Chapter Summaries

Horus ordered the Vengeful Spirit’s Void Shield lowered, convinced it would lure The Emperor aboard and let him defeat the loyalists. As Perturabo’s forces struggled and prepared to withdraw, Horus revealed his plan to the horrified commanders, who agreed with him aloud.

• Horus ignored the commanders’ concerns and reviewed the battle, alternately criticizing and praising the forces attacking Terra while recounting the names of summoned daemons.
• Horus displayed his ring from The Emperor and ordered the Vengeful Spirit’s Void Shield lowered despite warnings that Terra’s weapons could hit the ship.
• Perturabo angrily confronted Horus over the exposed ship and failing ground campaign, then cut the connection and ordered the besieging forces to prepare to withdraw.
• Horus claimed Guilliman and Lion El'Jonson’s reinforcements were approaching and said lowering the shield would tempt The Emperor to board the Vengeful Spirit.
• Horus explained that he intended to kill The Emperor aboard the ship and make Guilliman and Lion surrender, and the commanders praised his insight.

As Terra’s defenses crumbled and the Vengeful Spirit’s Void Shield dropped, The Emperor decided to confront Horus alone. Malcador took his place on the throne so The Emperor and his sons could act, while Sanguinius remained silent.

• The Emperor showed Malcador the devastation across Terra and said the defenders had already lost their future, even if they survived the siege.
• The Vengeful Spirit’s Void Shield dropped as the Iron Warriors withdrew, and The Emperor declared that he would go there alone to kill Horus.
• Rogal Dorn, Valdor, and Vulkan opposed The Emperor’s plan, but Malcador persuaded them to accept his decision; Sanguinius said nothing.
• The Emperor rose from the throne, and Malcador climbed onto it to hold it while The Emperor left the throne room.

Sanguinius accepted the prophecy that Horus would kill him and joined The Emperor aboard the Vengeful Spirit. After Sanguinius died facing Horus, The Emperor confronted his corrupted son, but hesitated until Sanguinius appeared behind him and urged him to use the Warp’s fire.

• Sanguinius told The Emperor that he had foreseen his death and urged him to let Sanguinius board the Vengeful Spirit in his place.
• The Emperor and the landing force boarded the Vengeful Spirit, where illusions and monsters scattered them and forced The Emperor to fight the possessed Adeptus Custodes.
• Sanguinius found Horus and died beneath his blade as The Emperor arrived.
• The Emperor faced Horus, whose soul had been divided among the Four Gods, and raised the flaming longsword he had taken from the Warp.
• Sanguinius appeared behind The Emperor and urged him to use the fire on Horus for humanity.

After killing Horus, the wounded Emperor returned to Terra and took his place on the Ascension Throne, accepting its immense suffering. Malcador vanished, leaving the Emperor to face the Four Gods and the battle ahead alone.

• The Emperor defeated Horus and completed the final stage of the ascension ritual as the Four Gods celebrated his impending transformation.
• The Emperor asked Rogal Dorn to take him to see Malcador and ensure Sanguinius was laid to rest, while Valdor accompanied them back to Terra.
• Black rain spread across Terra as the Emperor's suffering darkened his body and the prayers of the surviving people reached him.
• The Emperor found Malcador on the throne and tried to wake and help him, but Malcador turned to ash and vanished.
• The Emperor took Malcador's place on the throne, and Malcador's phantom promised that the battle would continue before disappearing.
• The Four Gods offered the Emperor pleasure and power if he joined them, while Slaanesh's teasing remark about him and Malcador angered Khorne and Nurgle.

The Emperor rejected Tzeentch’s offer of godhood and sent Valdor to find his true name and kill him, while his sons pursued their own missions amid the Imperium’s collapse. After the vision ended, Lin Fan found himself aboard a derelict ship and considered what he had learned about the Emperor and the Dark King.

• The Emperor refused Tzeentch’s contract, then ordered Valdor to search the galaxy for his true name and return to kill him.
• Rogal Dorn, Vulkan, and Valdor left the throne room, and Valdor secretly departed Terra with the Apollonian Spear.
• Russ was thrown back by the throne’s power, Lion El'Jonson and Jaghatai went to hunt traitors, and Roboute Guilliman took over Terra’s government.
• The Emperor called to Russ and told him to seek Wolftime, so Russ left Fenris and entered the Warp.
• Lin Fan’s vision ended after The Emperor told him to save someone, and Lin Fan awoke aboard a derelict ship.
• Lin Fan reflected on the Emperor’s struggle against the Chaos Gods and the Dark King, then declared that he was Stone.

