Chapter Summaries

Leman Russ and Magnus completed Rhodes Island’s mobility test, evading sniper fire and reaching the finish line unharmed. They agreed to blood tests for Oripathy, but the needle broke against Leman Russ’s wrist.

• The Doctor arranged for Rhodes Island snipers to fire at Leman Russ and Magnus during their mobility test.
• Vermeil and the other snipers shot at Leman Russ, but he evaded every bolt through skill rather than luck.
• Catapult fired a grenade at the two Primarchs, and Leman Russ blocked its fragments with a metal plate.
• The Doctor excused Leman Russ and Magnus from combat sparring and brought Warfarin and Folinic over to examine them.
• Magnus accepted a blood draw despite Leman Russ’s concerns, and Leman Russ reluctantly followed.
• The needle broke when it touched Leman Russ’s wrist.

The Doctor reviewed the extraordinary assessments of Magnus and Leman Russ, then sealed their files after Rhodes Island’s operators reported their exceptional abilities. Warfarin called with news about their blood, leaving the Doctor waiting to learn the test results.

• Warfarin and Folinic collected blood from Magnus and Russ after Magnus used psychic power to pierce their unusually tough skin.
• Magnus declined the Doctor’s offer of a guide and began exploring Rhodes Island with Russ, while the Doctor gathered records about their abilities.
• The Doctor and Rhodes Island’s senior staff sealed the brothers’ files and classified them as all-rounder operators.
• Closure, Rosmontis, Mostima, ranged operators, and Hoshiguma reported the brothers’ remarkable performance in shooting, endurance, mobility, and combat.
• Warfarin called the Doctor excitedly about the brothers’ blood.

The Medical Department discovered that Mag and Russ were completely resistant to Originium infection, while Engineering failed to analyze their weapons and armor. After the brothers officially joined Rhodes Island, Magnus discussed Originium disease with Russ, and they considered asking the Doctor for a mission.

• Warfarin and the Medical Department tested Mag and Russ's blood and found that it resisted Originium and remained unusually active.
• Warfarin urged the Doctor to keep the two men at Rhodes Island, while Folinic cautioned that their blood still contained unknown substances.
• Closure and Vulcan failed to analyze the brothers' weapons and armor, destroying valuable equipment, and the Doctor agreed to cover the losses.
• Mag and Russ officially joined Rhodes Island and moved into a modified dormitory after Engineering returned their equipment.
• Magnus explained to Russ his theory that Originium disease resulted from an imbalance caused by Originium's attraction, and the brothers decided to ask the Doctor for a mission.

Primarch blood and Warp essence awakened powerful instincts among Terra’s deep-sea and northern threats, while Titan Mining Corporation’s workers and Blacksteel guards carried out a risky Originium mining operation. Lyle thought of his friend Franka as the chapter ended with the mining crew continuing its dangerous work.

• Primarch blood and Warp essence crossed into Terra, stirring ancient beings in the deep sea and the frozen north.
• Titan Mining Corporation used Catastrophe Messengers to find Scourges and Blacksteel International to protect its Originium mining teams.
• Lyle reprimanded Yord for teasing him about Franka’s photo and threatened him with daily obstacle-course training.
• A worker’s outer protective suit was torn by an Originium crystal, but the foreman confirmed the inner layer was intact and sent him to change.
• Lyle reflected on the dangers of Originium mining as the workers returned to their shifts.

Lyle and the Blacksteel Security team fled a mining site after ravenous Originium Slugs and grotesque slug-parasitized creatures overwhelmed the forest outpost. The slugs pursued the evacuees across the wilderness and eventually reached a mobile city, where its heavy Arts cannons opened fire.

• Lyle received a panicked report that Originium Slugs had devoured the forest outpost and sounded the red alert.
• Lyle and Yord found the outpost destroyed and faced a horde of slugs alongside grotesque creatures covered in parasites.
• Lyle led the surviving veterans in a fighting retreat while the manager ordered the mining camp evacuated.
• Lyle discovered the slugs were pursuing the fleeing vehicles and warned the manager to escape.
• The survivors fled for six days, and half a month after reaching a mobile city, the slug horde reached its outskirts and the city fired its heavy Arts cannons through the night.

