Chapter Summaries

Dante welcomed Sanguinius’s return because he hoped it would free him to die, while Gamma World’s forces attacked Vashtorr on Wyrmwood to seize the Webway Key. The chapter ended as Chaos breached the Blackstone Cube’s defenses and Xiliuke began to succumb to corruption.

• The Inquisition traced rumors about Sanguinius to Chaos and executed the traitors spreading them.
• Dante learned that Flynn had died and privately celebrated Sanguinius’s return as a chance to relinquish his burdens and die in battle.
• Gamma World’s warriors landed on Wyrmwood and fought through Chaos forces, prioritizing the Webway Key over Vashtorr.
• Xiliuke maintained the Blackstone Cube as a Gellar Field activated around it.
• A grotesque creature seized Xiliuke’s teacher, slaughtered the crew, and unleashed corruption that began changing Xiliuke’s body and mind.

Chaos launched a devastating attack on Gamma World, corrupting its defenses and fleet as the four Chaos Gods entered the battle. Gamma's blanks and Doomsday Armor slowed the assault, while Vashtorr saw a chance to save Wyrmwood and faced Horus as Cisrain prepared to confront the gods herself.

• Nurgling attacks corrupted Gamma World's blackstone cube, weakening the regular octagram's anti-daemon field and spreading a rust virus through the battlefield.
• Gamma World sent reinforcements, and blanks wearing Gamma Doomsday Armor amplified their anti-Chaos power enough to slow the enemy's advance.
• The four Chaos Gods entered the fray, twisting physical laws and infecting Gamma's fleet as Vashtorr sensed their arrival and summoned Abaddon.
• Vashtorr saw Horus and the Black Legion, while the loyal Dark Mechanicum watched Horus and his subordinates.
• Cisrain's plans were disrupted by the gods' appearance, so she decided to enter the battle and fight them herself.

Cisrain arrived above Wyrmwood in a C’tan-powered warship, and Gamma World’s arena trapped the Four Chaos Gods and Vashtorr’s conflict within a fate-bound battlefield. The arena pulled Chaos forces and outsiders into its center, while Abaddon was separated from most of the Black Legion and faced a nine-hour delay before reinforcements could arrive.

• Cisrain entered the battlefield aboard a warship powered by the Nightbringer and the Burning One, intending to fight the Four Chaos Gods and gather data on Chaos.
• Cisrain’s arrival created a new arena whose field of fate temporarily bound Vashtorr and prevented others, including The Emperor, from reaching the battlefield.
• Slaanesh, Khorne, and Tzeentch’s forces gathered as the Four Gods’ conflict over Vashtorr’s authority became a struggle to keep the others from claiming it.
• The arena’s formation dragged Chaos forces, aliens, pirates, and Abaddon into its center, while Abaddon’s Black Legion fleet was delayed by an undercurrent for nine hours.

Chaos forces invaded Cisrain's warship, where Gamma World's guards and defenses fought back. The Four Chaos Gods then dragged Cisrain into a world-sized battlefield, where he dodged Khorne's opening attack as the other gods prepared to strike.

• Valis led Slaanesh's Death Cult through the warship, but Gamma World's fearless warriors and transformed defenders turned the invasion into a fight against formidable opponents.
• Gamma World's Necron and Warp devices restricted the daemons' movements, forcing them through layers of defenses before they reached more than a hundred powerful Honor Guards in the throne hall.
• Cisrain rose from the Silver Throne and revealed power connected to the C'tan, while his guards battled the daemons below.
• The Four Chaos Gods warped the battlefield and pulled Cisrain into it, making him a combatant rather than a spectator.
• Cisrain dodged Khorne's axe, while Nurgle rang its bell, Slaanesh wielded the Crone Sword, and Tzeentch tried to trip him.

Cisrain was ambushed by the four Chaos gods, who tried to erase him while their forces blocked his allies from reaching him. His Custodians and Abaddon entered the arena, but the gods’ attacks threatened to wipe out everyone there.

• Cisrain fought the four Chaos gods after they dragged him into the Warp and attacked him with their divine artifacts and underhanded tactics.
• Fortes and Griss searched for Cisrain, but Chaos daemons and the arena’s shifting distance kept the Custodians from reaching him.
• Abaddon learned that his fleet was lost in Warp turbulence, then charged through a passage into the arena after seeing the four gods besiege a planet-like figure.
• The four Chaos gods’ attempted conceptual erasure wounded Cisrain but failed, allowing Custodians to enter the battle, where many were mutated or reduced to primitive cells.
• An unknown force slapped Abaddon out of the air as a planet-sized Void Whale opened its maw and energy surged toward the battlefield.

