Chapter Summaries

Guilliman left Terra for Macragge after deciding that the Empire’s leaders no longer trusted him, while a riot among the Shadow Cells’ Greater Daemons kept the Custodians occupied. Elfreda and Christine then seized control of the Ecclesiarchy’s gathering, killing Bishop Dias and escalating their campaign against Guilliman.

• Guilliman told Tirean he would leave Terra and return to Macragge, leaving his office and its work organized for his successors.
• Four Greater Daemons escaped their restraints in the Shadow Cells, and Diocletian, the Shadow Cell Wardens, and the Sisters of Silence fought to contain them.
• Mortarion watched the battle from her cell and suspected the daemons were trying to keep the Custodians from intervening outside the palace.
• Elfreda convened a Supreme Holy Council and claimed Christine had received an Emperor-given revelation condemning Guilliman.
• Sister Superior Teresa joined Elfreda and Christine, then shot Bishop Dias after Elfreda branded him a heretic.
• Elfreda called for a purge of Guilliman’s influence in the Ecclesiarchy as Christine smiled, believing the tide had turned.

Bishop Elfreda seized control of Terra’s Ecclesiarchy and led the Battle Sisters to impose her rule on the High Lords’ Council. After Kristin killed the master of the Astropathic Court, the High Lords submitted, and Elfreda took Guilliman’s seat to continue the meeting.

• Elfreda ordered Bishop Dias and other dissenting bishops executed, then purged Terra’s Ecclesiarchy and made herself acting Ecclesiarch.
• Elfreda gathered five thousand Battle Sisters and led them toward the High Lords’ palace while the High Lords celebrated Guilliman’s departure from Terra.
• Elfreda entered the High Lords’ meeting, announced her plan to purge Guilliman’s allies, and had the Battle Sisters suppress the High Lords’ psychic powers.
• Kristin appeared as a Living Saint, and the master of the Astropathic Court died suddenly after trying to discern her true nature.
• The master of the Astronomican Court chose to compromise, and Elfreda sat in Guilliman’s former seat and resumed the meeting.

Alfreda seized control of the Ecclesiarchy and the High Lords’ Council, using Christine’s supposed curse to force the other High Lords into submission and launch a holy crusade. Three months later, Alicia sought help from Tribune Decian, who revealed that the Custodians had found no Warp sorcery on Terra and that Chief Christopher was still alive.

• Alfreda used the High Lords’ Council to denounce Guilliman, demand purges of his supporters, impose martial law, and order a larger campaign against the Orks.
• Christine claimed the Emperor approved Alfreda’s decisions, while a corpse appeared to become a Chaos Spawn and was destroyed by the Battle Sisters, terrifying the High Lords into submission.
• After the Council unanimously made Alfreda acting Ecclesiarch, she purged the Ecclesiarchy’s Terran leadership, expanded her influence over other departments, and imposed a religious tithe to fund a holy crusade.
• Three months later, Alicia prepared evidence and sought Tribune Decian’s help, hoping the Custodians could end Alfreda’s rule.
• Decian told Alicia that the Custodians had investigated Alfreda and Christine and found no Warp sorcery, then revealed that Chief Christopher was alive and still working in the Astropathic Choir.

Alicia and Decius found Christoph alive and apparently unchanged, leaving Alicia convinced that something was wrong on Terra and prompting her to urge Guilliman’s return. Guilliman refused to go back, reached Nostramo, and led an assault on Skullcrusher to fight the Greenskin Orks himself.

• Alicia asked Decius to verify that Christoph was alive, and the Custodian found no detectable sign of anything unusual.
• Alicia concluded that Terra could not be trusted and urged Guilliman to return after learning the Ecclesiarchy had seized control of the High Lords.
• Guilliman rejected Terra’s summons, traveled to Nostramo, and told Lox and Vulkan that the Ecclesiarchy had taken over the Terran Senate.
• Lox briefed Guilliman on the fighting around Skullcrusher, and Guilliman decided to lead the assault in person.
• Guilliman’s forces landed on Skullcrusher, where he advanced with the Gladius Incandor and Hand of Dominion against the Greenskin Orks.

