Chapter Summaries

The Emperor discovered that the Overlord world was a game world and decided to search for the World-Class Item Five Elements Overcoming, hoping to use it against the Chaos Gods. As he searched and linked the two worlds, the Imperium’s defenders faced a desperate daemon assault, and Sanguinius welcomed returning Primarchs who joined the battle.

• The Emperor read a guild player’s diary, confirmed that the Overlord world existed beneath a narrative layer, and chose to keep fighting for his own world.
• The Emperor planned to find Five Elements Overcoming and use it to damage the psychic power of the Chaos Gods, then scoured the world with his radiance.
• Sanguinius endured the Imperium’s worsening defense as Magnus and Malcador maintained the Golden Throne’s barrier, then learned that Primarchs had returned through the portal.
• Angron learned that Sanguinius had become the Imperium’s new Emperor, gathered the World Eaters, and led them into battle against Khorne’s daemons.
• Leman Russ woke after touching the Emperor’s weapon, asked about Horus, and led the Space Wolves to fight beside the Luna Wolves while keeping Horus under watch.

Khorne reshaped the chaotic battlefield into orderly roads, forcing the Chaos armies and Space Marine Legions into direct combat while Tzeentch grudgingly followed his orders. As Horus and Leman Russ fought side by side against Khorne’s daemons, Tzeentch devised a new plan to provoke suspicion and betrayal among the Primarchs, targeting Fulgrim and Corax.

• Khorne grew furious at Tzeentch’s chaotic battlefield and hurled eight weapons toward the portal world, which shattered into roads that separated the Imperial forces from the daemons.
• Sanguinius followed Malcador’s instruction not to stop the weapons, and Khorne organized the armies of all four gods across the new roads.
• Horus awoke in a blood-soaked wilderness, where Leman Russ accused him of treachery and attacked him before Sanguinius’s message prompted them to fight together.
• Horus and Leman Russ led the Luna Wolves and Space Wolves in a joint charge against Khorne’s daemon army.
• Tzeentch abandoned his old approach and began planning to manipulate Fulgrim and Corax into creating mistrust and conflict among the Primarchs.

Fulgrim tried to wake the unconscious Ferrus after a battle had severed Ferrus’s connection to a machine flooding his brain with data. He improvised a way to transfer the data into an Iron Hands captain, leaving the captain unconscious and Ferrus still unresponsive.

• Fulgrim found Ferrus unconscious in the Iron Hands’ command post and learned that severed cables had disconnected him from a machine he had built to enhance his battlefield command.
• Fulgrim inspected Ferrus’s data cables, cut away the severed ones, and told the Iron Hands captains that someone needed to draw the data out of Ferrus’s mind.
• After an Iron Hands captain dismissed Fulgrim’s actions as artistic pursuits, Fulgrim complained that Ferrus had taught his sons to underestimate his abilities.
• Fulgrim made the captain connect a braided metal cord to Ferrus’s data port and discharge his armor’s electricity through it, causing the captain to fall unconscious.
• Fulgrim told the other captains that the cord had moved data out of Ferrus’s brain and threatened to use Emperor’s Children instead if they kept questioning him.

Fulgrim helped Ferrus awaken from his coma and covered for the Iron Hands captains after they used the braided wires to extract data from Ferrus's mind. The two Primarchs went to the front line, where Slaanesh's daemonic army began its attack.

• Fulgrim's taunts frightened the Iron Hands captains into using the metal wires, and they fell unconscious while extracting data from Ferrus's brain.
• Ferrus woke to find captains unconscious with wires in their noses, and Fulgrim told him they had used an untested method to wake him.
• Fulgrim led Ferrus away before he could question the captains further, then winked at them to show he had forgiven them.
• Fulgrim and Ferrus reached the front line, where Fulgrim heard a Slaanesh daemon tempt him while Ferrus heard nothing.
• Slaanesh's daemons sounded the attack horn and sent war chariots racing from the pink mist, with Daemonettes riding strange steeds.

Lorgar’s speech restored the Space Marines’ resolve against Slaanesh’s temptations, reminding them that they fought for humanity rather than personal privilege. After the demons fell, Fulgrim and Ferrus debated whether Lorgar had truly changed, while Lorgar overheard them and joked about becoming Imperial Pontiff.

• Slaanesh’s demons tempted the Space Marines with illusions of power and privilege, causing the warriors to waver.
• Lorgar challenged the warriors’ selfish thoughts and reminded them that Astartes fought for humanity’s future, not to enslave mortals.
• The Space Marines renewed their vows to fight for the Emperor and humanity, and their battle cries caused the Slaanesh demons to fall beneath the chariots.
• Ferrus questioned whether Lorgar had delivered the speech, while Fulgrim praised the change in his brother.
• Lorgar overheard them and denied that his speech had anything to do with becoming Imperial Pontiff, making Ferrus and Fulgrim laugh.
• Fulgrim asked Ferrus whether he had changed, then sighed when Ferrus did not understand the question.

