 4,721 surviving psionicists of the Astral Beacon Court to the Forbidden Fortress and ordered them not to resist.
• He Shenyan linked the psionicists together and explained that they would burn their souls to power the Astral Beacon while he supplied the missing energy.
• He Shenyan revealed that he would use the Astral Beacon to connect all human minds and draw the Emperor down from godhood so he could survive.

He Shenyan sacrificed 4,700 Astral Beacon acolytes to gather the power needed to guide the Beacon, while Guilliman hoped he would succeed. A pillar of light rose from the Imperial Palace, and Sanguinius retrieved his feather from Ezekiel before promising to return soon.

• He Shenyan absorbed the acolytes’ psionic power as they died, while Guilliman watched and hoped the plan would work.
• Angron and Fulgrim waited on the steps and discussed the consequences if The Emperor of Mankind died.
• A painful golden pillar of light rose, incapacitating Fulgrim, Angron, and nearby Astartes.
• Ezekiel looked upon the pillar before Sanguinius appeared and asked for the white feather he had entrusted to him.
• Sanguinius examined the feather, told Ezekiel that death was only a brief rest, and sent him away, promising to return soon.

The Emperor pursued Tzeentch through the Warp, enduring its traps and attacks until he trapped the Chaos god and prepared to die with it. Meanwhile, Rila was awakened from his Dreadnought on Isstvan III and summoned by a vision of the Emperor, who told him that he needed help.

• The Emperor advanced through the Warp toward Tzeentch, burning its daemons while Tzeentch tried to wear him down and provoke him.
• On Isstvan III, the ancient Dreadnought Rila was awakened by golden power and walked from the underground hangar on one leg.
• Rila found himself on a golden bridge among gathered people, where a man in black robes told him that the Emperor needed his help.
• Tzeentch concealed itself behind sorcery and mocked the Emperor as his strength and spirit dwindled.
• The Emperor baited Tzeentch into revealing itself, stabbed it with his sword, and sealed it with golden chains.
• The Emperor let his heavenly fire fade and invited Tzeentch to kill him, intending to die alongside the trapped god.

The Emperor relived the memories of his first life as He Shenyan intervened to halt the awakening of the faith-born god within him. He Shenyan vanished after restoring the Emperor’s memories, then awoke in the Astral Beacon Hall and reassured the Primarchs that he had succeeded.

• As the Emperor’s blade remained embedded in Tzeentch, the Emperor remembered his childhood and the death of his father.
• The Emperor recalled dying as a barbarian while the god of humanity awakened inside him and consumed his body and memories.
• He Shenyan appeared in the barbarian’s hut and used the Astral Beacon to connect with humanity’s minds, blurring their beliefs about the Emperor and asking them to help him.
• He Shenyan restored the barbarian’s memories as history rushed forward, then disappeared after telling him that humanity had protected him as he had protected them.
• At the Astral Beacon Hall, Angron, Robert, and Fulgrim argued over He Shenyan, who woke and told them to quiet down.
• When Angron asked whether he had succeeded, He Shenyan teased him for doubting his ability and reassured the Primarchs.

The Emperor and He Shenyan prepared and shared a roasted lamb leg in the damaged Throne Room, where He Shenyan also recounted the brutal choices a devil had forced on him in the past. After their meal, the Emperor rose to attend to business while He Shenyan went to rest, warning him to keep Angron and Fulgrim from fighting.

• The Emperor invited He Shenyan to watch him prepare a long-lost roasted lamb leg, and He Shenyan negotiated for the best portion.
• He Shenyan questioned what Guilliman would think if he found the Emperor barbecuing beneath the Golden Throne, and the Emperor imagined Guilliman joining them for the meal.
• He Shenyan coughed up golden blood and discussed the severe assimilation caused by connecting to the Astral Beacon.
• He Shenyan told the Emperor how he had refused a devil's choices for three days, resulting in the deaths of everyone the devil had presented, before the devil fled.
• The Emperor roasted the lamb leg, shared it with He Shenyan, and then stood to handle business as He Shenyan went to rest and warned him about Angron and Fulgrim.

While Guilliman oversaw Terra’s reconstruction, the Emperor warned him about the silence from Mars and urged him to trust his brothers rather than decide their roles for them. The Emperor apologized for his past failures and left to speak with his sons, while Sanguinius, Angron, and Fulgrim were caught listening outside Guilliman’s command post.

• Guilliman directed disaster relief and reconstruction around the Imperial Palace while the Emperor watched in silence.
• The Emperor pointed out that Mars had failed to respond and reminded Guilliman to investigate every possibility to prevent further deaths.
• The Emperor encouraged Guilliman to trust his brothers and apologized for the choices that had damaged his sons, including his treatment of Lorgar and Angron.
• The Emperor said he would do what a father should have done long ago, then revealed Sanguinius, Angron, and Fulgrim outside the door.
• Guilliman embraced Sanguinius while Angron and Fulgrim stood with him.

