Chapter Summaries

Boss Black prepared the Nether Clan’s galactic WAAAGH while revealing to Big Teef that he was consumed by an unending hunger. Meanwhile, Yarrick learned Bonebreaker was heading toward Octarius, and Jin-306 and Buz Bella identified the Underking in a photograph and feared an ancient C’tan’s scheme had targeted him.

• Boss Black rallied the Nether Clan’s leaders to launch a grand WAAAGH in Mortarion’s name and ordered Black Butcher not to get the name wrong.
• Aboard the Deathmonger, Hades told Big Teef that he could not satisfy his hunger, then reassured him and promised to take him WAAAGHing.
• Yarrick learned Bonebreaker had led most of his forces to a dead planet, where they fought skeletal robots and encountered a burning monster, and he ordered a warning sent to Octarius.
• Jin-306 and Buz Bella examined a photograph and recognized the Underking, then searched for him and Lady Tiss.
• Jin-306 told Buz Bella that a C’tan had trapped them circling the nebula and warned that an ancient being had set its sights on the Underking without his knowledge.

Black Butcher and the Nether Clan attacked a rival Greenskin army while Magnus’s influence helped Mortarion stir from his swamp. Hades captured the rival clan’s palace and forced its surviving Greenskins to join the Nether Clan, leaving them shouting for Mortarion.

• Black Butcher stopped the Nether Clan’s infighting and led its convoy through artillery fire into the rival Greenskin army.
• Magnus’s phantom encouraged the Weirdboys to channel psychic power, and Mortarion began to awaken in the garden, vomiting out filth and sensing the Eldar.
• Black Butcher pulled down a Greenskin Dreadnought and ripped off its head as the Nether Clan overwhelmed the enemy forces.
• Hades watched his troops raid the enemy command center, where Big Teef led the assault and Hades claimed the Greenskin Warboss’s throne.
• Black returned with the enemy general’s head, and Hades offered the surviving Greenskins their lives if they bowed to Mortarion and joined the Nether Clan.
• Hades lifted Black onto his shoulders, and Black led the newly conquered Greenskins in a chant for Mortarion.

Kryptman defended the Unbreakable Line as Leviathan breached it and Bonebreaker’s Orks invaded the Semisis Sector, forcing him to deploy every available force. Amid the devastation of a Hive City, Hades led Bonebreaker’s army into a major battle against the Tyranids and faced a Ravener and a Winged Tyrant.

• Kryptman argued that the Imperium had to hold the Unbreakable Line, even with Exterminatus, while his opponent warned that the Tyranids had grown too strong and the plan could fail.
• A Sister of Battle reported that Bonebreaker’s Orks had taken the Semisis Sector and were attacking the line from outside, so Kryptman ordered all forces committed and left to defend Semisis.
• Tyranids overran a Hive City, killing civilians and Astra Militarum soldiers as fleeing nobles attempted to escape by ship.
• Bonebreaker rejected a planetary governor’s offer to cooperate and ordered him killed.
• Hades led Bonebreaker’s Greenskins against the Tyranids across land, air, and space, then confronted a giant Ravener and a Winged Tyrant.

Hades and the Greenskins repelled a Tyranid attack with twelve Stompas, while Hades directed the wider war and devised ways to turn Warp energy into an advantage. The Tyranids began assembling overwhelming forces, and Gork and Mork noticed a distant garden where someone was stealing their faith.

• Hades killed a burrowing serpent and a Winged Tyrant, then emerged from a pile of Tyranid corpses as five Exocrines approached.
• Twelve Stompas teleported onto the battlefield, forcing the Exocrines and other Tyranids to retreat and securing another victory for Hades.
• The Tyranid hive mind reported the Greenskins’ expansion and Hades’s abilities, then began assembling a vast force under Leviathan.
• Hades coordinated five planetary battlefields and planned to use Greenskin production and Warp energy to overcome the Tyranids’ superior numbers.
• Hades developed a Warp cash-out strategy based on Greenskin belief and Magnus’s cultivation of Weirdboys to generate fighting power.
• Gork and Mork watched the Greenskins’ battle, then noticed a distant garden where someone was stealing their faith.