Guilliman led the assault into Skullcrusher’s underground Ork world, where he battled the Greenskins and learned how their forces had adapted to infiltration warfare. As his army attacked an underground city, Guilliman rallied the Salamanders against a green tide and drove back the Orks’ Waaagh!

• Guilliman used the Sentinel Iron Men to absorb the Orks’ shield energy, then led the assault through the barrier into the underground world.
• Guilliman fought through Ork ranks, evaded a Blood Axe sniper’s rail round, and killed the special operations boyz who targeted him.
• An Ashen Claw told Guilliman that Zoe and Talos were tracking the Ork warlord Schwarzenegger, and Guilliman ordered his force to support them.
• Guilliman’s force fought through the fungal tunnels and reached an underground Ork city, which he ordered destroyed.
• The Salamanders held the green tide behind their shield wall while Guilliman gathered the warriors’ fighting spirit and scattered the Orks’ Waaagh!

Guilliman led the Astartes against the Greenskin Orks, using a funnel defense before driving into close combat. After the Ashen Claws sabotaged the Orks’ massive plasma cannon and triggered a devastating explosion, Guilliman routed the enemy, then called Lox for heavy reinforcements.

• Guilliman ordered the Salamanders to draw back into a funnel, channeling the Greenskin Orks into Sentinel Iron Men’s bombardment.
• Guilliman led the Ultramarines into close combat, killing heavily armored bosses until the Greenskin Orks retreated behind walkers and a massive plasma cannon.
• Zoe and the Ashen Claws revealed their disguises and sabotaged the plasma cannon, causing it to explode and devastate the Ork forces.
• Guilliman led a counterattack through the disorganized Orks, destroying walkers and killing the remaining mega-armored bosses.
• Guilliman ordered his forces to rest and reorganize, then called Lox to bring heavy war machines and Knight armor as reinforcements.

Lox sent Transformers to reinforce Roboute Guilliman’s assault on Skullcrusher, and the human force advanced toward the Greenskin Orks’ Waaagh Gate. Ork warlord Schwarzenegger lured Guilliman to the gate and challenged him to a best-of-three wager, which Guilliman accepted.

• Lox deployed AllSpark-enhanced transforming vehicles to support Guilliman, whose force used them to smash Ork bases and advance through the underground world.
• Schwarzenegger studied Guilliman’s advance, planned to draw him toward the Waaagh Gate, and asked Bloodhowl Zack for reinforcements, but Zack refused to come until Guilliman reached the gate.
• Guilliman recognized the Orks’ concentration of forces as an invitation to a decisive battle and ordered his army to advance toward the Waaagh Gate.
• Guilliman’s force reached a vast basin where Schwarzenegger and a massed Ork army awaited beside the Waaagh Gate.
• Schwarzenegger proposed a best-of-three contest—driving, debate, and a duel—and Guilliman accepted.

Guilliman and Schwarzenegger agreed to settle their conflict through three wagers, and Zoe raced the Speed Freek Schumacher through a dangerous Ork scrapyard. The race ended in a disputed draw, and Guilliman prepared to face an unremarkable Greenskin Ork in the debate round.

• Schwarzenegger chose a vehicle race, a debate, and a combat contest as the three wagers, while Guilliman selected Ashen Claw Zoe to represent humanity in the race.
• Lox's Transformer jetbike Arcee transformed for Zoe, and Zoe and Schumacher set off across the scrapyard as Orks and humans watched.
• Schumacher used traps, gunfire, and a charge through a junk-fused Squiggoth to challenge Zoe, who fought back with Arcee's weapons and psychic power.
• Schumacher launched himself toward the finish line by blowing up his warbike, but Zoe shot him in midair; Schumacher's still-living butt crossed the line before Arcee.
• Guilliman disputed the Orks' claim that Schumacher had won, and both sides settled on a draw for the first round.
• An ordinary-looking Greenskin Ork stepped forward for the debate, and Guilliman left his formation to face him himself.

Grud debated Guilliman, arguing that humans and Orks were alike in their love of war, social structures, and military forces, and that their conflict was a senseless civil war between kin. Guilliman struggled to refute Grud’s comparisons as the debate ended with the primarch caught in layers of logical traps.

