Chapter Summaries

Number 0 defeated Dantik’s Iron Warriors and learned that Amalaga was a Drukhari Haemonculi deceiving them. He formed a temporary alliance with Dantik and the Iron Warriors to reach Amalaga in the womb-factory district.

• Number 0 shrugged off the Iron Warriors’ gunfire and shattered their chainswords before punching through Dantik’s daemon-forged armor.
• Sashiko appeared, recognized Number 0 as her master, bound the Iron Warriors, and stayed behind with the Grenadiers at his request.
• Number 0 told Dantik that Amalaga was a Drukhari Haemonculi, and Dantik confronted Amalaga over the comms before the connection went dark.
• Number 0 and Dantik agreed to work together temporarily to eliminate Amalaga, who was researching the evolution of the Obliterator Virus.
• Dantik showed Number 0 the fortress map and summoned servo-skulls to repair the fallen Iron Warriors as they prepared to travel to the womb-factory district.

Lin Fan and the Iron Warriors fought Amalaga’s vanguard as the Haemonculus tried to escape with the Obliterator Virus and transform the battlefield into a mountain of living weapons. Lin Fan’s group pursued him into the underground fleshworks, where the Iron Warriors and Grenadiers prepared to attack together.

• Sashiko obeyed Number 0’s order to disguise herself and join the battlefield, while Dantik questioned Number 0 about what he was.
• As the elevator descended, Lin Fan gained Khorne’s war-sight, bonded with Grenadier 19, and fired a daemon-bound heavy bolter at Amalaga’s advancing flesh constructs.
• Amalaga swallowed the Obliterator Virus, left a duplicate as a decoy, and tried to escape underground while Lin Fan and the Iron Warriors reached his grotesque laboratory.
• Amalaga raised flesh walls and opened a huge fissure as he absorbed the surrounding matter, but Lin Fan charged after him and urged the Iron Warriors to conquer the flesh mountain.
• Dantik carried Grenadier 19, and the Iron Warriors joined the Grenadiers in pursuing Amalaga, briefly setting aside their hostility to fight together.

Lin Fan, Dantik, Grenadier 19, and the Imperial forces fought Amalaga’s enormous mountain of flesh as the battlefield sank into the Warp. Lin Fan survived Amalaga’s bombardment but remained trapped in the crater, while Amalaga captured Dantik and the Grenadiers and revealed that the Iron Warriors’ Annihilator troops had helped him develop the virus.

• Grenadier 19 joined Dantik’s fight against Amalaga’s creatures while Lin Fan charged ahead under relentless fire.
• Amalaga concentrated thousands of cannons on Lin Fan, blasting him into a crater filled with lava as Dantik summoned daemons with his forge hammer.
• The daemons drew Amalaga’s attention, allowing Lin Fan to climb the crater wall while Bishop Marian, the Krieg soldiers, and the slave troops fought the mountain of flesh.
• Amalaga drove the daemons back into the Warp and shattered the wall Lin Fan was climbing, leaving him trapped in the crater.
• Amalaga seized Dantik and pierced the Grenadiers with tentacles, then thanked Dantik for supplying the Annihilator troops he had used in his research.

Amalaga tortured Lin Fan and the captured Grenadiers until Grenadier 19’s golden flower destroyed Amalaga and restored Landes from the Warp. Lin Fan rescued the survivors, while Sashiko decided to stay near him and Bishop Marian mourned the dead.

• Amalaga taunted Lin Fan and tortured Grenadier 19, but the golden flower hidden beneath her armor spread through Amalaga’s body and caused his flesh mountain to collapse and burst into a giant flower.
• The God-Emperor burned Dantik’s corrupted soul, freed the trapped souls, returned Landes from the Warp, and dispersed Tzeentch’s projection.
• The golden flower lowered the Grenadiers to safety and pulled Lin Fan from the lava, and Lin Fan carried the unconscious survivors away from the battlefield.
• Sashiko asked to stay with Lin Fan because she had taken a liking to a bishop, and Lin Fan agreed on the condition that she pursue a proper, nonviolent relationship.
• Bishop Marian recited scripture over the dead, and a medical Sister told him that Sashiko’s friends had all died.

After the war, Lin Fan learned the scale of Memeiriel Hive’s devastation and ordered the repentant Adepta Sororitas to help rebuild rather than seek death in battle. He left the question of using the tithe warehouses to ease the food crisis unresolved, then faced a mysterious figure who covered his eyes.

