Chapter Summaries

Uslan explained that ancient damage and Magnus’s ritual had weakened the Webway, leaving the Aeldari able to seal damaged passages but unable to repair them. Lox proposed moving ahead despite the risks and called for the Hermit to be released from his cell and put to use.

• Uslan warned the Primarchs that the Webway’s capacity had weakened and explained that the Aeldari could only seal damaged routes to contain Warp leaks.
• Lox suggested sending troops through the Webway in batches if it could not carry their forces all at once.
• Uslan blamed Magnus’s ritual on Prospero for punching through the Webway beneath the Imperial Palace and bringing daemons to Terra.
• Lion looked away in embarrassment after learning his brother had helped damage the Webway, and Lox stopped the argument.
• Lox said they should seize the initiative and called for the Hermit to be brought out of his cell.

Guilliman, Lox, Sanguinius, and the Lion approved a plan to summon and enslave Warp daemons to extract intelligence from them. Lox released the loyalist Word Bearers hermit from his cell so he could help build and operate the daemon-summoning Blackstone fortress.

• Guilliman and Lox proposed using Untouchables to coerce summoned daemons into revealing Warp intelligence and serving humanity.
• Uslan realized that humanity intended to counterattack the Warp, while Sanguinius warned Guilliman that daemons mixed truth with lies.
• Sanguinius and the Lion approved the plan, with the Lion insisting he would supervise it.
• Guilliman sent Titus Praetor and Lox to free the imprisoned Word Bearers hermit, whose Warp knowledge was needed for the project.
• Lox told the hermit to help extract intelligence from daemons, and the hermit accepted in the Emperor's name.

Lox and the Hermit prepared a Blackstone altar on a small body orbiting Mustafar to summon a Warp daemon for humanity’s war against Chaos. The Hermit opened a controlled Warp rift, leaving the summoning ready for Lox’s chosen daemon.

• Lox reassured the Hermit that he had never betrayed the Emperor, but the Hermit said his momentary loss of faith still demanded penance.
• Lox brought the Hermit and Mechanicus magi to Mustafar’s Blackstone storage center and discussed using Blackstone to protect warships and intelligent AI from Warp corruption.
• Lox had Blackstone transported to an orbiting celestial body, where machinery built a fortress and altar for the summoning.
• The Hermit inscribed the altar with runes using traitor blood and red sand from Nuceria, shifting the Blackstone’s polarity toward amplifying the Warp.
• The Hermit opened a controlled Warp rift, and Lox saw strange creatures and a vast shadow appear as the summoning began.

Lox and the Hermit prepared a Blackstone-bound Warp breach to summon a daemon and gather intelligence on Horus’s forces. Lox warned that the secret operation could ruin the Hermit’s reputation, but the Hermit accepted the risk to protect the Imperium.

• Lox assembled elite troops and specialists, including Glod, Titus Praetor, Dulles, Barabas Dantioch, and Uslan, to oversee the daemon-summoning operation.
• The Hermit performed the ritual to summon an ancient, cunning daemon that he had dealt with as a Word Bearer.
• Lox explained that the operation was dangerously close to crossing the Imperium’s limits and would have to remain permanently classified.
• Lox told the Hermit that if the secret were exposed, the Imperium would blame him and remember him as a traitor who practiced sorcery.
• The Hermit accepted the condemnation, saying he would sacrifice his reputation if it helped the Emperor’s Imperium endure.

Lox and his allies waited inside the Blackstone Fortress to trap the Greater Daemon Samus, while Lion El'Jonson joined their preparations. After lesser daemons emerged from the Warp rift, Samus finally arrived to face the assembled force.

• Lion El'Jonson appeared beside Lox and criticized the precautions around the summoning ritual.
• The hermit revealed that they were summoning Samus, a Greater Daemon of Chaos Undivided, and Lox explained how the Blackstone Fortress would suppress it.
• Lesser daemons poured through the rift, but the Victorious Army cut down the Bloodletters while the group waited for Samus.
• After several hours, Samus repeated its name and threats through the rift, and Lox and his allies readied their weapons and psychic powers.
• Samus tore open the Warp rift and entered the material universe as Lion drew his sword and the assembled force prepared to attack.

Samhus answered a summoning on his way to join the Chaos assault on the Solar System, expecting a mortal sacrifice, but found himself trapped by a Blackstone fortress. Surrounded by Layn and an overwhelming force prepared to destroy daemons, Samhus asked if they could make peace.

