Chapter Summaries

Jeremiah Blitz fought through the Siege of Terra as Chaos forces gathered for their greatest assault, while Perturabo ordered a final attack on the Lion’s Gate. As the daemon hosts charged, Sanguinius flew out alone to meet them.

• Jeremiah Blitz fought for the Solar Auxilia with a gauss rifle and reflected on the Iron Men whose weapons were helping the loyalists hold the line.
• Lox learned that the daemon hosts of all four Chaos Gods had broken through to Terra as the Warp’s power surged.
• Perturabo ordered Kroeger to attack the Lion’s Gate and sent Angron and Fulgrim to lead the assault with the Chaos daemons.
• Lox, Sanguinius, Leman Russ, and their allied forces prepared to defend the Lion’s Gate against the advancing daemon tide.
• Sanguinius told Lox he would not die before the prophesied moment, then flew into the sky to confront Angron and the other Greater Daemons.

Sanguinius defended the Lion's Gate, killing Ka'Bandha, Ang'grath, and Angron before the traitor armies launched their assault on the Imperial Palace. Perturabo directed the attack as Imperial defenders and Titans met the advancing daemons and Chaos forces.

• Sanguinius leapt from the Lion's Gate walls, rallied humanity, and destroyed a Warlord-class Titan with a single strike.
• Sanguinius pinned and killed Ka'Bandha, then split Ang'grath apart while Angron approached.
• Sanguinius fought Angron through Imperial bombardment, tore out the Butcher's Nails, and killed him.
• Perturabo ordered the Chaos forces, Titan Legions, and daemon engines to attack the Imperial Palace, while allowing Abaddon to assault a suspected weak point.
• Perturabo's daemonic armies reached the Lion's Gate as Imperial Titans, tanks, and mortal troops fought back against them.

Iron Men Legion led the loyalist counteroffensive after Lox’s Blackstone obelisks weakened the Chaos horde at the Lion’s Gate. Adam’s Iron Men and the Astartes drove into the enemy, while Adam, Leman Russ, and Skarbrand’s forces converged for a decisive clash.

• Kroeger’s Iron Warriors overwhelmed the loyalist defenses with armor and daemon engines, while Jeremiah Blitz commanded the beleaguered 177th Solar Auxilia at the Lion’s Gate.
• Lox and Rogal Dorn launched Blackstone obelisks that suppressed the Warp, weakening the daemons and causing many Death Guard to realize their corruption and take their own lives.
• Rogal Dorn ordered a counterattack with the Iron Men as the spearhead, and Adam addressed humanity before leading tens of thousands of Iron Men into battle.
• Adam’s Iron Men sacrificed themselves to carve a path through the Chaos horde as the White Scars, Blood Angels, Imperial Fists, and Space Wolves advanced behind them.
• Adam charged toward Skullbrand, and Leman Russ joined him as the Bloodthirster prepared to fight them.

Adam and Rogal Dorn tried to lure Perturabo into a decisive battle by taunting him while the Imperial forces fought the Chaos armies at the Lion’s Gate. Perturabo lost his temper and charged toward Dorn, despite recognizing the challenge as a trap.

• Lox watched Adam command the Iron Men and continued using his authority to counter Vashtorr’s corruption.
• Adam and Leman Russ worked together to kill Skarbrand, then identified Perturabo as the key to coordinating the Chaos armies.
• Dorn fought Fulgrim while Adam joined the battle, and the two broadcast challenges meant to draw Perturabo out.
• Perturabo heard Dorn and Adam’s taunts, flew into a rage, and struck down a Warsmith who urged him to ignore the trap.
• Perturabo ordered the wounded Warsmith placed in a Leviathan Dreadnought and declared that he would charge into the trap to face Dorn.

Dorn and Fulgrim fought while Adam provoked Perturabo into abandoning his safer strategy and joining the battlefield. Adam copied and improved Perturabo’s Iron Circle robots, and the battle escalated into a legion-wide war as Perturabo and Dorn charged toward their final clash.