Magnus and Leman Russ traveled with Rhodes Island operators to answer Blacksteel International’s emergency call, while Magnus investigated Terra’s unusually low sky and discovered a barrier at roughly 8,000 meters. The brothers left the mystery unresolved, wary that breaking the barrier could expose Terra to dangers beyond the stars.

• Magnus and Leman Russ joined Blaze, Liskarm, Franka, Jessica, and other Rhodes Island operators on an aircraft bound for Columbia to assist Blacksteel International.
• Magnus extended his psychic power into the night sky and sensed a barrier that grew thicker at higher altitudes.
• Magnus wondered whether the barrier was natural or built by another civilization, and feared that tearing it open might attract powerful threats.
• Magnus told Leman Russ that his probe had reached 8,000 meters, while Terra’s researchers had only measured the sky up to 6,152 meters.
• Magnus considered how Terra’s low flight ceiling restricted aircraft, transportation, and communication across the planet.

On the flight to Columbia, Magnus and Leman Russ discussed their abilities and painful past with Rhodes Island and Blacksteel International operators. Leman Russ began recalling a childhood incident in which he beat Magnus after Magnus smashed their father’s toilet.

• Magnus asked Blaze about her heat-based Originium Arts, and she explained how she used them in combat.
• Magnus claimed his Originium Arts involved wind and said Leman Russ had no Arts, while Blaze’s question about their parents left the brothers silent.
• Franka questioned why Magnus and Leman Russ had been assigned to Blacksteel International’s emergency mission alongside Blaze.
• Leman Russ began telling the operators about beating Magnus as a child after Magnus broke their father’s toilet.

Leman Russ recounted the Imperium’s wars to amused listeners as the group arrived in Columbia and discussed the nation’s prosperity and attitudes toward the Infected. Meanwhile, Franka met Blacksteel International specialists and a nervous Columbia official seeking help with a border crisis, leaving Leman Russ suspecting Columbia also wanted closer ties with Rhodes Island.

• Leman Russ described the Imperium’s ancient conflicts as brief family quarrels, entertaining the listeners while Magnus remembered their true bitterness.
• Magnus and Leman Russ discussed Columbia’s technological development and its treatment of the Infected, and Blaze explained that the nation also had wastelands and dangerous research facilities.
• Franka met Blacksteel International specialists Jessis, Ando, and Land, followed by Columbia official Sander.
• Sander and the Blacksteel specialists sought support amid reports that Originium creatures had attacked mobile cities near the border with Bolívar and four cities had gone silent.
• Leman Russ suspected Sander wanted Franka to help Columbia establish ties with Rhodes Island.

Franka and the Rhodes Island operators joined Columbia's emergency defense force to investigate the lost Mafi New City, while Magnus and Leman Russ assessed Terra's military forces. The city had been overrun by strange Originium creatures, and its survivors were trapped in the central district, defending the city's core.

• Franka told Sander that Rhodes Island had sent Blaze, Magnus, and Leman Russ, and that the Doctor would likely require a full report before approving further aid.
• Leman Russ and Magnus privately reacted to Sander's disdain for their armor, and Leman Russ's sudden chill made Blaze bundle up.
• Franka, Blaze, Magnus, and Leman Russ accompanied Columbia's emergency defense force toward the mobile city that had sent a distress signal before losing contact.
• Magnus and Leman Russ observed Columbia's soldiers, Blacksteel personnel, and Rhine Lab technicians, then compared the force to poorly equipped Imperial armies.
• A strange-colored Scourge had spawned masses of Originium creatures that hunted people, overrunning wilderness settlements and forcing Mafi New City's survivors into the central district to defend its core.

Lyle and the city defenders fought Originium undead near Mafi New City while Blaze and the relief force examined similar creatures and wondered what had caused them. Magnus and Leman Russ concluded that traces of Chaos power had corrupted Originium, and Magnus reconsidered whether ancient gods might be real.

• Lyle ordered the city defenders to fire crossbows, then face the advancing Originium undead after their volleys and minefield failed to stop them.
• The relief force destroyed a small group of Originium undead near Mafi New City, and Rhine Lab staff collected and ground up their remains for study.
• Blaze observed the Slugs fused into the undead's skulls and saw Franka, Liskarm, Jessica, Magnus, and Russ react to the discovery.
• Magnus and Russ communicated psychically and determined that the undead bore traces of Chaos power that had infected Originium.
• Magnus and Russ discussed ancient gods and how the Warp's corruption might have changed them over time.