• Samhus left the Chaos front lines after sensing a summons, hoping to claim a private sacrifice and avoid sharing spoils under Erebus's command.
• Samhus appeared at the altar and demanded his offering from the summoner.
• The Hermit ordered the Adeptus Mechanicus sages to reverse the Blackstone matrix, sealing the Warp rift and suppressing Samhus's power.
• Samhus realized the Blackstone trap was shrinking his body and draining the aetheric energy he needed to survive.
• Samhus saw Layn, psychic Librarians, an Aeldari seer, Ultramarines, and Untouchables surrounding him.
• Layn drew the Lion Sword and prepared to attack, and Samhus asked, "Heh, can we make peace?"

Lion and the Ultramarines crippled Samus while Lox prepared to force the Daemon Prince into humanity’s service. The chapter ended with Lox offering Samus the choice of becoming a spy in the Warp or facing the Untouchables.

• Lion charged Samus and used his Calibanite swordsmanship to tear apart the weakened Daemon Prince.
• Titus and the Librarians struck Samus with psychic lightning while the Lion’s forces supported them with heavy weapons.
• Uslan and Lox discussed the Warp and the possibility that it connected multiple universes.
• Lion stopped short of killing Samus, honoring the plan to capture the daemon for intelligence gathering.
• Lox confronted Samus and brought Captain Dulles’s Untouchable squad close enough to torment it.
• Lox gave Samus the choice of serving humanity as a hound in the Warp or suffering the Untouchables’ attention.

Lox and the Hermit forced Samus to reveal its true name, giving humanity a means to control the Greater Daemon. With Samus subdued, Lox asked about the traitor legions’ plans, their counterattack on Terra, and the whereabouts of the traitor Primarchs.

• Lox ordered Captain Dulles and the Untouchables to surround Samus and intensify their soulless field.
• The Hermit demanded Samus’s true name, while Uslan explained how knowing a daemon’s true name could weaken and control it.
• When Samus refused, Lox had Dulles wound it and then cut off the tip of its tail, forcing it to agree to cooperate.
• The Hermit recorded Samus’s complete true name in the Record of the Emperor’s Holy Words, creating a means to control the daemon.
• Lox asked Samus how far the traitor legions’ plans and counterattack on Terra had progressed and where the traitor Primarchs had gone.

Lox and Lion questioned the captured daemon Samus about Horus’s advance and the forces threatening Terra. Samus declared the Imperium doomed, but Lox countered that the traitors had suffered heavy losses and that Terra’s defenses and loyalist reinforcements could still turn the war.

• Lox asked Samus about the rebellion’s progress, while Lion demanded the location of his traitorous brothers.
• Samus revealed that Horus had reached the Solar System with nine traitor Legions and the support of Chaos, while several loyalist Legions were trapped or shattered.
• Samus described the Ruinstorm, the traitors’ strength, and Terra’s weakened defenders, insisting that the Imperium’s defeat was inevitable.
• Lox rejected Samus’s despairing claims and pointed out the losses suffered by the traitor Legions and the strength of the Solar System’s defenses.
• Lox argued that loyalist forces could harass Horus’s supply lines and join with the distant Legions to trap and defeat him.

Lox interrogated Samus about the Ruinstorm and learned that its anchor point was tied to the beginning of everything, which Lion identified as Horus’s assassination and return. Lox then ordered the Hermit to use Samus to lure more Greater Daemons into captivity, leaving the Hermit horrified at his new role as their keeper.

• Lox and Uslan concluded that the Webway could transport only some reinforcements, so they needed to weaken the Ruinstorm and divide their forces between routes to Terra and the rebel rear.
• Lox and Dulles questioned and tortured Samus, who revealed that the Ruinstorm’s anchor point was “the beginning of everything.”
• Lion concluded that the phrase referred to Horus’s assassination and the monster that took his place, and Sanguinius agreed to let Lox and Lion withdraw for a secret discussion.
• Lox instructed the Hermit to make Samus reveal the names and grudges of other Greater Daemons so they could capture them and record their true names.
• Lox proposed using Samus’s friends and enemies to lure more daemons into traps, leaving the Hermit shaken by the prospect of running a daemon prison.

Sanguinius told Lox, Lion El'Jonson, and Guilliman that Davin anchored the Ruinstorm and that his prophecy required him to go there. He also revealed that he foresaw his own death at Horus's hands on Terra, but intended to face the danger because the Emperor would need his help.

