Chapter Summaries

Kori Adams, Talin Noli, and Morrison Bart were singled out after hiding in a trench and chatting during a joint simulation battle. Their commander threatened to withhold their new equipment unless they persuaded Sister Ankesha not to record their disgrace, and the three set out to try.

• Kori Adams and two fellow soldiers stayed in their trench during the bombardment, arguing about how to avoid being punished for ignoring the commissar’s order.
• The simulation ended while Kori was observing the 714th Regiment’s position through binoculars.
• The commander of the 717th Regiment angrily confronted Kori Adams, Talin Noli, and Morrison Bart over their conduct and their behavior in front of Sister Ankesha.
• Kori calmed the commander by recalling Talin’s past service and proposing that they ask Sister Ankesha to leave the incident out of her records.
• The commander warned the three that they would lose their new weapons and equipment if they failed to settle the matter, and Talin urged them to approach Sister Ankesha sincerely.

Sister Ankesha continued investigating the captain’s deeds, earning Chapter Master Insel’s respect but not the full truth. Her questions to three Cadian soldiers led them to reveal their embarrassing conduct in a mock battle, and the captain’s intervention sent them back to their regiment with extra Composite Magic Cannons.

• Sister Ankesha showed Insel her notes and explained that she wanted the captain’s deeds remembered across the Empire.
• Insel warned Ankesha about investigating the captain but acknowledged that he was a hero after she insisted that people should honor his sacrifices.
• Sergeant Kori Adams and two soldiers from the Cadian 717th Regiment asked Ankesha not to record their behavior during a mock battle, then refused to trade stories about the captain for her silence.
• The three soldiers reported back to their regimental commander, who revealed that the captain had ordered them returned to duty and awarded their regiment Composite Magic Cannons.

Vulkan borrowed Guilliman’s terminal to investigate recent history, but Guilliman discovered he had read about the Second Empire contingency plan. Guilliman explained the plan and answered Vulkan’s many questions, leaving Vulkan stunned as he departed.

• Vulkan held Guilliman’s terminal for over twenty minutes, reading about the Aeldari alliance, the Codex Astartes, and other historical matters instead of the files Guilliman expected.
• Guilliman took back the terminal and found Vulkan had read the Emergency Contingency Plan for the Second Empire.
• Guilliman insisted he had only intended to preserve a spark for humanity, not establish another empire, and agreed to answer Vulkan’s questions himself.
• Vulkan asked about Angron, Fulgrim, Sanguinius, the Mage, Tzeentch, the Emperor, and his Scions, and Guilliman explained what he knew.
• Two hours later, Vulkan left Guilliman’s office dazed, prompting the Victrix Guard to compare his expression to the Chapter Master’s reaction to an Aeldari coming aboard.

At a dinner celebrating Vulkan’s return, his brothers toasted him while Russ and Angron nearly turned the gathering into a drinking contest. Vulkan reflected on Guilliman’s revelations and called the unexpectedly hopeful world they described the most beautiful mistake he had ever encountered.

• Guilliman excused himself from the dinner and sent Little Horus away.
• Sanguinius proposed a toast to Vulkan, while Russ brought out special-reserve liquor and challenged the others to drink.
• Angron drank a full cup of Russ’s liquor after Sanguinius reminded him to behave.
• Sanguinius redirected attention to Vulkan and asked him to give a toast.
• Vulkan said Guilliman’s revelations had overturned his belief that humanity had no hope, and called the truth a beautiful mistake.

Steve Rogers considered using a large-scale flesh curse against the Orks and Tyranids, while the Glyph Array’s treatment failed to stop his visions of Orks calling to him. Helbrecht struggled with the Emperor’s demand that he abandon his faith, then learned Pedro Kantor had come looking for him and headed to the command room.

• Sicarius told Angard that the Orks and Tyranids had no plan for the arriving force, and proposed exterminating them planet by planet with fortress drops and teleportation strikes.
• Steve told Sicarius that the Glyph Array’s treatment had not stopped the Ork voices or visions, then asked the Glyph Array to search for large-scale compound flesh curses.
• Helbrecht meditated over the Emperor’s demand that he give up his faith, but could not reconcile obedience with his conviction that people owed the Emperor their belief.
• Helbrecht learned that Pedro Kantor had asked for him and was in the command room with Steve, so he decided to walk there himself.

Steve Rogers explained his plan to use the Flesh Curse against the Orks and Tyranids, while Vulkan confronted The Emperor over an old book that justified wartime sacrifices. The Emperor admitted he had written it to keep soldiers working and asked Vulkan’s forgiveness, but Vulkan told him to apologize to the people he had truly hurt.

