Chapter Summaries

Hades awakened after ten thousand years, fed himself by slaughtering Tyranids, and learned that Black and Barry had survived beside his coffin. He accepted Black as his son and began asking about the transformed Imperium, starting with the Dark Angels.

• Hades used his electrical arcs to melt Blackstone from his coffin into a brick, then borrowed Black's axe and went into the forest to find food.
• Black fell asleep while guarding Barry, and Hades returned after devouring Tyranid corpses and discovering he could precisely control his Null Field.
• Hades fed Black roasted Tyranid meat and had him pour biomass soup into the unconscious Barry, who began healing in a deeper coma.
• Black asked if he could call Hades Father, and explained that Jin-306 had founded the Sons of the Underworld using Hades's gene-seed and blood.
• Hades learned that the Imperium regarded him as a god alongside the God-Emperor, accepted Black as his son, and asked him to describe the Dark Angels.

Hades learned how radically the Imperium had changed while he was gone, including that the Blood Angels were unknown to Black and Guilliman had died after the High Lords impeached him. Overwhelmed by grief and fury, Hades vanished into darkness, leaving Black alone by the extinguished campfire as his anguished roar sounded in the distance.

• Hades questioned Black about the Legions and learned that Caliban and Fenris had been destroyed, Lion El'Jonson and several primarchs were missing, and the Webway had suffered little damage.
• Black told Hades that the Emperor remained on the Golden Throne and might awaken, while Dorn was in stasis and the Night Lords had rebuilt themselves.
• Hades discovered that Black had never heard of the Blood Angels or Sanguinius, though he knew of the Sanguinala festival and rumors of a Second Imperium.
• Black said Guilliman had died after a battle on Sanguinala, and that the High Lords had impeached him while he was wounded and exhausted.
• Hades learned that Guilliman had returned to Macragge after killing Terra's leadership and that no primarch had avenged him; overwhelmed, Hades disappeared into darkness and roared in grief and fury.

Hades learned that Mortarion had led 350,000 Death Guard into the Warp and was now in danger, so he began preparing to rescue him. Black also revealed that the Adeptus Mechanicus had developed a Quantum Slingshot, leaving Hades stunned by the technology.

• Hades calmed himself after hearing that Guilliman had been impeached and considered visiting Macragge and Terra to learn what had happened.
• Black told Hades about the legions’ fates, including Mortarion’s disappearance into the Warp and the Death Guard’s renewed spread of faith in him.
• Hades learned that Mortarion had awakened his Warp essence and led 350,000 Death Guard into the Warp, where the Death Guard believed he was in danger.
• Hades decided to contact the Death Guard and asked Black how many forces could be mobilized; Black offered 100,000 Death Guard, with possible Ultramarines, World Eaters, and Mechanicus support.
• Black recounted conflicts between Mars, Graia, and Fhaos, then revealed that Fhaos had developed a Quantum Slingshot, which astonished Hades.

Hades learned that Fhaos had independently developed the Warp-free Quantum Slingshot, only for the Imperium’s psyker institutions to attack the Forge World and suppress the technology. After hearing how Fhaos spread its plans to other Forge Worlds so the work could continue, Hades decided to break the Navigators’ and Astropaths’ monopoly and asked Lion Barry whether he could contact the outside.

• Hades became excited when Black explained that Fhaos had developed a crude form of Warp-free physical navigation, but grew furious when he learned that the Astro-Telepathica, Navigators, and Astronomican had attacked Fhaos and forced it into the Maelstrom.
• Black explained that psykers opposed the Quantum Slingshot because it threatened their control over long-distance travel and communication, while the Imperium could not survive a mass strike by Astropaths and Navigators.
• Black recounted Magos Jin’s account of Fhaos publishing the Quantum Slingshot blueprints to every Forge World, ensuring the technology could survive the Imperium’s attempt to crush it.
• Hades took heart from Fhaos’s actions, concluded that the Imperium’s travel problem could be overcome, and asked Black how the Quantum Slingshot’s construction could be accelerated.
• Hades proposed killing Navigators and Astropaths to break their monopoly, then asked the recovering Lion Barry whether he could use psychic communication to contact the outside.

Hades and his companions found a way off the Tyranid-ravaged planet after Barry contacted Tiss Wood of Aswan. Tiss accepted Hades as the Underking and brought them aboard her shuttle, where he began settling in with the crew.