Guilliman reunited with Sanguinius, who explained how he returned from the Warp, while Guilliman teased him about the cult and commerce built around his memory. After Guilliman left to investigate a repair device, The Emperor told Fulgrim that he was not merely a clone, leaving Fulgrim shaken by the truth about himself.

• Sanguinius explained that he had regained strength in the Warp and used a Mage's power to return to the material realm.
• Guilliman told Sanguinius about Sanguinala, the temples and statues dedicated to him, and a smuggling ship carrying one million statues.
• Steve Rogers contacted Guilliman about a handheld device that could repair buildings, and the personal terminal opened a portal so Guilliman could visit him.
• Guilliman left Sanguinius in charge of the on-site command work, and Sanguinius began examining the personal terminal.
• Fulgrim confessed to The Emperor that he believed himself to be a clone, but The Emperor told him Fabius Bile could not clone his son and reminded him that every man held both good and evil within him.

Angron spoke with the Emperor, who urged him to pursue what he wanted and praised the World Eaters. Aboard the Vengeance, Guilliman watched a Handheld Repair Array reverse time to restore ruined buildings and eagerly asked to see He Shenyan’s list of inventions.

• Angron challenged Fulgrim about his dazed expression, and Fulgrim left to find a ship after receiving a secret task from the Emperor.
• The Emperor told Angron to do what he wanted and called the World Eaters a good name.
• Guilliman visited Steve in the Vengeance’s medical room and learned about the Magic Array Hub and the planet-sized ship.
• Steve and Guilliman teleported to a testing site, where Guilliman saw a Handheld Repair Array restore collapsed buildings by reversing their state in time.
• The Magic Array Hub played He Shenyan’s message about inventions for the Empire, and Guilliman urgently demanded to see the list.

Guilliman examined Vengeance’s personal protective shield and experimental infantry cannon, recognizing the shield’s potential if it could be mass-produced. Meanwhile, He Shenyan dreamed of meeting Formless Ones who claimed to remember him destroying many worlds, then returned to sleep with their words lingering in his mind.

• The Magic Array Hub demonstrated the Compressed Personal Magic Protective Shield, which could withstand five standard fireball attacks and could be produced in large quantities if Vengeance had enough energy.
• Guilliman saw the shield’s strategic potential for Astartes and the Astra Militarum, but learned that Holy Terra lacked the energy needed for mass production.
• Steve tried the Portable Infantry Destruction Cannon, accidentally firing a beam before the Magic Array Hub stopped it and warned that the prototype was unpredictable.
• He Shenyan used Whispers in the Dream and encountered octopus-like Formless Ones, who said they had once spoken with him and remembered him destroying many worlds.
• He Shenyan denied remembering the Formless Ones, ended the dream, and returned to sleep as his body and soul continued to recover.

After the war, Litosys saw the Lucifer Black Guard struggle with catastrophic losses and a shortage of experienced officers. Lictor brought Garviel Loken before The Emperor, who offered him a new mission and asked whether he would accept.

• Litosys reported the Black Guard's losses to Attwood Alger, who took command of the depleted 7th Regiment despite his injuries.
• Lictor used his stealth armor to find Garviel Loken, who was helping clear Terra's ruins, and conscripted him for a mission.
• Loken challenged Lictor's authority until Lictor revealed he was a former Adeptus Custodes Shield-Captain and said The Emperor had ordered the mission.
• Lictor transported Loken to meet The Emperor, who acknowledged his guilt and self-imposed exile.
• The Emperor told Loken he was not guilty and asked whether he would accept a new mission.

Garviel Loken endured a deadly magical trial aboard the Vengeance so the ship’s Magic Array Hub could upgrade his armor for a mission. Meanwhile, The Emperor told He Shenyan that Kronos had called for help, and arranged for an aged treant to provide cross-dimensional services after Loken’s upgrade was complete.

• The Magic Array Hub led Loken to the Forge Room and ordered him to grasp an Ice Crystal Core for an upgrade before his mission.
• Loken fought through the crushing cold and resistance, reached the crystal, and collapsed as the Magic Array Hub began upgrading his armor.
• The Emperor told He Shenyan that Kronos had prayed for strength to protect the innocent and that the Empire lacked spare forces to send support.
• The Emperor said he would dispatch an Astartes from the Great Crusade era and revealed that a treant could provide cross-dimensional travel services.
• The treant offered He Shenyan a hundred-thousand-year-old Leaf of Life for three hundred stellar cores, then agreed to wait about three hours before beginning work.

Garviel Loken underwent an ascension ritual that gave him extraordinary abilities, then began crossing worlds under a Treefolk’s guidance. He arrived amid Darius’s assault on a cultist army, while He Shenyan fought Blood Knights elsewhere in the same world.