• Fulgrim taunted Dorn during their duel, while Dorn defended himself with precise attacks and refused to persuade his brother to return to the Imperium.
• Perturabo arrived with eighty-one Iron Circle robots, and Adam provoked him by recalling his broken oath and his past betrayal of the Emperor and his brothers.
• With Lox’s power, Adam transformed his war-model Iron Men into improved Iron Circle robots, prompting Perturabo to order his forces to attack.
• Perturabo’s Iron Warriors and Dorn’s Imperial Fists clashed across the battlefield as Adam’s robots fought and adapted against Perturabo’s machines.
• Perturabo raised Forgebreaker and charged at Rogal Dorn, who charged toward him with Storm’s Teeth.

Perturabo’s duel with Dorn was interrupted when Adam detonated the lingering Hrud temporal field clinging to Perturabo, transforming him into a naked toddler. As Fulgrim attacked to seize the diminished primarch for Slaanesh, Dorn and the Iron Warriors fought to protect him.

• Perturabo and Dorn fought fiercely before the Imperial Palace while Fulgrim taunted them and watched.
• Lox discovered that Perturabo still carried a Hrud temporal distortion field and told Adam how to exploit it.
• Adam fired a temporal weapon at the battling primarchs, triggering the Hrud field and causing Perturabo to shrink into a toddler while Dorn was physically aged.
• Slaanesh ordered Fulgrim to seize little Perturabo, and Fulgrim attacked Dorn as Dorn shielded his brother.
• The Iron Warriors rushed to rescue Perturabo, while he clung to Dorn’s finger to keep Fulgrim from taking him.

Dorn and Adam rescued the child-sized Perturabo from Fulgrim, while the Iron Warriors retreated and surrendered to the Lion’s encircling fleet. Lion returned to the Lion’s Gate with reinforcements, helped destroy the Chaos assault, and then learned that the Emperor’s condition was still unknown as he faced Perturabo and the transformed Mortarion.

• Dorn refused to kill Perturabo and hurled him toward Fulgrim, but Adam caught him and escaped after scattering Blackstone anti-psyker powder over Fulgrim.
• Adam challenged Perturabo’s beliefs and explained how his power had kept him from learning from failure, while the Iron Warriors’ assault collapsed after losing their commander.
• Forrix chose to surrender the Iron Warriors fleet to Lion El'Jonson, who accepted and ordered the ships disarmed and boarded.
• Lion learned that the Sons of Horus under Ezekyle Abaddon were attacking the Saturnine Wall, then led the Dark Angels back to the Lion’s Gate.
• Lion and the arriving loyalist forces joined the battle, killed the Greater Daemons, and helped break the Chaos assault.
• Lion asked Dorn about the Emperor, then saw child-sized Perturabo and remembered that Mortarion had also been transformed.

Perturabo appeared as a tiny child while the primarchs regrouped and learned that Abaddon was attacking the Saturnine Wall. Abaddon’s assault fell into Dorn’s nuclear trap, and after escaping several primarchs, he vanished in Vashtorr’s soul-fire rather than reveal Horus’s remaining plans.

• Perturabo stood only sixty centimeters tall as the primarchs discussed the fighting and prepared to confront Abaddon at the Saturnine Wall.
• Abaddon led the Sons of Horus through the breached defenses, where Dorn’s fusion bombs and other traps devastated his forces and killed Aximand.
• Garviel Loken and Endryd Haar confronted Abaddon, but he survived Haar’s beating and fled toward Jaghatai Khan.
• Abaddon begged Jaghatai Khan for mercy by invoking their past ties, and the Khan let him go.
• Lion El'Jonson, Leman Russ, and Lox intercepted Abaddon near the dead Sons of Horus relief force and demanded to know Horus’s plans.
• Abaddon refused to betray Horus, ignited his armor with soul-fire, and vanished.

After Abaddon escaped to the Vengeful Spirit, the Emperor gathered his sons and ordered Guilliman to clear the outer Sol System while the others prepared to board Horus’s warped flagship. The Emperor led the boarding force through the Warp’s darkness, and they arrived before the Vengeful Spirit ready to confront Horus.