Lin Fan explored a derelict ship and encountered the prophetic, tormented Konrad Curze, whom he could not find in the ship’s past visions. Remembering The Emperor’s command to “save him,” Lin Fan wondered whether it referred to Curze or someone else as he followed Curze deeper into the ship.

• Jaghatai woke on Planet VK-01, saw Lin Fan’s green armor covering the planet, then shut and reopened the door to find the view normal again.
• Lin Fan recalled Bai Huan’s power and resolved not to dwell on his thoughts about the universe’s instability.
• Lin Fan followed the stench of corpses and found Curze beside a statue made of flesh and blood.
• Lin Fan’s armor stopped Curze’s nail trap, and he kicked a heavy iron ball back down the corridor toward Curze.
• Curze fled deeper into the ship while Lin Fan considered The Emperor’s instruction to save someone and wondered whether it meant Curze.

Lin Fan entered a surreal palace inside Konrad Curze’s mind and faced the Primarch’s warped idea of judgment and justice. Konrad Curze turned the figures lining the hall against Lin Fan, and Jaghatai attacked him first.

• Lin Fan followed the white cracks to Konrad Curze and was caught in a shifting courthouse where illusory executions failed to harm him.
• Lin Fan reached a throne room filled with corpses and saw Konrad Curze suspended above the throne, surrounded by a mass of whispering shadows.
• Konrad Curze questioned Lin Fan, who said he intended to save him, before Curze vanished into the shadows beneath Lin Fan’s feet.
• Konrad Curze sent bats into the figures on the pillars, making them attack Lin Fan and begin a battle.
• Jaghatai reached Lin Fan first and repeatedly slashed at his throat with a blade that shattered and reformed.

Lin Fan fought through Curze’s bizarre forest battlefield and provoked him with claims about Perturabo and Lion to force him to appear. Lin Fan then exposed Curze’s hidden doubts about fate and his enjoyment of cruelty, leaving Curze furious as Lin Fan continued his taunts.

• Lin Fan endured Jaghatai’s lightning, moving walls, and explosive landmines while searching for Curze.
• Lin Fan insulted Curze and claimed Perturabo had returned to the Imperium, provoking Curze to appear.
• Lin Fan showed Curze a recording of Perturabo’s life and mocked him with stories about Perturabo and Lion.
• Curze defended his crimes and rejected Lin Fan’s claims, but Lin Fan continued taunting him about his beliefs and secret desires.
• Lin Fan described Curze’s failed prophecy and repeated Sevatar’s criticism of his methods of enforcing justice.

Lin Fan fought Konrad Curze, surviving his tortures before detonating a Compressed Nuclear Bomb and exposing the wires controlling Curze. Lin Fan pulled the wires from Curze’s brain, but Curze stiffened and collapsed, leaving his condition uncertain.

• Konrad Curze attacked Lin Fan with shadows and blades, but Lin Fan endured the torture without injury.
• Lin Fan detonated a Compressed Nuclear Bomb, destroying the forest and forcing Konrad Curze into a vast blood pool.
• Lin Fan pursued Konrad Curze through the waves and struck him with a slap that dispelled his dark shadow.
• Lin Fan saw white wires piercing Konrad Curze’s exposed brain and connecting to the vault overhead.
• Lin Fan pulled the wires from Konrad Curze’s head, and Curze stiffened and fell backward.
• Lin Fan caught Konrad Curze and checked whether he was still breathing.

Lin Fan escaped the collapsing white realm with the unconscious Konrad Curze and emerged into a chaotic space filled with murmuring voices. Konrad Curze regained consciousness and reacted in terror to the whispers, while Lin Fan remained unaffected.

• Lin Fan wrapped Konrad Curze's head in his armor, then fled through the collapsing white realm as projections of ancient forces pursued them.
• Lin Fan hurled a spear of light into the darkness and followed it with Konrad Curze, breaking back into the mechanical maze as the Observer announced his escape.
• The maze collapsed into a colorful, disordered space where murmuring voices assigned strange identities and threatened to drive listeners mad.
• Lin Fan carried Konrad Curze through the chaos while keeping his head covered, then laid him down as he began to wake.
• Konrad Curze removed the covering, heard the murmuring, and screamed in terror; he and Lin Fan simultaneously asked each other how they were unaffected.

Lin Fan freed Konrad Curze from his cycle of visions and confronted the horrors of a distorted space, which he casually made more orderly. Elsewhere, the Silent King released an observer after its mission and began writing the Outsider’s death record.