• The Magic Array Hub told Garviel Loken that the Ice Crystal Core had reshaped his body and granted him powers, then helped him don his armor.
• Garviel Loken restrained himself from attacking the Treefolk after The Emperor ordered him to follow it, and the Treefolk warned him not to open his eyes during the crossing.
• The Treefolk sent Garviel Loken through a storm of lightning and wind toward a world in need of support.
• Darius slaughtered the soldiers of a cult after his Legion had been consumed by their sacrificial array, while a scarlet-clad lord watched from a hillside.
• He Shenyan’s barbarian form used wind and earth to attack the Blood Knights and block their advance toward Darius.

Udyr defeated the Blood Knights’ leader after stopping his charge and crushing his lance, while Darius cut down the attendant and confronted the Blood Noble who had sent thousands to die. The noble revealed a blood shield and attacked Darius, leaving their fight unresolved.

• Udyr drew on the forest’s power and stopped the Blood Knights’ leader’s lance charge with his bare hands.
• Udyr crushed the leader’s lance, condemned his violence, and killed him with a flaming iron fist.
• Darius killed the attendant with his axe and confronted the terrified Blood Noble, who pleaded for his life by invoking his mother, Maryls.
• Darius rejected the noble’s plea and swung The Black Cleaver, but the noble blocked it with a blood shield and transformed into a stronger fighter.
• The Blood Noble killed his own warhorse, threatened Darius, and claimed that blood protected him from harm.

Vladimir sacrificed captives to gain power from his god, while Darius killed him after finding him responsible for a massacre. Garviel Loken arrived in Valoran with the Treefolk, who advised him to begin his mission in Noxus, where a Primarch and two Astartes were present.

• Vladimir drained prisoners to create a blood offering, but his god demanded the sacrifice of stronger beings for greater power and left him a secret art.
• Darius deflected Vladimir’s blood spells, condemned him for tormenting and killing his people, and killed him.
• Darius surveyed the massacre of tens of thousands and left alone for camp to report the failed operation.
• The Treefolk revealed that he had brought Garviel Loken to Valoran, also known as Runeterra, while Loken had been unconscious.
• The Treefolk recommended that Loken start his mission in Noxus because it had one Primarch and two Astartes.

Loken learned that the Primarch he was being sent to help was named Sion, and the Treefolk sent him flying toward his destination. Sion returned to camp after a battle, reflecting on Noxus’s setbacks and a plague threatening the Immortal Bastion.

• Loken asked the Treefolk about the Primarch, and it used a spell that accidentally turned the sky green before revealing his name was Sion.
• The Treefolk conjured an image of Sion and flung Loken across the sky toward his mission.
• Sion returned to camp with his soldiers and ordered them to rest, inspect the troops, and report any illness.
• Sion considered how his plan to unite Valoran had faltered in Duinmans and how a plague had weakened the Immortal Bastion.

Sion worried about the poor state of his enemy’s army and a plague in the Immortal Bastion, while Swain and Kronos struggled to understand the outbreak. Kronos connected it to an identical plague in Piltover seventy years earlier and urged Swain to investigate the link.

• Sion questioned why his enemy’s soldiers were so poorly equipped and wondered what had gone wrong at the Immortal Bastion.
• Swain worked through Noxus’s government business as Kronos reported that forty-one more plague victims had become mindless and violent.
• Swain told Kronos that a young spellcaster from the Placidium of Navori was traveling to help investigate the plague.
• Kronos described how the infected retained their physical abilities but lost their minds, instincts, and appetite.
• Swain revealed that scholars had found records of an identical plague in Piltover seventy years earlier, and Kronos insisted the two outbreaks were connected.

Kronos patrolled the transformed Immortal Bastion before encountering an armored Astartes named Seburus, who said he had come to support Noxus by order of The Emperor. Meanwhile, He Shenyan spoke with The Emperor about his plans and his intention to leave much of the Imperium’s affairs to his sons.

• Kronos admired the Immortal Bastion’s strict security and curfew, which had helped eliminate gangs and crime in Noxus.
• Kronos sensed a threat while walking to the barracks and evaded an armored Astartes emerging from an alley.
• The newcomer removed his helmet, identified himself as Seburus, and said The Emperor had ordered him to provide support.
• He Shenyan urged The Emperor to address the Great Rift and other Imperial problems, but The Emperor said he would handle the Rift and leave other matters alone.
• The Emperor explained that limiting knowledge of his return would prevent another faith-driven ascension, then shared a biscuit with He Shenyan.

Loken posed as Seburus and spoke with Kronos and Swain, who questioned him about his service and the state of the Empire. He Shenyan visited the White Tower Council, then posted a barter offer on the Internal Network and prepared to handle the flood of responses.

• Loken claimed he had served for 274 years and refused to reveal his Chapter, rank, or identity to Kronos.
• Kronos asked Loken what the Empire was like now.
• He Shenyan returned to the White Tower Council and met Xiya, who said she had finally broken her curse of losing every newcomer she guided.
• He Shenyan returned to his room, browsed the Trading Zone, and published a post titled “Barter.”
• He Shenyan received over three hundred trade requests and countless private messages within five minutes, then got up to work.