Chapter Summaries

Lao Ganma offered the Imperials Ork intelligence in exchange for his life, but Commissar Yarrick distrusted him and began torturing him for answers. Lao Ganma passed out under interrogation, leaving Yarrick without useful information.

• Lao Ganma begged the guardsmen for mercy and offered to reveal the Orks' plans, but insisted on speaking to Gut-Shaker.
• Lede brought Lao Ganma to Commissar Yarrick, who ordered Lede to parade the dead Ork boss through the streets.
• Yarrick decided Lao Ganma might know valuable intelligence and ordered a set of interrogation equipment brought in.
• Yarrick electrocuted Lao Ganma while questioning him about Ork commands, but Lao Ganma's answers were only Waaagh! and he swore by Gork.
• Lao Ganma passed out, so Yarrick sent a guard to fetch the medic and prayed for the Emperor's forgiveness.

After the Flame was delayed by a Warp storm, Lin Fan spent time eating and drinking with the Space Wolves before finding Delia repairing a door. Delia’s nervousness around Lin Fan caused her to overheat, and the chapter ended with them embracing while Slaanesh watched in frustrated silence.

• Lin Fan drank Fenrisian mead with Kaiser Whitefang and sparred with the Space Wolves, who eventually stopped after their training rods shattered against him.
• Lin Fan met Delia repairing an automatic door and learned that the Flame’s operational efficiency had recovered to 57%.
• Delia froze and began smoking when she noticed Lin Fan watching her work, so Lin Fan hugged her and checked whether she was all right.
• Delia asked Lin Fan not to call other Tech-Priests and stayed in his arms, while Lin Fan wondered whether she had fallen for him.
• Slaanesh watched Lin Fan and Delia embrace and complained when they did not kiss, prompting Khorne to threaten him for making noise.

The Genestealer Patriarch mourned the loss of its followers and searched the Flame for a chance to rebuild its forces. It ambushed Lin Fan and Delia, but Delia's rage at the attack turned the tables on the would-be hunter.

• The Patriarch recalled how its Four-Armed Emperor followers had fought the daemons before being overwhelmed, leaving it to hide from both daemons and Imperial forces.
• After months of failing to find isolated hosts, the hungry Patriarch sensed Lin Fan and Delia near an automatic door and crawled toward them.
• Lin Fan held Delia, whose body was smoking and temporarily unable to move, while she secretly recorded the embrace.
• The Patriarch lunged at the pair, and Lin Fan blocked its claws with his chainsword, but the attack severed Delia's tail.
• Delia screamed in fury over her ruined tail and interrupted recording, making the Patriarch sense that its life was in danger.

Delia unleashed her fury on the Genestealer Patriarch and killed it after Lin Fan let her fight alone. After the Battle Sisters cleaned up, Delia returned to her quarters, pleased by her embrace from Lin Fan and hopeful for another chance.

• Delia transformed her arms into weapons and attacked the Patriarch, whose wounds only made it faster.
• Delia refused Lin Fan's help, leapt into battle, and cut off the Patriarch's claws before pinning and dismembering it.
• After half an hour, Lin Fan stopped Delia from tormenting the dead Patriarch and asked her to call the Battle Sisters to clean up.
• Lin Fan reported Delia's feat to the higher-ups, who sent Battle Sisters to clear the scene; they praised Delia and suggested she would make an excellent sister.
• Lin Fan and Delia repaired the damaged automatic door and returned to the garrison, where Delia went to her quarters and fell asleep imagining more time with Lin Fan.

Slaanesh tried to corrupt Delia after she killed a Genestealer Patriarch, but the Emperor’s lingering power blocked his possession, so he entered her dreams instead. Meanwhile, General Westad learned of Delia’s victory and began seeking rewards and honors for the 37th Regiment.

• Slaanesh ordered his followers to destroy the Genestealers and watched Lin Fan and Delia through the Wailing Lens.
• Slaanesh sent a projection into Delia’s quarters, but the Emperor’s golden power repelled it.
• Slaanesh decided to enter Delia’s dreams and influence her toward corruption.
• General Westad read the report that Delia had killed a Genestealer Patriarch in the Flame’s mid-deck.
• General Westad recalled his own deadly encounter with a Patriarch and began drafting an application for rewards and honors for the 37th Regiment.