Abaddon withdrew from the battle between Cisrain and the four Chaos Gods, while Vashtorr fled Gamma World's forces and Horus pursued him. Abaddon then arrived on Horus's battlefield, where Renster accused him of betraying them and Horus regarded him with cold disappointment.

• Abaddon watched golden flames attack the void whale as Nurgle, Slaanesh, and Tzeentch used their artifacts to suppress Cisrain, then withdrew with the Black Legion Reavers.
• Vashtorr celebrated the war's power and Wyrmwood's slow recovery, but Gamma World's pursuers tracked him and called for elite reinforcements.
• Gamma World's command struggled to hold back the Chaos hordes as Imperial Guardsmen and Space Marines fought, while Horus pursued Vashtorr with the Sons of Horus.
• Abaddon arrived on Horus's battlefield with the Black Legion Reavers, and Horus looked at him with cold disappointment.
• Renster shouted that Abaddon had betrayed their trust, but Abaddon smiled.

Abaddon accepted Vashtorr’s power and attacked Horus while Renster and the veterans faced off against the Black Legion Raiders. As the Emperor seized the Chaos Gods’ distraction to target their Warp domains, Guilliman received a command after awakening on Macragge.

• Vashtorr empowered Abaddon, who felt strong enough to erase Horus, while Renster accused him of deceiving their former comrades.
• Abaddon charged Horus, and their clash warped the battlefield and sent them both out of sight.
• Renster and the veterans refused the Black Legion Raiders’ demand to return, declaring themselves the Sons of Horus and preparing to fight.
• Vashtorr’s Warp rifts drew golden-armored warriors who pursued him for the Webway Key.
• The Emperor took advantage of the Chaos Gods’ focus on Gamma World and sent a command to four Primarchs.
• Guilliman awoke on Macragge, learned Malcador had become Regent, and received the Emperor’s command.

Guilliman and his brothers received prophecies and missions from The Emperor in a shared vision, then Guilliman awoke and learned he had to act quickly. He ordered Calgar to assemble an elite force for a strike on the Chaos Gods’ weakened lairs.

• Lion El'Jonson reflected on his brothers and his regrets before receiving a vision from The Emperor.
• Guilliman, Lion El'Jonson, Jaghatai Khan, and Vulkan reacted to their separate prophecies and missions, which revealed that other brothers would return.
• Guilliman broke free of the Warp and awoke as Calgar's Honor Guard rushed in to investigate the disturbance.
• Guilliman ordered Calgar to assemble elite assault and boarding forces, but gave him only a fraction of the requested preparation time.
• Guilliman explained that the Imperium could exploit the Chaos Gods' weakened lairs while they focused on Gamma World and Vashtorr's Webway Key.
• Calgar reported that preparations were complete, and Guilliman ordered the force to strike Chaos's lair.

Calgar mobilized the Ultramarines for a counteroffensive into Chaos, while Lion El'Jonson crossed the Warp and reached Perturabo's world, where the Imperial Fists were already fighting. Perturabo prepared to attack them after hearing a voice claim to be Rogal Dorn, leaving Lion convinced Perturabo would be too occupied to aid the Four Gods.

• Calgar welcomed the order to attack Chaos and mobilized Ultramar's forces, summoning Titus, Gabriel, Valen, and Tal.
• Lion El'Jonson led the remaining Angels of Absolution through the Warp, fighting daemons until they reached Perturabo's world and spotted the Imperial Fists.
• Lion identified Perturabo as a potential threat to the Imperium and planned to strike Khorne's and Nurgle's lairs while the Imperial Fists held Perturabo's forces.
• Perturabo's Iron Warriors eagerly prepared to attack the Imperial Fists after their scouts found them guarding something.
• Perturabo heard someone say, "I am... Rogal Dorn!" and went to investigate, while Lion concluded Perturabo would not be able to reinforce the Four Gods.

Guilliman's fleet attacked Nurgle's Garden to destroy it and rescue the Aeldari god of life, while the Angels assaulted Slaanesh's Palace of Pleasure. As the four Chaos gods remained occupied in battle, Magnus saw them burning and realized someone had attacked them and their domains.

• Guilliman led his expeditionary fleet into the Warp with orders to attack Nurgle's Garden and rescue the Aeldari god of life.
• The attackers entered Nurgle's Garden, killed its defenders, and prepared to use Cyclonic Torpedoes to destroy it.
• Nurgle sensed his garden's children dying but stayed in the arena as Khorne continued fighting Cisrain; Slaanesh considered retreating while Tzeentch insisted everything was part of his plan.
• The Emperor's Angels breached the outer rings of Slaanesh's palace, and Sanguinius pierced Lucius when he tried to resurrect through him.
• Magnus saw the four Chaos gods burning in the Well of Fate and realized their domains had been attacked.

