Chapter Summaries

Konrad Curze trained children to fight zombies while struggling against his violent urges, and the watching Primarchs debated whether he could truly change. Corax accused the Emperor of deliberately neglecting his sons, while Curze resolved to keep resisting his bloodlust as the others continued watching.

• Konrad Curze taught the children that zombies could be killed by stabbing their fragile brains, then ended the lesson early and left after his violent urges resurfaced.
• The Primarchs debated whether Curze could be trusted, and Corax claimed the Emperor had deliberately allowed his sons to be corrupted and demanded an apology.
• Curze carved Sevatar’s face into a shriveled apple and confessed that he both wanted to kill people and sincerely wished to start over.
• Curze crushed the apple and challenged the Emperor to watch him resist his bloodthirsty desires.
• Vulkan celebrated Curze’s brief victory, while Corax said he understood Curze’s madness and the Primarchs agreed to keep watching.

Konrad Curze led Elf through a demon attack to an airfield, but Elf died after helping him reach a transport plane. Curze took off to pursue the missionary riding the Undead Wyvern, while the watching Primarchs hoped Elf’s death would help him change.

• Elf reported that the Undead Wyvern and its missionary were approaching, and Curze ordered the base’s anti-aircraft guns to fire at them.
• When the guns failed to stop the wyvern, Curze set out to kill it and took Elf with him to reach an aircraft.
• Elf told Curze the transport plane’s activation code, then died while Curze carried him through the demon-infested base.
• Curze reached the hangar, placed Elf in the pilot’s seat, and flew a transport plane after the wyvern and missionary.
• The Primarchs mourned Elf and debated whether Curze could endure the loss, while Corax expressed confidence that he would not fail.

Konrad Curze embraced the darkness, killed the Preacher, and learned that Hell's servants planned to attack his people as bait. He Shenyan explained that their plan succeeded and introduced the vastly stronger Destroyer, then prepared the Primarchs to watch Curze die.

• Konrad Curze leapt from the transport and used the darkness to fly toward the Preacher.
• Jaghatai Khan theorized that Curze's newfound power came from his nature as a Warp creature, and Corax warned that such power could master him.
• Konrad Curze killed the Preacher and learned that Hell's servants planned to attack the shelter where his people lived.
• He Shenyan stopped the image and told the Primarchs that the servants of Hell had succeeded in their plan.
• He Shenyan described the human Destroyer, who had become a relentless slayer of Demons and was far stronger than Curze.
• He Shenyan resumed the projection, announcing that the Primarchs would watch Konrad Curze die.

Konrad Curze returned to the human base and fought the invading demons alone, saving time for the civilians and scientists to escape. After dying from his injuries, he was brought back and reunited with his brothers.

• Konrad Curze ordered the soldiers to escort the civilians and scientists underground while he stayed behind to face the demons.
• Konrad Curze fought through the demon army and killed the Titan Demon, but the Destroyer mistook him for a daemon and stabbed him through the heart.
• He Shenyan told the gathered primarchs how Konrad Curze had died and explained that their father had begged him to help.
• He Shenyan opened the conference room door, and Konrad Curze returned to his brothers.
• Konrad Curze apologized to Vulkan, who accepted the apology and embraced him.

After the ending, the Primarchs gathered for a rowdy vacation while continuing their multiverse-wide expedition to protect humanity. They missed the absent Mage, who was still working on a task that had resulted in his apparent slumber, and he briefly returned unseen before vanishing again.

• Rogal Dorn grilled meat as Perturabo criticized him for losing a siege-and-defense bet, while Fulgrim and Angron relaxed and discussed their work and vacations.
• Roboute Guilliman confronted Fulgrim over a poorly formatted report, and the Primarchs traded insults before Leman Russ dragged Angron into the swimming pool.
• Jaghatai Khan and Ferrus Manus returned after reclaiming three worlds, and Angron charged Russ, setting off a brawl that overturned Dorn's grill and drew in most of the Primarchs.
• At dinner, the Primarchs argued about whether to invite their father and mourned the Mage's absence, then discussed their father's flaws and agreed he had mental illnesses.
• The Primarchs fled when Horus asked who would wash the dishes, and an old man appeared unseen in the banquet hall, touched the empty chair, whispered "Soon," and vanished.

He Shenyan considered how to hinder Eternal Heaven, while Roboute Guilliman was summoned to the banquet hall after Konrad Curze appeared aboard his ship. Curze described the incomprehensible power of the being he had fought, and Guilliman arrived as Corax’s probing conversation with Curze eased.

