Chapter Summaries

Lorgar and the Word Bearers faced the God-Emperor among the ruins of Perfect City, where He condemned their failures and gave them a chance to repent. Hades executed Kor Phaeron and Erebus through the night, then struck Lorgar’s armor and left without answering her question about who he was.

• Lorgar assembled the Word Bearers and promised they would make the Imperium or Ultramarines pay if they could not explain Perfect City’s destruction.
• The God-Emperor appeared, compelled the Legion to kneel, and rebuked Lorgar for believing He was a god while failing to meet His hopes.
• The God-Emperor showed Lorgar visions of corruption in Perfect City, refused to trust him, but offered the Word Bearers a chance to atone and told them to repent.
• Hades entered the kneeling Legion and impaled Kor Phaeron and Erebus with Blackstone spears, leaving them to die through the night as Lorgar and the Word Bearers remained still.
• At dawn, Hades struck Lorgar’s armor with Broken Sword and departed without answering when she asked who he was.

After the destruction of Perfect City, Lorgar faced the deaths of Kor Phaeron and Erebus and ordered the Word Bearers to repent. Elsewhere, Hades and Malcador discussed Guilliman’s state, and a rigged-looking game of chance sent the Emperor to counsel him.

• Angerthas awoke among the Word Bearers, approached Lorgar, and helped her rise beside the impaled corpses of Kor Phaeron and Erebus.
• Lorgar recoiled from Erebus’s corpse, ordered Angerthas to remove the spear, and said the Word Bearers needed to repent.
• Hades urged the Emperor to check on Lorgar, while the Emperor said his chosen messenger would guide her.
• Malcador warned the Emperor that Guilliman was confused and needed to hear from his father, not from Hades or Malcador.
• The Emperor proposed that a spinning finger bone choose who would counsel Guilliman, and Hades agreed to spin it.
• The finger bone pointed at the Emperor, who left to speak with Guilliman; Hades later told Malcador he had calculated the result scientifically.

After ordering Perfect City burned and its people relocated, Guilliman struggled with guilt and sought to understand why the Emperor had punished Lorgar. The Emperor revealed that the Word Bearers’ faith had been corrupted by a more blasphemous power, reassured Guilliman that Lorgar would recover, and left him believing his views had been affirmed.

• Guilliman reflected on the suffering caused by his orders in Perfect City and debated with Malcador about emotion and empathy.
• Malcador told Hades that the Emperor understood people and events more deeply than ordinary observers, while Hades doubted the Emperor could advise Guilliman effectively.
• The Emperor visited Guilliman, praised his concern for Lorgar, and explained that Perfect City had to be burned because the Word Bearers’ faith was corrupted by a blasphemous existence.
• The Emperor told Guilliman that Lorgar and her Legion were suffering but would rise again, and that he had allowed her previous view of him for now.
• The Emperor returned to Malcador and Hades, where Hades accused him of failing at his plan, but the Emperor insisted their conversation had gone smoothly.

Angerthas rescued the blind Cyrane from the scorched wasteland and brought her to the Word Bearers, who were struggling with their abandoned faith. Cyrane shared what she had seen of the Emperor and walked toward the primarch’s Meditation Chamber, where the door opened onto the smell of blood.

• Angerthas carried the barely living Cyrane to the Word Bearers’ medical bay as his brothers gathered outside, unsettled and without guidance.
• Cyrane woke blind, told Angerthas she had waited for the Angels, and said she had been chosen to witness Perfect City burn.
• Cyrane told Angerthas that the Emperor still allowed the Word Bearers to believe, easing something within him.
• Cyrane walked through the ship’s corridors and described her dream: the Emperor was weary and sorrowful, and what was wrong needed to change.
• Cyrane spoke of fire burning away what was wrong and true believers being remade, then reached the primarch’s Meditation Chamber, where the guards let her enter and the door opened amid the stench of blood.

Angerthas brought Cyrane to Lorgar in the Meditation Chamber, hoping to persuade the primarch to lead the Word Bearers again. Cyrane described a mysterious weeping being she called the Underking, and Lorgar accepted that he was preventing people from remembering him before asking whether this was the being’s message for her.

• Angerthas asked Lorgar to return to the Word Bearers, but Lorgar said she could not because she had betrayed the God-Emperor and doubted her own worth.
• Cyrane told Lorgar that the God-Emperor had spared them because their faith could grow again.
• Lorgar questioned whether Cyrane’s experience was real, and Cyrane described a dark sea and a being who wept luminous green tears.
• Lorgar identified the being as the Silenced One, while Cyrane said he had called himself the Underking.
• Cyrane said the being wanted Lorgar and the Word Bearers to serve as messengers of faith again and reshape culture and faith.
• Lorgar concluded that the being was preventing people from remembering him, then asked Cyrane if this was what he had wanted her to say.

