Chapter Summaries

Lox welcomed Barabas Dantioch after he awoke from stasis, then showed him Earth and offered him freedom to pursue his own dream. Back at X Academy, Lox found Sebastian Shaw hiding in the castle, where Shaw proposed that the mutants and humans choose between war and peace.

• Lox received an alert that Barabas Dantioch had awakened and went with Logan to meet him aboard the Red Alert.
• Barabas Dantioch described overcoming the universe’s suppression and asked to see Terra as it had been before the Horus Heresy.
• Lox teleported Barabas Dantioch and Logan to New York, where Barabas Dantioch saw Earth’s ocean and reflected on humanity’s looming conflicts.
• Lox offered Barabas Dantioch a starship and the chance to leave, but Barabas Dantioch chose to remain at Lox’s side.
• At X Academy, Oliver told Charles that Shaw’s attack on the CIA had killed more than fifty agents, and Lox said Shaw was inside the castle.
• Lox exposed Shaw and his companions hiding through the pool’s reflection; Erik attacked, Charles failed to control Shaw, and Oliver’s bullets proved useless as Shaw demanded a choice between war and peace.

Sebastian Shaw turned many young mutants against Charles Xavier, while Lox prepared Charles and Erik for the coming showdown. As the Alliance fleet approached Cuba and nuclear war loomed, Erik expanded his magnetic abilities and Lox watched the conflict draw near.

• Sebastian Shaw used his speeches to sway the young mutants, and Salvador joined his side before Shaw left X Academy with his new followers.
• Lox told Oliver that hidden forces behind the Hellfire Club were seeking to control the post-nuclear world, then said he planned to unite humans and mutants against greater threats.
• Lox told Charles and Erik to prepare in Cuba, while the Alliance fleet advanced toward the Lighthouse's red line in the Caribbean.
• Charles trained the new mutants, and Lox helped Erik study electromagnetism until Erik moved a giant radar tower with his powers.
• Charles entered Erik's memories, and Erik recalled both his suffering and the peaceful memories that remained beneath his hatred.
• Lox watched Erik's growing potential stir the Warp and looked toward the approaching Caribbean battle.

Charles and Erik led the X-Men to stop the Cuban crisis, and Erik used Earth’s magnetic field to lift the Aral Sea before it crossed the red line, giving both superpowers a chance to avoid nuclear war. As Charles tried to find Shaw, Shaw prepared to force the conflict forward by absorbing the submarine reactor’s energy.

• After President Kennedy threatened nuclear retaliation, Charles named the group the X-Men and teleported them to the Cuban coast, where the Aral Sea approached the Lighthouse fleet.
• Charles learned that Shaw’s men had killed the ship’s crew, while Erik took to the sky and used Earth’s magnetic field to lift the Aral Sea out of the water and set it on shore.
• Charles contacted both fleets’ commanders telepathically and urged them to stand down, while officials began treating mutants as potential strategic weapons.
• Shaw learned that Erik and Charles had disrupted his plan, then ordered Riptide and Azazel to raise the submarine reactor’s output so he could absorb its energy.
• Shaw ignored the submarine’s growing resistance, filled himself with nuclear energy, and declared that he would make the nuclear war happen.

Charles and Erik found Sebastian Shaw, but Erik’s attacks could not overcome Shaw’s energy absorption and radiation while Shaw tried to recruit him. As Shaw’s forces battled the X-Men, the Seventh Fleet prepared to bombard the beach, and Shaw urged Erik to join him against humanity.

• Havok located Shaw’s nuclear submarine, and Erik dragged it ashore and tore it open while the fleet commanders realized a hidden force was manipulating events.
• Shaw emerged and taunted Erik about his mother; Erik fired metal shells at him, but Shaw absorbed their kinetic energy and countered with radiation.
• Shaw’s helmet blocked Charles’s telepathy, and his radiation weakened Erik, leaving the two unable to defeat him as Shaw’s subordinates fought the X-Men.
• Lox watched the battle without intervening and explained to Logan and Barabas Dantioch that Shaw was meant to pressure humanity and mutants into uniting.
• The White House ordered the Seventh Fleet to bombard the mutants, and the fleet aimed its guns at the beach despite Moria’s pleas to stand down.
• Shaw told Erik that humans intended to kill them and urged him to stand with mutantkind.

