Chapter Summaries

Guilliman welcomed Jaghatai Khan back and showed him records of the Imperium’s history and the Emperor’s recovery, giving the Khan hope for humanity’s future. Their conversation ended awkwardly when Little Horus and Yvraine entered, and the Khan mistook Guilliman’s relationship with Yvraine.

• Guilliman reassured the shaken Jaghatai Khan that the powerful Living Saint was human and welcomed him back.
• Guilliman led the Khan to his office, where the Khan read about the Siege of Terra and the Inquisition’s betrayal.
• After learning that the Emperor had recovered, the Khan admitted he feared humanity had no future, then wept with relief that hope had returned.
• Little Horus entered with Yvraine, and the Khan guessed that Guilliman was involved with the Aeldari, prompting Guilliman to protest.

Guilliman, Yvraine, and Jaghatai Khan traded teasing remarks about Guilliman’s feelings, while the Khan met Little Horus and told him he had once been a Khan. Elsewhere, He Shenyan resisted Slaanesh’s advances and drove the Chaos god away, though he was left shaken in the Webway.

• Guilliman tried to hide his embarrassment by asking why Yvraine was still aboard his ship, but she called his excuse clumsy.
• Jaghatai Khan teased Guilliman about his feelings for Yvraine and suggested he should marry her.
• Jaghatai introduced himself to Little Horus as the Warhawk and Khan, then told him, “You once were.”
• He Shenyan cursed at Slaanesh and prepared a psionic bomb when the Chaos god continued staring at him.
• Slaanesh withdrew through the curtain, leaving He Shenyan alone in the Webway.

The Emperor searched for Magnus’s scattered soul fragments to prevent his resurrection as an uncontrollable Psionic threat, while He Shenyan left the Warp to resist Slaanesh’s lingering influence. Meanwhile, Sanguinius and Angron continued visiting the Empire’s Chapters, and Angron grew frustrated that he had to conceal his identity; the ship was bound for Isstvan III.

• The Emperor told He Shenyan that he was tracking Magnus’s soul fragments, with nine known and one already destroyed, because Magnus could become dangerous if resurrected incomplete.
• He Shenyan admitted he had no perfect solution, then left the Warp to steady himself and considered visiting one of two shops at the White Tower.
• Sanguinius and Angron continued their tour of the Empire, with Sanguinius taking Scions aboard as guards whenever he visited a Chapter.
• Angron complained that he had to hide his face and identity from the Scions, but Sanguinius explained that the Empire had not announced his return.
• Angron left Sanguinius’s room to train, while Sanguinius read and waited for their ship to reach Isstvan III.

He Shenyan bought coordinates to unregistered worlds from Black to support a plan to train loyal, capable officials for the Empire. Meanwhile, Frank and Bonavia arrived on Isstvan III and met Fulgrim, who was ready to lead Frank to his next task.

• He Shenyan met the Trans-dimensional Mage Black at the White Tower and traded the super-soldier transformation plan for coordinates to unregistered worlds.
• Black warned He Shenyan against imposing sweeping reforms on the worlds, and He Shenyan dismissed his advice about changing bodies and emotions.
• He Shenyan told The Emperor that the plan would provide the Empire with experienced, loyal officials within at most twenty years, while also serving as a fallback if they failed.
• Bonavia and Frank landed on Isstvan III, where Bonavia saw the devastation left by the massacre.
• Frank challenged Fulgrim to say what he had done during the Siege of Terra, then lowered his weapon after Fulgrim admitted he did not know.
• Frank greeted Fulgrim and told him to lead the way to the task he had for him.

Litosys was recruited by a secret Imperial organization for a plan requiring capable, loyal people. On Isstvan III, Frank learned that he must enter an echo of the betrayal to save trapped souls, where he encountered Saul Tarvitz and an unknown black-armored warrior.

• Litosys killed 173 rebels while holding a corridor, then met two supposed Munitorum officials who revealed their secret organization and recruited him for an Imperial plan.
• Fulgrim explained to Frank that Isstvan III held an echo trapping souls in the betrayal and that Frank had to save them without killing anyone.
• Saul Tarvitz fought to survive among the ruins of Choral City, uncertain whether he was reliving the battle or remembering it.
• A black-armored warrior killed three World Eaters who were hunting Tarvitz, then called for him to come out.