Sevatar confronted Konrad Curze, who had withdrawn into the darkness and was waiting for an opportunity after seeing visions of the future. Curze feared that Fulgrim would fall after mistakenly killing Ferrus, but rushed out when Sevatar mentioned that Fulgrim and Ferrus were fighting Slaanesh’s daemons.

• Sevatar entered the blood-soaked darkness to urge Konrad Curze to leave and help the other Legions.
• Curze emerged and told Sevatar that he had seen the future and believed some of his brothers would betray them.
• Curze described a vision in which Fulgrim mistakenly killed Ferrus and fell to temptation.
• Sevatar reminded Curze that Fulgrim and Ferrus were allies fighting daemons together.
• When Sevatar identified the daemons as servants of Slaanesh, Curze grabbed him and hurried out.

Konrad Curze told Sevatar about a possible future in which Fulgrim killed Ferrus, then rushed toward the Emperor's Children and Iron Hands. As the daemons' song weakened the defenders at the Sixth Way of the Brass Road, Ferrus decided to destroy their raised platform himself.

• Konrad Curze told Sevatar that a daemon would control Fulgrim and make him kill Ferrus in the future.
• Konrad Curze named other Primarchs who might be vulnerable to daemonic control, and Sevatar suspected he was helping Fulgrim because he cared about him.
• Ferrus and the Emperor's Children and Iron Hands held their defensive line against Slaanesh's daemon host for six days and nights, despite dwindling ammunition.
• Ferrus ordered his warriors to use daemon bones to build combat platforms after the battlefield became impassable with corpses.
• Slaanesh's daemons sang from a raised platform, intensifying the defenders' fatigue, and Ferrus decided to attack and destroy it.

Ferrus and Fulgrim led their warriors through a demon-infested swamp toward the platform whose song weakened them. N'Kari and Carlos plotted to corrupt Fulgrim and turn him against Ferrus, and the chapter ended with N'Kari’s maidservants surrounding Fulgrim after the Primarchs became separated.

• Ferrus and Fulgrim compared weapons and agreed to lead their elite warriors toward the demons’ platform.
• Ferrus and Fulgrim carved a path through the swamp and demon horde as N’Kari watched Fulgrim.
• Carlos explained that the demons had corrupted Fulgrim’s sword and planned to make him kill Ferrus with the Laer Blade.
• Fulgrim drifted away from the formation while fighting, and Ferrus chose to charge the platform rather than call him back.
• N’Kari sent her maidservants to surround Fulgrim once Ferrus and Fulgrim were separated.

Fulgrim fought Slaanesh’s daemons inside a mist that distorted his memories, while Ferrus tried to reach him from outside. Just as the daemons seized control of Fulgrim and forced him to strike at Ferrus, Konrad Curze arrived and saved him.

• N'Kari trapped Fulgrim in mist and sent daemons wearing the faces of people he knew to attack him.
• Ferrus led the Iron Hands toward the platform, fought Carlos, and brought the structure down, entering the mist and finding Fulgrim.
• Fulgrim’s memories blurred as he fought for what seemed like centuries; he abandoned the rusted Flame Sword and used the Laer Blade to cut through the daemons.
• Ferrus and Fulgrim mistook each other for enemies and fought until Fulgrim recognized Ferrus when he shattered the Flame Sword.
• Carlos and N'Kari triggered the daemons hidden in the Laer Blade, which took control of Fulgrim and turned his sword toward Ferrus.
• Konrad Curze severed Fulgrim’s sword arm, broke the daemons’ control, and told Fulgrim he had come to save him.

Curze arrived in time to stop Fulgrim from killing Ferrus, then led the Primarchs to defeat the daemons and capture Carlos. With the battlefield under control, Curze prepared to help their brothers elsewhere and warned Fulgrim that Fabius would become a traitor.

• Curze knocked aside Fulgrim's cursed strike before it could hit Ferrus and declared that he had come to save Fulgrim.
• Curze defied Carlos's claims about fate, attacked the daemons, and drew N'Kari and the Slaanesh daemons into the fight.
• Fulgrim, Ferrus, and Curze defeated Carlos and the daemons, while the Night Lords tortured their captives.
• Curze explained how he recognized the daemons' weaknesses and said they needed to take an elite force to aid their brothers, including Lorgar.
• Curze identified Fabius as a future traitor, and Fulgrim warned the bewildered Apothecary that he would be watching him.