Lox stopped the mutants from escaping, turned the incoming missiles against Shaw and the fleets, and revealed his overwhelming power over machinery and matter. He subdued Shaw and explained that he intended to force humans and mutants to unite, with Shaw serving as a warning to both sides.

• Lox disrupted Azazel's teleportation, while Barabas Dantioch and Logan subdued Azazel, Riptide, and the other mutants.
• The Seventh Fleet and Alliance warships launched a massive barrage as Shaw tried to draw Erik back to his cause.
• Lox awakened the missiles' Machine Spirits, redirected some toward Shaw, and sent the rest back to the warships, where they failed to explode.
• Erik survived the attack, while Shaw was badly injured and overwhelmed by the energy he had absorbed.
• Lox drained Shaw's energy and revealed that he meant to force humans and mutants to unite, using Shaw as a warning and a point of reference.

Lox defeated Sebastian Shaw and revealed that he intended to turn mutant abilities into widely available tools, shattering Shaw’s vision of mutant supremacy. Shaw triggered a nuclear device at Yellowstone as he died, leaving the United States and the Soviet Union facing a possible supervolcanic catastrophe.

• The United States president concluded that nuclear weapons would likely not stop Lox and decided to court him through Charles Xavier and X Academy.
• Lox condemned Shaw’s narrow mutant supremacism and revealed that his researchers were studying X-genes for possible mass use.
• Shaw was horrified by Lox’s plan to make mutant powers commonplace, then revealed that a transmitter in his heart controlled a nuclear device at Yellowstone.
• Lox said he already knew about Shaw’s Yellowstone contingency, but Shaw destroyed his own heart to trigger the device before Lox could stop him.
• North American monitoring stations detected a nuclear detonation and abnormal seismic activity at Yellowstone, while the fleet commander and both superpowers feared a supervolcanic eruption.
• The United States president ordered officials to seek a way to calm the volcano, prepared to evacuate to Hawaii, and requested help from Charles and the other mutants.

Lox defeated Sebastian Shaw and explained that he forced humanity and mutants to advance because a devastating enemy would eventually threaten them. Future Logan and Charles warned the present that resisting Lox had cost them dearly, leaving the mutants to decide whether to accept his methods.

• Lox used nanobots to save Shaw while paralyzing him, and Logan beat and choked the helpless Black King.
• Azazel, Riptide, and Angel surrendered to Lox, while Erik offered his loyalty in exchange for the chance to kill Shaw; Lox refused.
• Lox described the Astartes, Iron Men, and the war-torn universe he came from, prompting Charles to realize that Lox was preparing humanity for a greater threat.
• Future Logan revealed that he had traveled back in time to warn Charles that Lox was not humanity’s enemy and that resistance had weakened them against the Celestial Apostles.
• Charles connected with his future self, who confirmed that Lox’s brutal methods had helped prepare humanity for the coming Celestials and urged him to judge friend and enemy clearly.
• After the future Charles disappeared, the present Charles concluded that humanity and mutants could only move forward by any means necessary.

Lox brought the Cuban mutants under his leadership and transported them to Xavier's School, where Charles and Erik agreed to cooperate with him. Meanwhile, the genetic samples sent to Mars awakened a hidden Necron presence: Trazyn the Infinite had arrived in the new universe.

• Charles trusted his future self's advice and decided Xavier's School would side with Lox, while Erik and Azazel accepted Lox as their leader after hearing his explanation of the Imperium.
• Lox warned that Yellowstone was stirring and teleported the mutants from Cuba to Xavier's School, leaving the opposing fleets to coordinate the recovery of their nuclear weapons.
• Charles and Erik agreed that the mutants needed Lox's protection, and the mutants at Xavier's School and the Hellfire Club supplied blood and other genetic samples for study.
• Lox sent 103 genetic samples to the Mars base, where Cawl and the Stone Men researchers eagerly began examining them.
• A dormant Necron data-code awakened inside a servo-robot on Mars, and Trazyn the Infinite announced his arrival in the new universe.