Frank Castle, calling himself Punisher, fought off a squad of World Eaters in the underground passage while Saul Tarvitz helped him. Frank left one enemy alive and asked Saul for a place to interrogate him.

• Saul Tarvitz asked the unfamiliar warrior who he was, and Frank Castle gave the name Punisher and warned him that enemies were coming.
• Frank shot down the charging World Eaters until his Bolter ran out of ammunition, then fought them with his combat knife.
• Frank killed the World Eater who challenged him, and Saul Tarvitz shot four more as the remaining attackers surrounded Frank.
• Frank kept the last wounded World Eater alive, stopped his bleeding, and knocked him unconscious.
• Frank carried the prisoner and asked Saul Tarvitz where his position was and where he could find a room for interrogation.

Frank Castle told Saul Tarvitz that the loyalists on Isstvan III had died, and Tarvitz recovered the memory of their final stand and sacrifice. In the real universe, Fulgrim stopped carving a fallen Astartes’s name and drew a sword from the void.

• Frank Castle emerged from interrogating a World Eater and warned Saul Tarvitz that traitor reinforcements would soon reach Choral City.
• Frank told Saul Tarvitz that everyone there was dead and that Nathaniel Garro had escaped to Terra with news of the rebellion.
• Saul Tarvitz remembered the loyalists’ last stand at the Palace of the Cantor and their resolve to face death together.
• Fulgrim carved the name and life of a fallen Astartes into stone while Bonavia watched him.
• Fulgrim abruptly stopped carving, summoned a longsword from the void, and looked at his reflection in its blade.

He Shenyan began investigating a world for the Empire’s colonization expedition and discovered it was far more dangerous than expected. In that world, John Rambo fought hordes of Walking Corpses until a mysterious voice contacted him and a golden light appeared in the forest.

• Litosys accepted an offer to lead a colonization expedition to another universe after being told that refusing would erase his memories.
• He Shenyan entered the first world to assess it and realized its conditions were far more dangerous than the expedition had requested.
• John Rambo fought Walking Corpses near a survivor camp, recalling how the outbreak began and how he had survived for a month and a half.
• After Rambo wished for peaceful sleep, a voice told him there was no God or Heaven in that world and assured him he was not mad.
• Rambo turned his M16 toward himself, but a golden light flashed through the forest and caught his attention.

Captain Litosys arrived on a world stricken by a supernatural flesh curse and found corpses that suggested humans there were being hunted by the cursed. After identifying Rambo as a local survivor, Litosys subdued him and announced that he would conscript him into the Empire.

• Litosys received orders to assess the world while prioritizing his own survival, then teleported into a mountain forest wearing experimental Power Armor.
• Litosys discovered a pile of pale corpses bearing human bite marks and analyzed a bullet, tissue samples, and traces of a curse with his armor’s Glyph Array.
• The Glyph Array identified an infectious flesh curse that made its victims crave human flesh and assigned Litosys a mission to obtain a sample from an evolved victim.
• Litosys found a crude shelter and examined its firearms while Rambo watched from nearby with binoculars.
• Litosys detected Rambo, attacked and stunned him, then denied responsibility for the curse and introduced himself as a captain from beyond the stars.
• Litosys revealed his face and told Rambo that he was conscripting him to serve a greater Empire.

Litosys questioned John Rambo about Agent Orange and the Walking Corpses, then recruited him into the Astra Militarum by offering him a cause where he would be needed. As Rambo joined, a group of Walking Corpses approached, and Litosys ordered him to prepare for battle.

• Litosys made Rambo explain Agent Orange and learned of its devastating effects.
• Rambo reported that he had been defending people in a rear camp from Walking Corpses by himself.
• Litosys told Rambo about the Empire among the stars and invited him to fight for humanity.
• Rambo accepted, relieved to have a purpose and a place where he was needed.
• Rambo described the outbreak, the lack of military support, and how the Walking Corpses tracked survivors.
• Litosys ended the questioning and ordered Rambo to take up his weapon as Walking Corpses approached.