Mortarion’s assault on Nurgle’s garden drew Greenskins into the Warp, while Buzubela’s reinforcements saved Kryptman’s forces in the Octarius Sector. Jin-306 and Kirkland revealed they were searching for Hades, who was growing hungry and hearing strange voices.

• Mortarion used the Greenskins’ Waaagh to taint Nurgle’s garden as Karras led an assault to find his lord and rescue the disobedient Eldar.
• Konrad and Fulgrim discussed the Tyrant, the Emperor, and the possibility that the Deceiver was watching the conflict.
• Bonebreaker’s Greenskins overwhelmed Kryptman’s defenses and brought down the last Titan as the Imperium’s Unbreakable Line collapsed.
• Buzubela identified himself as the Lord of the Underworld’s son and ordered an orbital bombardment that saved Kryptman and the retreating soldiers.
• Jin-306 told Kryptman that the plan to purge the Xenos was failing and introduced Kirkland, who announced that Fhaos had returned and intended to raise the Underking to godhood.
• Hades sneezed, felt cold and hungry, and wondered whether the voices he heard were prayers, curses, or Waaagh.

Buz and Jin discussed the risks of entering Octarius and the deeper reasons the Death Guard and Fhaos sought the Underking. Jin entrusted Buz with control of the fleet, while they accepted that rescuing the Underking could draw them into a far larger conflict.

• Buz asked Kirkland about the chances of surviving a mission into Octarius, and Kirkland said the fleet’s survival rate was only 0.2%.
• Jin argued that Buz owed Fhaos nothing and pressed him to reveal why Calas had brought him into the mission.
• Jin explained that his ancient loyalty to the Underking outweighed ten thousand years of accumulated memories and obligations, and said Calas had trusted Buz’s judgment.
• Jin gave Buz the key to control the entire fleet, including Fhaos’s ships, and told him to save more people.
• Buz warned that their forces could not fight far into Octarius, while Jin predicted Bonebreaker’s army was coming for the Underking and believed the Underking would find a way to handle the Greenskins and bugs.

Hades managed the expanding Ork Empire while preparing to lure the Tyranids into a decisive battle, and he worried that the Greenskins’ influence was affecting him and Magnus. The Tyranids were gathering their forces, and Hades planned to trap them in a head-on fight, hoping the Imperium would arrive afterward to secure the battlefield.

• Hades removed Greenskin Psychic Power from Magnus and Black while pushing them through war planning, research, and training.
• Hades learned that Greenskins had created a tooth-based market, trading weapons, vehicles, and even conscription opportunities as their productivity grew.
• While visiting Magnus’s library, Hades wondered whether he was becoming too immersed in the Orks, and Magnus described himself as a fragment of humanity after ten thousand years of change.
• Hades told Magnus that the Tyranids were pulling back to join their main force and explained that he would lure them into a head-on battle rather than risk scattering them.
• Hades worried that he had not contacted the Imperium despite building signal-transmission bases, and he hoped Imperial forces would arrive after the battle to finish off the survivors.

Fulgrim and Konrad watched the Tyranids threaten to overwhelm the schemes unfolding across the galaxy. On Octarius, Hades began his plan to lure the vast Hive Fleet into the Ork Empire, accepting early losses as the invasion started.

• Fulgrim and Konrad discussed the Emperor, the Pale Lord, and the Underking while placing pieces for the battles at Octarius.
• Hades divided the Ork Empire into seven sectors and prepared to draw the Tyranids deep into its territory while limiting their gains.
• The Tyranid Hive Fleet began its assault, and alarms warned Hades that the invasion had reached the Ork Empire.
• Greenskin warships charged the Tyranid fleets repeatedly, destroying some bio-ships while many Ork fleets were annihilated.
• Hades watched the surviving Tyranid fleets advance toward the planets and patiently waited for them to probe farther into his trap.