• Grud introduced himself to Guilliman and argued that Orks should not be called Greenskin Orks, citing his knowledge of human history and culture.
• Grud declared that war between Orks and humanity was meaningless because humans were effectively a special kind of Greenskin Ork and the two races should unite against outsiders.
• Grud compared Ork history and Waaaghs to the Emperor’s unification of Terra and the Great Crusade, leaving Guilliman enraged but unable to dismiss the parallels.
• Grud argued that humans relied on force just as Orks did and challenged the Imperial Truth, while Guilliman defended using both civilization and violence to survive.
• Grud listed parallels between human and Ork populations, military ranks, technology, and leaders, then concluded that humans were a kind of Ork.
• Guilliman realized that Grud had trapped him in a chain of comparisons and ended the debate unsure how to break the argument.

Guilliman defeated Grud in a debate about the differences between humanity and Orks, while warning that Orks depended on war and inherited technology. Schwarzenegger began fighting Guilliman in the final round, and Guilliman wounded the Ork warlord with precise boltgun shots.

• Guilliman argued that humanity fought to survive while Orks needed war to sustain their existence, and Grud acknowledged that Guilliman had won their debate.
• Schwarzenegger ordered Grud sent through the waaagh gate to reach Boss Zack, but Grud resisted until Blood Axe special-ops boys captured him.
• Guilliman challenged Schwarzenegger to the final round, and the Ork warlord answered with a roar before charging into battle.
• Schwarzenegger used his chainsaw axe and a ruined vehicle to pressure Guilliman, but Guilliman dodged his attacks and fired repeatedly at the same point on his skull.

Guilliman defeated Swarsinger, but Bloodhowl Zack emerged from the Waaagh gate as a primarch-level Ork and overwhelmed him. After Zack’s assault nearly killed the Victors, Guilliman’s fury awakened psychic power that let him stand against the warlord and weaken his Waaagh energy.

• Guilliman battered Swarsinger with a charged Hand of Dominion strike, then drew out Bloodhowl Zack, who stepped through the Waaagh gate and sent Swarsinger away for treatment.
• Zack attacked Guilliman as the human forces opened fire, and the primarch’s forces clashed with the advancing Ork horde.
• Zack trapped Guilliman in his phase power claw and battered him, but Lox’s blessing kept the armor intact; Guilliman launched a tactical nuclear missile that blasted Zack away and drove himself into the ground.
• The Victors charged toward Guilliman, and Zack killed or grievously wounded several of them before Guilliman emerged and ordered his sons to retreat.
• Guilliman’s rage over the Victors’ deaths awakened a radiant psychic blade, and he clashed with Zack’s gravity hammer, cracking it and weakening the Ork’s Waaagh energy.

Guilliman battled Bloodhowl Zack with a mysterious lightsword that suppressed Ork power, forcing the wounded warlord to flee through a Waaagh gate. Guilliman then turned the Ork army’s retreat into a rout, while Sigismund concluded that Guilliman’s strange ability was a form of psychic power that negated other psychic forces.

• Guilliman damaged Zack’s gravity hammer and discovered that his lightsword’s wounds prevented the Ork warlord from healing.
• Sigismund and the Space Marines fought the Orks across the battlefield as Transformers advanced to support Guilliman, and the Emperor's Poison Blade and an Apocalypse tank were destroyed.
• Zack used the Apocalypse tank’s turret as a weapon, but Guilliman pierced and slashed him before Zack escaped through a Waaagh gate.
• Guilliman announced that Zack had fled, weakening Ork morale and prompting commissars, Yitailong’s Blood Axe special ops Boyz, and other Orks to retreat.
• Sigismund told Guilliman that he believed the primarch possessed psychic power that negated other psychic abilities.
• Guilliman expanded his lightsword to one hundred meters and cut down Orks, causing their morale to collapse and confirming the human forces’ victory.

Guilliman secured victory on Skullcrusher Prime, where the Orks’ retreat collapsed into infighting and many surrendered after Cybertronian seed bombs devastated the battlefield. He captured Ork prisoners, protected the Waaagh gate and recovered the fallen Transformers, then warned against pursuing the fleeing warlord and urged Sigismund to reconsider the Primaris transformation.

