Recaps

Tzeentch’s Greater Daemons plotted to exploit Guilliman’s love for his family, using a fake version of his mother to destabilize him. Guilliman doubted that the woman in the daemonic camp was an impostor and feared his forces could not hold the Brass Road much longer.

• Tzeentch’s Greater Daemons discussed how to breach the Ultramarines and Dark Angels’ defenses after repeated attacks failed.
• One daemon proposed targeting Guilliman’s family and persuading the daemons of Slaanesh to provide an impostor posing as his mother.
• Guilliman rejected Felix’s reassurance that the woman was a daemon disguise, demanding proof that his mother was safe on Macragge.
• Guilliman explained that Macragge had been left short of its finest warriors and estimated his forces could hold for only three more months before facing shortages.
• Guilliman worried that he had received no news from the portal and could not tell whether the defenses on the other Brass Roads remained secure.

Guilliman struggled to choose between rescuing Lady Euten and protecting his Legion, while Lion weighed the choice against his own family ties. As Warmaster, Lion ordered Guilliman to lead a heavily armed assault to rescue her, with Dark Angels support.

• Felix urged Guilliman not to risk his life for Lady Euten, and Guilliman slapped him for dismissing the possibility that she was his mother.
• Felix reminded Guilliman that he had taught the Ultramarines to put humanity's interests first, leaving Guilliman speechless.
• Lion arrived from the front lines and asked Guilliman what he intended to do; Guilliman admitted he could not decide whether to risk the mission.
• Thinking of his foster father, Lion chose to support Guilliman and ordered him to lead the Honor Guard and a large armored force on a rescue assault.
• Lion promised that the Dark Angels would send one hundred Excindio and heavy artillery to support the mission, then left to address daemons breaching the defensive line.

Lion El'Jonson learned that Guilliman had turned against him and led an assault on the Ultramarines Primarch's forces. He fought his way to Guilliman's mobile fortress, where the brothers clashed in battle.

• A Dark Angels scout told Lion El'Jonson that Guilliman was attacking their defensive line, and Lion learned the Ultramarines had imprisoned messengers who tried to report the breach.
• Lion El'Jonson gathered his mobile forces and led an elite armored assault toward Defensive Line 167, cutting through Guilliman's army.
• Lion El'Jonson spotted Guilliman with Lady Euten and charged toward the mobile fortress, believing he could free his brother from her influence.
• Lion El'Jonson stormed the fortress and confronted Guilliman, who declared himself the destined Regent of the Imperium.
• Lion El'Jonson hurled a sword at a Tzeentch daemon praising Guilliman, then charged his brother, and their blades collided.

Lion defeated the Chaos-influenced Guilliman, captured him, and brought him back to headquarters, where Guilliman explained that a mirror showing the future had led him astray. Lorgar then ordered the legions to gather around the portal, leaving Lion to punish the Ultramarines officers before joining the regrouping.

• Guilliman killed four of Lion’s warriors and battered Lion, but Lion exploited Guilliman’s arrogance and turned the fight around.
• Lion beat Guilliman until he claimed to have recovered, then chained him to a trailer and withdrew with his troops.
• During the retreat, Lion saw the bewitched Ultramarines regain their senses and the daemons flee.
• At headquarters, Guilliman said a mirror showing future images had caused him to turn against the Imperium, while Lion berated him and the Ultramarines officers.
• Lorgar ordered the legions to gather around the portal, and Lion assigned the Ultramarines officers to the penal battalion as rear guards.

Lion El'Jonson and Roboute Guilliman reached the portal as Lorgar gathered the battered Legions for a final defense until the Emperor returned. Amid the collapsing battle lines, Death Guard Captain Groot and a small group of Ultramarines auxilia fought a giant daemon of Nurgle, and the auxilia destroyed it from within with overloaded power cells.

• Lion El'Jonson and Roboute Guilliman fought through daemons and reached the accretion belt around the portal, where Lion learned that the other Legions had suffered heavy losses and betrayals.
• Lorgar contracted the defensive line around the portal, and Sanguinius placed the Word Bearers, Ultramarines, Death Guard, and Luna Wolves at the front as the daemons launched another assault.
• Death Guard Captain Groot killed a Flesh Hound with a melta grenade, discovered a dying Salamander captain and rescued seven Ultramarines auxilia from a hatch.
• Groot and the auxilia planned to destroy a giant daemon of Nurgle by overloading power cells, then gathered and heated the cells while the daemon approached.
• Groot distracted the daemon while the auxilia attacked its eye; when the daemon trapped Groot, two auxilia carrying roasted power cells leaped into its mouth and blew it apart from within.