• He Shenyan judged Eternal Heaven a major threat and called for the Destroyer to cause trouble for them.
• Roboute Guilliman reviewed the burdens of the Vengeance Crusade, then learned from a Victrix Guard that Sanguinius wanted him at the banquet hall.
• Guilliman saw Konrad Curze on the Glyph Array and went to the banquet hall to clarify why Curze was aboard Macragge's Honour.
• Sanguinius and Jaghatai Khan asked Curze about his battle with a Titan demon, and Curze said the being who defeated it was like a law of nature.
• Curze told Vulkan and the others that even the Primarchs together could not oppose the being, while Corax challenged his account.
• Curze told Corax that provocation would not work after his years on New Nostramo, and Corax's mood eased before Guilliman entered.

Konrad Curze told Roboute Guilliman that he had built a peaceful New Nostramo and was allowed to remain aboard Guilliman’s ship. On Terra Space Station, Alyona learned that Old Torbjorn had died and began asking Finn about the expedition.

• Roboute Guilliman confronted Konrad Curze and questioned how he governed his nation.
• Konrad Curze claimed he had created a peaceful, united world through laws, welfare, healthcare, and education.
• Roboute Guilliman permitted Konrad Curze to stay aboard his ship, then returned to work.
• Alyona met Finn in her room and asked about the Departmento Munitorum commissioner and their group.
• Finn told Alyona that Old Torbjorn had died fighting Blood God worshippers and that Finn had nearly died as well.
• Alyona agreed to tell Finn about the expedition and began to ask him a question.

Leman Russ continued drinking aboard the space station before setting out to meet the Space Wolves, while Alyona told Finn that Russ had returned and urged him to report the news directly to the Wolf Lord. Finn agreed to follow her advice, though he remained uncertain about what to say.

• Leman Russ asked the Glyph Array where the Space Wolves were staying and learned that walking there would take four hours.
• The Glyph Array offered to produce more mead, and Russ asked it to guide him there invisibly.
• Alyona told Finn that Leman Russ had returned and that she had met with him thirteen days earlier.
• Alyona explained that Russ had asked about the Departmento Munitorum commissioner and had been relieved to learn Finn had not killed him.
• Finn wondered whether to report the news to the Wolf Lord or a Wolf Priest, and Alyona told him to report directly to the Wolf Lord.
• Finn agreed to follow Alyona's advice and asked her what to do next.

Finn returned to camp, reported to the Wolf Lords that Leman Russ had returned, and learned they already knew and wanted Captain Alyona Anastasia brought to a banquet. Meanwhile, Leman Russ made his way through the space station toward the Space Wolves, eager to reunite with his pack.

• Finn beat the Bloodclaws who tried to ambush and challenge him at the camp gate.
• Finn entered the Wolf Lords’ feast hall and told them that Leman Russ had returned after meeting Captain Alyona Anastasia.
• Logan Grimnar revealed that the Wolf Lords already knew and told Finn to invite Alyona Anastasia to a banquet connected to Russ, bringing her by force if necessary.
• Leman Russ avoided a transport vehicle while walking invisibly through the station and listened to Roboute Guilliman’s warning that he had five days to return.
• Leman Russ continued toward the Space Wolves, longing to meet the pack he had never known.

Leman Russ arrived at the Blood Wolves’ feast and fought his way through the Chapter’s warriors before confronting Logan Grimnar over leadership of the Vengeance Crusade. Meanwhile, Roboute Guilliman continued preparing forces and equipment for the coming campaign.

• A stranger carrying two injured Bloodclaws insulted the wolves and fought through their forces with a practice greatsword.
• Logan Grimnar and the Wolf Lords argued over how long the warriors outside could withstand the stranger, then watched him enter the banquet hall.
• The stranger revealed himself as Leman Russ and demanded to know why so few warriors were ready for the Vengeance Crusade.
• Logan Grimnar refused to let Russ lead the wolves, and Russ offered to beat him until he surrendered the Wolf Lord’s seat before Grimnar attacked him.
• Roboute Guilliman ordered the Vengeance mobilized, equipment and troop numbers checked, and Chapter Masters who overreported their numbers summoned to a meeting.

After the Fury of Flame lost its Navigator amid a disastrous Warp voyage, an enemy attack struck the ship. Marcus killed a Khorne Champion but was badly wounded, and he rose to rejoin the ongoing battle.