• The Ork commissars killed themselves as their defensive line collapsed, while fleeing Greenskins slaughtered one another at the overcrowded Waaagh gate.
• Guilliman ordered his forces to contain the Orks, preserve their abandoned technology and recover every Transformer body, and Arcee explained that the Transformers had fought to protect humanity.
• A Transformer Basilisk launched Cybertronian seed bombs that turned the battlefield into metal and flame, prompting trapped Orks to surrender to Guilliman.
• Guilliman promised surrendered Orks leadership over other prisoners, and they attacked their fleeing kin to capture them and earn the position.
• Guilliman led his forces to secure the damaged Waaagh gate, rejected Sigismund’s proposal to pursue the Orks through it, and warned him that resisting the Primaris transformation could cost more lives.
• Sigismund agreed to persuade his battle-brothers to accept the transformation, while Grodd reported that Lox and Vulkan were coming to the planet.

Lox and Vulkan arrived on Skullcrush, where Guilliman proudly reported his victory before Lox confronted him about his reckless duel with Bloodhowl Zak. Lox tested Guilliman’s newly awakened power to negate psychic forces, while their later investigation into the Waaagh Gate and the political upheaval around Guilliman raised suspicions of a conspiracy originating on Terra.

• Lox and Vulkan landed on Skullcrush and entered the underground battlefield, where surrendered Orks and human forces were clearing wreckage and recovering Greenskin technology.
• Guilliman greeted Lox and boasted that he had reclaimed Skullcrush and captured an intact Waaagh Gate, but Lox rebuked him for charging a giant Ork warlord in close combat.
• Guilliman demonstrated the light blade he had awakened during the battle, and Lox tested it with psychic lightning before concluding Guilliman could partially negate psychic power through his firm belief in the material world.
• After three months of research, Lox and Guilliman found that the Waaagh Gate retained sophisticated spatial technology and discussed using captured Orks to reactivate it.
• Lox questioned whether the rumors about Guilliman, his departure from Terra, and the Ecclesiarchy’s coup had been arranged as a conspiracy, prompting Guilliman to consider whether the plot had originated on Terra.

Guilliman and Lox planned an offensive into the Ghoul Stars while the Ecclesiarchy’s turmoil spread from Terra, where Acting Ecclesiarch Elfreda sought the missing Euphrati Keeler. Traveling in disguise aboard a Rogue Trader fleet, Keeler received a mysterious revelation before the fleet was intercepted by an Inquisition force.

• Guilliman and Lox agreed to gather their forces and advance from Skullcrusher into the Ork Empire, while Guilliman refused to return to Terra.
• Acting Ecclesiarch Elfreda ordered the Imperium to find and bring Euphrati Keeler to Terra, hoping to secure her authority and prevent opposition to her religious reforms.
• Keeler traveled incognito aboard the Behemoth, evaded attention from the crew, and resolved to seek allies against Elfreda’s extremism.
• Wax from the Emperor’s statue burned Keeler’s hand and formed an image of a skull and sword, but she could not determine its meaning before alarms sounded.
• An unidentified fleet confronted Thomas Aili’s Rogue Trader convoy in the Warp, and an Inquisitor ordered the ships to shut down their engines and submit to boarding inspections.

Kater Eisenhorn and two Grey Knights boarded Thomas Aili’s ship to find Qile, who had fled Terra after Elfreda seized control of the Ecclesiarchy. After reuniting with Garro and Loken, Qile learned that the Inquisition wanted her to lead a resistance against Elfreda, but she feared the conflict could trigger another civil war.

• Kater Eisenhorn ordered Thomas Aili’s fleet to shut down its engines and searched the Mammoth with two Grey Knights, who sensed Qile aboard.
• Kater and the Grey Knights found Qile in a passenger compartment, where Garro and Loken revealed themselves and explained that they had come to help her.
• Kater told Qile that the Inquisition suspected Elfreda and planned to support Qile in challenging her control of the Ecclesiarchy.
• Qile explained that she had fled Terra and intended to seek help from Roboute Guilliman in the Far East.
• Kater urged Qile to reclaim her position, gain support from the Astartes Legions, and end Elfreda’s rule before the crisis worsened, while Qile worried about starting another civil war.

