Chapter Summaries

Lin Fan and the Orks gathered scrap and recruits to turn the huge flesh mass into a mobile fortress. After Khan transformed into an Ork boss and forced nearby tribes to join, the group finally had enough resources to begin construction.

• Lin Fan showed Old Ironhead the enormous flesh mass and proposed building it into a mobile fortress with the Orks fighting alongside it.
• Lin Fan transformed Khan into a massive Ork boss, and Old Ironhead and Old Ironleg agreed that the disguise could help them recruit other Orks without bowing to them.
• Khan and Lin Fan raided Ork camps, killed their bosses, and took their scrap until many Orks joined their growing band.
• Old Ironhead and Old Ironleg realized they needed more scrap and skilled workers, so they recruited Orks who could learn from The Auto Mechanic's Self-Cultivation.
• Khan's raids gathered enough scrap and manpower, and the group prepared to begin building the fortress.

Lin Fan and the Ork Meks named their engineering marvel Gork Rehmannia, then debated its weapons until Old Ironhead and Old Ironleg settled the argument by beating the others. The meeting ended without a weapon loadout, while Khan wondered if force could make the Imperium obey him.

• Old Ironhead opened the meeting to choose a name and weapons for the Orks’ engineering marvel.
• Lin Fan proposed a name that honored both the Orks and the Imperium, and the group settled on Gork Rehmannia.
• The Big Meks argued over weapons, and Old Ironhead and Old Ironleg fought the others until they won the dispute.
• Khan asked Lin Fan whether beating disobedient people would make the Imperium listen, and Lin Fan warned him it could cause rebellion.

The Orks finished turning Gork's Yellow Thing into a heavily armed steel fortress, and humans, Orks, and mutants celebrated together before preparing to fight the Drukhari. Yilafren told Lin Fan that her soul thirst was healing in his presence, leaving him wondering whether he could mend Aeldari souls.

• The Orks armored Gork's Yellow Thing, mounted hundreds of cannons, and installed Rys as its control hub.
• The humans, Orks, and mutants shared a bonfire party, while Lin Fan asked Little Yi to record the celebration for a possible trade with Trazyn.
• Yilafren told Lin Fan that her soul thirst had eased and that more than half of the wound in her soul had healed since she had been with him.
• Lin Fan noticed Yilafren looked healthier and wondered whether his presence could heal Aeldari souls.
• Lin Fan and Yilafren watched the revelers as he considered asking Trazyn about her recovery.

The Orks and Lorn survivors drove the Gork-Emperor up into Commorragh and began a destructive assault on the city. As Drukhari forces counterattacked, the Gork-Emperor raised two shields, including Old Ironhead’s newly devised Shimmer Shield.

• The Orks used their antigravity engines and belief-fueled calculations to push the Gork-Emperor upward through Commorragh’s ruins.
• Three-Eyes and the Lorn survivors prepared to take revenge, while Rys longed for Sister Superior Lucia and the others.
• The Gork-Emperor burst into Commorragh, announced its revenge, and began crushing residents and bombarding the city’s spires.
• Drukhari forces attacked the Gork-Emperor with vehicles, prompting the Orks to activate the Bubble Shield and Shimmer Shield.
• Old Ironhead explained the Shimmer Shield in unexpectedly scientific terms, then forgot what he had said.

The Drukhari damaged the Gork-Emperor with Blink Torpedoes, revealing that the giant fortress was alive and making it a target for their pain-hungry warriors. As Orks rushed to repair the breach and fight back, Old Ironhead sent Lin Fan and Khan to join the battle on a massive motorcycle.

• The Drukhari's Voidraven bombers launched Blink Torpedoes through the Gork-Emperor's shields, tearing a huge breach in its body and damaging its engines and communications.
• Fleeing Drukhari warriors saw the Gork-Emperor bleed and howl, then turned back to attack the living giant and torture it.
• Ork Mekboyz and firefighting crews rushed to repair the damage while Old Ironhead adjusted the shields and ordered the red-and-black biker boyz into battle.
• The Ork bikers launched Skybeast Rockets controlled by Gretchin as they tangled with Drukhari aircraft.
• Old Ironhead told Lin Fan and Khan to find Yilafren and take a motorcycle from the storage bay to bring down enemy planes.
• Lin Fan and Khan found Yilafren adjusting a large red motorcycle with two turrets, and Khan admired it while wishing it were white.