• Hades learned from Black that human ships might still be stranded nearby, and he had Barry use his Psychic Power to contact survivors as Hades and Black searched the ruins for metal.
• After four planetary rotations, Barry reached Tiss Wood, who was traveling aboard a battered shuttle from Aswan.
• Tiss reunited with Barry and hesitantly asked Hades to prove he was the Underking, so Hades revealed the River of the Underworld beneath his feet.
• Tiss accepted Hades as the Underking, and her Ogryn bodyguard declared that he would follow him.
• Hades and his companions boarded Tiss's shuttle, while Black explained the Sons of the Underworld's principles and Hades taught the Ogryn to count.

Hades learned that Lady Tis had taken in more than a hundred people afflicted with the Undying Plague, including her brother Shawl, and that they could only be granted rest through the Cult of the Underworld. Tis revealed her desperate history and prepared to let Hades confront the sealed compartment where the Undying were trapped.

• Hades sensed something wrong aboard Tis's ship and asked her to explain what she had been hiding.
• Tis confessed that Governor Mauro had forced the Undying Plague victims onto her ship after robbing her vessels, and that her brother Shawl had become infected.
• Black explained that the Undying could be put to rest by invoking Hades's blessing through Soulless, while ordinary methods could not kill them.
• Tis recalled sealing the infected in a compartment and fleeing Mauro's fleet to find a Cult of the Underworld church with enough Soulless to cure them.
• Tis admitted she had doubted Hades's identity but had chosen to trust him after witnessing the River of the Underworld, and she faced opening the compartment where her brother was trapped.

Hades entered the chapel on Aswan, confirmed that more than a hundred patients had Undying Disease, and granted them true death. Shawl warned him that the disease was spreading and that Mortarion was trapped, while Hades discovered that the Warp was rejecting him and wondered how he could rescue his friend.

• Hades and Black entered the quarantined chapel and found patients suffering from what Black identified as Undying Disease.
• Hades and Black examined the patients, and Hades granted them rest one by one before reaching Shawl Wood.
• Shawl told Hades that he had taken in the patients, warned that Undying Disease was spreading, and said that Mortarion was trapped and needed faith.
• Hades granted Shawl true death, relayed his final message to Lady Tiss, and helped her burn the chapel and its contents.
• Hades sensed that Nurgle's authority was tainting death and realized the Warp would not let him enter, leaving him unsure how to reach Mortarion.

Hades boarded Mauro’s ship and uncovered a hidden chamber beneath the reception room, where a Psychic formation was draining a powerful prisoner to shield the vessel. He discovered that the prisoner was Magnus, who recognized him and begged for help.

• Hades sent Tis toward Mauro’s ship, gave her a letter and photograph for the Death Guard, and asked Barry to remain with her as a messenger.
• Hades and Black left Tis’s vessel and met Mauro and a suspicious Psyker aboard Mauro’s ship, where the Psyker offered to delay their Warp Jump.
• Hades used the Null Field to disable the people guarding the reception room and found a concealed passage by pressing books on a bookshelf.
• Black recognized that the Psyker wore a stolen Judgement necklace, while the Psyker demanded to know how Hades had found the hidden chamber.
• Hades widened the passage and entered a chamber containing a Psychic formation that tortured and drained Magnus, who reached out to Hades and pleaded for help.

Hades found Magnus trapped in a psychic array aboard the ship and destroyed it to free her. Magnus vanished into a small, damaged stone, and Hades left the chamber to question the people above.

• Hades recognized Magnus inside the array and checked the ship with his Null Field for signs of a trap.
• Magnus begged Hades to save her as the array tortured her and threatened to absorb her completely.
• Hades extinguished the array’s Psychic Power and began removing its nine locking pillars.
• Magnus warned Hades that she would be unconscious for thirty to forty-six minutes and said the gem was her true body.
• Hades pulled out the final pillar, causing Magnus’s image to vanish and leaving behind a rough, incomplete red stone.
• Hades picked up the Magnus Stone, wondered why Magnus was only a fragment, and left to interrogate the people above.

Hades interrogated Randy’s Psyker and learned that his family had imprisoned and exploited a fragment of Magnus for generations. She released Magnus, who began taking revenge on the Psyker while Hades warned her not to forget the unconscious Hive City lord.

• Hades questioned Mauro and Randy, and Mauro fainted again while Randy continued to curse despite his blinded eyes.
• Black injured Randy, and Hades tortured him until he agreed to confess.
• Randy revealed that his family had deceived Magnus into sealing away part of herself, then imprisoned another fragment and used it to strengthen their Psykers.
• After Randy mocked the Soulless, Black struck him down, and Hades recognized that the Magnus Stone was reacting with rage.
• Hades released Magnus from the stone, and Magnus attacked Randy with psychic fire as Hades reminded her about Mauro.