Digga led the Greenskins in a desperate battle against the Tyranids, convinced that Boss Black had chosen him to win. After Digga and his forces drew the hive fleet deep into the Ork Empire, Hades activated buried Vortex Torpedoes on forty-two infested planets, incinerating the Tyranids as Digga’s fate remained tied to the doomed battlefield.

• Digga revealed the black mushroom Boss Black had given him, then activated the Mega-Ogryn Dragon and led the Iron-Head Squig Bosses into battle against the Tyranids.
• Digga remembered how Boss Black had made him Agricultural Department boss, taught him scythe techniques, and entrusted him with raising the Greenskins’ boyz.
• The Greenskins fought the Tyranids’ heavy creatures, but the Mega-Ogryn Dragon fell after killing four Hive Tyrants, and Digga charged into the overwhelming swarm.
• Hades saw the first Warlord die and ordered Exterminatus, revealing that Digga’s force had served as bait to lure the Tyranid fleet into the war’s depths.
• Modified Vortex Torpedoes launched beneath forty-two Tyranid-occupied planets, and the resulting fireballs engulfed the planets and the Tyranids feeding on them.

Hades used Exterminatus, deception, and a massive Greenskin fleet to trap Leviathan in the Octarius Sector and deprive the Tyranids of biomass. The Tyranid fleet regrouped after its scattered tendrils were ambushed, leaving Hades poised to continue the costly battle.

• Hades ordered Exterminatus on planets where the Tyranids had the advantage, turning seven worlds into dead planets and drawing his forces back to the second line of defense.
• The Great Devourer withdrew Tyranids from doomed worlds, but discovered Greenskin fleets blocking the main escape routes and learned the Underworld Empire had devoted much of its territory to building them.
• The Tyranids tried to resume attacks and find usable planets, but Hades ignited those worlds as well, forcing the swarm to scatter when it realized it would keep losing biomass.
• Hades used Magnus-lads to coordinate Greenskin fleets, which ambushed and destroyed scattered Tyranid tendrils as their depleted forces struggled to escape without resupply.
• Three standard Terran hours later, the Tyranid fleet gathered again, and Hades waited as the remaining Leviathan force faced a battle that could cost it all the biomass it had gained in Octarius.

Black sensed that Sons of the Lord of the Underworld were approaching, while Buz’s forces welcomed Commissar Yarrick to help fight Bonebreaker. The chapter ended with Bonebreaker preparing to kill the “big black monster” and Black resolving to tell Hades about his suspicions after the battle.

• Black told Magnus that his bloodline sensed reinforcements nearby, though he lacked proof and had not informed Hades.
• Buz explained that Bonebreaker had drawn the battle into a Hive City, making an assault difficult because civilians were at risk.
• Buz received word that Commissar Yarrick had arrived, and he welcomed the veteran enemy of Bonebreaker.
• Bonebreaker learned that Yarrick had come for him but declared that his ambitions now lay with a greater WAAAGH and killing the “big black monster.”
• Black and Magnus discussed whether to warn Hades about the approaching forces and the danger of exposing the alliance between Ogryns and Greenskins.
• Black picked up his axe and wished Magnus fortune before the coming battle.

Black fought the frenzied Tyranids on a Greenskin Combat Moon as Magnus’s moon exploded, while Buz’s forces uncovered a possible C’tan connection behind Bonebreaker’s movements. Hades, exhausted after directing the war, finally fell asleep, and his dream silenced every Greenskin in the planet’s capital.