Lin Fan, Khan, and Yilafren launched their modified motorcycle to fight the Drukhari, overcoming its tricky controls and destroying a fighter. They set out to hunt the Voidraven bombers as the battle continued.

• Yilafren joined Lin Fan and Khan, and Lin Fan helped them prepare to fight the Voidravens.
• Khan climbed onto Old Ironhead's heavily modified motorcycle while Yilafren explained her repairs and teased him.
• Old Ironhead described the motorcycle's dark lance and gravity net before the floor opened beneath them and they fell into the sky.
• Yilafren told Khan to start the engine by smacking the seat with his butt, and the motorcycle roared to life after he followed her instructions.
• Lin Fan fired the dark lance at a diving Drukhari fighter and destroyed its pilot, then the group headed to pursue the Voidraven bombers.

Archon Aosabaier confronted Amalaga over the destruction caused by a runaway creature, but Amalaga revealed his Hate Virus research and refused to stop the experiment. Amalaga then exposed his terrifying power and ordered Lucia to kill Aosabaier and his guards.

• Aosabaier demanded that Amalaga explain the destruction and losses caused by his secret experiment.
• Amalaga described the Hate Virus, which used hatred and Warp energy to make infected hosts grow and regenerate.
• Aosabaier urged Amalaga to stop the creature, citing Lord Vect’s anger, but Amalaga dismissed Vect and intimidated him with his power.
• Amalaga revealed his connection to the Cult of Excess and ordered Lucia to deal with Aosabaier and his Incubi guards.
• Lucia pounced from the darkness and tore apart Aosabaier and his guards.

Lin Fan, Khan, and Yilafren fought a Voidraven with the Shimmer Shield and gravity generator, then tried to capture it after Lin Fan's Dark Lance failed. Khan and Yilafren reached the bomber, while Lin Fan was left behind struggling to control the malfunctioning gravity net.

• Lin Fan and Khan shot down Drukhari attack craft and skiffs until a Voidraven targeted their motorcycle with its Void Lance.
• Yilafren adjusted the Shimmer Shield as Lin Fan's Dark Lance struck the Voidraven without penetrating its defenses.
• Khan dodged repeated shots to learn the pilot's aim, while Lin Fan used the gravity generator to trap the Voidraven.
• The Shimmer Shield overloaded, and Lin Fan tore off the gravity generator's output knob as Khan leaped onto the captured bomber.
• Khan pulled the Voidraven pilot from the cockpit, then caught Yilafren's whip and drew her across to him while Lin Fan remained behind to fix the gravity net.

Lin Fan destroyed the gravity generator by releasing its dark matter canister, creating a growing sphere of destruction that threatened Commorragh’s dimensional foundations. The Voidravens erased the sphere with Void Mines, but the resulting spatial implosion left their pilots scrambling to escape as the Grey Knights arrived.

• Lin Fan called Little Yi into his mouth for protection, sent Khan and Yilafren away, and released the gravity and dark matter inside the canister.
• Yilafren took control of Khan’s Voidraven and flew them clear as the expanding sphere crushed and annihilated everything in its path.
• Lord Vect ordered the Voidraven pilots to contain the disaster before the district’s unstable dimensional foundations warped further.
• Archon Alundenaer directed the Voidravens to fire their Void Mines at the sphere, which consumed the gravity field and dark energy and left the area flattened.
• The pilots realized the Void Mines’ collision with the dark matter field would trigger a spatial implosion and fled, but they had started too late.
• The chapter revealed that the Grey Knights had arrived, meaning the planet was already doomed.

Lin Fan endured the debris and wreckage sucked into the collapsing void fields while the survivors in Commorragh struggled to escape. After the Orks assessed the damage and began planning repairs, Rys recognized a horrifying figure approaching: a mutilated creature bearing Canoness Lucia’s head and the remains of her honor guard.

• Lin Fan was crushed beneath the debris pulled into the repairing space and swallowed a Drukhari helmet before settling in to wait.
• The void fields pulled wreckage, vehicles, bodies, and toxic clouds from Commorragh into the garbage ball, while the Gork-Emperor and a few survivors held on.
• Old Ironhead and Old Ironleg found surviving Orks, reset their injuries, and planned to salvage the garbage ball to repair the Gork-Emperor.
• Rys warned the Orks that something familiar and terrifying was approaching.
• Rys saw a six-winged monstrosity made from human bodies, wearing the armor of Canoness Lucia’s honor guard and bearing Canoness Lucia’s head.