Litosys and Rambo cleared a path through the Walking Corpses, and Litosys collected a sample to investigate the curse. Back at Terra Space Station, Litosys learned that he would return in two days with five hundred Astra Militarum soldiers, while scientists analyzed the data he had gathered.

• Litosys slaughtered the Walking Corpses alongside Rambo and collected a piece of flesh from an evolved corpse for analysis.
• Litosys told Rambo that his Power Armor could analyze the infectious disease and ordered him to protect the camp’s civilians while Litosys was away.
• Litosys promised Rambo that he would return with a Legion, and Rambo believed him despite not understanding how he would return.
• Litosys returned to Terra Space Station, where his superior approved recruiting Rambo and authorized him to bring a uniform and Lasgun on his next visit.
• Litosys and his superior discussed the curse’s unexplained spread and the Walking Corpses’ supernatural tracking ability.
• Litosys learned that he would return in two days with a five-hundred-soldier Astra Militarum company, then went to rest.

Rambo fought increasingly fast Walking Corpses in the valley while Litosys learned that The Void had evolved to make its hosts berserk. Litosys prepared to lead a force to Colony One as Rambo, wounded and out of ammunition for his rifle, saw a huge blue light rise in the distance.

• Rambo killed dozens of sluggish Walking Corpses that approached his camp during the night.
• Litosys entered a Nightmare-level battlefield simulation, killed 432 rebels, and was killed in an ambush.
• Litosys learned that The Void could make its hosts berserk after absorbing nutrients, and his mission to Colony One was moved up.
• Rambo fought fast-moving Walking Corpses with traps, grenades, and gunfire, but he was wounded and his M16 jammed.
• Rambo heard the valley fall silent and saw a huge blue light rise at the far end.

Rambo joined Litosys’s Imperial soldiers after they rescued him from monsters, and he received language imprinting, a new uniform, and a lasgun. He ended the chapter accepting the Empire’s equipment and staring at the Double-headed Eagle insignia.

• Rambo joined a soldier in fighting off a monster and ran with him to the Imperial camp.
• Litosys ordered his soldiers to kill the remaining creatures and identify the most evolved among them.
• Litosys promoted Rambo to Private John Rambo and had a Glyph Array Division Machine provide him with a uniform, weapons, and supplies.
• The Glyph Array Division Machine imprinted Low Gothic into Rambo’s mind.
• Rambo accepted his new uniform and lasgun, then studied the Double-headed Eagle insignia.

He Shenyan surveyed three candidate worlds and found reasons to exclude each, leaving Colony Four as a strange but potentially valuable option. He returned to the White Tower Council unaware that a discussion about him was spreading through its forums.

• He Shenyan investigated Colony Two, where supernatural beings had returned, and postponed considering it until he understood how its ghosts came to exist.
• He Shenyan rejected Colony Three because the Imperium’s xenophobia could lead to the native beastmen being slaughtered and break his promise to the World Barrier.
• He Shenyan found Colony Four filled with extraordinarily strong, warlike humans whose centuries of warfare had reduced their average lifespan to forty years.
• He Shenyan discovered that Colony Four had abundant magic but no spellcasters or gods, and left puzzled by the contradiction.
• He Shenyan returned to the White Tower Council to collect purchases, unaware that a forum discussion about him was rapidly spreading.

A White Tower forum post about He Shenyan drew so much attention that he fled back to the Imperial Universe. Meanwhile, Angron regretted Givadoron’s death as Fulgrim reunited with three thousand loyalist Emperor’s Children, and their return promised to become known across the galaxy.

• Super Minotaur 12726 asked how many people had seen He Shenyan, and replies on the White Tower forum spiraled into unrelated arguments.
• Super Minotaur sent every mage a message asking whether He Shenyan was qualified, prompting He Shenyan to notice the stares and discover the popular post.
• He Shenyan crossed dimensions and returned to the Imperial Universe after reading the forum post.
• Angron complained to Sanguinius that the Emperor had met Frank before him and that Fulgrim had been given the chance to make amends with the Emperor’s Children.
• Angron mourned Givadoron, his first sergeant, who had died fighting a Tzeentch Demon after Angron’s command error.
• Fulgrim wept among three thousand loyalist Emperor’s Children as they returned on a remote Death Planet.