• Cornu delivered the latest ship data to Karim Decalemus, who learned that the Navigator was dead and that explosions had disabled half the gun positions.
• Clifford offered to study the voyage logs and possibly take over the Navigator’s duties, but an alarm interrupted the argument as the ship came under attack.
• Marcus confronted a Khorne cultist who slaughtered slaves and resisted Bolter fire while the slaves armed themselves and joined the fight.
• Marcus switched to his Chainsword and killed the cultist after a prolonged duel, though the enemy’s blows left him badly injured.
• The slaves and medical personnel gathered around Marcus, but he refused treatment beyond painkillers and prepared to rejoin his fighting brothers.

The Flame of Wrath fought Chaos boarders aboard the crippled Fury of Flame while Tokar worried about the Chapter’s battle rage and its secret. Elder Bartlett awakened and revealed a way to escape the Warp, but his cryptic remarks left Clifford and Demos concerned about his deteriorating state.

• Tokar and fifteen Flame of Wrath Space Marines killed traitors in a corridor and prepared to defend the bridge while Captain Nydia worked to restore its systems.
• Marcus Dracus reported that he had lured boarders into the Fifth Magazine with seventy-three serfs, then detonated it and died.
• Tokar’s squad fought Berserkers; Elan brutally killed a wounded traitor and needed a sedative after Tokar ordered him to control his anger.
• Demos and Clifford awakened Elder Bartlett, who learned the ship was trapped in the Warp with its Navigator dead and offered a blood-priced system to find a moon and escape.
• Bartlett suggested they might contact an Astropath choir, then left to fight while Demos and Clifford discussed his changing personality and worsening mental state.

Benson and the other defenders tried to protect the Fury of Flame’s ammunition depot, but a Khorne Berserker transformed into a daemon and killed them. The daemon then destroyed the depot, leaving the ship badly damaged as Khorne celebrated in the Warp.

• Benson used his flamer and bolter to hold traitors back from the ammunition depot while Tokar warned him to stay alert.
• Tokar refused to give Elan a second sedative dose, and Clifford reported that Chaplain Demos would soon reinforce the bridge.
• Five battle-brothers joined Benson and set traps near the depot, but a brass-armored Khorne Berserker broke through the wall.
• Benson and the battle-brothers shot and burned the Berserker, but it transformed into a daemon and claimed the Emperor had deceived them.
• The daemon killed Benson and the other defenders, then detonated the ammunition depot as Khorne praised it in the Warp.

Karim Decalemus and the Fury of Flame faced catastrophe aboard their ship as the Warp’s influence spread and a demonic assault overwhelmed the defenders. Khorne transformed Tokar Frederick and his surviving brothers into hounds and sent them to find Angron.

• Karim Decalemus heard Elder Bartlett warn him to prepare for death as the Fury of Flame fought traitors amid explosions.
• After Benson Hendricks and his squad stopped responding, Chaplain Demos told Tokar that the ship’s second operating system had been activated using thirteen lives and that someone had to press a console button in ten minutes.
• Elan mutated under the Warp’s influence, and Tokar shot him as a horned monster approached the bridge with the power to distort time.
• Tokar and the Astartes opened fire, but the monster killed several brothers and mortally wounded Tokar while revealing that their bodies and souls were intended for a ritual.
• Khorne appeared to Tokar and transformed him and the other Astartes into hounds, ordering them to find Angron.

Demos survived long enough to reach the main console and send a warning through the Astral Beacon before the Flame of Wrath Chapter was destroyed. Roboute Guilliman received the warning and ordered the Chapter’s erasure from the Vengeance Crusade rolls, then summoned his brothers.

• Demos saw his Chapter die in a vision, and Clifford urged him to reach the main console and find the needed time.
• Clifford told Demos that the ritual required eight hundred and eighty-eight people and that the Emperor had protected him from the Blood God.
• Demos pressed the golden number on the main console, burned away his body, and followed Clifford’s direction to send a warning through the Astral Beacon.
• Roboute Guilliman woke from a vision of Demos’s burning ghost, which warned him that something was entering their world.
• Guilliman told Marneus Calgar to report the Flame of Wrath Chapter’s destruction, seal its names, remove it from the Vengeance Crusade rolls, and summon his brothers.

Roboute Guilliman told the Primarchs that the Ultramarines successor Chapter Flame of Wrath had been destroyed and that its dead Chaplain had sent a warning from the Warp. After Sanguinius relayed the words “I bear witness,” He Shenyan and the Emperor of Mankind debated the danger posed by the changing Chaos Gods and agreed to begin the crusade.