The author explained revisions to the protagonist’s early setup, the story’s focus on ordinary Astra Militarum soldiers, and plans for character designs. The chapter ended with a passage introducing Tokman, a Custodes guarding the Shadow Vault beneath Terra.

• The author said the protagonist’s early power level had been revised to make his setup consistent and allow him to grow.
• The author described the original plan to tell the story of the Imperium through an Astra Militarum soldier and apologized for focusing on Armageddon and Yarrick before the protagonist appeared.
• The author announced that they might draw character designs or scenes on skipped-update days and promised an extra update.
• The narration described the Shadow Vault’s dangers and Tokman’s long service guarding it for The Emperor.

Delia dreamed that she approached Lin Fan on the Golden Throne and nearly touched his mechanical body, but she woke before she could reach him. Back in Middle Deck, Area A134, she was given a blood-red axe and attacked the chieftain she had killed earlier.

• Delia performed a consecration ritual in her dream, then found herself before the Golden Throne and followed Lin Fan’s summons.
• Lin Fan embraced Delia and revealed the intricate mechanical body beneath his robe, while Slaanesh planned to corrupt her.
• Delia woke after falling from the throne and realized she was back in Middle Deck, Area A134.
• Delia picked up a blood-red axe that told her to look behind her, where the chieftain had appeared again.
• Delia charged the chieftain and cut off his left leg with the axe.

Khorne disrupted Slaanesh’s attempt to corrupt Delia’s dream, and Delia attacked Slaanesh’s projection with Khorne’s battle-axe. After Delia woke to her alarm, the gods’ rivalry escalated into another vast daemon war, while she remained unaware of the conflict she had sparked.

• Khorne’s interference shattered Slaanesh’s dream and placed his battle-axe in Delia’s hands, protecting her with golden light.
• Delia attacked Slaanesh’s patriarch disguise, and their clash with Khorne left Slaanesh wounded before both gods withdrew.
• Delia’s dream returned to Lin Fan on the Golden Throne, but her alarm woke her and she silenced it by striking it with her mechanical hand.
• Slaanesh tried to rally his servants, but Khorne’s spear destroyed the Wailing Lens in Slaanesh’s hall.
• Slaanesh retaliated by sending the weapons in his palace toward Khorne’s throne, triggering a large daemon war that Delia knew nothing about.

Isha lived in Nurgle’s Garden, where the god kept her captive but treated her with genuine care, using her healing powers and feedback to refine his diseases. After drinking another bowl of Disease Soup, she praised it as clean and hygienic, delighting Nurgle and his gathered daemons.

• Nurgle rescued Isha from Slaanesh and brought her to his garden, where she repeatedly drank his Disease Soup to keep its illnesses from spreading.
• Nurgle used Isha’s healing and sensations to improve his plagues, hoping to create a perfect blessing for all life.
• Nurgle finished preparing a new soup and gave Isha a basin-sized bowl to taste.
• Isha drank the soup, assessed its effects, and told Nurgle and the watching daemons, “Clean and hygienic, brothers!”

Tzeentch, fearing the Subjective One would soon threaten Chaos, chose the T'au Empire as a new place to delay him and ordered the Kasare Legion deployed to the Damocles Gulf. Meanwhile, Lin Fan sensed that something had set its sights on him, then was summoned by the Space Wolves to help with an important matter.

• Tzeentch concluded that his warp storm over the Armageddon Sector would only delay the Subjective One briefly and decided to make the T'au Empire his next plan.
• Tzeentch considered using the Fate Die to help the T'au hold out and ordered his hidden Imperial followers to send the Kasare Legion to the Damocles Gulf after Armageddon.
• Lin Fan sneezed during lunch, sensing that something had set its sights on him, while Commissar Aude and Colonel Mark reacted to his distraction.
• After finishing his meal, Lin Fan was summoned by a communications trooper to the Space Wolves' hall to help with an important matter.

Tzeentch sent Carlos to stir Slaanesh and Khorne against the Subjective One, while Slaanesh grew bored and summoned Lucius for entertainment. Lucius tormented an Aeldari team and took a Soul Stone before answering Slaanesh’s call.