Grant fought from inside a Greater Daemon of Nurgle while the auxilia wore it down with their remaining fire, then crawled out alive. Salamanders arrived to recover the survivors, and Grant prepared to leave with them despite his injuries.

• Grant charged the Greater Daemon of Nurgle, pierced its chest with iron, and attacked its insides.
• The auxilia concentrated their fire until the daemon collapsed into the wreckage.
• The auxilia cut open the daemon's hide and helped Grant crawl free, then asked what they should do next.
• A Salamander squad led by Sergeant Ude arrived in response to a distress signal and recovered the dead Salamander's Gene-seed.
• The Salamanders treated Grant and offered to escort him and the surviving auxilia back to the lines.
• Grant struggled to his feet, accepted a bolt pistol and chainsword, and prepared to leave with the Salamanders.

Grant and his group returned to a fortress overwhelmed by wounded soldiers and drastic military preparations, then witnessed Sanguinius order a retreat after Relic Bombs devastated the front. Sanguinius and Lion El'Jonson faced the scale of their losses and the likelihood that the new defenses would fail, while Sanguinius waited for The Emperor to return.

• Grant and his group fought several bands of daemons on the road to the fortress, losing a Salamander whose Gene-seed could not be recovered.
• Grant found the fortress transformed into a crowded medical and industrial hub, where the Adeptus Mechanicus and Iron Hands refitted warriors as a Word Bearers chaplain preached that faith could help humanity resist the Warp.
• Grant questioned Ude about the Thunder Warriors' warning that The Emperor might abandon them, but Ude dismissed it as a daemon's deception.
• Sanguinius ordered all forces to retreat toward the inner perimeter, and Relic Bombs from Lion El'Jonson's forbidden arsenal annihilated the daemon-filled front at the cost of the troops defending it.
• Lion El'Jonson warned Sanguinius that the new positions could not hold, and Sanguinius replied that they could at least die together before going to the Throne Room to ask when The Emperor would return.

The Imperium’s warriors faced the gathered armies of the four Chaos gods in a last stand behind Perturabo’s defenses. As the fortress lines fell and casualties mounted, Sanguinius left to join the battle, telling Valdor he did not expect to return.

• Corax warned that the enemy would reach the fortress complex in half an hour, and Jaghatai Khan brought back wounded White Scars as Ferrus prepared combat Men of Iron.
• The daemons of all four gods gathered before the defenses, and Sanguinius ordered the attack through Lorgar’s psychic battle channel.
• Lion El'Jonson and Ferrus fired the Emperor-sealed weapons, annihilating a vast swath of the daemon army and provoking the horde to charge.
• The defenders opened fire, but the daemons broke through the fortress lines and overwhelmed the warriors despite enormous reported casualties.
• Sanguinius told Valdor to keep the Adeptus Custodes at the fortress, then flew off to fight, saying he did not expect to return.

Lorgar and the Word Bearers strengthened the Imperium’s collapsing defensive line, while Sanguinius rescued Lorgar from The Changeling and fought across the battlefield. The line continued to fall, and Khorne revealed that Sanguinius’s insult had impressed him rather than enraged him.

• Lorgar led the Word Bearers in a zealous counterattack that empowered their warriors and temporarily stabilized the battle line.
• Mortarion tried using Digital Numerology, but his ritual summoned a Great Unclean One of Nurgle, whom the Death Guard destroyed with artillery.
• The Changeling trapped Lorgar in an illusion until Sanguinius struck it with the Spear of Telesto, then killed it and the other assassins.
• Sanguinius swept across the battlefield, but the Imperium’s defensive line kept shrinking as casualties mounted.
• Sanguinius cursed Khorne and returned to battle, while Khorne admired his bravery and threw an axe into Slaanesh’s head for teasing him.

Khorne sent four powerful daemons to challenge Sanguinius, but they argued over who would fight him first and trapped him in place. Before they could choose a champion, the banished Skarbrand charged in to claim Sanguinius’s skull.