Trazyn secretly explored the Martian base and recognized signs of genetic alteration in the mutants, while Charles confronted the Beacon's envoy about Yellowstone's imminent eruption. Lox promised to resolve the disaster in exchange for humanity's unity, then brought the President and McDonald to Yellowstone and declared that he would suppress the eruption.

• Trazyn replaced a laboratory servitor, explored the Martian base, and watched Lox send mutant genetic samples through the teleportation system.
• Trazyn saw Emma Frost in a laboratory and suspected that an ancient species had altered humanity, as the Old Ones had altered other lifeforms.
• McDonald visited Xavier's School, revealed that Yellowstone might erupt, and asked Charles and the mutants for help.
• Charles told McDonald that Lox could stop the disaster if humanity united, and McDonald agreed on the President's behalf.
• Lox appeared in the reception room, teleported McDonald to Hawaii, and brought the President and McDonald to Yellowstone.
• The President and McDonald questioned Lox's claim that he could suppress the eruption, and Lox said a mere volcanic eruption only needed to be suppressed.

Lox used immense psychic power and nuclear energy to remove Yellowstone’s magma chamber and avert a global catastrophe, then demanded that the president honor his conditions. The president faced the challenge of responding to Lox’s demand after witnessing his overwhelming power.

• Lox brought the president and McDonald to Yellowstone to witness his plan to resolve the volcanic crisis and compel humanity to unite.
• Lox unleashed vast psychic power that froze Yellowstone’s surface while geological upheaval and magma broke through the crust.
• Lox commandeered missiles from a secret military base, reshaped their nuclear material into a high-energy bomb, and detonated it to activate the volcano’s magma chamber.
• Lox struck into Yellowstone with psychic force, drew the magma and hundreds of millions of tons of matter into a Warp rift, and suppressed the surrounding geological damage.
• Reporters and witnesses recorded Yellowstone’s destruction as news spread worldwide, while people celebrated the volcano’s removal and struggled with the chaos caused by the evacuation panic.
• Lox returned the president and McDonald to the ground and asked the president to fulfill his conditions, leaving the president facing a problem greater than Yellowstone.

Lox forced Earth’s nations toward unification by demonstrating his power and giving them a one-year deadline, while urging Charles and Erik to prepare humanity for looming threats. After a year of coercion, retaliation, and technological aid, the Earth United Government formed and humanity entered the interstellar age.

• Lox demanded that the president establish a United Earth Government within one year or face his personal intervention, and the president called a global summit after returning to the White House.
• Lox told Charles that Yellowstone Volcano had disappeared, defended his urgent drive for unity, and warned that humanity faced threats from the Celestials and Chaos.
• Erik embraced Lox’s belief that survival could require ruthless sacrifice, while Charles struggled with the conflict between his morality and Lox’s demands.
• During the following year, Lox endured and retaliated against repeated assassination attempts, and he destroyed an island chain by causing Fuji to erupt.
• Lox rewarded nations that supported cooperation with advanced technologies, including controlled nuclear fusion and medical innovations.
• Before Lox’s deadline, the Earth United Government formed, and humanity entered the interstellar age.

Lox explained to Charles that he spread faith in the Emperor because the Emperor’s Compass needed humanity’s belief to recharge and enable another inter-universal crossing. As Earth united and expanded its space program, Lox returned to the Mars base, where Trazyn and Cawl One were preparing to upgrade the modified Astartes into Primaris Marines.

• Charles questioned Lox about the Emperor worship spreading across Earth, while Xavier’s School had grown into a government-backed center for mutant research and cooperation.
• Lox explained that fanatical faith charged the Emperor’s Compass, and that he had adapted Lorgar Aurelian’s Book of Holy Words to spread the belief with government support.
• Scientists discovered that some advanced machines required prayers and sacred rites to operate, prompting faith in the Machine God and the Omnissiah to spread among them.
• Lox returned to the expanded Mars base, where a growing fleet, laboratories, and research teams supported humanity’s preparations for space.
• Lox encountered Trazyn working alongside Cawl One and learned they were about to begin Primaris upgrade procedures on the modified Astartes.