Guilliman discussed the Warmaster candidates with Malcador and learned that Hades had become Master of the Silent Sisterhood. After formally renewing their acquaintance, Guilliman invited Hades to Macragge, but Malcador insisted that Hades had an Imperial mission to complete first.

• Guilliman told Malcador that he had withdrawn from consideration for Warmaster and recommended Ferrus Manus for the position.
• Malcador said Ferrus was preparing to attack an Eldar World with Vulkan and Mortarion, prompting Guilliman to notice Hades hiding nearby.
• Hades explained that Malcador had drugged him and that he had become Master of the Silent Sisterhood, then Malcador chased and struck him with his staff.
• Malcador explained Hades' new role to Guilliman and confirmed that Guilliman was the first of his brothers to learn about it.
• Guilliman and Hades formally introduced themselves, and Guilliman invited Hades to visit Macragge.
• Malcador objected that Hades had an Imperial mission, while Hades said he had always dreamed of seeing Macragge.

Vulkan commanded the Imperial campaign against the Eldar on Ibsen and ordered Mortarion to avoid poison weapons and protect the planet’s resources. The Death Guard advanced across the Ice Field, overcame the Eldar’s aerial assault, and reached the Obelisks as Mortarion prepared to deploy with Zero Company.

• Vulkan told Mortarion that she was leading the campaign and forbade him from using weapons that would contaminate the planet or harm civilians, and he agreed to follow her tactics.
• Mortarion deployed the Death Guard to Ibsen’s Ice Field, where they mapped the Eldar Obelisks and began advancing toward the first node.
• Garo’s forces fought off Eldar Wyverns using tracked missiles, and Enrique and Buster destroyed the Warlock leading the flock with Hades’ Gift.
• The Death Guard pushed through repeated Eldar attacks and reached the Obelisks, where Garo and three Deathshroud faced a Giant Serpent amid fierce fighting.
• After a Stormbird pilot announced that air superiority was secured, Mortarion prepared to descend with Zero Company in a Wraith Knight drop pod.

Mortarion’s Death Guard helped Vulkan’s Salamanders destroy the Eldar stronghold at Ibsen’s first node, using poison gas and fire to overcome the Rainforest defenses. After the battle, Mortarion and Vulkan followed Ferrus’s armor signal to a door beneath the Obelisk and debated how to reach him.

• Mortarion’s Death Guard broke through the Eldar defenses at Ibsen’s first node, destroyed the Psychic Shield, and eliminated the Farseer before bombing the site.
• Vulkan’s Salamanders struggled against the Rainforest’s Eldar and Monstrous Creatures until Mortarion warned them to protect their respiratory systems and released poison gas.
• Mortarion ignited the flammable poison smoke, and Vulkan rallied the Salamanders to burn through the Rainforest alongside the Death Guard.
• The two Legions destroyed the remaining Eldar forces and the node’s runes and gemstones, then Mortarion and Vulkan found Ferrus’s armor signal beneath the Obelisk.
• After failing to contact Ferrus, Mortarion proposed pumping poison gas through the underground door, assuring Vulkan it would not kill Ferrus.

Mortarion and Vulkan entered an Eldar teleportation complex to search for Ferrus, where Psychic illusions trapped Vulkan and Ferrus while Mortarion pushed deeper. Mortarion discovered the device was tied to the Emperor’s secret research and overheard an Eldar prophecy connecting Ferrus, Vulkan, and himself to the Xenos.

• Mortarion recognized the runes beneath the Obelisk as part of an Eldar teleportation device and persuaded Vulkan to enter the underground tunnel with him.
• A Psychic barrier trapped Vulkan in an illusion of Eldar torturing a Farseer, while Mortarion continued through the tunnel.
• Mortarion found Ferrus fighting a serpentine monster in another illusion and decided to search deeper for the source of the Psychic Power.
• Mortarion encountered an illusion of himself, then reached a hall containing a teleportation device resembling technology he had seen beneath the Imperial Palace.
• Two Eldar apparitions discussed Steel, the smith, and the guardian, and Mortarion understood that their prophecy connected Ferrus, Vulkan, and himself to the Xenos.

Hades discussed the primarchs with the Emperor, describing Mortarion’s character and how his motives changed from fear to protecting the people and Legion he cared about. The Emperor was pleased by Hades’s insight, while Hades urged him to pay closer attention to Fulgrim, Perturabo, and Horus.