• Khorne promised glory to whoever brought him Sanguinius’s head, and Seed of Destruction, Ang'grath, U'Zuhl the Skulltaker, and Ka'Bandha surrounded Sanguinius.
• Sanguinius tried to leave and aid the Imperium’s other forces, but the daemons’ restriction held him in place.
• Seed of Destruction and Ang'grath argued over who should duel Sanguinius, while Ka'Bandha stared at him and U'Zuhl demanded a chance to fight.
• Seed of Destruction and Ang'grath mocked U'Zuhl, who challenged them to settle the matter by fighting him first.
• The banished Skarbrand charged onto the battlefield and claimed the first challenge against Sanguinius.

Sanguinius faced Skarbrand in an honor challenge and used a precise dodge and counterattack to overpower him. He pinned Skarbrand down and began tearing him apart, preparing to rip off his wings.

• Skarbrand charged Sanguinius, hoping to kill him and earn Khorne's permission to return to the Blood Realm.
• U'Zuhl, Seed of Destruction, and Ang'grath tore a Keeper of Secrets in half after it approached to watch the challenge.
• Sanguinius sensed the path of Skarbrand's axes, dodged them, and used his feet to flip Skarbrand onto the ground.
• Sanguinius stood on Skarbrand's back and repeatedly stabbed him with his spear and sword, preventing him from getting up.
• Sanguinius pinned Skarbrand to the ground, tore open his body, and turned his attention to Skarbrand's wings.

Sanguinius defeated Skarbrand and battered Seed of Destruction while fighting Ang'grath, Skulltaker, and Ka'Bandha. After Ka'Bandha wounded him and Ang'grath stopped his killing blow, Lorgar offered Sanguinius power.

• Sanguinius tore Skarbrand apart until the daemon vanished from the mortal world.
• Sanguinius punched Seed of Destruction, then used his spear to drag him back for a barrage of blows that left him unable to fight.
• Sanguinius kicked Skulltaker into Ang'grath, briefly distracting the two daemons as he confronted Ka'Bandha.
• Sanguinius struck Ka'Bandha with Seed of Destruction's severed leg, evaded his next attack, and slashed the back of his neck.
• Ka'Bandha wounded Sanguinius, but Sanguinius damaged his spine before Ang'grath caught Sanguinius's arm with Thorn Whip.
• Lorgar's voice entered Sanguinius's mind and offered him power.

Sanguinius received the Emperor’s stored power of belief, transformed into a blazing divine warrior, and destroyed the daemons attacking the battlefield. The Chaos Gods sent the Hand of Khorne to challenge him, and it charged as the chapter ended.

• Sanguinius’s tainted blood vanished as the Emperor’s power transformed him, and Lorgar explained that humanity’s belief had been preserved as a weapon against Chaos.
• Sanguinius said the borrowed power would last long enough to kill the daemons, then flew into the sky and slew Ka'Bandha, the Seed of Destruction, and Skulltaker with one strike.
• Tzeentch called for a Chosen to oppose Sanguinius, and Khorne agreed to send part of Itself into the mortal realm in exchange for a favor from Tzeentch.
• Khorne cut off Its own hand, which fell beside Sanguinius and absorbed battlefield blood and souls to form armor.
• The Hand of Khorne challenged Sanguinius and charged at him.

Sanguinius and Khorne's Hand fought a brutal battle that neither could end quickly, while Magnus offered to awaken the Primarchs' Warp essence so they could aid Sanguinius. Perturabo agreed first, and Magnus broke through his mental defenses by forcing him to relive the destruction of Olympia, leaving Perturabo furious but awakened to the possibility of using his essence.

• Tzeentch tried to empower Khorne, but Khorne rejected the help and insisted on fighting Sanguinius alone.
• Sanguinius and Khorne's Hand inflicted horrific wounds on each other, and both realized that victory depended on whose will lasted longer.
• Konrad Curze proposed that the Primarchs use their Warp essence to support Sanguinius, and Magnus offered to awaken it.
• Perturabo agreed to Magnus's help, and Magnus made him witness the destruction of Olympia and his sister's death to shatter his mental defenses.
• Perturabo emerged from the illusion, vomited, and warned Magnus that the ordeal had better be worth it.