• Steve Rogers explained that the Flesh Curse could kill the Orks and Tyranids on a planet within forty minutes, and Sicarius agreed that using it would serve the Emperor.
• Angard resolved to report Steve Rogers’s past alliance with the captain of the Vengeance to his Chapter Master.
• Vulkan read On War in Guilliman’s library and condemned its argument that commanders should cast aside humanity for victory.
• The Emperor appeared and confessed that he had written On War to stop officers and soldiers from blaming themselves and to keep them working for him.
• Vulkan rejected The Emperor’s attempt to seek his forgiveness and insisted that he apologize to the people he had truly hurt.

Vulkan told Guilliman about the Emperor’s visit, and Guilliman arranged a recruitment plan and supplies for Angron’s Legion. Angron explained that he wanted to restore the World Eaters’ reputation, and he left Guilliman with news that Sanguinius had been learning administrative work.

• Vulkan described the Emperor’s visit and the book he had placed in Guilliman’s library, frustrating Guilliman.
• Guilliman showed Angron a recruitment plan for his Legion, along with War Hounds Gene Seed, a Behemoth-class mothership, and new equipment.
• Angron said he would rebuild the World Eaters’ reputation so they would no longer be associated with the other Angron’s crimes.
• Guilliman wished Angron success, and the two brothers made peace over the wrongs committed by their counterparts.
• Angron told Guilliman that Sanguinius had secretly been learning administrative affairs.

Guilliman reconsidered how he had dismissed Sanguinius’s wishes and invited him to discuss state affairs. As the expedition headed toward the Octarius Sector, the forces on Sigma Ustali handled postwar cleanup, while Sicarius pressed Lelith for reliable information about Face-Ripper before the fleet reached the battlefield.

• Guilliman remembered the Emperor’s advice to ask others before deciding their paths, then summoned Sanguinius to his office with a notebook.
• Ismara-1-Gamma argued with a fellow Tech-Priest over Servitors mishandling debris while Sigma Ustali’s forces cleared the battlefield.
• Sister Stacy treated wounded soldiers aboard the Faith Messenger and sent one critically injured man to wait for a Medical Pod.
• Helbrecht approved Angard’s account of Lord Steve’s plan and agreed to exchange Orc-fighting experience with Pedro after the crusade.
• Sicarius demanded an explanation from Lelith Hesperax for her changing reports about Face-Ripper, and she explained that Warp interference disrupted her perception.
• Lelith apologized for insulting the Imperium’s gods, and Sicarius warned her to hurry because they were nearing the battlefield.

Pedro and Steve witnessed the Flesh Curse erase every Orc and Tyranid on a planet, but the Glyph Array reported that Nurgle had noticed the weapon. He Shenyan agreed to address the danger while struggling with a separate experiment involving a Construct.

• The Flesh Curse transformed every Orc and Tyranid on the planet into nutritive gel within half an hour, leaving Pedro awed and fearful and Steve satisfied with the result.
• The Glyph Array reported that Nurgle was watching and that the Shrouding Barrier had failed to conceal the Flesh Curse.
• He Shenyan paused his work on a Construct experiment when Steve urgently contacted him about Nurgle noticing the weapon.
• He Shenyan reassured Steve that he would handle the matter, then reasoned that Nurgle could not reproduce the Flesh Curse but might still pose a threat.
• He Shenyan decided to use the Astral Beacon to engrave a vast defensive magic circle into humanity's collective subconscious.

Steve halted further use of the Flesh Curse after realizing it had drawn Nurgle’s attention, while the commanders debated whether Lelith Hesperax was misleading them about Face-Ripper. Frank attacked Lelith over her suspected deception and treatment of Sicarius, leaving Steve to reprimand him for assaulting an Imperial ally.

• Steve said the Flesh Curse had drawn Nurgle’s gaze and ordered the mission to continue without relying on it.
• Sicarius reported that Face-Ripper was still approaching, though scans showed no pursuing ships or Orc vessels.
• Pedro argued that Lelith should be treated cautiously but remained an ally, while Helbrecht suspected she was wasting their time; Sicarius said she was staying in his room without permission.
• Frank overheard the commanders’ discussion, broke into Sicarius’s room, and attacked Lelith, breaking her arms and destroying the barb in her hair.
• Frank accused Lelith of damaging Sicarius’s reputation and exploiting Steve’s kindness, then warned her that she owed her standing to Roboute Guilliman.
• Steve found Frank at the scene, ordered him to write a thirty-thousand-word self-criticism, and condemned him for attacking an ally; Frank said he knew Lelith was an ally.