• Curze woke beside Lin Fan, realized his prophetic visions and pain had stopped, and took Lin Fan’s offered hand.
• A nightmare lunged from a dark window, but Lin Fan turned it into a sheet of paper and crumpled it, frightening Curze.
• Lin Fan explored the buildings and cleaned a corrupted lamp, making the surrounding space more orderly.
• The Silent King captured a fleeing observer, asked whether it had completed its mission, then released it after it confirmed success.
• The Silent King wrote and drew on a screen beneath the words “The Outsider’s death record.”

The Silent King recalled how the Outsider’s power had broken the Old Ones’ cosmic defenses and decided to preserve the intact C'tan as its madness was erased by the Subjective One. Inside the Outsider, Lin Fan explored and ate the strange surroundings with Konrad Curze before the Silent King arrived and restrained Curze.

• The Silent King reviewed the Outsider’s past power to define and observe reality, then ordered the Triarch Praetorians to guard the C'tan as the Milky Way Collapse Coefficient reached 90%.
• Lin Fan led a reluctant Konrad Curze through the increasingly orderly interior of the Outsider, sampling its leaves and chatting about his odd eating habits.
• Lin Fan told Curze that Slaanesh sometimes cooked and served him her severed tail, leaving Curze stunned.
• A stasis field immobilized Konrad Curze as the Silent King emerged from a hyperspace portal behind Lin Fan.
• The Silent King saw Lin Fan feasting on the Outsider’s madness and judged the unconscious C'tan safer than a conscious one.

The Silent King explained to Lin Fan that creating things with subjective power was much harder than erasing them, and guided him through forming a crude whiteboard and metal sheet from Blackstone. He checked that Holy Terra remained safe, then showed Lin Fan a planet and asked him to describe what he saw.

• Lin Fan wondered whether familiar-tasting things came from his inability to imagine unique flavors, and the Silent King arrived while Konrad Curze remained frozen.
• The Silent King warned Lin Fan that exploring deeper could threaten the Milky Way, then explained the danger of creation by having him reshape Blackstone into a crude whiteboard and metal sheet.
• The Silent King said creating was harder than destroying and praised Lin Fan’s first attempt.
• Lin Fan said Earth was the planet he knew best, so the Silent King checked that Holy Terra still existed and then showed him a planet at the Milky Way’s edge.
• The Silent King asked Lin Fan for his first impression of the planet, and Lin Fan described its seas, trees, clouds, and possible life.

Lin Fan struggled to imagine creating a planet, and the Silent King reassured himself that Lin Fan’s uncertainty limited his power. Observer traced a meteorite’s history to the Eye of Terror, then watched through Kaiser Whitefang as an Adeptus Mechanicus team explored a derelict void city.

• Lin Fan admitted he could not imagine a planet and told the Silent King he did not know what he would do with great power.
• The Silent King said Bai Huan had answered that she did not care, leaving Lin Fan silent.
• Observer followed a meteorite’s history through a macro cannon shell and an Abyss-class Battleship that Chaos Space Marines captured and corrupted.
• Observer traveled through the Warp-wrecked vessel to the Eye of Terror and attached himself to Kaiser Whitefang.
• Wodhaus used beast bones and pale powder to reassure Kaiser Whitefang, who felt something crawling on his back.
• Delenya activated a communications base station in the derelict void city and asked Wodhaus to protect the Adeptus Mechanicus team as they recovered technology.

Observer collected the Deceiver’s payment, a stone Ouroboros, and entered the Formless Wastes to explore the remains of lost civilizations. When the Dark Mechanicum began mining the ruins, Observer killed millions of workers, prompting the Chaos forces to send a Changeling to confront him.

• Adeptus Mechanicus priests scanned the space hulk and found the keel of a warship at least twenty kilometers long while Kaiser Whitefang and the Space Wolves stayed alert.
• Observer left Kaiser Whitefang and met The Deceiver at an altar, demanding payment for his release from imprisonment.
• The Deceiver gave Observer a stone Ouroboros that opened a passage to the Formless Wastes, and Observer used it to travel there.
• Observer explored the ruined civilizations of the Formless Wastes, recording their remnants in a book.
• Observer attacked the Dark Mechanicum’s mining operation with a bombardment of information that killed several million slave laborers.
• Carl Bohar demanded help from his allies, and the Lord of Change sent a frightened Changeling to speak with Observer.

Abaddon met with Carl Bohar to secure the Dark Mechanicum’s support and was shown its vast industrial capacity and hundreds of thousands of pale Space Marines. The chapter left Abaddon facing a potential alliance with Carl Bohar and his unsettling friend Amalaga.

