Chapter Summaries

Yvraine considered seeking Gamma World’s support for the Ynnari, believing an alliance could help them fight Valde and recover a sacred sword while preparing for the Necrons’ awakening. As her group approached a Webway passage to Gamma World, cooperation remained uncertain but increasingly necessary.

• Yvraine judged Malcador’s return a threat to the Imperium’s stability and favored Gamma World’s independent military alliances over Ultramar World.
• Vicht warned Yvraine that Gamma World might kill the Aeldari on sight because of its extreme hostility toward other species.
• Yvraine explained that the Ynnari needed an ally to help defeat Valde and obtain the sacred sword he possessed.
• Yvraine reasoned that humanity and the Aeldari both needed allies against the awakening Necrons, whose coming threat could overwhelm Gamma World.
• A Ynnari companion told Seer Yvraine that the Webway passage ahead led to a satellite of Gamma World’s central world.

Yvraine led the Ynnari through a hidden Webway gate onto Gamma World's satellite to seek an alliance, but Gamma World's defenders quickly recognized the gate as a major security threat. Cisrain ordered the aliens brought to him as Gamma World's council debated how to uncover the Webway's secrets and locate other entrances.

• Yvraine and the Ynnari emerged from a hidden Webway gate on Gamma World's satellite and announced that they had come to negotiate.
• Harlequins rushed the human defenders, but Yvraine tried to stop the fighting and offered trade with Gamma World's overlord.
• Custodian Guard and two enormous soulless beings arrived, shocking Yvraine with their strength and speed.
• Gamma World's forces reported the unknown Webway gate to their lord and warned that it might allow future attacks on the world's core facilities.
• The council debated capturing and interrogating the Ynnari to learn about the Webway, and Cisrain ordered them brought to him.

Cisrain ordered the captured Ynnari brought to Gamma World, and Yvraine and her companions were escorted from the moon to meet its ruler. The Ynnari saw Gamma World's formidable defenses and unusual people before Yvraine came face-to-face with the king.

• Cisrain ordered the Ynnari brought up, and Barnes halted the fighting on the moon when the command reached him.
• Yvraine and the other Ynnari were escorted by spacecraft from the moon to Gamma World after being told that Cisrain wished to see them.
• Yvraine surveyed Gamma World's transformed planet and considered the potential alliance while worrying about the world's power.
• Vicht and the other Ynnari noticed Gamma World's exceptional people and watched local children mistake them for malnourished ancients from the Dark Age.
• The guards led Yvraine and her companions through a side entrance near Victor's Avenue, where Yvraine saw the king of Gamma World on his throne.

Yvraine tried to persuade Gamma World to cooperate against the awakening Necrontyr dynasties and the Chaos Gods, offering Ynnari knowledge and help. Gamma World dismissed the value of destroying the gods, but Yvraine offered Old One creations for evading the Necrontyr and controlling the C'tan.

• Yvraine explained that the Necrontyr dynasties were awakening rapidly across the universe and warned that they threatened Gamma World as well as every other race.
• Yvraine argued that the Chaos Gods could be destroyed by eliminating the races that had given birth to them, and offered Ynnari support and ancient records to help Gamma World.
• Cisrain and the Gamma World officials rejected the proposal, saying that destroying the four gods would not remove Chaos and would only let other gods emerge.
• Yvraine offered Old One creations related to evading the Necrontyr and controlling the C'tan.

Yvraine offered Gamma World the Ouroboros fragment of the Webway Key in exchange for help retrieving relics from Commorragh, and Cisrain agreed to cooperate. After hearing her plan to draw Valde away from two temples, Gamma World insisted on carrying out the operation its own way.

• Yvraine showed Cisrain a fragment of the Webway Key and offered it in exchange for Gamma World's help obtaining a relic from Commorragh.
• Yvraine explained that the completed key could unlock the Old Ones' treasure and control every Webway passage in the universe.
• Cisrain agreed to cooperate and asked Yvraine to explain her plan.
• Yvraine described how the Ynnari would distract Valde's Kabal of the Black Heart with a battle against Slaanesh daemons, then raid Cantelia Temple and Fline Temple with Vicht's help.
• Cisrain said Gamma World would follow its own approach to the plan.

Cisrain prepared Gamma World’s assault on Commorragh while refusing to place his troops under Yvraine’s command, then entered the Dark Eldar city as its brutal arenas continued their bloody spectacles. In Vans District, Lelith Hesperax faced a Gamma World soldier, an Imperial Fists Space Marine, and an Ork, confident that none of them could challenge her.