Saul Tarvitz learned that Terra had been besieged and that the Emperor had nearly died, then received Fulgrim’s account of the Second Siege and his own sword. On a Slaanesh-corrupted planet, He Shenyan began his promised hunt by destroying the world and its forces with golden fire.

• Saul Tarvitz read about the rebellion, the Siege of Terra, the collapse of the Webway Project, and the Emperor’s near-death, and wept for the Empire and humanity.
• Fulgrim entered Saul Tarvitz’s room, gave him an account of the Second Siege of Terra and his Power Sword, and told him he was proud of him.
• He Shenyan found a dying civilian on a Slaanesh-corrupted planet and heard him whisper, “The Emperor... protect...”
• He Shenyan unleashed his Anger, shattering the grotesque structures and laying waste to the planet with golden flames that killed the Demons, cultists, and Chaos warbands.
• He Shenyan watched the planet become an artificial golden sun, then left as his hunt began.

He Shenyan planned a crusade from Terra into the Eye of Terror to reclaim lost ground and exterminate demons and traitors, and Guilliman agreed to join. He then went to gather Angron and the others, who eagerly awaited the fighting.

• The Emperor approved He Shenyan’s plan for an expedition near the Eye of Terror and suggested Guilliman join, while warning that Chaos would not wait passively.
• He Shenyan asked Guilliman to provide Ultramarines for a crusade of vengeance, declaring that they would advance from Terra into the Eye of Terror and kill every traitor and demon they encountered.
• Guilliman agreed to the crusade, but He Shenyan left after noticing Yvraine eavesdropping outside his study.
• Guilliman used his psionic power to open the study door, found Yvraine waiting outside, and realized he could no longer avoid dealing with her.
• He Shenyan arrived aboard the ship carrying Angron, Fulgrim, and the others; Angron complained that He Shenyan had approached Frank first and eagerly asked how many enemies they would kill.

He Shenyan told Angron that he planned to lead a crusade toward Cadia and revealed that becoming a god was his way to protect its forces from Chaos. After Angron learned He Shenyan had secretly arranged this transformation, He Shenyan left to face the Emperor, while Angron resolved to save him.

• Angron welcomed He Shenyan and said he wanted vengeance for Givadoron’s death.
• He Shenyan proposed a crusade from Holy Terra through the Eye of Terror to reclaim lost territory, and Angron assessed the forces it would require.
• He Shenyan warned that Chaos corruption would grow as the crusade neared the Eye of Terror and said he intended to become a god to protect the army.
• Angron realized He Shenyan had replaced the Emperor in humanity’s faith and pleaded with him to stop, but He Shenyan vanished without changing his mind.
• The Emperor confronted He Shenyan in the Warp, but He Shenyan said he was repaying the Emperor’s past kindness and left.
• The Emperor called to Angron, who resolved to save He Shenyan as He Shenyan had once saved them.

The Emperor revived the Treefolk and hired it to help reverse the early deification of someone whose identity was not revealed. Angron accepted the mission, prepared for battle, and set out to slaughter in the name of salvation.

• The Emperor restored the Treefolk to life and asked it about reversing deification without side effects.
• The Treefolk explained how faith could alter a deified person and said reversing the early process was simple, then asked to discuss payment.
• Angron released the Treefolk after it brought him across worlds and promised to return when he had gathered the required materials.
• Angron donned his armor and prepared to begin a slaughter in the name of salvation.

Angron entered the Lands Between to save He Shenyan, and began cutting a path toward the powerful beings he sensed near the Erdtree. After slaughtering the soldiers at the Stormhill checkpoint, he faced a furious guardian of the Erdtree and invited it to fight.

• Angron crossed the Gloomy Forest and reached a fertile plain, where he sensed the golden radiance of an enormous tree.
• Angron arrived at the Stormhill checkpoint ruins and killed the captain who approached him.
• Angron summoned his axe and slaughtered the checkpoint soldiers, convinced that their corrupted nature made them unlike He Shenyan.
• Angron sensed a powerful being on the hill and waited as it accused him of crimes against the kin of the Erdtree.
• Angron revealed his face, challenged the being, and began the battle.