• Abaddon vanished through the forge, and Lion El'Jonson concluded that Vashtorr had taken him aboard the Vengeful Spirit.
• The primarchs gathered before the Emperor, who explained that the Vengeful Spirit had fused with its Warp projection and could only be defeated by confronting Horus aboard it.
• Guilliman contacted the Emperor from outside the sealed Sol System, and the Emperor ordered him to destroy the remaining rebel forces there.
• The Emperor assigned Vulkan to guard Magnus and the Golden Throne and Dorn to guard Mortarion and Perturabo, but Dorn and the other primarchs insisted on joining the assault.
• The Emperor armed himself, and Lox, Curze, the primarchs, Malcador's chosen warriors, and their companions prepared to board the Vengeful Spirit.
• The Emperor drove his sword into the ground and used its light to guide the boarding force through the Warp until the Vengeful Spirit appeared before them.

Lox and Konrad Curze arrived in a recreated twenty-first-millennium Terra, where Lox recognized his homeland and suspected they had been separated from the others. Elsewhere, Rogal Dorn endured Khorne’s endless battlefield, while Leman Russ and Lion El'Jonson lived different lives on Caliban and Fenris under a hidden Tzeentchian scheme.

• Lox and Konrad Curze found themselves in the Pan-Solar System Alliance University’s city, where Lox’s memories of his old life returned and he decided to seek the chief of the Alliance Science Division.
• Lox concluded that he and Curze had been separated from their companions and that their surroundings might be an illusion, while Curze followed him through the city.
• Rogal Dorn continued fighting in Khorne’s battlefield after three hundred years, resisted the Blood God’s offer, and refused to become his champion.
• On Caliban, thirteen-year-old Leman Russ led the united knightly orders against the planet’s giant beasts while wondering why he preferred axes to swords.
• On Fenris, Lion El'Jonson killed a Kraken to protect the Leman tribe, then remained troubled by his forgotten identity and his feelings about the name Leman.
• A Tzeentchian daemon observed Lion and Leman Russ, explaining that the Lord of Change had altered their landing places and that the Four Gods hoped to claim two more primarchs.

The Emperor fought through the Vengeful Spirit toward Sanguinius while his other sons faced threats across warped timelines. Meanwhile, Lox and Konrad Curze met the Chief in a parallel twenty-first millennium, where Lox learned Slaanesh had sent him there to give him a chance to save humanity.

• The Emperor sensed Dorn, Lion, Russ, Jaghatai Khan, and Sanguinius facing different dangers, but chose to continue toward Sanguinius, who was confronting Horus.
• The Emperor forced a path through a world of skulls, then discovered that Slaanesh had sent Lox and Konrad Curze to the twenty-first millennium of another timeline.
• Lox and Konrad attended the Chief’s lecture on the dangers of human genetic modification and followed him to a private lounge afterward.
• The Chief recognized Lox as a visitor from the future and identified Curze as an extraordinary creation related to Neos.
• Lox asked the Chief for help returning to the Emperor, and the Chief concluded that Slaanesh had sent him there because of his desire to restore humanity.
• The Chief told Lox that the parallel timeline was real and offered him the chance to begin again and save humanity.

Lox rejected Slaanesh’s tempting false timeline and fought the Dark Prince alongside Konrad Curze. Meanwhile, Lion El’Jonson awakened his forest-walking power on Fenris, returned to Caliban, and set out to find Leman Russ.

• The Chief explained that Slaanesh had sent Lox to a new timeline because Lox’s selfless love for humanity fascinated the Dark Prince, then invited him to join a plan to change the past.
• Lox recognized that the Chief was an illusion because he would never waste time, and he and Konrad Curze attacked the figure, revealing Slaanesh.
• Slaanesh offered Lox a place at his side and promised him a world where he could fulfill his hopes, but Lox rejected the offer and accused Slaanesh of trapping him in a birdcage.
• A Fenrisian shaman urged Lion El’Jonson to leave Fenris and awakened Lion’s power, allowing him to recover his true identity and cross vast distances through forests.
• Lion returned to Caliban, remembered his duty to the Emperor, and hurried through the forest to find Leman Russ.