• Cober asked Black whether he liked the Sons of the Underworld, and Black insisted he wanted to stay before Cober arranged for him to join the next Casting of Fate.
• Cober led Group Eight deeper into the Hive City during the Chapter’s final encirclement mission against Bonebreaker.
• Black battled the Tyranids on the Combat Moon, then learned that Magnus’s moon had exploded and argued with Magnus over the Greenskins’ fate.
• Yarrick told Buz that Bonebreaker was rushing toward something in the star sector, and Jin identified the likely target as the Burning One or another C’tan remnant.
• Jin explained to Buz that the Underking had absorbed a C’tan Shard because he had no soul, and Buz considered the implications.
• Hades fell asleep in the command room, and a minute and thirty-four seconds later his dream silenced every Greenskin in the planet’s capital.

Konrad and Fulgrim realized the Emperor may have made a deal with the Deceiver to control or kill the monster. After the battle, Black chose to seek the Underking, while Bonebreaker decided to help the Nether Empire fight the remaining Tyranids before returning to challenge Old Gun Eye.

• Konrad and Fulgrim concluded that the Deceiver bore the Emperor’s mark and speculated that the Emperor wanted to use the monster as a Black Scythe capable of bringing Annihilation.
• Black learned that psychic interference prevented him from contacting his lord, and Magnus warned him against violating the Emperor’s prohibitions.
• Black and Magnus discussed whether to find his father or join the Sons of the Lord of the Underworld, and Black chose to find the Underking.
• Bonebreaker discovered that the Nether Empire’s great WAAAGH had already ended and heard a captive Greenskin demand to return to battle against the bugs.
• Bonebreaker agreed to help the Nether Clan finish off the remaining Tyranids, then planned to return and fight Old Gun Eye.

The Deceiver struck a bargain with the Emperor to escape its prison and seek the fragment within Hades, while Buz learned that Hades had led an Ork empire against the Tyranids. Hades awoke amid a collapsing battlefield as Tyranids attacked one another, and his hunger returned.

• The Deceiver recalled how it had manipulated the Necrontyr and C'tan, then agreed to help the Emperor find Hades in exchange for release from its prison.
• Buz and the others learned that Hades had played an Octarius Ork and built a Greenskin Empire to weaken the Tyranids; Buz ordered his forces to bypass Bonebreaker and find Hades.
• Hades woke to alarms, corpses, and falling Tyranid spores as the Greenskin settlement collapsed around him.
• Hades warned the approaching Greenskins to stay away, then watched their leader and gargant crash while the Tyranids turned on one another.
• Hades remembered losing control from hunger before, formed a giant scythe from silvery-white metal, and realized he was hungry again.

Hades lost control as his hunger drove him to consume and devastate the planet while destroying the Tyranid swarm. The Deceiver named him the Great Devourer as Hades's Blackstone prison began to disintegrate.

• Jin told Buz that Mortarion's past loss of control had been terrifying and warned that Buz might witness another miracle or calamity.
• Hades fought the Tyranids as memories of Barbarus's famine stirred his hunger, and he began unleashing lightning, darkness, and earthquakes against them.
• The Deceiver manipulated the Tyranids while Hades's power overwhelmed the planet and pulled Tyranid ships toward the surface.
• The Deceiver sent Magnus to Black, and Black departed with the transformed Primarch despite Magnus's warnings about Hades's condition.
• The Deceiver asked Hades what he tasted like, and Hades said he could not taste anything and only wanted to survive and help his species prosper.
• As the Blackstone prison disintegrated and the planet burned, the Deceiver named Hades the Great Devourer.

The Deceiver trapped Hades in an illusion of food after Hades defeated The Burning One, hoping to take control of him. Hades broke free when the illusion revealed Malcador, seized the Deceiver, and rejected its bait as Black called for support.

• The Burning One and Hades fought across a collapsing planet, and Hades subdued the C'tan fragment by trapping its flames in darkness.
• After the battle, Hades struggled to understand how to consume the captured flames, while the Deceiver drew him into an illusion built around food.
• The Deceiver expected Hades to remain trapped, but Hades recognized Malcador in a bowl and escaped the illusion.
• Hades grabbed the weakened Deceiver by the throat and told it to eat shit as darkness attacked it.
• Black called the Sons of the Underworld for support, and Buz accepted the request.