• Lin Fan rejected the sisters’ request for punishment and asked Inquisitor Omar to report on the survivors, troops, and damaged facilities.
• Inquisitor Omar reported billions dead, collapsed food systems, ruined industry, and only about 570,000 surviving soldiers from the original forces.
• Lin Fan gave Sister Superior Selina a shovel and ordered the sisters to help rebuild the hive and care for its people.
• Lin Fan refused to consider eliminating people to ease food shortages and proposed using supplies from the tithe warehouses.
• Inquisitor Omar warned that withholding the tithe could endanger other Imperial forces, so Lin Fan asked for time to decide.
• A figure crept up behind Lin Fan, covered his eyes, and asked him to guess who it was.

Lin Fan reunited with Slaanesh, who offered a way to bring food to the struggling planet by using its despair to lure Nurgle and make Sashiko a Saint. Lin Fan agreed to try the plan, which would use Sashiko’s new power to open a rift for food while Slaanesh dealt with Nurgle’s plague.

• Slaanesh descended through Sashiko’s body, reunited with Lin Fan, and reassured him that she did not mind the people or animals around him.
• Slaanesh told Lin Fan that the God-Emperor was playing cards with Tzeentch in the Warp, where the two mocked each other over gender and divine forms.
• Lin Fan explained that the planet’s damaged facilities and dwindling food stores threatened it with famine, and Slaanesh proposed sending food from other planets through a ritual array.
• Slaanesh suggested using the planet’s despair to lure Nurgle and directing the emotional shift from despair to hope through a Saint.
• Slaanesh proposed making Sashiko a Saint, using her power to open a trans-galactic rift, and dispersing Nurgle’s plague herself.
• Lin Fan agreed to try Slaanesh’s plan, despite worrying that it would make him a traitor to humanity.

After losing his position in the Ecclesiarchy, Marian joined Sister Sha Si in helping the distrusting residents of the hive city. Their quiet work was interrupted when Marian saw Sha Si shielding a child from an angry crowd.

• Marian accepted his sentence, lost his title and possessions, and left to serve among the ash-covered ruins.
• Sha Si found Marian and explained that caring for the wounded had taught her to keep smiling and believe in life.
• Sha Si and Marian reached a lower-district camp, where Colonel Erika assigned them a shack to use as a clinic.
• For several days, no residents came to the clinic, and Sha Si continued waiting to help anyone in need.
• When Sha Si went for a walk, Marian saw her protecting a child as residents gathered to attack it.

Marian and Sha Si protected a mutant boy who was searching for help for his sick mother, then followed him toward the deeper levels. An old man warned them with a horror story about a mining driver led by his machine spirit into darkness, but admitted it was only a tale before unlocking the door for them.

• Marian stopped a man from attacking the mutant boy, while Sha Si promised to help the boy find a doctor for his mother.
• The boy told Sha Si and Marian that his mother feared Laughing Shadow would take her away, and that others below had also disappeared.
• Marian gathered dried rations and followed Sha Si and the boy to a locked entrance leading to the deeper levels.
• An old man warned Marian and Sha Si that people who saw monsters below might no longer be themselves, then told them a story about a mining driver whose navigation system led him into a terrifying darkness.
• The old man laughed and said the story was only an old tale, then unlocked the door and let Marian, Sha Si, and the boy pass through.

Sha Si treated a mutant woman's breathing trouble while secretly hunting the horrors lurking in the hive city. She captured the Laughing Shadow, forced it to guide her to other creatures, and decided to keep it as a family dog.

• A mutant boy brought Sha Si and Marian to his village, where Sha Si promised to save his mother and began treating her.
• Sha Si pretended to rest beside the patient, then left her body and disguised herself as a frightened little girl to lure out the Laughing Shadow.
• The Laughing Shadow devoured Sha Si's disguise, but she repeatedly returned, captured it, and forced it to guide her to other horrors.
• Sha Si hunted and toyed with the horrors she found, then returned to her body and saw Marian covering her with his robe.
• Sha Si made the Laughing Shadow imitate a dog and decided to keep it as the family's pet.

Sha Si and Marian returned to the lower district, where Sha Si became a beloved healer and singer. When a gang kidnapped her, Marian rallied the residents and set out to rescue her with scripture-carved shields.

• Sha Si and Marian returned through the gates, and Sha Si's miraculous cures earned her the title “Doctor Sha Si of the Warm Smile.”
• Sha Si treated the lower district's residents by day and sang for them at dusk, while Marian helped with her household chores.
• A gang arrived during Sha Si's performance, shot a resident who spoke up, and forced Sha Si to go with them after she treated the wounded man.
• The residents told Marian that Sha Si had been taken, and he gathered strong men to rescue her.
• Marian carved scripture into iron plates that he said would block bullets, then led the armed residents toward the gang's camp as Sha Si rode away with the gangsters.

Sha Si was abducted by Priest Lai and his gang, but she turned the tables and tortured them while indulging her desire to solve math problems. Marian rescued her, and Sha Si began to recognize the love she felt for him; Lin Fan and Slaanesh watched them through the Wailing Lens.