Lion traveled through Caliban to prevent a coming conflict with the Knights of Lupus, then reached Aldurukh as Leman Russ confronted their leader, Sartana. The chapter ended with Russ declaring that humans and the great beasts could not coexist on Caliban.

• Lion recalled how Luther brought him out of the forests, regretted destroying the Knights of Lupus, and raced toward the Northern Wilds after finding signs of Russ’s campaign.
• Lion read a knight’s blood memories and learned that Luther had negotiated a truce with the Knights of Lupus, who had retreated to the Northern Wilds under Sartana’s leadership.
• Lion recognized the young knight Nemiel, told him his name, and teleported them both to Aldurukh to stop Sartana from dying in the coming confrontation.
• Lion and Nemiel secretly watched Leman Russ receive Sartana and three veteran knights at Aldurukh, while Russ sensed a familiar presence nearby.
• Sartana demanded that Russ withdraw from the Northern Wilds to protect its great beasts, and Russ warned that the Sirius Knights could not dictate terms before declaring that humans and great beasts could not coexist.

Lion revealed himself at the Order’s meeting and fought Leman Russ until the Wolf King recovered his memories. After learning that Caliban’s beasts absorbed Chaos corruption released by the dormant Ouroboros, Lion discovered that Ouroboros had to remain separated from Plagueheart and the Tuchulcha Engine.

• Saltana refused to reveal the Knights of Sirius’ secret, so Lion emerged, ordered the hall cleared, and challenged Russ to a fight.
• Lion and Russ brawled through the Order’s headquarters until Russ remembered that he was the Wolf King and embraced his brother.
• Russ named Lion his brother and joined him in questioning Saltana and Luther about Caliban’s hidden secret.
• Saltana explained that Caliban’s beasts absorbed Chaos corruption emanating from the dormant Ouroboros, and that killing the beasts could leave humanity exposed to it.
• Saltana revealed that the Dark Watchers guarded Ouroboros and warned that it must never reunite with Plagueheart and the Tuchulcha Engine.

Lion connected the Tuchulcha Engine to a possible plot involving three dangerous entities, then helped the Order and the Sirius Knights reconcile on Caliban. As Caliban prepared to face an unknown fleet, its ancient weapons brought down an Aeldari ship carrying Nurgle’s corruption, and the transformed Chagatai emerged to demand Lion’s submission.

• Lion realized the Tuchulcha Engine might have sought him out to unite with the Ouroboros and the Heart of Pestilence, so he resolved to reclaim and destroy it after the war.
• Saltana led Russ, Luther, and the Calibanite knights through Saint Grula, where they saw the Sirius Knights imprisoning great beasts, and Lion argued that humanity’s enemies extended far beyond Caliban.
• Luther spotted unfamiliar lights in the sky, and Lion identified them as ships in orbit before ordering Caliban’s people to evacuate and its knights to prepare for battle.
• Lion directed Luther and Saltana to activate ancient colonial-ship weapons, and Caliban’s defenses blasted an Aeldari Shadow Hunter-class frigate out of orbit.
• Lion investigated the crashed frigate and found human remains, Nurgle’s corruption, and a gateway from which the plague-ridden Chagatai emerged and demanded Lion submit to him.

Chaghatai Khan, empowered by the Heart of Plague, invaded Caliban to seize the Ouroboros and remake the galaxy through destruction and rebirth. Lion El'Jonson and Leman Russ struggled to stop him until the Emperor's radiance appeared and summoned them, offering hope that Chaghatai could still be reached.

• Chaghatai revealed that Nurgle had given him the Heart of Plague and explained his plan to destroy the galaxy so he could remake it.
• Chaghatai disclosed that the Heart of Plague, the Tuchulcha Engine, and the Ouroboros together formed a device that could create a Webway between realspace and the Warp, and said he had conquered Commorragh.
• Leman Russ arrived and tried to shake Chaghatai's resolve, but Chaghatai's plague army overran Caliban as Lion and Russ fought him alongside the planet's knights and beasts.
• Lion and Russ realized they could not win by prolonging the battle and sought to retreat and find their other brothers, while Chaghatai continued pressing his attack.
• A golden sun appeared above Caliban, healing the plague-stricken and restoring the defenders, as Russ recognized the Emperor's power and called on Chaghatai to surrender.