• Hades told the Emperor that the primarchs resembled him and recommended more material support for Mortarion and the Death Guard.
• The Emperor admitted the primarchs had flaws and said he could not guide their growth without great cost, while Hades urged him to watch Fulgrim, Perturabo, and Horus.
• Hades explained that Mortarion had once been driven by fear and distrust, but gradually came to protect the people of Barbarus and the Death Guard.
• Hades said Mortarion preferred maintaining the status quo unless it faced destruction, and admitted he hoped he had talked him back from that tendency.
• The Emperor praised Hades for understanding Mortarion as a friend, and Hades joked that his null nature kept him from being beguiled by primarch traits.

Mortarion resisted the Eldar's psychic manipulations in a shifting tunnel until Zero Company blasted through the ceiling and rescued him. Reunited with his Deathshroud and Sage Kirkland, he learned that the Death Guard had secured the Salamanders and that Vulkan and Ferrus Manus remained out of contact.

• Mortarion rejected the choices presented by the shifting corridor and used Black Grenades to disrupt its Psychic Power pathways while pressing onward.
• The Eldar voices tried to tempt Mortarion with power and sow doubts about the Imperium and Hades, but he kept walking and listened for vibrations beneath him.
• Zero Company blasted open the tunnel ceiling, and Mortarion's Deathshroud, Sage Kirkland, Buster, Enrique, and Forge Department sergeants joined him.
• Mortarion restored communications and asked Garo for a report.
• Garo told Mortarion that the node was secure, Vulkan and Ferrus Manus were still out of contact, and the Death Guard had isolated the Salamanders while Zero Company carried out its emergency plan.

Mortarion forced his way through the tunnel illusion and found Ferrus Manus beside a dead Serpent Daemon. He recognized the monster as Fulgrim, while Ferrus remained shaken by the Eldar visions, and the two set out to find Vulkan and Ferrus’s sons.

• Mortarion blasted through the tunnel’s second door with the Deathshroud and Soulless, finding Ferrus Manus beside the Serpent Daemon’s corpse.
• Ferrus told Mortarion that two Eldar had led her to the tunnel and shown her possible futures.
• Ferrus recalled a vision of Fulgrim and attacked Mortarion when he guessed that she had seen someone familiar in the monster.
• Mortarion recognized the corpse as Fulgrim, then urged Ferrus to join him in finding Vulkan and her sons.

Mortarion and Ferrus discussed the visions they had experienced and what they would do if the visions came true. Their conversation ended when Vulkan entered the room, leaving Mortarion’s own vision and choice unexplained.

• Mortarion and Vulkan found a room full of dead humans and a slain Eldar Farseer, and Vulkan explained that the humans had adopted the Dark Eldar’s torture methods.
• Vulkan decided the human civilization on the planet could not be saved and prepared to carry out Exterminatus, while Mortarion said he was not supporting the decision because of the humans’ cruelty.
• Mortarion asked Ferrus what he would do if Fulgrim truly fell, and Ferrus said he would kill Fulgrim himself to end his suffering.
• Mortarion revealed that he had made the same choice as Ferrus, but refused to explain what he had seen in his own vision.
• Vulkan entered the room and interrupted Mortarion and Ferrus’s private conversation.

Mortarion, Vulkan, and Ferrus watched the Exterminatus destroy a planet, and Vulkan struggled with the deaths of its inhabitants. Their disagreement over mercy and duty ended with Vulkan imagining a peaceful future, while Mortarion joked about returning to farming.

• Mortarion watched the planet burn and reflected on the deaths caused by the Exterminatus he had approved.
• Vulkan recoiled from the destruction and told Mortarion that mercy and humanity were the reasons for their war.
• Mortarion argued that Vulkan's hesitation could cost more lives, while Vulkan insisted every life deserved a chance to live.
• Ferrus reminded Vulkan that her Legion had to complete the Imperium's mission before following her preferences.
• Vulkan said she hoped to return to Nocturne as a blacksmith when the galaxy was at peace, and Mortarion joked that he would farm on Barbarus.

Ferrus visited Mortarion aboard the Endurance, where they drank Mortarion’s poisonous brew and discussed the danger of trusting their unusual family. Mortarion revealed that he trusted their father, Hades, because his commander chose him, while Ferrus feared being treated as a defective product; the conversation ended when their flask ran dry.

• Ferrus accepted Mortarion’s invitation to continue their conversation aboard the Endurance.
• Mortarion served Ferrus his poisonous wine and said Vulkan’s existence had challenged his expectations of their family.
• Ferrus asked whether Fulgrim was the only one who had made Mortarion wary, and Mortarion told him to continue asking.
• Mortarion said Hades was trustworthy because his commander had chosen him, and identified Hades as Master of the Silent Sisterhood of the Imperium.
• Ferrus feared that their father might dispose of defective products and said he hoped his memories would at least be erased thoroughly.
• Mortarion reassured Ferrus that he and the Death Guard remained present, but Ferrus found the flask empty when he reached for more wine.