• Priest Lai brought Sha Si to his headquarters and tried to lure her into his bedroom under the pretense of seeking medical treatment.
• When Lai ordered his gang to attack Sha Si, she overwhelmed them and tortured them for hours while solving math problems.
• Sha Si staged the scene to make it appear that Lai had abused her, then Marian burst in and killed Lai and his men.
• Marian carried Sha Si away and vowed not to leave her side, while Sha Si wondered if the affection she tasted in his tear was love.
• Lin Fan and shadow-formed Slaanesh watched Sha Si and Marian through the Wailing Lens.

Lin Fan and Slaanesh arranged to spread despair through Sashiko’s staged illness and draw Nurgle’s daemons to the planet, while Lin Fan prepared the Imperials for their arrival. As Sashiko’s public acts of care made her a revered saint and weakened her, the God-Emperor saw her as evidence of a possible new path for humanity, though Tzeentch’s plans remained unknown.

• Lin Fan and Slaanesh decided to keep Sashiko pretending to be gravely ill so they could spread despair and attract Nurgle’s daemons.
• Lin Fan left Omar imprisoned with the commissars, instructed Colonel Erika to protect them, and told the Krieg regiment to prepare for Nurgle’s corruption.
• Marian cared for Sashiko and sang to her, while Sashiko endured the painful effects of replacing her former madness with people’s prayers.
• After passages to the middle hive were sealed by spreading fungus and suicides increased, Sashiko treated the afflicted, and people began calling her Saint Sashiko.
• The God-Emperor watched Sashiko weaken and considered her a new way for daemons to interact with mortals, while continuing his card game against Tzeentch with three expeditionary fleets and a Titan Legion at stake.

Nurgle’s seven-day plague devastated Memeiriel Hive before Sha Si awakened as a saint and drove the corruption away with help from Lin Fan’s Krieg soldiers. The survivors received food and began rebuilding, while Inquisitor Omar confronted Lin Fan about his dangerous plans.

• A seven-day outbreak spread disease, fungal growth, and despair across Memeiriel Hive, while the infected could not die and the water and food supplies were ruined.
• Sha Si awoke in the lower levels, healed Marian with a kiss, and led the afflicted in a procession toward the middle hive.
• Nurgle’s demons attacked Sha Si, but Krieg soldiers led by a formidable warrior arrived and helped her drive back the corruption.
• Sha Si reached the Ecclesiarchy church and promised to protect the people, who praised her as a saint and began rebuilding.
• After three days without food, the people received supplies distributed by Krieg soldiers and Sha Si’s new church.
• Inquisitor Omar questioned Lin Fan about his intentions, and Lin Fan insisted that he would never betray them.

Nurgle confronted Slaanesh after Brain Thrombosis complained that her forces had helped the God-Emperor drive him from a planet, then made her drink his ancient soup. Slaanesh passed the soup to Lin Fan, who swallowed it while Omar reported that the planet was recovering and Lin Fan explained why improving ordinary people’s lives mattered to resisting Chaos.

• Brain Thrombosis told Nurgle that Slaanesh and the God-Emperor had driven him and his followers from the planet.
• Nurgle went to Slaanesh’s fortress, demanded an explanation, and made her accept a bowl of his old cauldron soup.
• Slaanesh dumped the soup over Lin Fan and forced him to swallow it, while Omar remained shaken by her sudden appearance.
• Omar reported that food, restored land, and labor points were helping the hive city recover ahead of the tithe fleet.
• Lin Fan told Omar that people needed food and security to resist Chaos, then asked the Krieg regiment to build a heavily fortified toilet in case he expelled daemons.

Lin Fan discovered that his strange digestion produced Gold Kela, a substance that restored barren soil and accelerated crop growth. After the Adeptus Mechanicus confirmed its extraordinary effects, they gathered around Lin Fan to learn more, while the chapter left his ability poised to supply food on a vast scale.

• Lin Fan told Colonel Erika to preserve the plants growing inside the toilet and distribute the contents as agricultural supplies, naming the substance Gold Kela.
• Two Adeptus Mechanicus priests tested Gold Kela and found that a tiny amount made crops mature in seven days, multiplied yields, and left the soil fertile.
• Gamma-112 rushed to the Omega Unit as the priests discovered that their measurements repeatedly converged on the number seven.
• Lin Fan revealed a large stockpile of Gold Kela to the Adeptus Mechanicus priests and claimed it came from technology predating the Golden Age.
• Lin Fan and the priests calculated that seven kilograms of Gold Kela could support enormous food production across more than 54 billion square meters of land.

Lin Fan’s Gold Kela helped restore food supplies and life to Memeiriel Hive, while Inquisitor Omar warned him that the Daemon Inquisition might purge the planet. A Daemon Inquisition force and the Grey Knights prepared to investigate Landes, and Lin Fan forced them to land near the Ecclesiarchy church by threatening its relics.