• Tzeentch ordered Carlos to visit Slaanesh and Khorne and turn their attention toward the Subjective One.
• Carlos tried to descend Tzeentch’s crystal staircase, fell down it, and limped away to carry out his task.
• Slaanesh watched the universe through the Wailing Lens, grew bored with the Commorragh spectacles, and accepted a Daemonette’s suggestion to send Lucius after a target.
• Lucius tortured an Aeldari Howling Banshee, taunted her with a Soul Stone, and watched her die before spitting the stone back out.
• Slaanesh called Lucius, who walked toward the rift he had opened.

Lin Fan joined Wodhaus Ice Wolf's force to destroy a Chaos altar aboard a space hulk that emerged near the fleet. Warp interference scattered their boarding torpedoes, and Lin Fan's group became trapped inside the hulk's hull, where Delia hinted that his embrace could help them cut their way out.

• Wodhaus explained that a Chaos altar would appear near the fleet and asked Lin Fan to accompany his Space Wolves and the Battle Sisters because his company had resisted corruption.
• Lin Fan assembled the 3rd Company, a squad of Tempestus Scions, and Canoness Gevisiting's Battle Sisters after the fleet detected a Warp rift and a massive space hulk emerged.
• Wodhaus, Bennett Wolf Claw, Kaiser White Fang, three Grey Hunters, Lin Fan's troops, and Gevisiting's forces boarded torpedoes to reach the hulk, but Warp interference scattered them across it.
• Lin Fan's boarding torpedo lodged inside the hulk's outer hull, and Delia located a passageway twenty meters away while Old Jock freed the trapped soldiers.
• Delia said her thermal cutter could break through the wall faster if Lin Fan hugged her, so Lin Fan embraced her as Old Jock and the soldiers teased them.

Lin Fan and the 3rd Company explored an Ork-styled derelict and encountered Warp-bound Ork dead souls that their weapons could only temporarily disperse. The Emperor told Lin Fan to find and destroy the ship’s Warp node, so Lin Fan led the squad through the spirits toward the other side of the hall.

• Lin Fan asked Delia whether she had detected the other units, but her auspex showed no trace of them.
• Lin Fan and his squad found a hall filled with fresh-looking Ork corpses, whose bound dead souls began rising.
• Old Jock fired a grenade at the corpses, dispersing the phantoms temporarily but leaving the bodies unharmed.
• Lin Fan asked the Emperor for help and learned that destroying the ship’s Warp node would free the dead souls and anyone they bound.
• Lin Fan led the 3rd Company through the hall, firing at the Ork spirits until they reached the far door.
• Lin Fan kicked down the door and claimed it had collapsed from disrepair, while Delia recognized his strength.

Lin Fan reunited with Canoness Gevisiting’s force and explained that destroying the Warp node could free the trapped souls and restore the fallen Sisters. Gevisiting’s Emperor icon revealed the node’s direction, but Ork and Imperial souls surrounded the allied group.

• Lin Fan led his exhausted soldiers through a space hulk filled with attacking Ork souls and followed gunfire to Gevisiting’s position.
• Lin Fan’s group joined Gevisiting, the Battle Sisters, and the Tempestus Scions, while Annis covered their approach with flames.
• Lin Fan told Gevisiting that destroying the Warp node could release the trapped souls and restore the fallen Sisters.
• Gevisiting prayed with an Emperor icon, which transformed into a golden needle pointing toward the Warp node.
• Ork and Imperial souls converged on the group and completely surrounded them.

Lin Fan and his companions followed the sacred icon to a Chaos altar, where a trap froze everyone but him. Lucius appeared and attacked Lin Fan, leaving the two alone in the blood pool.

• The bound souls of forgotten Imperial soldiers turned on the Ork souls, and Lin Fan’s group paid their respects before continuing.
• Canoness Gevisiting led the group to a door marked by the sacred icon and used a blessed rocket to destroy it.
• Gevisiting sent a Servo-skull to inspect the altar, but Lin Fan entered the blood pool himself after finding nothing inside.
• A ripple from the red skull froze Gevisiting and the others, while Lin Fan remained able to move.
• Lucius appeared, revealed that a stasis field had no effect on Lin Fan, and attacked him in the blood pool.

Lin Fan endured Lucius’s relentless whip attacks and remembered Trajan’s warning that his invulnerability could not replace melee skill or protect him from cunning enemies. As fear and drowsiness overtook him, a familiar sensation began to return.