The relief force’s assault on the city faltered as Originium zombies overwhelmed its weapons and troops. Blaze was nearly swallowed by a giant corpse, but Leman Russ rescued her and began smashing the monsters.

• The relief force advanced into the city, where its ordinary weapons proved ineffective against the Originium zombies and the vanguard began to collapse.
• Blaze fought alongside Franka, Liskarm, and Jessica, using her chainsaw and Originium Arts against the horde.
• Blaze hurled one giant corpse away, but more emerged and a deep-blue giant corpse suppressed her Arts, causing her to fall toward its maw.
• Leman Russ rescued Blaze at the last moment and carried her to safety behind him.
• Leman Russ shattered a giant corpse with a punch, leaving Blaze to wonder where Doctor had found such a monster.

Leman Russ rescued soldiers from Originium walking corpses while Magnus found and destroyed the creature infecting Malan New City. The survivors began explaining how the corpses had first appeared, as Leman Russ led the vanguard onward.

• Leman Russ slaughtered Originium walking corpses and rescued scattered soldiers, while Blaze and Franka discussed what they knew about him.
• Magnus explored the mobile city's foundations and found an Originium starfish feeding on the reactor and spreading the infection.
• Magnus killed the starfish with psychic power, removing the source that spawned the walking corpses.
• Magnus met Lyle and other Blacksteel International guards, restrained them with psychic power, then identified himself as reinforcements and asked when the corpses first appeared.
• Lyle recounted the events at GigaCorp's excavation site, while Leman Russ led the vanguard out of the corpses' encirclement and onward.

Leman Russ helped the Columbia soldiers and Blaze clear Malan New City of Originium-infected corpses, then comforted Blaze as the devastation weighed on her. The city was reclaimed but left a dead place, and Blaze found she could rest beside Russ despite her nightmares.

• Leman Russ hurled a sedan into an Originium giant corpse to save a squad of Columbia soldiers, impressing Blaze with his strength.
• As the soldiers followed Russ through the battlefield, he drew Blaze closer and traded jokes with her about his father.
• Leman Russ and Magnus helped the Columbia forces spend a week purging the walking corpses from Malan New City.
• The purge revealed a city filled with the dead, leaving Blaze exhausted and melancholy as she searched for survivors.
• Blaze asked why Russ seemed unaffected by the carnage, and he told her he had seen crueler wars before she fell asleep beside him.

Magnus used a new spell to remove Chaos corruption from Originium creatures across the border cities, but while pursuing the final wisp of Chaos power, he discovered an enormous wound in the world at Terra’s northernmost edge. Looking into it triggered an even greater disaster.

• Magnus told Leman Russ that Chaos had rapidly mutated Originium creatures and that he might be able to purge the corruption with a new spell.
• Magnus and Leman Russ prepared a ritual deep underground, using corpses transformed by Originium as materials.
• Magnus projected his soul across the land and removed Chaos power from the walking corpses, turning them back into Originium Slugs.
• Magnus reclaimed two roaming wisps of Chaos power, then chased the last one north as it accelerated toward Terra’s lifeless frontier.
• Magnus discovered that a vast wound in the world had drawn the final wisp of Chaos power and looked into it from a distance.
• Magnus compared the wound to a primitive, shattered Warp realm, and his thought set off an even deeper disaster.

Magnus's attempt to destroy the daemons emerging from the rift instead fed them and led him into the strange darkness beyond it. He realized that his thoughts had awakened Chaos and turned Terra's previously tranquil realm of souls into a newborn Warp.

• Magnus saw Bloodthirsters, Great Unclean Ones, Lord of Change, and Keeper of Secrets emerge from the rift, and his lightning shattered their forms without stopping them.
• Magnus ignored the warning to retreat and used Originium power to attack the reforming daemons, while Leman Russ sensed the energy being drained and chose to trust him.
• Magnus plunged into the rift to find the source of the disturbance and discovered a silent darkness unlike the Warp.
• Magnus realized that his chaotic thoughts had stirred the realm of souls and caused it to become a newborn Warp.

Magnus accidentally corrupted Terra's spiritual realm into a primordial Warp and rushed to contain the emerging Chaos armies. After using Leman Russ's Warp essence to freeze the breach temporarily, Magnus confessed what he had done and received a beating from his brother.