Magnus transferred Perturabo's, Russ's, and Corax's powers to Sanguinius as he fought the Hand of Khorne. Sanguinius unleashed vast weapons and strange new abilities, but the Hand of Khorne countered them and continued to dominate the battle.

• Magnus used Curze's guidance to free Perturabo's Warp essence and send it into Sanguinius, who used it to escape the Hand of Khorne and command vast quantities of wreckage into a massive weapons cage.
• The Hand of Khorne shattered Sanguinius's steel defenses and rampaged through the Titan Legion and strike fleet Sanguinius had created.
• Magnus drew power and despair from Russ's vision of the Emperor's wounded state after the war against Horus, and Sanguinius used Russ's supernatural cold to freeze and return the Hand of Khorne's hellfire.
• The Hand of Khorne trapped Russ's cold in a fragment of the timeline and pressed Sanguinius with attacks that showed futures ending in Sanguinius's defeat.
• Corax relived his sorrow over his mutated sons and his people's rejection, and Magnus transferred Corax's shadow power to Sanguinius.
• Sanguinius combined shadow, freezing, and Perturabo's destructive power to wound the Hand of Khorne, but the Hand praised him and kept fighting as more powers flowed into Sanguinius.

The Emperor searched the collapsing world for the Five Elements Overcoming, hoping its magic-altering power could weaken the Four Gods. After finding it, he weighed humanity’s possible futures and chose to risk using the unknown fifth path, then invited the native humans to face what came next.

• The Emperor searched the dying world by tearing up vast regions, devastating its environments and terrifying its inhabitants.
• On the ninth day, The Emperor found the world-class item Five Elements Overcoming, which could change how magic functioned.
• The Emperor returned to the portal and considered mechanical, psychic, genetic, and god-forgetting paths for humanity.
• The Emperor concluded that Five Elements Overcoming might weaken the Four Gods, but feared it could also weaken him.
• The Emperor decided to gamble everything and told the native humans to come with him to face what was ahead.

Sanguinius sacrificed his last faith to wound the Hand of Khorne, but the daemon struck him down and broke the defenders’ psychic shield. Just as Tzeentch declared victory, the Emperor emerged from the portal with a World-Class Item and activated Five Elements Overcoming.

• Sanguinius endured the Hand of Khorne’s attacks and tricked him into accepting a faith bomb disguised as a handshake.
• The bomb engulfed the Hand of Khorne in golden flames, but he slashed Sanguinius unconscious and sent him flying to the portal fortress.
• Jaghatai found the gravely wounded Sanguinius while the Hand of Khorne broke through the psychic shield maintained by Magnus and Malcador.
• Tzeentch concluded that the Imperium had lost and began discussing the spoils with Slaanesh and Nurgle.
• The Emperor emerged from the portal and revealed a World-Class Item, then activated Five Elements Overcoming.

A grandfather told his granddaughter how the Great Crusade ended with the Portal Defense Battle and humanity creating a new path, then revealed himself as Neoth, living peacefully with his family after the war. As his sons gathered for the holiday, Neoth waited for the rest of his brothers while Horus’s intense devotion made him uneasy.

• The granddaughter called the Great Crusade story predictable, so her grandfather recounted how the Portal Defense Battle prevented the Horus Heresy and ended with humanity creating its own sun.
• The granddaughter ran to help prepare dinner, and Neoth welcomed Jaghatai, who arrived first and joined the family celebration.
• Horus arrived next, brought Neoth a gift, and reported that their warriors had explored and cleared millions of Warp dungeons.
• Rogal Dorn and Perturabo arrived arguing about a battle against Slaanesh, and Horus hurried them inside before their debate could continue.
• Neoth asked Horus when he would bring home a girlfriend, and Horus answered with a heated look that left Neoth uneasy.

Horus welcomed his brothers to a family gathering, where they discussed their recoveries and teased one another before Guilliman arrived with his Aeldari partner. The chapter described Neoth’s new game-like world, where daemons became monsters and psychic power vanished, leaving the Imperium and Aeldari to adapt.

• Horus greeted the Primarchs, who discussed Sanguinius’s recovery, their changed lives, and their familiar rivalries.
• Angron entertained his niece, while Vulkan hugged his brothers and Corax silently composed a poem.
• Guilliman arrived nine minutes late, holding the hand of a pregnant Aeldari woman he had married after negotiating with her people.
• Neoth’s new game system replaced psychic power, turned daemons and their gods into weakened monsters, and prevented them from entering reality unless provoked.
• The Aeldari lost their psychic abilities and regressed technologically, while Guilliman secured their Webway map and brought the Aeldari into the Imperium’s alliance.