Tzeentch’s Greater Daemons plotted to exploit Guilliman’s love for his family, using a fake version of his mother to destabilize him. Guilliman doubted that the woman in the daemonic camp was an impostor and feared his forces could not hold the Brass Road much longer.

• Tzeentch’s Greater Daemons discussed how to breach the Ultramarines and Dark Angels’ defenses after repeated attacks failed.
• One daemon proposed targeting Guilliman’s family and persuading the daemons of Slaanesh to provide an impostor posing as his mother.
• Guilliman rejected Felix’s reassurance that the woman was a daemon disguise, demanding proof that his mother was safe on Macragge.
• Guilliman explained that Macragge had been left short of its finest warriors and estimated his forces could hold for only three more months before facing shortages.
• Guilliman worried that he had received no news from the portal and could not tell whether the defenses on the other Brass Roads remained secure.

Guilliman struggled to choose between rescuing Lady Euten and protecting his Legion, while Lion weighed the choice against his own family ties. As Warmaster, Lion ordered Guilliman to lead a heavily armed assault to rescue her, with Dark Angels support.

• Felix urged Guilliman not to risk his life for Lady Euten, and Guilliman slapped him for dismissing the possibility that she was his mother.
• Felix reminded Guilliman that he had taught the Ultramarines to put humanity's interests first, leaving Guilliman speechless.
• Lion arrived from the front lines and asked Guilliman what he intended to do; Guilliman admitted he could not decide whether to risk the mission.
• Thinking of his foster father, Lion chose to support Guilliman and ordered him to lead the Honor Guard and a large armored force on a rescue assault.
• Lion promised that the Dark Angels would send one hundred Excindio and heavy artillery to support the mission, then left to address daemons breaching the defensive line.

Lion El'Jonson learned that Guilliman had turned against him and led an assault on the Ultramarines Primarch's forces. He fought his way to Guilliman's mobile fortress, where the brothers clashed in battle.

• A Dark Angels scout told Lion El'Jonson that Guilliman was attacking their defensive line, and Lion learned the Ultramarines had imprisoned messengers who tried to report the breach.
• Lion El'Jonson gathered his mobile forces and led an elite armored assault toward Defensive Line 167, cutting through Guilliman's army.
• Lion El'Jonson spotted Guilliman with Lady Euten and charged toward the mobile fortress, believing he could free his brother from her influence.
• Lion El'Jonson stormed the fortress and confronted Guilliman, who declared himself the destined Regent of the Imperium.
• Lion El'Jonson hurled a sword at a Tzeentch daemon praising Guilliman, then charged his brother, and their blades collided.

Lion defeated the Chaos-influenced Guilliman, captured him, and brought him back to headquarters, where Guilliman explained that a mirror showing the future had led him astray. Lorgar then ordered the legions to gather around the portal, leaving Lion to punish the Ultramarines officers before joining the regrouping.

• Guilliman killed four of Lion’s warriors and battered Lion, but Lion exploited Guilliman’s arrogance and turned the fight around.
• Lion beat Guilliman until he claimed to have recovered, then chained him to a trailer and withdrew with his troops.
• During the retreat, Lion saw the bewitched Ultramarines regain their senses and the daemons flee.
• At headquarters, Guilliman said a mirror showing future images had caused him to turn against the Imperium, while Lion berated him and the Ultramarines officers.
• Lorgar ordered the legions to gather around the portal, and Lion assigned the Ultramarines officers to the penal battalion as rear guards.

Lion El'Jonson and Roboute Guilliman reached the portal as Lorgar gathered the battered Legions for a final defense until the Emperor returned. Amid the collapsing battle lines, Death Guard Captain Groot and a small group of Ultramarines auxilia fought a giant daemon of Nurgle, and the auxilia destroyed it from within with overloaded power cells.

• Lion El'Jonson and Roboute Guilliman fought through daemons and reached the accretion belt around the portal, where Lion learned that the other Legions had suffered heavy losses and betrayals.
• Lorgar contracted the defensive line around the portal, and Sanguinius placed the Word Bearers, Ultramarines, Death Guard, and Luna Wolves at the front as the daemons launched another assault.
• Death Guard Captain Groot killed a Flesh Hound with a melta grenade, discovered a dying Salamander captain and rescued seven Ultramarines auxilia from a hatch.
• Groot and the auxilia planned to destroy a giant daemon of Nurgle by overloading power cells, then gathered and heated the cells while the daemon approached.
• Groot distracted the daemon while the auxilia attacked its eye; when the daemon trapped Groot, two auxilia carrying roasted power cells leaped into its mouth and blew it apart from within.