• Magnus realized his actions had opened a breach through which primordial Chaos was forming a demonic army, and he fled to seek Leman Russ's help.
• Magnus asked Leman Russ for a portion of his Warp essence, then used it to freeze the breach in an ancient portal in the far north.
• Leman Russ comforted Magnus before asking what had gone wrong, and Magnus confessed that he had contaminated Terra's spiritual realm with the Warp.
• Leman Russ punched Magnus and declared he would teach him a lesson for the disaster he had caused.

Kal'tsit considered the threats facing Terra and took comfort in Rhodes Island's progress toward curing Oripathy, until the Doctor warned her that Aegir was on the brink of destruction. The chapter then shifted to Yan, where the old Celestial Master met a visitor bearing the Emperor's decree after defending the northern frontier.

• Kal'tsit reviewed the Seaborn and Demons as threats, but concluded neither was likely to launch a major attack soon.
• Kal'tsit reflected on Rhodes Island's anti-Oripathy research using blood samples from Mag and Russ, and on the hope she found in the staff group photo.
• The Doctor called Kal'tsit and told her that Aegir in the south was on the brink of destruction.
• Yan's northern defenses repelled an assault by fiends and Demons at Celestial Pivot Pavilion.
• The old Celestial Master suppressed the Originium energy in his body and went to meet a visitor carrying the Emperor's decree.

The Grand Tutor told the old Celestial Master that sea beasts threatened Yan’s coast while a mysterious Originium-driven plague had destroyed cities and endangered millions inland. He asked the Celestial Pivot Pavilion for troops to form a patrol force, but the old Celestial Master refused, leaving him to seek warriors elsewhere.

• The Grand Tutor visited the old Celestial Master at the Celestial Pivot Pavilion to discuss Yan’s worsening situation.
• The Grand Tutor reported that sea beasts had attacked coastal cities and that more might be rising from the depths.
• The Grand Tutor described how people and animals became mad, flesh-eating walking corpses that gathered into giant beasts and destroyed several cities.
• The old Celestial Master learned that investigators had found extremely high concentrations of Originium matter in the corpses, rather than evidence of an attack by evil demons.
• The Grand Tutor asked for troops from the Celestial Pivot Pavilion to establish a patrol force between cities, but the old Celestial Master refused.
• The Grand Tutor decided to seek capable warriors from the Suiwatch Bureau instead.

The Old Celestial Master sent the Grand Tutor to prepare for the disasters threatening Yan, while Leman Russ confronted Magnus over how his actions had worsened the crisis. After Magnus removed the chaos traces behind the Originium zombies, the brothers returned to Rhodes Island, unaware that a greater danger still waited in the far north.

• The Old Celestial Master reminded the Grand Tutor that Celestial Pivot Pavilion existed to protect Yan’s people and promised him elite personnel to face the coming disasters.
• The Old Celestial Master recalled the armored attackers and the madness they had spread during the battle, then returned inside the tower.
• Leman Russ scolded Magnus for accelerating the changes around the mysterious rift and warned that his recklessness could undermine trust with Rhodes Island.
• Magnus agreed to follow Leman Russ’s lead, and the brothers chose to learn what Rhodes Island’s leaders knew about the far north rather than freeze the rift themselves.
• Leman Russ confirmed that Magnus had collected the remaining chaos power, and they left after Magnus said no more Originium zombies would appear.
• Blaze asked where the brothers had gone, and Leman Russ claimed Magnus had used Originium Arts to cool himself; Blaze reported that the zombies had suddenly become harmless.

Leman Russ and Magnus left the camp to return to Rhodes Island, with Blaze joining them after Magnus carried the three through the air. They found Rhodes Island and began descending toward it.

• Leman Russ told Blaze that he and Magnus were leaving for Rhodes Island to find the Doctor, and explained that Magnus would carry them there.
• Magnus cast a psychic spell and lifted himself and Leman Russ into the sky as Blaze and the camp's onlookers watched.
• Blaze grabbed Leman Russ's boot and insisted on coming along, so he asked Magnus to support her with psychic power.
• Blaze panicked during the flight, but Leman Russ calmed her and she began admiring the view and Magnus's control of the air.
• Magnus located Rhodes Island and guided the three of them down toward the landship.