Hades learned that Magnus had remained loyal despite her fall and promised to help restore her physical body. He then asked Magnus to contact Mortarion, and she agreed to attempt the summoning with deaths from nearby Greenskins.

• Hades had Magnus clean up the ship after Black confirmed that its crew had been Genestealers, then sent Black to bring Tis and the survivors aboard.
• Hades asked Magnus whether she had betrayed them, and Magnus insisted that she had remained loyal even though her true self had fallen to Chaos.
• Hades, Black, and Magnus drank together while Magnus recounted her deeds on Fenris, and Hades promised to help restore her body as long as she remained loyal.
• Magnus refused to send Hades into the Warp for a Warp Jump but said she could try to contact Mortarion if they gathered enough death.
• Hades asked whether Tyranid or Greenskin deaths could work, and Magnus agreed that Greenskin deaths could power the attempt.

Hades reunited with Tis and her crew, helped them take over Mauro's ship, and prepared to part ways with them. He left with Black and the hidden Magnus aboard a smaller ship, where Magnus quickly learned that Hades's Null Field could silence him.

• Smart-Head greeted Hades, and Hades told Tis that he had executed Mauro and killed the Genestealers aboard the ship.
• Hades offered Mauro's ship to Tis, but Lion Barry arranged for the Son of Dorn to hold it until it could be returned to the Death Guard.
• Tis's crew took over the ship, while Hades repaired its defenses and taught Smart-Head to count; Black briefly helped Tis with administration before being sent to move cargo.
• Tis and her crew bid farewell to Hades, who left with Black aboard a smaller ship while Smart-Head tearfully asked to come along.
• Hades revealed Magnus, who criticized the ship and the Death Guard's culture, so Hades used his Null Field to turn Magnus back into a stone.
• Magnus pleaded for forgiveness by striking the porthole as a phantom, and Hades had Black bring the stone back aboard.

Hades tested his Null Field on an Ork mining world, then fought the arriving Ork horde with Magnus and Black. The battle left the Orks fleeing and Hades shouting for Mortarion as Magnus tried to direct his war cry.

• Hades landed in an Ork mining area and used his Null Field to kill the Orks there, confirming that it suppressed their WAAAAAGH field.
• Hades shaped two axes from metal and prepared to face the approaching Orks while Black watched the perimeter.
• The Ork horde attacked, and Hades charged into it, killing Orks and splitting the Mega Armored Boss in half.
• Hades threw Magnus at a fleeing Ork, and Magnus unleashed lightning to block the horde while shouting for Hades to invoke Mortarion.
• Hades and Black continued slaughtering the Orks, with Black shouting, “For Death! For Mortarion!!!”

Hades and Black helped Magnus prepare a ritual to locate Mortarion, while Hades repeatedly exasperated her with his behavior. Magnus found Mortarion’s psychic trace and began the ritual, leaving Hades to guard the site and keep shouting WAAAGH.

• Hades finished killing the Greenskins and argued with Magnus after he shouted for Gork and Mork and Black joined in.
• Magnus told Hades and Black to arrange the corpses into the Death Guard emblem, with each section’s corpse count a multiple of seven.
• Magnus searched the Warp and found a faint psychic trace she identified as Mortarion’s.
• Hades and Black cut the Greenskins’ fingers down to seven and used them to spell Mortarion around the altar, leaving Magnus speechless.
• Magnus placed Black at the center of the altar, took his power axe, and ordered Hades to guard the ritual site while continuing to shout WAAAGH.

Magnus entered Nurgle’s Garden through the Warp to find Mortarion, while Black and Hades supported her ritual. Magnus reached Mortarion but vanished after throwing him a Greenskin stone; Hades and Black brought her back, and she urged them to continue as Mortarion’s fighting spirit stirred.

• Hades guarded the ritual while Magnus prepared Black to call upon Mortarion using the deaths of seventy-seven thousand, seven hundred and seventy-seven Xenos.
• Black offered his blood and entered the Warp, allowing Magnus to follow his bloodline’s path into Nurgle’s Garden.
• Magnus found Mortarion trapped in the swamp, where he had resisted Nurgle for ten thousand years and refused to compromise.
• Magnus threw Mortarion a stone infused with Greenskin power before the garden’s vines consumed her, and Mortarion’s eyes briefly flickered.
• Hades and Black found Magnus back at the ritual, and she shouted for them not to stop as Mortarion’s heart began to beat again.

Hades learned from Magnus that Mortarion was trapped in the garden in a deathlike state and needed outside Psychic Power to break the deadlock, so he had Black use Numerology to test a plan involving Greenskin power. Meanwhile, Bonebreaker rallied the Greenskins to hunt a terrifying monster, and his forces left Armageddon—unbeknownst to Hades, they were coming for him.