• Sanguinius said Horus's fall had connected Davin to the source of the Ruinstorm and that the planet had to be confronted.
• Lion El'Jonson offered to destroy Davin with the New Caliban's weapons, but Sanguinius explained that his prophecy required him to go there.
• Lion El'Jonson vowed not to let Sanguinius travel alone, and Guilliman arrived and objected to the Angel risking his life.
• Sanguinius revealed that he foresaw his death aboard the Vengeful Spirit on Terra, fighting Horus alongside the Emperor.
• Sanguinius said his sacrifice was necessary because the Emperor would lose his aid if he did not join the final battle.

Guilliman, Lion, Sanguinius, and Lox agreed on a strategy for Davin and the journey to Terra, with Guilliman staying behind to block traitor reinforcements. Lox brought Curze along under Veronica’s guard as their fleet sailed for Davin to destroy the Ruinstorm’s anchor.

• Guilliman, Lion, and Sanguinius planned to travel to Davin while Lox supported them and helped ensure their survival.
• Lion explained that Guilliman would remain behind to command the rear and stop traitor reinforcements while the Dark Angels and Blood Angels traveled to Terra through the Webway.
• Lion revealed the Tuchulcha Engine and said he had abandoned his plan to attack traitor homeworlds in favor of reinforcing the Emperor on Terra.
• Lox decided to take Curze from the Shadow Prison, arguing that his visions and strength could help and that leaving him on Macragge was risky.
• Veronica restrained Curze inside herself, and Guilliman, Lion, Sanguinius, Lox, and Curze boarded their fleet and set sail for Davin to destroy the Ruinstorm’s anchor.

As the fleet approached Davin, Lox helped Konrad Curze reconsider his fatalistic view of prophecy while Curze traveled aboard Veronica. Curze questioned why Lox did not stop Sanguinius from accepting his foretold death, and Lox explained that Sanguinius chose his fate because he believed it had meaning, leaving Curze in deep thought.

• The fleet endured the worsening Ruinstorm as Sanguinius and Curze used their foresight to help guide it toward Davin.
• Curze read Lox’s handmade copy of "Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio" aboard Veronica and reflected on his upbringing and beliefs about justice.
• Curze asked Lox why he did not try to stop Sanguinius from going to his death at Horus’s hands.
• Lox explained that Sanguinius could defy his fate but accepted it because he believed it had meaning, while Curze had been trapped by his visions.
• Curze fell silent and began reconsidering his views on justice and the future.

Lox and the fleet fought off plague daemons after the Gellar Field failed in a strange Warp region, but their return to realspace revealed a hive world consumed by disease and decay. The fleet faced the sight of a planet whose human population was still alive amid widespread corruption.

• A strange toll and horrific stench signaled that plague daemons had breached the fleet's Gellar Field and entered the ship.
• Lox lifted Veronica's restrictions, letting Curze use the Iron Man to smash the daemons while the Astartes attacked with flamers and melta cannons.
• Sanguinius and the Sanguinary Guard destroyed another group of daemons, but the creatures' remnants spread a plague through the warship.
• Lox and Sanguinius joined the Lion and Guilliman on the command bridge, where the Lion identified the fleet's Warp region as a strange garden dense with aetheric energy.
• The Lion used the Tuchulcha Engine to bring the fleet back to realspace, where they found a hive world engulfed in poisonous fog, rot, and disease.

After the expeditionary fleet escaped the Warp, it discovered Epecimos III, a plague-ravaged world where the last human defenders asked to be killed before they became walking corpses. The Lion, Guilliman, and Sanguinius granted their request and destroyed the planet, leaving Lox to face the cost of the decision.

• The fleet emerged into realspace and learned from its cogitator that it was in the Epecimos system, where Epecimos III showed intense Warp activity.
• The New Caliban received a distress transmission from Colonel Elesska Revos, who reported that plague had overwhelmed the world and the remaining survivors were gathered at the hive spires.
• Elesska told the fleet that the defenders were becoming infected and asked for release, urging them to destroy Epecimos III while they were still human.
• The Lion, Guilliman, and Sanguinius agreed, and the New Caliban used its planet-killer cannon and cyclonic torpedoes to destroy Epecimos III.
• Lox reflected on the human world the fleet had destroyed and wondered how many others across the galaxy were suffering.

As the fleet approached Davin, Lox questioned Konrad Curze about his motives and learned that Sanguinius and the Blood Angels carried the Red Thirst. The fleet emerged from the Warp into the Davin system, where a strange gray sphere awaited them.