Mordren Girardet stalked an Ork ship in darkness while the nameless captain in his mind urged him to complete his Raven Guard mission and avenge his dead brothers. After reliving the massacre that had left him wounded and alone, Mordren accepted a bolter and opened fire on the approaching patrol.

• Mordren’s apparent battlefield scene vanished, revealing that he was hiding aboard an Ork ship among four dead Orks.
• The nameless captain ordered Mordren to sabotage the ship and remember that he was a Raven Guard tasked with exterminating the Orks.
• Mordren killed more Orks, staged their bodies to frighten others, and asked the captain for a weapon.
• The captain conjured a new Mark Vb Godwyn Pattern Bolter as Mordren remembered his dead brothers and their captain urging him to avenge them.
• Mordren recognized that the captain was absent and that he had no auspex, then heard the bolter fire at the approaching Ork patrol.

Lelith Hesperax explained her failed attempt to get close to Sicarius, who kept her allied with the Imperials as long as she pursued Face-Ripper and the Octarius Sector. At his barter stall, He Shenyan traded with several Trans-dimensional Mages and ended by asking Mirien to bring him the White Tower’s best soul-studies specialist.

• Lelith Hesperax admitted that getting close to Sicarius had been one of several missions, but denied that Lady Yvraine had ordered it.
• Sicarius refused to hear more about Lelith’s mission and said she remained an ally while she sought to kill Face-Ripper and save the Octarius Sector.
• He Shenyan rejected a war machine, traded a portion of his blood to a Hellcat for Light of the Soul, and accepted Mirien’s severed hand from Kuragomo in exchange for his friendship.
• Mirien confronted He Shenyan about Kuragomo’s claims regarding her rules and demanded her severed hand back.
• He Shenyan returned Mirien’s hand and asked her to bring him a Trans-dimensional Mage who specialized in soul studies.

He Shenyan recruited soul studies master K-173 to help with an operation. On Macragge’s Honour, Fulgrim found Sanguinius exhausted from failing to handle Guilliman’s administrative work, but declined to advise him when the Captain called.

• He Shenyan asked K-173 to help perform an operation, and K-173 agreed to travel with him.
• Fulgrim finished reading in Guilliman’s library and went to see Sanguinius after a Victrix Guard relayed the request.
• Fulgrim found Sanguinius haggard from three days of administrative work and took away his Personal Terminal, urging him to rest.
• Sanguinius showed Fulgrim Guilliman’s detailed rejections of his decisions and asked Fulgrim for advice.
• Fulgrim declined to help because the Captain was calling him and suggested Sanguinius ask Jaghatai Khan instead.

He Shenyan and K-173 began a surgery on Fulgrim and He Shenyan, aiming to reproduce a process involving a second personality and soul entanglement. During the procedure, He Shenyan entered a memory-like inner realm and spoke with his other personality, agreeing to bring him out.

• Fulgrim protested the surgery, so He Shenyan put him to sleep and carried him to the operating table.
• K-173 arrived to assist, and He Shenyan operated on his own brain to test the procedure.
• He Shenyan revealed that he already had a second personality and asked K-173 to perform the soul entanglement.
• He Shenyan met his other personality in a recurring scene of past torment, where they discussed their shared choices and the Skrull massacre.
• He Shenyan told his other personality it was time to take him out, and the other personality agreed.

Fulgrim confronted his younger selves and his daemon self in a vision, accepted responsibility for his past, and reconciled with the daemon. After He Shenyan and K-173 completed his soul surgery, Fulgrim woke up and worried that He Shenyan had been affected by the ordeal.

• Fulgrim saw his boyhood self in a mirror and urged him to accept imperfection and spend more time among ordinary people.
• Fulgrim warned his younger self not to take the Laer Blade, but the armored reflection vanished before he could explain.
• Fulgrim listened as his daemon self spoke about his inferiority complex and need to prove himself, then embraced him and watched him fade into a frail human form.
• Fulgrim woke during an argument between He Shenyan and K-173 over payment for the soul surgery, and He Shenyan paid K-173 five hundred stellar Star Cores before sending him away.
• He Shenyan threw Fulgrim out of the Pocket Dimension and told him the surgery was complete, leaving Fulgrim worried that He Shenyan had developed problems of his own.