The Emperor’s Light freed the Lion, Russ, and Jaghatai from the illusory world on Caliban, while Dorn resisted Khorne’s attempts to corrupt him and was summoned away. Lox and Curze escaped Slaanesh’s palace and returned to the Vengeful Spirit, where the real battle remained close at hand.

• The Emperor’s Light rallied Caliban’s people and weakened Jaghatai’s Heart of Plague, allowing the Lion and Russ to destroy it and bring Jaghatai to the brink of death.
• Jaghatai recovered, reflected on how Chaos exploited existing desires, and joined the Lion and Russ as they bid farewell to Luther and Sultana before the Emperor’s Light carried them away.
• Khorne tempted Dorn with freedom and power, but Dorn reaffirmed his loyalty to the Emperor and humanity and fought off the Blood God’s daemons.
• Dorn mocked Ka'Bandha’s pursuit of glory until the Emperor’s Light rescued him, while Ka'Bandha began questioning his purpose.
• Lox and Curze fought their way through Slaanesh’s palace until the Emperor’s Light returned them to the Vengeful Spirit, where they sensed the enemy nearby.

Lox and the primarchs crossed the Vengeful Spirit with Oll Persson, Cyrene, and John, learning that the Emperor might become the Dark King as they fought through Neverborn alongside Constantin Valdor and his forces. Guided by Curze's visions and Lion's power, they reached Horus and found him killing Sanguinius, whom Curze pulled from his grasp.

• Lox found Dorn, then Lion, Leman Russ, and Jaghatai Khan emerged from the fog as the primarchs gathered.
• Curze saw Sanguinius in danger and urged the group to follow his visions instead of heading directly toward the Emperor.
• Oll Persson introduced Cyrene and John, and Cyrene and Oll revealed that the Emperor might become the Dark King.
• A Cthulhu-like monster and other Neverborn attacked, but the primarchs, Constantin Valdor, the Custodians, and the Sisters of Silence destroyed them.
• Curze's visions led the group to a hall where Horus had impaled the badly wounded Sanguinius, and Curze seized the Angel from Horus as Sanguinius urged them to flee.

Curze sacrificed himself to save Sanguinius from Horus’s fatal attack, and Lox preserved both Primarchs in stasis. The Emperor arrived to confront Horus, whose fractured mind fixated on his father as the battle began.

• Curze defied fate by taking Horus’s heart-piercing strike meant for Sanguinius, and Lox sealed both dying Primarchs in stasis fields.
• Horus overwhelmed the other Primarchs and killed Custodians until Valdor charged him with the Apollonian Spear.
• The Emperor arrived with Leto, Garviel Loken, and Kel Karthus, then forced Horus to release Valdor.
• The Emperor and Horus faced each other as the Emperor shielded the others from the duel.
• Horus recalled his early years beside the Emperor and became increasingly confused when the Emperor asked him, “Why?”

The Emperor confronted Horus aboard the Vengeful Spirit, but Horus mistook his repeated question about why he had killed his son as a demand for submission. After Lox evacuated the critically wounded Sanguinius and Curze, the Emperor and Horus began fighting as their allies tried to intervene.

• Horus boasted that he had surpassed the Emperor, offered to share power with him, and claimed to have mastered the Chaos Gods while the Emperor repeatedly asked why he had killed his son.
• Kael Kardus condemned Horus, and Garviel Loken confronted his former father, urging him to resist Chaos, but Horus ignored them and demanded that the Emperor kneel.
• Horus realized the Emperor had not been looking at him and understood that the Emperor's question referred to Horus himself; enraged, he blasted the Emperor with Warp power.
• Lion El'Jonson told Lox to evacuate Sanguinius and Curze, but Lox sent their stasis field to Terra and chose to stay and fight alongside the others.
• Lion, Jaghatai Khan, Loken, the Custodians, and others attacked Horus while John provoked him by calling him a replacement for Oll Persson, drawing Horus's lethal lightning toward Oll.
• The Emperor shielded Oll Persson, then confronted Horus directly as father and son began their final battle.