• Cisrain insisted that Yvraine provide a map and accompany his soldiers, while Gamma World retained control of its own operations.
• Gamma World continued preparing to seize Commorragh’s Webway Key, with Cisrain stripping away the physical laws around himself before entering the city.
• Yvraine observed Gamma World’s rapid evolution and feared that its people might eventually reach Primarch-like strength.
• In Vans District’s arena, Lelith Hesperax was presented as the opponent of captured Gamma World soldier Lorns, an Imperial Fists Space Marine, and an Ork.
• Lorns trusted that Gamma World would avenge them and that he would be revived if killed, while Lelith stood unarmed and naked, certain she would defeat her opponents.

Valde tried to preserve his rule over Commorragh as Slaanesh daemons flooded through a breach in its dimensional corridor and rival factions grew restless. He ordered the Kabal of the Black Heart to push the daemons into hostile districts while Lelith Hesperax continued fighting in the arena.

• Lelith Hesperax fought naked in the arena as spectators cheered and Eldar observers slipped away to pass secret messages.
• Infiltrators disguised through psychic surgery entered Commorragh and dispersed through its temple district while rival Kabals prepared to challenge their rulers.
• A breach in Commorragh’s Tesseract Labyrinth let Slaanesh daemons pour into the city and disrupt its established order.
• Valde considered the Ynnari a threat to his power and chose to let the daemons ravage districts outside his own territory.
• After learning that slave numbers had fallen and factions were growing restless, Valde ordered the Kabal of the Black Heart to suppress the daemons and Lelith Hesperax to deal with the chaos.

Lelith Hesperax ignored calls to stop fighting while Yvraine’s fleet approached Commorragh and Slaanesh’s daemons invaded Valde’s district. Harlequins attacked Valde’s forces, and Sviet recognized them as Ynnari allies, warning Valde that they had returned.

• Lelith Hesperax continued fighting despite the Kabals’ hints, leaving two Space Marines and an Ork badly wounded as they struggled to hit her.
• Yvraine watched Commorragh from a concealed human warship and sensed Slaanesh’s power gathering as the fleet prepared to act.
• Yuris and other Slaanesh daemons attacked Dark Eldar in Valde’s district, while the Kabal of the Black Heart used dimensional bombs to redirect the fighting.
• Harlequins emerged from the darkness, purged Kabal warriors, destroyed the bombs, and drove the Dark Eldar toward Valde’s district.
• Sviet fought a Harlequin, then recognized the Ynnari and declared that he would warn Valde of their return.

Valde’s forces faced a Ynnari assault, Slaanesh daemons, and an invading Gamma World Expeditionary Force inside Commorragh. As Valde sent loyal champions to meet the threats, fighting spread across the city and both sides began deploying devices that distorted time and space.

• Slaanesh daemons drained the souls and life force of Dark Eldar warriors as Sviet learned that human Space Marines had entered Valde’s territory.
• Valde ordered his forces to bring him the attackers’ heads and sent out veteran arena champions to confront the growing threats.
• Gamma World’s Expeditionary Force landed in the wrong part of Commorragh and advanced toward the temple through the labyrinthine city.
• Dark Eldar factions clashed with the Expeditionary Force across the streets as civilians fled and other groups profited from the casualties.
• The Expeditionary Force’s armor resisted Dark Eldar weapons, while its time-distorting devices slowed their opponents and allowed the Space Marines to overpower them.
• Dimensional bombs exploded, restraining both the Expeditionary Force and the Dark Eldar in the battlefield.

Gamma World’s Expeditionary Force and the Dark Eldar fought across Commorragh with increasingly powerful weapons, while Yvraine sent the Harlequins to help break through the temple guardians. The assault destroyed temples and strained Valde’s forces, as other powers began to notice Gamma World’s reduced capacity to expand.

• Both sides deployed new disintegration, healing, and soul weapons as fighting spread through Commorragh and rival groups joined the assault on Valde’s regime.
• Lelith Hesperax suspended her arena duel when Expeditionary Force soldiers entered the arena during their retreat and clashed with its overseers.
• Yvraine sent the Harlequins to help the Expeditionary Force overcome the temple guardians as fighting escalated across the city.
• Harlequins and Expeditionary Force soldiers dismembered the guardians, recovered their objective, and destroyed a temple with a meltabomb before attacking another temple.
• Valde recognized that the Expeditionary Force’s strength had exceeded his expectations, while other forces saw an opportunity as Gamma World’s expansion slowed.