Fulgrim suspected that He Shenyan had gone mad, but Angron and Guilliman dismissed his concerns. He Shenyan explained to the Emperor that soul entanglement had caused him to alternate between personalities, and the chapter ended with him threatening Nurgle over its lack of interest in his Flesh Curse.

• Fulgrim told Angron that He Shenyan seemed mentally unwell, but Angron laughed off his concern and trusted the Mage.
• Angron packed weapons he had won through betting, left a note saying they should be returned to their rightful owners, and headed for the hangar.
• Fulgrim warned Guilliman that He Shenyan had called him “Fulgen” and behaved unlike himself, but Guilliman concluded the Mage was probably just in a bad mood.
• He Shenyan mocked the Emperor for leaving government work to Robert and explained that soul entanglement was making him switch between two states of mind.
• He Shenyan asked about Steve and the Flesh Curse, then became angry when the Emperor said Nurgle was not interested in the spell.

He Shenyan’s fractured mental state sent him into a violent rampage across the Warp, while Corax emerged wounded in Kovalo and hunted down a cult performing a blood ritual. Corax entered the ritual circle searching for Lorgar, who was fleeing the same unseen slaughter caused by He Shenyan.

• He Shenyan left Khorne after resisting the Blood God’s encouragement to indulge his rage, while Slaanesh revealed that It wanted the Mage distracted by hidden soul fragments.
• Toran found the wounded Corax blocking his doorway, helped him sit up, and learned that Corax had returned to a Hive City.
• Corax recovered rapidly, knocked Toran unconscious for his safety, and left his home surrounded by a silent flock of crows.
• Corax slaughtered the cultists sacrificing a woman and children, then entered their activated ritual circle and called out for Lorgar.
• Lorgar fled an unseen force killing Daemons across the Warp, unable to use his powers or contact the Chaos Gods, while He Shenyan’s rampage continued.

Corax found Lorgar and attacked him after He Shenyan, disguised as a newborn god, rejected Lorgar’s claim of devotion and exposed his hypocrisy. Lorgar regained his blessings and offered Corax as a blood sacrifice, while He Shenyan watched and laughed.

• Corax sensed Lorgar’s presence and rushed through the Warp to find him.
• Lorgar altered an altar into a Chaos Portal, sacrificed Slaaneshi daemons, and called out to the newborn god.
• He Shenyan confronted Lorgar in disguise, condemned his faith as a pursuit of power, and warned him that Corax was coming.
• Corax struck Lorgar, tore out his tongue, and broke his limbs while recalling his oath to kill him.
• Lorgar’s blessings returned, and he escaped Corax’s grasp before offering him as a blood sacrifice to the newborn god.
• He Shenyan laughed as Lorgar made his offering.

He Shenyan intervened in Corax and Lorgar’s battle, drove off most of the watching Chaos Gods, and took Lorgar away while Corax was sent to the Pocket Dimension. There, Corax destroyed He Shenyan’s books and attacked him, leaving the furious Mage ready to punish him.

• He Shenyan and The Emperor of Mankind watched Corax fight Lorgar as Khorne, Nurgle, and Slaanesh observed from the Warp.
• Khorne sent Bloodthirsters after Corax, but He Shenyan opened a Portal and sent Corax to the Pocket Dimension.
• Lorgar transformed into a towering demon and tore a Bloodthirster apart while He Shenyan sealed the gods’ gazes and his shadowy tentacles devoured the remaining Bloodthirsters.
• He Shenyan berated The Emperor of Mankind for his failures as a father, then grabbed Lorgar and crossed worlds with him.
• Corax mistook his surroundings for a Chaos trap, destroyed He Shenyan’s books and furniture, and attacked the Mage when he returned.
• He Shenyan beat Corax with Kamar-Taj Combat Style and warned him that no one would save him, as Corax realized too late that something was wrong.

Corax was treated after He Shenyan beat him for refusing to listen, and he admitted that he had lost control. Lorgar then awoke bound in darkness, where another version of himself stripped away his delusions and forced him to face the truth.

• Sanguinius helped the injured Corax into a Medical Pod and questioned him about his fight with He Shenyan.
• Corax admitted he had been somewhat insane, and Sanguinius rebuked him for abandoning his calm and self-control.
• Lorgar woke bound in darkness and mistook the man who appeared before him for an illusion sent by his god.
• The man identified himself as Lorgar Aurelian, rejected belief in gods, and beat Lorgar while challenging his faith and his actions.
• Lorgar realized the man was real, that he had lost his god's blessing and power, and that he had to face the truth.