Magnus foresaw the Grey Knights attacking and wrestled with his guilt, divided loyalties, and the manipulated visions that kept him from finding hope. Castellan Crow led the Grey Knights and their fallen allies into Tzeentch’s Crystal Labyrinth to free Magnus’s soul as Tzeentch’s power began to return.

• Magnus saw a prophecy of Grey Knights led by Vulkan besieging him and recalled how the Imperium’s anti-daemon warriors could threaten the Thousand Sons.
• Magnus reflected on his guilt, his sons’ suffering, and the fragments of his soul that Tzeentch kept divided across timelines.
• Magnus foresaw the Imperium’s collapse and the Thousand Sons being hunted, then concluded that they had to resist the Imperium to protect themselves.
• Castellan Crow led Grey Knights, including Stern and the Cursebound Legion, through a passage into Tzeentch’s Crystal Labyrinth, where they killed Chaos daemons.
• The Grey Knights entered the labyrinth seeking to release Magnus, while the daemons warned that Tzeentch was returning and Magnus remained his trophy.

The Grey Knights entered Tzeentch’s Crystal Labyrinth to destroy the device controlling Magnus and free his scattered soul. As they struck the device with the Emperor’s power, Magnus’s memories resurfaced and his soul began to mend, leaving him in anguish over his sons’ corruption and slaughter.

• Supreme Grand Master Castellan Crow held off Tzeentch’s sorcerers while the other Grey Knights reached the labyrinth’s inner chamber.
• The Grey Knights found Tzeentch’s broken staff of authority in a crystal coffin and struck it with a sacred hammer bearing the Emperor’s power.
• The hammer’s blow awakened Magnus’s memories of Russ and the Space Wolves killing the Thousand Sons after Magnus had surrendered.
• Magnus remembered that his sons had mutated and fallen under Chaos’s control, and that he had accepted Tzeentch’s plan to save them.
• Magnus’s severed soul fragments began to mend as part of his consciousness confronted the changes in himself and his sons.

As the four Chaos Gods retreated from Gamma World, its fleets restored their support and sealed routes into the Warp. An alliance of enemies seized the chance to plan a sneak attack, while Gamma's forces destroyed Abaddon's reinforcements and a strange stellar core began to glow.

• Cisrain ordered Brown to drain the retreating Chaos Gods as Gamma's warriors and fleets launched a counterattack and reinforced the barriers around Gamma World.
• Gamma's enemies formed an alliance and planned to invade through Warp currents and the Webway, with the Squats providing AI navigation and the Drukhari rushing ahead.
• Grey Knights, the Cursebound Legion, and Leman Russ's Space Wolves attacked Abaddon's forces near Kadiwen, while his fleet sought a route through the Warp to reinforce him.
• Gamma's fleet quickly destroyed the newly arrived ships from Abaddon's fleet, though the Reaper continued corrupting Gamma's forces.
• A stellar core at the center of Gamma World expanded and shifted from yellow light to a cold, sinister pale blue glow.

Gamma World’s psychic device drained power from Chaos as Cisrain fought the Four Gods, who eventually withdrew and left Vashtorr exposed. Khorne’s final strike destroyed Wyrmwood, and Vashtorr fled as Gamma World’s forces closed in.

• Gamma World activated its psychic device and forcibly extracted souls and power from the Warp, disrupting the Four Gods.
• A flaming warrior struck Tzeentch, who fled and left behind a follower stripped of his power.
• Slaanesh tried to lure Cisrain to the Palace of Pleasure, while the Four Gods abandoned their effort to protect Vashtorr.
• Khorne unleashed a devastating strike that split Cisrain’s warship and destroyed Wyrmwood, though Cisrain survived with a quickly healing wound.
• Vashtorr realized Gamma World had surrounded the battlefield and that the Chaos forces were being defeated; he fled as stasis fields spread.

Gamma World fought off a vast Chaos invasion while Abaddon and Horus continued battling, and Aeldari envoys breached the world’s defenses. The chapter revealed that the envoys’ faction intended to destroy Gamma World and seize its weapon against Slaanesh.

• Vashtorr was trapped by Gamma World’s force field as Bien discovered that Chaos daemons were pouring through breached Webway passages and led a strike to destroy them.
• Abaddon and Horus continued their furious battle while fighting spread across Wyrmwood and the wider galaxy.
• Karamat learned that the Four Chaos Gods had escaped and that people who monitored them had suffered mutations.
• Aeldari envoys forcibly entered Gamma World’s Webway and shipyards, claiming the Dark Eldar had infiltrated the world, but Gamma’s forces attacked them.
• The Aeldari had learned that Gamma World’s Warp pump could drain Slaanesh’s souls, and most factions sought to seize it despite Yvraine’s opposition.
• The Ynnari who came to Gamma World intended to destroy it and take the weapon against Slaanesh.