• The clergy rationed Lin Fan’s seven kilograms of daily Gold Kela, and the hive’s food supply and surroundings improved after two weeks of harvesting.
• Lin Fan credited the planet’s progress to Sha Si, while Omar warned him that the Daemon Inquisition might invoke a purification protocol.
• A Daemon Inquisition ship and Grey Knights learned of the upheaval on Landes and interpreted its thriving farms and cheerful people as evidence of Chaos corruption.
• Grand Master Ima organized a Grey Knights strike squad and two daemon-hunting squads to descend to the planet, despite Krippman’s call for Exterminatus.
• Lin Fan contacted the arriving forces, warned them against destroying the planet, and directed them toward the cleared area by the Ecclesiarchy church.
• When Krippman dismissed his warning, Lin Fan threatened to defile the church’s statue and relics, prompting Krippman to order the force to recover them and capture Lin Fan.

Lin Fan used Khorne’s battle vision to fight off a Grey Knights assault without killing the soldiers, while their weapons were badly damaged. Grand Master Ima prepared to descend with the remaining Grey Knights as Daemon Inquisitor Krippman faced the prospect of destroying the planet if they failed.

• A Grey Knights strike squad entered the church and opened fire on Lin Fan, who drew Inquisitor Omar’s power sword and tested his new battle vision by dodging and kicking them aside.
• The squad summoned reinforcements, and twenty Grey Knights attacked Lin Fan with psychic weapons, force swords, and hammers.
• Lin Fan defended himself until the Grey Knights Inquisitor’s storm hammer shattered against him, then warned them that further fighting would ruin their equipment.
• Lin Fan charged through the Grey Knights, kicked them unconscious without killing them, and pieced together their broken weapons.
• Grand Master Ima decided to descend with the remaining thirty Grey Knights, while Daemon Inquisitor Krippman prepared to grant the planet The Emperor’s mercy if they also vanished.

After losing contact with fifty Grey Knights on the Chaos-corrupted planet Landes, Inquisitor Krippman prepared to order Exterminatus. An arriving expeditionary fleet halted his plans, and its leaders considered a request to search for the missing Grey Knights.

• Krippman waited five days without hearing from Grand Master Ima and the Grey Knights on Landes.
• Krippman prepared to launch Cyclonic Torpedoes and destroy the planet, but an Astropath reported that a powerful expeditionary fleet was nearby.
• The expeditionary fleet emerged from the Mandeville Point sixteen hours later, carrying Imperial Navy, Adeptus Mechanicus, Battle Sisters, and Space Marine forces.
• Krippman told the fleet that Landes had become a daemon world and asked them to search for the missing Grey Knights and recover their relics and gene-seed.
• Kaiser Whitefang acknowledged Krippman's request but said the expeditionary fleet would consider it.

Lin Fan argued with Krippman and challenged the Imperium’s claim that people exposed to Chaos had to die, pointing instead to the suffering and corruption produced by the Imperium itself. The meeting heard his argument, while Kaiser Whitefang listened and laughed at Krippman’s inability to answer.

• Krippman reconnected to the meeting, and Lin Fan immediately demanded that the Imperium send people to retrieve the hungry Grey Knights.
• Lin Fan and Krippman traded insults as Kaiser Whitefang listened and ignored the assault-squad plans.
• Kaiser Whitefang disguised his voice and asked Lin Fan whether people corrupted by Chaos deserved to live.
• Lin Fan argued that Krippman and the Imperium’s leaders were also exposed to Chaos, and challenged Krippman to explain why ordinary people should die while he survived.
• Lin Fan described the Imperium’s cruelty and suffering, arguing that its people could remain loyal despite the horrors around them.

Kaiser Whitefang asked Lin Fan if he knew about the Month of Shame, a secret conflict between the Space Wolves and the Inquisition over the fate of Armageddon’s survivors. Lin Fan recounted how the dispute escalated into a war that left billions dead and the Imperium’s institutions still at odds.

• Kaiser Whitefang reflected on the endless wars fought by the Space Wolves before asking Lin Fan about the Month of Shame.
• Inquisitor Krippman warned Kaiser Whitefang that the incident was classified, but Lin Fan said he already knew about it.
• After Angron’s defeat on Armageddon, the Inquisition began purging and sterilizing the planet’s survivors, while the Space Wolves opposed the persecution.
• Wolf Lord Logan’s fleet helped civilians escape, and the Inquisition pursued the survivors and purged worlds that encountered them.
• The Inquisition’s fleet attacked the Space Wolves, and Logan killed Grey Knights Grand Master Joros before escaping into the warp.
• The Space Wolves and Inquisition fought for months, destroying ships and killing many, while an assassination attempt against Inquisitor Gisnaros failed.