Grant fought from inside a Greater Daemon of Nurgle while the auxilia wore it down with their remaining fire, then crawled out alive. Salamanders arrived to recover the survivors, and Grant prepared to leave with them despite his injuries.

• Grant charged the Greater Daemon of Nurgle, pierced its chest with iron, and attacked its insides.
• The auxilia concentrated their fire until the daemon collapsed into the wreckage.
• The auxilia cut open the daemon's hide and helped Grant crawl free, then asked what they should do next.
• A Salamander squad led by Sergeant Ude arrived in response to a distress signal and recovered the dead Salamander's Gene-seed.
• The Salamanders treated Grant and offered to escort him and the surviving auxilia back to the lines.
• Grant struggled to his feet, accepted a bolt pistol and chainsword, and prepared to leave with the Salamanders.

Grant and his group returned to a fortress overwhelmed by wounded soldiers and drastic military preparations, then witnessed Sanguinius order a retreat after Relic Bombs devastated the front. Sanguinius and Lion El'Jonson faced the scale of their losses and the likelihood that the new defenses would fail, while Sanguinius waited for The Emperor to return.

• Grant and his group fought several bands of daemons on the road to the fortress, losing a Salamander whose Gene-seed could not be recovered.
• Grant found the fortress transformed into a crowded medical and industrial hub, where the Adeptus Mechanicus and Iron Hands refitted warriors as a Word Bearers chaplain preached that faith could help humanity resist the Warp.
• Grant questioned Ude about the Thunder Warriors' warning that The Emperor might abandon them, but Ude dismissed it as a daemon's deception.
• Sanguinius ordered all forces to retreat toward the inner perimeter, and Relic Bombs from Lion El'Jonson's forbidden arsenal annihilated the daemon-filled front at the cost of the troops defending it.
• Lion El'Jonson warned Sanguinius that the new positions could not hold, and Sanguinius replied that they could at least die together before going to the Throne Room to ask when The Emperor would return.

The Imperium’s warriors faced the gathered armies of the four Chaos gods in a last stand behind Perturabo’s defenses. As the fortress lines fell and casualties mounted, Sanguinius left to join the battle, telling Valdor he did not expect to return.

• Corax warned that the enemy would reach the fortress complex in half an hour, and Jaghatai Khan brought back wounded White Scars as Ferrus prepared combat Men of Iron.
• The daemons of all four gods gathered before the defenses, and Sanguinius ordered the attack through Lorgar’s psychic battle channel.
• Lion El'Jonson and Ferrus fired the Emperor-sealed weapons, annihilating a vast swath of the daemon army and provoking the horde to charge.
• The defenders opened fire, but the daemons broke through the fortress lines and overwhelmed the warriors despite enormous reported casualties.
• Sanguinius told Valdor to keep the Adeptus Custodes at the fortress, then flew off to fight, saying he did not expect to return.

Lorgar and the Word Bearers strengthened the Imperium’s collapsing defensive line, while Sanguinius rescued Lorgar from The Changeling and fought across the battlefield. The line continued to fall, and Khorne revealed that Sanguinius’s insult had impressed him rather than enraged him.

• Lorgar led the Word Bearers in a zealous counterattack that empowered their warriors and temporarily stabilized the battle line.
• Mortarion tried using Digital Numerology, but his ritual summoned a Great Unclean One of Nurgle, whom the Death Guard destroyed with artillery.
• The Changeling trapped Lorgar in an illusion until Sanguinius struck it with the Spear of Telesto, then killed it and the other assassins.
• Sanguinius swept across the battlefield, but the Imperium’s defensive line kept shrinking as casualties mounted.
• Sanguinius cursed Khorne and returned to battle, while Khorne admired his bravery and threw an axe into Slaanesh’s head for teasing him.

Khorne sent four powerful daemons to challenge Sanguinius, but they argued over who would fight him first and trapped him in place. Before they could choose a champion, the banished Skarbrand charged in to claim Sanguinius’s skull.

• Khorne promised glory to whoever brought him Sanguinius’s head, and Seed of Destruction, Ang'grath, U'Zuhl the Skulltaker, and Ka'Bandha surrounded Sanguinius.
• Sanguinius tried to leave and aid the Imperium’s other forces, but the daemons’ restriction held him in place.
• Seed of Destruction and Ang'grath argued over who should duel Sanguinius, while Ka'Bandha stared at him and U'Zuhl demanded a chance to fight.
• Seed of Destruction and Ang'grath mocked U'Zuhl, who challenged them to settle the matter by fighting him first.
• The banished Skarbrand charged onto the battlefield and claimed the first challenge against Sanguinius.