Lox and Cawl completed the first Primaris upgrade, implanting the new Infinite Engine into White Scars recruit Beihai and enabling him to use a mutant X-gene. Beihai demonstrated the Red Devil’s spatial-jump ability, and the Firstborn Astartes prepared to follow him across the Rubicon.

• Lox explained his plans to rebuild the Astartes as mixed Legions and to recruit new blood using safer selection methods.
• Cawl operated on Beihai, implanting the Magnificat, Belisarian Furnace, Sinew Coils, and Lox’s newly created Infinite Engine.
• Beihai activated the Infinite Engine and used Azazel the Red Devil’s spatial-jump ability despite having no psychic talent.
• Qin Xin pushed Beihai to test his limits, and Beihai jumped repeatedly across the laboratory before reaching roughly a hundred meters.
• The gathered Astartes celebrated Beihai’s success as the first step toward upgrading the other Firstborn Astartes.

Lox oversaw the development of Primaris Astartes and Sentinel Iron Men while preparing his forces for the unknown threats of the X-Men universe, especially the Celestials. He brought Charles to examine the comatose Curze and Sanguinius, and the chapter ended as their souls began to stir.

• Lox expanded his Astartes forces and refined Primaris upgrades, while Stone Men handled the precise procedures and mutants selected suitable X-genes.
• Bolivar Trask presented Sentinel Iron Men that could imitate mutant powers and adapt through combat, and Lox ordered Mars to shift production toward them under the control of Prism.
• Lox worried about the Celestials and asked Charles to examine Curze and Sanguinius, whose prophetic insight might help reveal what lay ahead.
• Charles entered the Primarchs' dark mental worlds and painstakingly pieced together their fragmented memories as Lox eased the strain on his body.
• Lox sensed familiar soul fluctuations emerging from Curze and Sanguinius just as he was about to make Charles stop.

Lox discovered that burning psychic power could gradually weaken the corruption binding Sanguinius and Curze, and he used Sebastian Shaw to fuel a miniature Astronomican. As Lox prepared to seek vast numbers of psychic xenos to save the primarchs, the story shifted to Terra, where Arkhan Land and other leaders arrived for Malcador’s council on the Imperium’s future.

• Charles briefly awakened illusory forms of Sanguinius and Curze, but explained that Horus’s corruption still bound most of their shattered souls.
• Lox found that burning psychic power weakened the corruption and built a miniature Astronomican to extract power from Sebastian Shaw.
• Lox told Sevatar and Azkaellon that the primarchs could be saved but would require an astronomical number of Psykers, and Azkaellon agreed to prioritize the Night Lords in repayment for Curze’s sacrifice.
• After the Siege of Terra, Malcador summoned the High Technology Community to deliberate on the Imperium’s future, and Archmagos Land traveled with Cawl to Terra.
• Land and Cawl reached Terra and joined Guilliman on the way to Malcador’s conference chamber.

Malcador enlisted Guilliman to help rebuild the Imperium’s civilian government, then announced a twelve-seat High Lords Council that included a religious representative. The chapter ended with Guilliman and the other attendees stunned as Malcador explained that the Emperor himself had ordered humanity united by faith.

• Lion El'Jonson and Jaghatai Khan returned to their home worlds, while Guilliman prepared to leave Terra before Malcador stopped him.
• Malcador told Guilliman he planned to establish a new institution to govern the Imperium and gradually relinquish power, and Guilliman agreed to help.
• Malcador convened a meeting and announced the creation of a twelve-seat High Lords Council to manage the Imperium’s internal affairs.
• Malcador named officials and representatives to the Council’s seats, including the Departmento Interior, the High Technology Consortium, the Navigator envoy, and the Inquisition.
• Malcador appointed Euphrati Keeler as the first Ecclesiarch and gave the Ecclesiarchy a permanent Council seat, shocking Guilliman and the other attendees.
• Malcador explained that the Emperor had ordered him to unite humanity through faith while the Emperor remained on the Golden Throne.