Abaddon and Vashtorr prepared to seize Gamma World's key fragment as the Necrons expanded, but a divination revealed that the Silent King had returned and targeted the same prize. Vashtorr learned that only one of countless futures let him obtain the key, and that chance had already passed within the previous forty-eight hours.

• Abaddon restrained the Black Legion and resolved to press Vashtorr for stronger weapons while preparing for a future campaign.
• Vashtorr's key vibrated, confirming that Gamma World held the final fragment needed to complete it.
• Vashtorr worried that Gamma World could locate Wyrmwood and that the Necrons' awakening threatened his plans.
• A sorcerers' divination told Vashtorr that the Silent King had returned and had set his sights on the target.
• Vashtorr learned that Szarekh had once led the Necrontyr, destroyed the C'tan called the Burning One, and sent his people into sixty million years of slumber while seeking a way to restore their souls.

Szarekh returned from exile as the Necron dynasties fought over technology that could restore souls, bodies, and life. The factions looked to him to oversee the effort, while a Phaeron urged him to pursue the method that had already resurrected the dead.

• Szarekh learned that Trazyn the Infinite had stolen soul-restoration technology from Gamma World and bargained for a share in building ten Megastructure Synapse Condensers.
• Necron overlords and Phaerons awakened more dynasties and fought over the technology, its ownership, and who would receive the first soul.
• Trazyn told Szarekh about the infighting, and the dynasties wondered whether the Silent King had returned to control the situation.
• Szarekh arrived before the dynasties, whose members reacted to the sound of his scepter as if they had briefly regained their souls.
• Szarekh saw the Necrons' stagnant condition and recognized that restoring their commoners would be difficult because most bodily data had not been preserved.
• A Phaeron told Szarekh that a method had resurrected someone who had died completely and proposed using it to restore Necron bodies and souls.

Szarekh and the Necron nobles attempted to use the Megastructure Synapse Condenser to resurrect a Necrontyr, but the experiment began restoring a dangerous metallic lifeform instead. Szarekh cast the experiment hundreds of light-years away, and the Necrons realized that undoing Living Metal’s constraints could destroy their entire race.

• A phaeron presented Szarekh with the protocol for controlling the Megastructure Synapse Condenser, but Szarekh asked Trazyn to state his position on using his collections for restoration.
• A nameless Necron noble volunteered for the resurrection experiment, and Necron technicians connected his data core to ten Synapse Condensers.
• The megastructures recovered data from tens of millions of years ago, and the noble’s body began to reappear as the technicians increased the system’s output.
• The technicians discovered the emerging body was a bizarre metallic lifeform that could irreversibly assimilate nearby metal, and they realized the process could not be stopped.
• Szarekh hurled the noble hundreds of light-years away, where a black hole erupted above a planet under Chaos attack and pulled nearby ships and terrain toward it.
• The Necrons understood that Living Metal’s constraints came from the C'tan and that trying to remove them could irreversibly destroy their dynasties.

The Necrons revived a Necrontyr using data reconstructed from the Warp, giving their desperate leaders a symbol of hope but not restoring their own lost bodies or souls. Silent King Szarekh decided to visit Gamma World himself to learn whether the Necrontyr truly had a future.

• Trazyn gave the Necrons a Necrontyr body for their experiment, while Szarekh watched the leaders grasp at revival as their last hope.
• The Crypteks used Gamma World technology and the Megastructure Synapse Condenser to reconstruct the Necrontyr’s body and recover his soul.
• The Necrontyr awoke in agony, and Phaerons and Overlords proclaimed his revival proof that their race could rise again.
• The leaders proposed finding their own bodies or traveling into the past, but Szarekh argued that building more megastructures was safer than time travel.
• Szarekh chose to go to Gamma World personally and determine whether the Necrontyr had a future.

Szarekh visited Gamma World, where he examined Vetius and studied the Milky Way’s history and possible future through the Megastructure Synapse Condensers. Gamma World mobilized its military after detecting his presence, and the World Lord prepared to meet him.