• Konrad Curze, Corvus Corax, and Leman Russ tapped on the conference table until Vulkan urged them to stop and Roboute Guilliman arrived.
• Guilliman announced that the Flame of Wrath had been wiped out and its Chaplain had sent him a vague warning from the Warp.
• Sanguinius revealed that he had received another sentence from the Chaplain and relayed, “I bear witness,” to the Primarchs.
• He Shenyan learned that the Chaplain’s body, soul, and memories had been consumed by the Astral Beacon, where the Seed of Vengeance was growing.
• He Shenyan argued that the Chaos Gods’ mutual entanglement created a brief opportunity to reclaim lost territory and close the rift.
• The Emperor of Mankind accepted He Shenyan’s argument and agreed to begin the crusade.

Roboute Guilliman decided to reveal the sacrifices that had been hidden and act against the Administratum’s political obstruction. He Shenyan united four Captains under the Vengeance and announced that the expedition would begin the next day, then teleported to meet the Primarchs.

• The mage urged Guilliman to honor the dead publicly and find reliable people in the Administratum, and Guilliman ordered his armor and weapons brought to him.
• Rudolf, Elbert Lagmoris, Alyona, and Manfris debated fleet tactics and the need to choose a commander-in-chief.
• He Shenyan entered the Captains’ meeting with an Adeptus Custodes guard and announced that their fleets would form a battle group under the Vengeance.
• He Shenyan ordered the ships and soldiers refitted and said the Vengeance would arrive at Terra Space Station the next day to begin the expedition.
• Manfris recognized He Shenyan and asked whether the Captains could fight under his command; He Shenyan promised to fight alongside them.
• He Shenyan teleported with Lictor to a conference room where the Primarchs were waiting, startling Lictor.

He Shenyan ended the Primarchs’ dispute over which Legion should lead the Vengeance Crusade, warning them that their odds of victory remained only about fifty percent and that mortal forces would bear the main fighting. Glyph Array reported the assembled forces and equipment, and He Shenyan announced that the crusade would depart the next morning.

• Sanguinius reprimanded the Primarchs for arguing over the vanguard, while Guilliman insisted the Ultramarines should lead because they had the largest force.
• He Shenyan took command of the meeting, ruled that the Vengeance’s firepower would handle enemy fleets, and warned that Astartes should not be treated as the main force of the war.
• Glyph Array reported the fleet and Imperial Guard formations, including the Vostroyan regiments’ heavy losses while answering distress calls beyond the Great Rift and the Krieg regiments’ refusal to use war mechs.
• He Shenyan ordered special war mechs disguised as instruments of punishment for the Krieg troops, while the Primarchs reacted to the reported Legion and Chapter forces, equipment, and numbers.
• Glyph Array reported that Lion El'Jonson’s and Ferrus Manus’s forces could not be contacted; Russ rejected the suggestion that they might have betrayed the Imperium.
• He Shenyan ended the meeting and announced that the Vengeance Crusade would set out the next morning.

As the Vengeance prepared to depart for the Great Rift, He Shenyan confronted the cost of war and mourned the deaths of Sergeant Priad and Givadoron. The expedition boarded, and He Shenyan delivered a speech declaring their mission to save humanity’s worlds and beginning the advance.

• Corialis met Clyton as the Vengeance docked with Terra Space Station, and they arranged to share a drink.
• He Shenyan refused Sanguinius’s request to review the Blood Angels but agreed to address the army, then grieved over the coffins of Sergeant Priad and Givadoron.
• Vino Tekrios and the Sons of Aular boarded the Vengeance, received a bouquet donated by a child of First City, and learned the expedition was ready to depart.
• He Shenyan addressed the people and forces aboard the Vengeance, promising to fight alongside them as they set out to save the worlds threatened by the Great Rift.

Commissar Kossurian led the Krieg 974th Regiment in a teleport assault on Suli III’s arsenal while Guilliman and the Primarchs discovered Nurgle’s mists around Suli VII. He Shenyan rejected Nurgle’s attempt to communicate and destroyed Suli VII, leaving the crusade facing its first encounter with an Evil God.

• Commissar Kossurian prepared the Krieg 974th Regiment to teleport into Suli III’s arsenal and seize it from the traitors.
• Corporal 2273 led his squad into the arsenal, occupied the heights, and began the assault as the Krieg opened fire.
• Guilliman discussed the Krieg’s sacrifices with Curze and admitted that he had ignored their suffering because the Empire needed their troops.
• Guilliman, Corax, Curze, and Sanguinius identified the green mists around Suli VII as Nurgle’s power.
• He Shenyan used the Magic Array Hub to calculate Nurgle’s intent and discovered that the mists formed an offer to talk.
• He Shenyan refused Nurgle’s offer and destroyed Suli VII, while Nurgle snapped his soup spoon in anger.