Malcador explained that the Emperor and he had promoted the Imperial Creed to use humanity’s faith against the Dark King, then reorganized the Imperium’s government and military while appointing Guilliman Lord Commander. After Malcador and Valdor disappeared, Guilliman learned that Dorn had vanished with Perturabo through a temporal rift.

• Malcador explained to the gathered leaders that the Imperial Creed could unite humanity and help transform the Emperor’s Warp presence into a force against the Dark King.
• Keeler manifested the Emperor’s power, and Malcador privately explained the danger of the Dark King to Guilliman and Dorn.
• Malcador appointed Guilliman Lord Commander of the Imperium and established the Astra Militarum, Imperial Navy, and new governing arrangements.
• After the conference, Guilliman discovered that Malcador had left the Imperium, and Valdor departed on a secret mission.
• Sigismund told Guilliman that Dorn and Perturabo had vanished in a temporal rift, and Guilliman collapsed in shock.

After Guilliman learned that Dorn and Perturabo had vanished across time, he continued struggling to manage the Imperium while Abaddon led the battered Vengeful Spirit into the Eye of Terror. On Midgard, Abaddon joined representatives of the surviving rebel forces to discuss their future, and they looked to him for leadership.

• Guilliman recovered from a brief collapse, but Titus's divination found Dorn and Perturabo alive on a battlefield beyond the reach of ordinary space and time.
• Abaddon fled with the Vengeful Spirit into the Eye of Terror, where Layak urged him to heed the Chaos Gods' summons to Midgard.
• Abaddon ordered the damaged ship to Midgard, and its surviving crew arrived at the daemon world amid ruined infrastructure and scarce supplies.
• Abaddon found the forces of the Word Bearers, World Eaters, Death Guard, Emperor's Children, and Dark Mechanicum gathered on Midgard.
• Argel Tal, Kharn, Typhus, Fabius Bile, and Kelbor-Hal met with Abaddon to decide the rebels' future, leaving him to assume responsibility for their cause.

Abaddon secured a fragile coalition of rebel factions after the Four Gods named him their new Chosen, but several leaders insisted on independence and conditional support. Erebus arrived with a plan to unleash ancient Krork against the Imperium, revealing that the last one was hidden on the tomb world Solemnace.

• Lorgar declared that the Four Gods had chosen Abaddon to continue Horus's campaign, and Abaddon resisted their influence before accepting their blessing.
• Angeltai rejected Abaddon's authority and established an independent faction with Khârn, while Typhus offered only conditional support and Fabius Bile promised aid in exchange for experimental materials and personnel.
• Kebor Hal pledged the Adeptus Mechanicus's continued alliance with Abaddon in return for STC templates, recovered technology, and the Moravec Vaults beneath Mars.
• Erebus arrived at the gathering and proposed keeping the Imperium occupied by inciting the Greenskin Orks to unite and grow stronger.
• Erebus revealed that ancient Krork existed and said the last one was hidden on the tomb world Solemnace.

Erebus planned to free the last Krork from Trazyn’s Solemnace, while Trazyn sensed danger and helped Lox detect an unknown force approaching Earth through the Warp. Lox placed his forces on alert as the Celestials’ Eternals, led by Ikaris and Sersi, arrived to investigate the disturbances.

• Erebus told Abaddon that the Four Gods had ordered them to release the last Krork from Solemnace, with Vashtorr’s help against the Necrons.
• Trazyn felt an ominous premonition in the Mars base and told Lox that something might be happening in the Warhammer universe.
• Lox and Trazyn analyzed Warp sensor data and found traces of an unknown presence moving toward Earth.
• Lox ordered Corswain, Hill, the Primaris Astartes, Charles, Erik, and the United Government to prepare for possible attacks.
• Sersi and Ikaris led an Eternal warship through the Warp to investigate disturbances on Earth, while Lox’s sensors recorded its passage.