Hades warned Malcador about the Primarchs and urged him to prevent future disasters, but Malcador explained how little Terra could control the Legions. After Hades left to join Angron’s Legion, Ferrus and Mortarion kept the secret of their conversation, and Ferrus said nothing about it to Fulgrim.

• Hades rapidly warned Malcador about several Primarchs and the Alpha Legion, then asked him to establish oversight between Terra and the Legions.
• Malcador explained that distance, Warp disruption, and the Legions’ power made it difficult to restrain them, though he promised to inspect them and speak to the Emperor.
• The Emperor arrived to give Hades a braided cord and sent him to Angron’s Legion, while Hades urged him to speak more with the Primarchs.
• Ferrus left the Endurance carrying the secret of his conversation with Mortarion, while Mortarion appeared satisfied with their exchange.
• Vulkan gave Mortarion the Blackstone-and-lead scythe Mistletoe, and the Death Guard, Iron Hands, and Salamanders later departed Yipusheng.
• Ferrus visited the Emperor’s Children without telling Fulgrim about his agreement with Mortarion.

Karn met an Imperial Black Ship as it arrived to investigate the World Eaters, whose Primarch, Angron, had not fought for more than two years. Hades traveled aboard the ship, considered possible explanations for Angron’s absence and the Legion’s dwindling Librarians, and arrived at his destination without learning what had happened.

• Karn and Lotara Sarrin watched the Black Ship dock, while Salin warned Karn that the Imperium might disband the Legion and reminded him that Angron and Rorke’s fleet had been missing for two years and seventy days.
• Malcador told Hades to investigate the World Eaters and showed him reports revealing that Angron had not personally fought in more than two years.
• Malcador explained that Jin’s surveillance had revealed the World Eaters’ Librarians were dwindling and showing possible signs of Chaos, prompting Hades to question what had happened to Angron.
• Aboard the Black Ship, Hades considered whether Angron had been incapacitated during an attempt to remove the Butcher’s Nails or had left the Legion, but he resolved to wait for concrete information.
• Little Herrela told Hades that they had safely reached their destination.

Hades arrived at the World Eaters’ base seeking Angron, learned that the primarch and First Company Captain Rorke had been missing for years, and offered help finding him. He asked Karn to bring Forge Master Perez into the effort, then greeted Perez as an old acquaintance.

• Hades told Karn that the Emperor still hoped to cure Angron and asked to meet the primarch.
• Karn initially claimed Angron was away commanding another war zone, but admitted the Legion had been unable to contact him for two years and seventy days.
• Karn explained that Angron had led the Librarians to a world rumored to have technology that could remove the Butcher’s Nails, and that Rorke had gone searching for him a year and a half earlier.
• Hades said he would seek permission for the World Eaters to pause their Great Crusade operations and offered the Silent Sisterhood’s help in recovering Angron.
• Hades asked Karn to summon the Legion’s Forge Master, and Perez arrived and recognized Hades, who greeted him warmly.

Hades identified the Maelstrom as the region where Angron had vanished and prepared the World Eaters to rescue him from a Warp-touched planet. After Angron’s armor transmitted news that he was near death, Hades warned the Legion about psychic enemies and proposed joint drills with the Soulless.

• Hades learned from Salin that Angron had disappeared near the Maelstrom and warned her to prepare for a hard fight.
• Eight days later, the World Eaters received a fragmented signal from Angron’s armor on a planet at the edge of the Maelstrom, revealing that Angron was alive but near death.
• Hades kept Angron’s true condition from being widely disclosed, while news of his near-death state spread anxiety through the Legion.
• Hades built rapport with World Eaters warriors and rebuked Charon for wanting him to maintain distance and mystery.
• Hades addressed the World Eaters’ leadership, explained that the target planet’s Warp overlap meant they would face psychic entities, and proposed joint drills with the Soulless.

Hades led the World Eaters to a blood-soaked planet where Angron’s signal came from a ruined structure near a vast Rift. The first troops landed and fought through the monsters, while a gigantic blood-red daemon appeared across the plain.

• Hades trained selected World Eaters to resist Warp influence and sought reinforcements, but only damaged Forge World Salem promised support.
• The World Eaters arrived at the planet and discovered a frozen landscape covered in blood, Warp-touched monsters, and skull piles; Angron’s signal came from a dark-red pyramid near a Rift.
• Hades and Karn prepared the force to cross the Blood Plain, and Hades urged the warriors to keep their rage focused on the Emperor and humanity.
• The World Eaters bombarded the landing area and deployed in drop pods, where Karn led the first wave against monsters crawling from the bloody mire.
• Hades contacted Karn to correct the force’s position, and the second wave arrived with Soulless squads that helped clear the battlefield.
• Karn saw a gigantic blood-red monster spread its wings across the Blood Plain as cries of praise to the Blood God carried through the storm.