Amalaga’s Wracks attacked the Gork-Emperor while Old Ironhead and Old Ironleg fought a monstrous abomination. Yilafren destroyed the abomination with her Void Lance, disabling the node fortress’s anti-gravity engines and leaving the now-unarmored flesh beast free to seek vengeance.

• Amalaga sent Wracks to attack the wounded Gork-Emperor, whose flesh fought back and slaughtered many of them.
• Old Ironleg refused the Lorn crowd’s help to protect the anti-gravity engines, then charged the abomination alongside Old Ironhead.
• The abomination’s bone cleaver grievously wounded Old Ironleg and killed Old Ironhead; it then stomped Old Ironleg’s head apart.
• Yilafren saw the brothers’ deaths and fired her Void Lance, destroying the abomination and the circuitry controlling the anti-gravity engines.
• The node fortress began to collapse as its engines failed, and the Gork-Emperor shed its armor and unleashed its instinct for vengeance.

Yilafren and Khan attacked Amalaga’s flesh balloon, but the Dead Saint’s shriek crippled their Voidraven and sent it crashing into a spire. Meanwhile, the Dead Saint fought the Lorn crowd, whose repeated regeneration transformed their mass of arms into a monstrous heap of flesh.

• Yilafren wiped away black tears after watching Old Ironhead and the Grotesque disappear, then followed Khan’s suggestion to attack the flesh balloon.
• Yilafren fired the Voidraven’s weapons and missiles, splitting open the balloon and dropping many Wrack and Grotesque heads from the sky.
• Amalaga sent the Dead Saint, Lucia, after the Voidraven, and her shriek wounded Yilafren and stirred Khan’s emotions into hatred.
• Khan destroyed the Voidraven’s control console, and the craft crashed through a spire with him shielding Yilafren.
• Amalaga ordered his forces to capture Yilafren, while Rys and the Lorn crowd attacked Lucia; Lucia’s repeated shrieks shattered their grasping arms as they regenerated into a mass of flesh.
• Rys clutched her book without noticing that one of its pages was glowing brighter.

Sister Rys spoke the True Word “Annihilate,” erasing herself, the Lorn crowd, and the Dead Saint before Amalga countered with “Life.” Amalga discovered that the glowing page held one of the twelve True Words, but Governor Alundenaer approached as he tried to claim it.

• The Dead Saint’s shrieks drove the Lorn crowd into catastrophic mutations until the mass of flesh collapsed, and it shielded Rys from the creature’s final attack.
• As the Dead Saint crushed Rys, the Complete Hymnal opened to a page shaped by Lord Aurora, and Rys read and spoke the word “Annihilate.”
• Rys, the Lorn crowd, the Dead Saint, and everything nearby vanished, while Amalga spoke “Life” to oppose the erasure with newly formed organic matter.
• Amalga survived with much of his body disintegrated and found the glowing page in the circular pit left by the annihilation.
• Amalga realized the page recorded one of the twelve True Words, but Governor Alundenaer arrived before he could claim it.

Amalaga used assimilation cells hidden throughout Commorragh to fight Archon Alundenaer and seize Rys's Page, but the azure giant invoked the Word of “Stop” before a ragged human somehow ended its effect. Amalaga crushed the distracted giant beneath a mountain of flesh, then noticed a strange monkey approaching and an enormous Aeldari ark.

• Amalaga unleashed assimilation cells in Commorragh’s buildings and used them to attack Archon Alundenaer as he pursued Rys's Page.
• Amalaga raised the page and tried to send it to the rebirth chamber, but the azure giant struck him and knocked it away.
• Amalaga expanded into a vast mass of flesh, while the giant fought through it and spoke the Word of “Stop.”
• A ragged human appeared and somehow ended the stopped state, allowing Amalaga’s flesh mountain to crash down on the giant.
• Amalaga survived the attack and saw a strange monkey approaching, followed by the sight of an enormous Aeldari ark.

Lin Fan emerged in a ruined Commorragh and found a huge flesh monster attacking Aurora. After Little Yi explained that the creature was made from compressed living beings, Lin Fan tore it apart while demanding to know what had happened to his friends.

• Amalaga detected Lin Fan’s ordinary genetic makeup and reacted with fear and confusion.
• Lin Fan found Commorragh flattened and its former inhabitants and allies missing, while Little Yi could not explain their disappearance.
• Lin Fan saw Aurora fighting a mountain of flesh, but a strange voice froze the surroundings and Little Yi fell silent.
• Lin Fan asked the monster where Sister Rys, Khan, Yilafren, and the others were, then charged when it did not answer.
• The flesh monster struck Lin Fan with a dense spear, but he tore through its body and destroyed Amalaga with a final punch.