• Lucius pierced Lin Fan’s Hellgun and armor with his whip, but was puzzled when Lin Fan showed no injury or reaction.
• Lucius concealed himself behind waves of blood and repeatedly battered Lin Fan, who could neither see nor evade his attacks.
• As he endured the blows, Lin Fan recalled Trajan warning that his poor melee abilities left him vulnerable to skilled or cunning enemies.
• Lin Fan realized his earlier victories had depended on opponents charging at him without understanding his abilities, and feared being trapped alone in the wreck.
• Lin Fan grew tense and drowsy as the feeling associated with the medical chamber on Karmaklan World and the sealed rift returned.
• Lucius’s whip struck Lin Fan’s spine, spreading a heat through him like an overloaded energy battery exploding.

Lin Fan drained the blood from the chamber but was trapped in a Tesseract Labyrinth after tearing off Lucius’s whip. Kaiser Whitefang and Wodhaus fought Lucius, who appeared defeated just as Kaiser prepared to kill him.

• Lin Fan punched holes through the deck, draining the blood pool and revealing that Lucius’s lashes had begun to wound him.
• Lucius released a Tesseract Labyrinth, and Lin Fan was trapped inside when he caught the pyramid.
• Kaiser Whitefang, Wodhaus, and the Space Wolves charged Lucius after Lin Fan vanished.
• Kaiser attacked Lucius while Wodhaus struck him with psychic lightning, causing Lucius to collapse in ecstatic agony.
• Kaiser raised his Frost Axe to kill Lucius, but someone called for him to stay his axe.

Lin Fan returned from the Tesseract Labyrinth and killed Lucius after warning Kaiser Whitefang not to let Lucius’s resurrection curse claim him. Lucius’s soul entered Lin Fan, discovered a prison containing the recorded history and future of his universe, and was then dragged before the Emperor’s golden light, where five black-armored giants appeared.

• Lin Fan emerged from the Tesseract Labyrinth, and Kaiser Whitefang and Wodhaus reacted in shock.
• Lin Fan explained that Lucius could possess anyone whose emotions pleased him, so Kaiser Whitefang stopped attacking Lucius.
• Lin Fan declared himself the undertaker of the Chaos Gods and crushed Lucius’s head, then waited for Lucius to possess him.
• Lucius entered Lin Fan and found a shadowy prison filled with figures and armies from his universe, including the Chaos Gods sealed in paintings.
• Lucius read a book containing his life and saw the written fate that a Loyalist captain would kill him near Armageddon.
• Lucius’s soul was drawn before the Emperor, whose golden light burned him, and five black-armored giants appeared behind him.

Lin Fan destroyed the skull powering the Blood God altar, but its fragments formed a Warp portal that swallowed him. The derelict ship revealed itself as an illusion and a trap, leaving Wodhaus and Kaiser to search for him.

• Lin Fan freed Sister Superior Gevisiting, Delia, and the others from stasis, and they collapsed unconscious but alive.
• Wodhaus discovered that the bleeding skull powered the altar and tried to destroy it with psychic energy, but his attack failed.
• Lin Fan struck the skull and shattered it, only for its fragments to form a Warp portal that swallowed him.
• The derelict ship vanished into an illusion, revealing Wodhaus, Kaiser, and the unconscious teammates inside a damaged Imperial cruiser.
• Wodhaus prepared to tear open a Warp gate to find Lin Fan, while Kaiser promised to bring him back.

Lin Fan fought his way through Khorne’s domain, using his strength and the Aquila statue to defeat the Flesh Hounds that attacked him. He continued toward the Brass Citadel, unaware that a mysterious figure was watching him.

• Lin Fan crossed Khorne’s blood-soaked domain toward the Brass Citadel, hoping to ask the Blood God to send him back from the Warp.
• A pack of Flesh Hounds attacked Lin Fan, but their bites could not harm him and he tore several apart.
• One Flesh Hound swallowed Lin Fan, so he used the Aquila statue to burn it to ashes from within.
• The remaining Flesh Hounds showed fear of the statue, and the pack killed one of its own when it tried to retreat.
• Lin Fan fought the rest of the hounds and defeated them, then decided to stay with his comrades until Armageddon was over.
• Lin Fan continued toward the Brass Citadel as a mysterious shadow watched him and called him interesting.