• The fleet destroyed six worlds beyond salvation with Exterminatus as Warp corruption intensified on the journey to Davin.
• Lox asked Konrad why he had intervened, and Konrad said he hated Chaos as well as the Imperium.
• Lox asked what Konrad would do if the Emperor could forgive him and control his foresight, but Konrad insisted humanity was doomed and the future could not be changed.
• Konrad revealed that Sanguinius and the Blood Angels suffered from the Red Thirst and warned that they concealed an even more fatal secret.
• The fleet emerged from the Warp near Davin, where Guilliman, the Lion, Lox, and Konrad saw a strange gray sphere at the system's edge.

The expeditionary fleet crossed a colossal planet made of skulls and the remains of dead civilizations before reaching Davin. Lox and the primarchs gathered to decide how to approach the temple where Horus had fallen.

• The fleet approached the skull planet, and Sanguinius called it a vision of the future while Guilliman suspected it was a barrier; the Lion ordered Exterminatus and the fleet blasted a passage through it.
• The fleet passed through the planet and found skulls, dead ships, collapsed cities, and the graves of civilizations within it, leaving Guilliman to fear that the Second Imperium might share their fate.
• Lox asked Konrad whether he had foreseen the skull planet, but Konrad said the chaos around Davin prevented him from seeing what lay there.
• The fleet emerged from the skull planet and reached Davin, where scans showed no life and revealed a temple at the center of a crater-like mountain range.
• Lox identified the temple as Delphos, where Horus had fallen, and told the primarchs that the temple, Davin, and the Warp storm were connected.

Sanguinius overruled Lion’s attempt to destroy Davin, convinced that the temple called Delphos was a gateway and that the Ruinstorm required more than brute force to defeat. He led the Blood Angels into an orbital assault, with Guilliman, Lox, and Curze following, while Lion remained aboard the ship staring at the Exterminatus control.

• Lion tried to order Exterminatus against Davin, but Guilliman stopped him and argued that they should preserve the temple until they understood the clues.
• Sanguinius vetoed the bombardment, explaining that Delphos was a gateway and that symbolic threats in the Warp required a response beyond physical destruction.
• Lox supported Sanguinius and urged the others to consider whether destroying Davin was an enemy trap rather than a solution to the Ruinstorm.
• Sanguinius invoked Horus’s fall on Davin and announced that he would retrace Horus’s path, then led the Blood Angels in an orbital assault.
• Guilliman joined Sanguinius, and Lox followed with Curze, while Lion stayed behind, brooding over the Exterminatus button.

Lion nearly ordered the Dark Angels to destroy Daven and kill Sanguinius, Guilliman, and their forces, but Hoguin’s warning broke an unseen influence over him. After recognizing the subtle Chaos distortion, Lion joined the others on Daven and warned Guilliman to distrust impulsive decisions.

• Sanguinius, Guilliman, and Lion disagreed over whether to investigate Daven or destroy it from orbit, and Lion grew furious at his brothers.
• Urged by a voice in his heart, Lion nearly pressed the button to unleash his ship’s weapons on Daven, despite the IX Legion and his brothers being on the planet.
• Hoguin interrupted Lion, who recoiled from the realization that he had nearly killed his brothers and recognized an invisible influence guiding his decisions.
• Lion ordered Hoguin to stop him if he acted abnormally, then prepared to deploy to Daven with the Dark Angels’ elite forces.
• Lion warned Guilliman to be wary of himself and avoid impulsive decisions, leaving Guilliman and Lox concerned about the danger within their ranks.

As the Thunderhawk descended toward Davin, Lox warned Guilliman that the planet’s hidden enemy was exploiting the primarchs’ flaws and suspicions. Guilliman accepted the warning and destroyed a ritual dagger he had hoped to use against the daemons, leaving the brothers having won their first unseen battle.

• Lox questioned Guilliman about whether he had also considered using Exterminatus against his brothers, and urged him to acknowledge his own flaws.
• Guilliman had Glorod open a Blackstone safe and revealed that he had kept the ritual dagger Ventanus seized on Calth.
• Lox warned Guilliman that the Word Bearers’ cursed dagger was corrupting him and that the Warp would exact a price for its power.
• Guilliman realized the hidden enemy was magnifying the primarchs’ flaws and driving them to distrust one another, and wondered whether Sanguinius had already sensed the danger.
• Guilliman smashed the ritual dagger with the Hand of Dominion, and Lox declared that all three brothers had won Davin’s first unseen battle.