Lin Fan confronted Amalaga, who escaped by exploding in his hands after hinting that they would meet again. Aurora told Lin Fan that the missing companions had vanished completely and gave him a map leading to Khan and the others, so Lin Fan set off to find them.

• Amalaga freed himself from the flesh pile, mocked Lin Fan by claiming his companions were dead, and provoked him to say Slaanesh's name.
• Amalaga spoke Slaanesh's name without being devoured, then exploded in Lin Fan's hands and left no remains.
• Slaanesh's shadow appeared to taunt Lin Fan, who wondered whether Amalaga had lied about the companions' deaths.
• Aurora told Lin Fan that the missing companions had disappeared completely and gave him a disc marked with Khan and the others' location.
• Lin Fan followed the map toward Khan and the others, smashing through buildings as witnesses mistook him for a Warp-possessed creature.

Vect rebuked his subordinates over the destruction of the Zharad District and ordered a replacement district selected from a hundred competing satellite districts. In private, he questioned Rakarth about Amalaga’s past and learned that Amalaga had returned from beyond the galaxy, gone mad, and later joined the Blood Pity Association.

• Vect learned that the destruction of the Zharad District had killed three million people and over twenty billion livestock, and that Amalaga appeared to have been involved.
• Vect berated Dunteste and Yadexis, then ordered Ima to choose a new district by having a hundred satellite districts fight until one remained.
• Vect met Rakarth in private, discussed Amalaga, and ordered Drazhar to send two captured prisoners to the Wych death arena in a week.
• Rakarth recalled that Amalaga had once explored beyond the galaxy for the Imperium, returned as the only survivor, and claimed to have seen the truth before going mad.
• Rakarth said the late-era decline had accelerated before It was born, and Vect agreed.

Lin Fan crossed the Bone Yard toward the Death Arena and was intercepted by a Drukhari woman and her warriors. Their whips and blades could not stop him, but the woman evaded his strike and detonated an explosive against his back.

• Lin Fan recalled how he had killed raiders who tried to torture him and wondered whether he could redeem other Aeldari like Yilafren.
• Lin Fan checked his map and saw that Khan and Yilafren had stopped moving, apparently at an arena.
• A Drukhari woman and her guards descended from a slave ship and confronted Lin Fan in the Bone Yard.
• Lin Fan charged the woman, dragged her whip-wielding warriors along, and snapped the blades of those who attacked him.
• The woman dodged Lin Fan’s strike, appeared behind him, and detonated an explosive against his back.

Lin Fan endured the Drukhari’s weapons and torture devices, repaired an Incubi’s shattered klaive, and unsettled his attackers so thoroughly that they gave him clothes and passage aboard their slave ship. He learned that the woman was Yvraine, while an author’s note afterward discussed Lin Fan’s role in the wider story.

• The woman attacked Lin Fan with a black hole grenade, but he emerged unharmed and let the Drukhari’s weapons and the Incubi’s attacks strike him without effect.
• Lin Fan repaired the Incubi’s broken klaive by hand, leaving the Incubi stunned and prompting one warrior to shoot himself.
• Lin Fan requested several outfits from the woman, settled on torture-rune mesh armor, and boarded the Drukhari slave ship.
• A Drukhari warrior comforted a sobbing companion as Lin Fan watched the Boneyard pass below and explained to Little Yi that his survival caused the Drukhari psychological distress.
• The woman and the Incubi approached Lin Fan again, and the woman identified herself as Yvraine.

Lin Fan met Yvraine in Commorragh and learned she was taking Tyranids to the death arena for a major competition. After she left, he wondered when he could rescue Khan and his other friends.

• Lin Fan recognized Yvraine after learning her name and recalled how she had moved from life on Biel-Tan to becoming a Succubus under Lady Malys.
• Lin Fan introduced himself as Soap, an Astra Militarum soldier and Perpetual, while the disguised Visarch grew jealous as Lin Fan shook Yvraine's hand.
• Yvraine explained that she was delivering a huge swarm of Tyranids, including Hell Executioners, to the arena for that night's grand death match.
• Yvraine left with her subordinates, and Lin Fan asked Little Yi about the date before saying that Khan and the others might have to wait to be rescued.