• The Observer forced the Changeling and Carl Bohar to move their factories away, and a message from the Black Legion redirected Carl Bohar’s attention.
• Abaddon reviewed the gathered Black Legion warbands at his fortress in the Warp.
• Carl Bohar privately met Abaddon, delivered containers of bolter ammunition and power armor, and gave him coordinates for a meeting.
• Abaddon consulted the Witness, Carlos, who told him Carl Bohar could be trusted, so Abaddon traveled to the supplied coordinates.
• Carl Bohar showed Abaddon hundreds of thousands of pale Space Marines and introduced him to Amalaga, whose presence repulsed Abaddon.

Carl Bohar showed Abaddon the Dark Mechanicum’s mass-produced Degraded Combat Forms and Degraded Titans, hoping to secure a route to Mars. Shocked by their power, Abaddon asked what Carl Bohar wanted in exchange.

• Abaddon accused Carl Bohar of blasphemy after discovering the pale warriors could regenerate, but Carl Bohar surrounded him with troops and Titans until Abaddon stood down.
• Carl Bohar led Abaddon and his veterans through the factory, where they watched death remains transformed into blue-skinned forms and infected with the Obliterator Virus.
• Amalaga explained that the resulting Degraded Combat Forms were less capable than Space Marines but could multiply, mutate, and grow by consuming corpses.
• Amalaga revealed that the factory could already mass-produce Degraded Titans, and Carl Bohar urged Abaddon to use the army to overwhelm the Imperium.
• Abaddon asked what Carl Bohar wanted, and Carl Bohar demanded that he open a path to Mars.

Abaddon agreed to open a route to Mars by destroying Cadia and unleashing the Eye of Terror, but he refused to accept Carl Bohar’s degraded specimens into the Black Legion. Carl proposed forming them into an independent force called the Pale Auxilia, then challenged Abaddon to open a Warp rift directly to Mars instead.

• Abaddon considered how the Black Crusades had weakened the Imperium and prepared for the 13th Black Crusade, which would begin with Cadia’s destruction.
• Abaddon told Carl Bohar that the Black Legion could open a route to Mars once the Eye of Terror poured through the breach in realspace.
• Abaddon refused to accept Carl’s degraded specimens into the Legion but agreed to let them fight as expendable auxiliaries in the 13th Black Crusade.
• Carl suggested creating an independent Dark Mechanicum force called the Pale Auxilia, warning that the specimens could strain the Black Legion’s bonds of brotherhood.
• Carl rejected the need to conquer Cadia first and asked why they could not open a Warp rift directly to Mars.

Abaddon accepted Carl Bohar’s temporary alliance and heard a warning about the defenses the False Emperor might bring to Cadia. After the Vengeful Spirit departed, Carl Bohar took Amalaga to a vast chamber of colossal doors, leaving the purpose of the place unrevealed.

• Carl Bohar predicted that the False Emperor could send the Mountain Array fortress to Cadia by linking the weakened Veils of Terra and Cadia, and said Amalaga could infect the fortress for Abaddon.
• Abaddon agreed to the temporary alliance, received crates of bolter shells, and departed aboard the Vengeful Spirit.
• A sorcerer warned Abaddon to beware the Big Canteen, though he could not explain the message.
• Carl Bohar led Amalaga through a factory where cloned T'au were skinned and ground up, then discussed their goals for the 13th Black Crusade.
• Carl Bohar teleported Amalaga to a chamber with three hundred and sixty colossal doors and a diagram of the Solar System centered on Terra.

Carl Bohar rallied Titan commanders against the Imperium and led them to swear to reclaim Mars during the 13th Black Crusade. Meanwhile, Lin Fan contained The Outsider and left with Konrad Curze to meet his brothers.

• Carl Bohar opened the Omniscience Council and reminded the Titan commanders how The Emperor and the Imperium had betrayed Mars.
• The Titan commanders condemned their former colleagues for yielding to the Imperium and resolved to return to Mars to claim what they believed was theirs.
• Carl Bohar revealed that the Evernight Labyrinth remained on Mars and that the Titan Legion had prepared for its exploration over ten thousand years in the Warp.
• Lin Fan kneaded The Outsider into a defined shape, and the Silent King contained it for the Necrontyr to use as a substitute for rare materials.
• The Silent King sent Lin Fan away with the restrained Konrad Curze to meet his brothers, and Konrad Curze promised them a bloody greeting.