• Szarekh arrived at Energy Planet 1 and extracted information from Vetius, dismissing the Tech-priest’s pursuit of a mechanical existence.
• Szarekh used the Megastructure Synapse Condensers to analyze the Milky Way and saw a future in which every major race had vanished.
• A fully armed fleet from Gamma World’s homeworld appeared above Energy Planet 1, putting the planet on high alert.
• Gamma World recalled its forces and elite assassination units as senior leaders and wartime generals gathered.
• The World Lord named Szarekh, the Silent King, as the person he wished to meet.

Cisrain went alone to meet Szarekh, whose arrival had put Gamma World on high alert. Szarekh offered to do anything Cisrain needed in exchange for one favor, leaving the nature of the deal unresolved.

• Cisrain refused an escort and headed to the Necron tomb to negotiate with Szarekh.
• Gamma World's forces withdrew from the tomb area while its defenses prepared for a possible attack.
• The orbital station identified the enormous Necron fleet as a likely Phaeron-class warship, possibly belonging to Szarekh.
• Szarekh waited in the tomb and considered the fate of the Necrontyr race as Cisrain approached.
• Szarekh offered Cisrain anything he needed if Cisrain would do one thing for him.

Cisrain ordered Gamma World to expand its territory and prepare a force to seize scarce resources and Webway fragments, while he planned a joint operation with Szarekh to capture Vashtorr. He chose to resurrect Horus to lead the campaign, while the angel’s Death Company remained bogged down fighting tactically adept Orks.

• Cisrain learned that the Necrons had left Gamma World and ordered fleets to gather minerals and seize needed resources.
• Cisrain and Szarekh secretly agreed to target Vashtorr for research into souls, while each kept their own promises and aims hidden.
• Cisrain selected Number One for a fifty-thousand-strong force and ordered Horus resurrected at the moment of his death to lead the fight against Vashtorr.
• Cisrain dismissed the space dwarves’ border harassment as a lesser concern and prioritized obtaining the last Webway fragment and capturing Vashtorr.
• The angel’s Death Company struggled against Crackbone Badseed’s Orks on a forge world, and Skaiqi repeatedly denied their requests for Exterminatus.

The Blood Angels reunited with Seraph, whose sacred presence soothed their afflictions, and prepared to return to the Imperium while fighting Chaos for Gamma World. Meanwhile, Guilliman prepared a resurrection ritual, and Gamma World began calculating how to restore Horus’s soul from the Warp sigils that had reawakened.

• Boss Angel received orders from Cisrain to return to the Imperium with new soldiers, and Gamma World's forces brought him weapons and equipment.
• The Blood Angels met Seraph and recognized him through their blood bond, while his presence suppressed their Red Thirst.
• Seraph agreed to take the Blood Angels back to the Imperium, where they would carry news and help Gamma World fight Chaos.
• Guilliman prepared a large-scale resurrection ritual using resurrection coins and data from the Necrons' Megastructure Synapse Condensers.
• Gamma World's Ozrax Psyker Laboratory received Horus's skull, whose Warp sigils had begun flickering, and staff mobilized seven megastructures to calculate how to restore his soul.

Gamma World began reconstructing Horus from his skull, and his awakening stirred the Chaos Gods, several Primarchs, and the Emperor. The chapter left Horus on the verge of returning as Vulkan was born on a fiery planet.

• Gamma World's researchers scanned Horus's skull and used particle data to calculate his reconstruction.
• Abaddon, Lorgar, and Corax sensed Horus stirring, while Lorgar saw his return as an opportunity to become a god.
• Mortarion, Fulgrim, Magnus, and other Primarchs sensed Horus's returning soul, and the Chaos Gods anticipated the chance for another war.
• The Emperor called for Horus to return, and the Adeptus Custodes and surviving Primarchs sensed something awakening.
• Vulkan was born on a fiery planet amid roaring energy.

A black figure returned on Nocturne as the Lord of Fire Dragons, while Malcador prepared the Imperium for a great expedition and secured the Mechanicus's support. On Gamma World, Horus was resurrected through a soul-binding experiment and woke to memories of his life and fall.

• A black figure climbed a mountain on Nocturne, and the Lord of Fire Dragons' codex proclaimed his return.
• Calgar stood before Guilliman's dormant body with technology that could revive him, while Malcador purged the Imperium and prepared a great expedition.
• Malcador negotiated with the leaders of Mars to secure the Mechanicus's support for the Imperium's campaign.
• Gamma World's psyker laboratory modified Horus and bound his soul to The Emperor's life, as daemons gathered at the passage to Gamma World.
• Horus's heart began beating, and he awoke to memories of his life, Chaos's deception, and the destruction he had caused.