• Magnus told Hades that Mortarion had suffered a backlash from Death and could be saved with help from a power different from his own.
• Hades learned that Magnus's visit may have made Mortarion's condition more dangerous, then decided to have Black use Mortarion's old Numerology formulas to test whether Greenskin power could help.
• On Armageddon, Bonebreaker told Fuming Hit Myself that his dream showed Gork and Mork entangled by a horrifying monster, then rallied the Greenskins to crusade against it.
• Bonebreaker ordered his forces to prepare for a campaign against the monster, and an hour later his army withdrew from Armageddon.
• Hades judged Black's Numerology proof feasible and proposed trying it by sacrificing a planet to Mortarion, while Magnus objected to his trusting the calculation over her advice.

Tis and Barry became lost in realspace near the Storm Nebula, while Calas awakened on Barbarus after sensing Mortarion’s summons and learning that Hades had returned. Calas mobilized the Death Guard to find Mortarion and prepare for war, unaware that Hades was busy spreading Mortarion’s faith among the Greenskins.

• Tis realized her ship had been circling the Storm Nebula for more than a week, and Barry suspected something was preventing them from finding their way.
• Morag and Kuen awakened Calas, who used a lantern to confirm that Mortarion was summoning the Death Guard and that Hades had returned.
• Calas recalled Mortarion’s warning to judge whether Hades was still himself and to keep secret the imprisoned C’tan fragment from Mars unless he was certain.
• Calas ordered the Death Guard to recall its successor chapters, prepare for combat in the Warp, notify allies, and retrieve Mortarion.
• Hades shot a Greenskin, found that consuming Greenskin Psychic Power felt good, and set off with Black to spread Mortarion’s faith to another planet.

Hades disguised himself in Greenskin-style armor and prepared to lead the Greenskins against the Tyranids in the Octarius Sector while waiting for Mortarion and the Death Guard. He outlined plans to manipulate both factions and left ready to begin his campaign with Black and Magnus's support.

• Hades made himself matte-black Greenskin-style armor and spent several days among the Greenskins to weaken his human scent.
• Hades built a signal tower and an automated system to clear newly grown Greenskins while Black and Magnus tried to contact Mortarion.
• Magnus reported that Mortarion was contacting the Death Guard, raising Hades's hope that reinforcements would arrive.
• Hades decided to spread the cult of Death among the Greenskins and lead them against the Tyranids, then weaken whichever faction posed the greater threat.
• Black supported Hades's plan, and Magnus agreed to provide Psychic Power effects for his campaign.

Big Teef and his Greenskins faced being devoured by a Tyranid swarm until Hades and Mortarion intervened, turning the retreating bugs into an opportunity for a new WAAAAGH. The chapter ended with Boss Black announcing that he would lead Big Teef’s boyz in a great WAAAAGH for Boss Death Mortarion.

• Big Teef rallied his fleeing Greenskins for a final charge against the Tyranid swarm, remembering Boss Big Maw’s last stand and the wish he had entrusted to him.
• Green lightning erupted among the bugs, burning them away, and a mighty WAAAAGH roar inspired the Greenskins to charge.
• The Tyranid swarm retreated as Hades’s forces advanced, and Big Teef’s boyz pursued it toward the enormous Boss Black.
• Hades told Magnus to create special effects, and Big Teef saw a spectral procession that made Boss Black seem like a godlike leader.
• Boss Black confronted Big Teef and declared that, in the name of Boss Death Mortarion, he would take the Greenskins to start a great WAAAAGH.

Hades, Black, and Magnus built up a Greenskin farm world through brutal labor, mushroom cultivation, industrial production, and combat training. Four and a half months later, scouts reported that Tyranids threatened the Ork Empire’s core worlds, and Black prepared to launch a WAAAGH to reclaim a neighboring system inhabited by other Ork tribes.

• Black enforced a harsh work schedule, and Greenskin productivity on the planet rose sharply.
• Greenskins grew in vast mushroom fields, then bosses selected the newly emerged Boyz for the planet’s departments and Psychic Power Group.
• Industry, Agriculture, Recycling, Research, War, the Inspector Group, and the Psychic Power Group expanded production and held regular mass battles under Black’s leadership.
• Hades, Black, and Magnus trained and managed the growing Greenskin population, rapidly increasing its numbers and technological strength.
• Four and a half months later, returning scouts reported that Tyranids were fighting Goff Clan Orks two star systems away and nearing the Ork Empire’s core planets.
• Black called the neighboring system, which held three suitable planets and other Ork tribes, good news and declared it time for a great WAAAGH.