The Great Transformation reshaped the galaxy, weakening or ending the threats posed by xenos while turning the Imperium’s wars in the Warp into leveling raids where soldiers could revive. On M31.999’s final night, Neoth celebrated the new millennium with Malcador and his sons, who shared their hopes and bickered over dinner.

• The Waaagh! field failed and destroyed Ork technology, while the Necrons became mindless machines and Slaanesh devoured the Drukhari in Commorragh.
• The Imperium used levels, Warp raids, and Necron tomb beacons to fight the gods and revive fallen soldiers, with humans from the other world transformed into grand mages.
• Neoth eased the Great Crusade, left his golden armor on the Golden Throne, and waited for humanity to answer him as he celebrated the festival with Malcador and the Primarchs.
• The Primarchs shared their achievements and plans, then squabbled and joked over dinner while Lion El'Jonson told Roboute Guilliman's daughter about killing Greater Daemons.
• Neoth remembered his tribe, looked toward the ceiling, and wished his father could see the gathering before he welcomed the new millennium with a toast.

Magnus and Leman Russ began mobilizing Terra against the daemons emerging from the Warp, using force to bring nations into the coming war. After securing Kazimierz, they turned their attention to Siracusa and its mafia families.

• Lin Fan created a gateway to Arknights' Terra and sent Magnus and Leman Russ to explore it.
• Magnus tried to absorb the Chaos energy across Terra, accidentally transforming the spiritual realm into the Warp and turning its Demons into Chaos daemons.
• Magnus and Leman Russ froze the stargate with ice, then returned to Rhodes Island to warn them about the coming demonic Scourges.
• The Primarchs crushed the Seaborn and their god, named the new Sea God Slippery, and sent him and the Seaborn north to fight the daemons.
• Magnus divided himself and Leman Russ into clones so they could visit Terra's nations quickly and compel them to mobilize for war.
• The Primarchs forced Kazimierz into total mobilization and then went to confront Siracusa's mafia families.

Wolf Lord Zaro spotted Red and a mysterious giant in the wilderness and feared the giant could upset his plans for the Wolf Lords' contest. As Zaro tried to leave and send Bernardo to expose Caesar's deception, the giant caught him watching and attacked.

• Zaro learned that Red was nearby and suspected Caesar had brought a hidden trump card into the wilderness.
• Zaro saw Red walking beside a huge warrior in ice-blue armor and judged him powerful enough to threaten every fang in Siracusa.
• Zaro decided to return to the city and have Bernardo's people explain Caesar's deception to the giant.
• The giant sensed Zaro watching, struck the ground where he had stood, and left Zaro wondering what the giant was.

Leman Russ confronted Zaro, who ordered beastkin to attack him before launching a direct assault of his own. The beastkin submitted to Leman Russ, and the chapter ended as his punch struck Zaro.

• Leman Russ mocked Zaro, who responded by ordering the beastkin to surround and attack him.
• Leman Russ stood his ground, and the beastkin slowed, gathered beside him, and prostrated themselves in submission.
• Zaro questioned how Leman Russ had turned the beastkin against him, then darkened the sky with clouds and lightning.
• Zaro pounced at Leman Russ, who met him with a heavy punch.
• Zaro cried out as Leman Russ's punch landed.

Leman Russ defeated and buried Zaro, then freed him after Zaro begged and agreed to serve. Zaro led Leman Russ and Red toward her grandmother while Russ planned to mobilize Siracusa for the war, leaving them in a conference room as Zaro summoned mafia leaders.

• Leman Russ battered Zaro, then froze and buried him when he learned Zaro could not be killed.
• After half an hour underground, Zaro begged for freedom, barked like a dog, and offered to serve Leman Russ and persuade the other Wolf Lords to surrender.
• Leman Russ asked Zaro about Red's grandmother, and Zaro agreed to take them to her.
• On the way to the city, Leman Russ explained his plan to militarize Siracusa and the threat posed by demons farther north than Ursus, shocking Zaro.
• Zaro brought Leman Russ and Red to a deserted conference room and went to summon the mafia family heads under his command.