The Aeldari attacked Gamma World to seize the weapon that had wounded Slaanesh, despite Yvraine’s warnings that the prophecy could be a Chaos trap. Imprisoned by her father, Yvraine was rescued by The Visarch and urged him to help her stop the war.

• The Craftworld Aeldari, Ynnari traitors, and other xenos launched a surprise assault on Gamma World, and Harlequins killed an Aeldari who tried to send a warning.
• Gamma World’s city guards and defenses mobilized as multiple Wraithknights and hostile fleets advanced toward its worlds, including Karamat.
• Biel-Tan’s seers interpreted a prophecy about Slaanesh’s injury as evidence that Gamma World possessed a weapon they could seize, while Yvraine warned that the prophecy might be a Chaos trap.
• Yvraine’s father imprisoned her so she could not interfere with the invasion, and she feared the Aeldari would provoke Gamma World’s retaliation.
• The Visarch broke into Yvraine’s prison, and she asked him to free her so they could stop the war.

Yvraine escaped the prison with the Visarch’s help as the Ynnari raced to stop the war over Gamma World. Craftworld Aeldari invaded, but Gamma World authorized its advanced weapons and repelled a Chaos fleet at Ozrax World; an underground laboratory on Karamat World began to awaken.

• The Visarch freed Yvraine and stayed behind to hold off the Archon’s guards while Ynnari allies helped her escape.
• Yvraine learned that Norsca had reopened a Webway gate and that the Craftworld Aeldari had already attacked Gamma World.
• Two Wraithknights and Craftworld Aeldari forces emerged from the Webway and assaulted Gamma World, prompting its leaders to authorize super technology.
• A Chaos fleet attacked Ozrax World, where a dimensional disintegrator destroyed a warship and the planet’s mutated tentacles devoured other attackers.
• Researchers ordered the captured battle footage recorded, and instruments began awakening in an underground laboratory on Karamat World.

Gamma World's defenses devastated a space dwarf slaughter squad, while Valde led the Dark Eldar into battle against Gamma World and its soulless cleaner. Gamma World unleashed Death Relics and prepared to turn captured Daemons and Aeldari souls into weapons.

• Gamma World's planetary defenses destroyed the space dwarf fleet, leaving one survivor to flee Karamat.
• Valde reopened the Webway gate and hurled a dimensional bomb at Gamma World's cleanup force, tearing open a passage between the Warp and reality.
• Valde's forces discovered that Gamma World's warships and a heavily armored one-man cleaner were suppressing Warp power.
• Gamma World's Death Relics destroyed Chaos Daemons, while its psychic harvesters captured them for use in weapons and the Blackstone Fortress.

Gamma World used Slaanesh-powered weapons to drain the Dark Eldar’s souls and repel their assault, while its homeworld came under siege from the Aeldari. After the Aeldari destroyed the Synapse Condenser and dismissed Gamma World’s research into the Warp, Gamma World targeted them for teleportation to the Palace of Slaanesh.

• Kaunasir activated the Destroyer Protocol and received the Slaanesh Annihilation Cannon, which empowered Gamma World’s relic mechs to drain Dark Eldar souls.
• Supreme Valde and the Dark Eldar fleet fled as Gamma World’s forces attacked Dark Eldar on the planets they abandoned.
• Gamma World deployed forbidden weapons as the Aeldari siege breached its homeworld’s defenses.
• Captain Kartefu cut off a junior Aeldari from Gamma World’s database after they found its research into solving the Warp problem.
• After the Aeldari destroyed the Synapse Condenser, Gamma World locked onto them and ordered a teleport to the Palace of Slaanesh.

Gamma World retaliated against the Aeldari invasion, destroying their fleets and sending their souls into Slaanesh’s Palace of Pleasure. As Yvraine tried to stop the massacre on Gamma World's administrative planet, Gamma World's counterattack had already reached Craftworld Altis.

• Slaanesh’s daemons appeared in the Palace of Pleasure, where the captured Aeldari were killed and their souls devoured or tormented.
• Gamma World split its fleet, sending the Adeptus Custodes toward the Aeldari Craftworld while other forces reinforced the besieged planet.
• Gamma World’s fleet attacked the Aeldari ships, blocked their warp jumps with a Dimensional Disintegrator, and destroyed them with repeated barrages.
• Yvraine arrived through the Webway, saw the devastation, and led loyalist Ynnari toward her father in hopes of persuading him to surrender.
• Yvraine learned that Aeldari were besieging Gamma World's Chief Council and saw them massacre civilians on the administrative planet.
• Gamma World's retaliation reached the Craftworld where Craftworld Altis was located.