Hades subdued The Deceiver after realizing its influence had provoked his hunger and anger, then emerged from the mountain worried that he had eaten Magnus. He found Magnus alive within Black and asked whether Black was all right, while Buz and the assembled forces watched in shock.

• Hades recognized The Deceiver and trapped it in darkness, declaring that he would beat it and kill it.
• Buz prepared the Sons of the Lord of the Underworld to fight Hades if he had fallen, while Black warned that the Underking was acting abnormally.
• Hades appeared from the darkness surrounded by lightning, carrying the lava heart, and then staggered down the mountain coughing blood and lava.
• Hades ran toward Black, calling for Magnus, and Magnus cried out from within Black as crimson light flared.
• Hades handed the imprisoned Burner fragment to Kirkland, stopped short of Magnus, and reassured him that he would not eat him.
• Hades noticed Buz and asked Black whether he was all right.

Buz met Hades, the Underking, and confirmed that he had helped turn the greenskins against the Tyranids in the Octarius Sector. Hades admitted his condition was unstable, and the group prepared to leave after he recognized Kirkland, who promptly collapsed.

• Buz canceled the Exterminatus order and introduced himself to Hades as Booze Bella, acting Chapter Master of the Sons of the Underworld.
• Hades checked on Black and Magnus, while Buz promised Magnus’s identity would remain hidden from the Imperium and sent him away so he could speak privately with Hades.
• Buz reported that Imperial forces were winning in Octarius and told Hades that Karras had gone into the Warp to find Mortarion.
• Hades admitted he was not quite normal and urged Buz to remember that his condition was unstable, then avoided taking on government paperwork by asking Buz to recommend someone else.
• The Sons of the Underworld cheered Hades and prepared to retreat so Black could receive treatment.
• Hades recognized Kirkland among the gathered people, and Kirkland collapsed as a Magos smoked in the background.

Black faced punishment aboard the Cocytus and challenged Cober to a Duel Cage fight, while Fulgrim negotiated with Big Teef over joining a Waaagh against Khorne. On Fhaos, Hades discovered the names and message of the researchers who had developed the Quantum Slingshot and honored their devotion to humanity.

• Black was carried to the Duel Cage, where Buz read out his injuries and ordered him to stand for judgment.
• Black challenged Buz, then called out Cober and climbed into the Duel Cage to fight him before the Underking returned.
• Fulgrim asked Big Teef to join a great Waaagh against Khorne, and Big Teef agreed to follow whoever could provide one.
• Big Teef and Big Mag recognized the Underking’s name on Fulgrim’s Eldar bracelet and explained their desire to keep fighting under Black’s leadership.
• Kirkland showed Hades Fhaos’s technology hall and the Quantum Slingshot, including a message from the researchers who had developed it.
• Hades read the researchers’ names and their declaration of success, then said that humanity should be thanking them.

Hades met with Kirkland and learned how the Cult of the Underworld had spread across the Forge Worlds, then studied its doctrines and recruitment practices. Though he still rejected being called a god, Hades decided to use the cult to unite believers against their common enemies and help save the Imperium.

• Kirkland told Hades that at least three hundred and seven Forge Worlds would rally behind him as their Chief Representative of Glory, while explaining the alliances and rivalries among the Forge Worlds.
• Hades insisted that he was human and urged Kirkland to stop arguing over whether he was a god, but Kirkland maintained his belief and said Hades should make his case after meeting Mortarion.
• Hades learned about the Cult of the Underworld's secular practices, strict training for its inner members, and methods for resisting and purging Warp corruption.
• Hades discovered that many Magi had become Underking believers because their prayers reduced Warp interference, giving him hundreds of millions of followers across Forge Worlds.
• Hades decided that believers in the Underking or the Emperor who still had a conscience could be united, and resolved to use the cult to support the Imperium before eventually leaving the burden of godhood to the Emperor.