Garviel Loken sought meaning in recurring visions of the Emperor, Horus, and a shadow, while Qile used the Emperor’s Tarot to interpret his fate. The chapter ended with Thomas Eili’s fleet trapped in the Warp as Chaos Scrapcode corrupted the Colossus’s Machine Spirit and plunged the ship into darkness.

• Garviel Loken awoke from his recurring dream of the Emperor’s duel with Horus and confided his distress to Nathaniel Garro.
• Qile joined Loken and Garro, then read Loken’s Emperor’s Tarot; the cards suggested war, Samus, and repeated reversed images of the Golden Throne and God-Emperor.
• Loken heard Samus’s name in the Warp and recalled that the daemon had vanished from the Ultramarines’ Blackstone Fortress.
• Loken rejected the Tarot’s apparent predictions, declaring himself the last Luna Wolf and insisting that he controlled his own fate.
• Thomas Eili found his fleet stranded in the Warp and ordered Tech-priest Horen E6 Ferguson to restart the ships’ engines.
• Horen entered the Colossus’s mental realm, discovered Chaos Scrapcode corrupting its Machine Spirit, and was swallowed as the ship fell into darkness.

Lorgar learned that Guilliman had rewritten the Lectitio Divinitatus and claimed authorship, then failed to capture Qile and turned his attention to striking the Imperium elsewhere. He and Kairos Fateweaver considered an attack on Guilliman and Vulkan, with Angron and Fulgrim potentially joining them.

• Chaos Scrapcode corrupted the Elephant’s Machine Spirit, destroyed its Gellar Field, and exposed Thomas Ailey and the crew to the Warp.
• Lorgar appeared before Thomas, briefly suppressed his corruption, and urged him to believe in the Primordial Truth before reflecting on his past failures and his sons’ rebellion.
• Lorgar learned that the Ecclesiarchy had adopted the Lectitio Divinitatus, but discovered Guilliman had rewritten it and taken credit, driving him into a rage.
• Lorgar’s Word Bearers reported that Euphrati Keeler had escaped their search, while Kairos Fateweaver arrived and argued with Lorgar over the failed interception.
• Lorgar ordered Kairos to sacrifice 99,999 captives and discussed the Imperium’s growing resistance to Chaos, the Alpha Legion, and the uncertain author of recent events on Terra.
• Lorgar proposed pursuing Qile toward Guilliman and attacking Guilliman and Vulkan while they fought the Orks, and Kairos suggested recruiting Angron and Fulgrim.

Qile reached Nostramo with Loken, Garro, and Inquisitor Carter and warned Guilliman and Lox that the Emperor might have become the Dark King. Guilliman revealed the Emperor’s hidden struggle against the Dark King, leaving the group to confront the possibility that the power behind Terra’s upheaval was tied to the Emperor himself.

• Qile sensed a hostile presence in the Warp, but chose to continue toward Nostramo rather than risk Macragge’s civilians.
• After thirteen Terra days, Qile’s fleet arrived in the Nostramo system, passed the Night Lords’ inspections, and met Shen, who escorted Qile, Loken, Garro, and Carter to the planet.
• Qile told Guilliman that Elfreda had displaced her as Pontiff and suggested that an unknown force had helped the Ecclesiarchy seize power on Terra.
• Qile proposed that the Emperor might have changed, and Guilliman asked whether he had become the Dark King before revealing the secret of the Emperor’s struggle against that consciousness.
• Qile warned that the Custodes might obey the Dark King if he controlled the Emperor’s body, while Guilliman realized this could explain his fear of Terra and Elfreda.
• Lox described the Emperor and the Dark King as two aspects of one being, whose opposing forms of love for humanity were protection and devouring.

Lox explained that the Emperor was struggling against the unborn Chaos God known as the Dark King, whose influence had seized control of the Ecclesiarchy on Terra. Guilliman gave Qile forces to oppose Elfreda’s faction while the others considered how to aid the Emperor, and the chapter ended with Guilliman agreeing to focus on the Greenskin Orks as Qile fought the crisis of faith.

• Lox revealed the Emperor’s connection to the Dark King, its destructive nature, and the possibility that Samus served it, alarming Loken and the others.
• Qile urged the group to trust the Emperor’s sacrifices, and Guilliman concluded that the Dark King was influencing Elfreda and the Ecclesiarchy to spread destructive fanaticism.
• Guilliman appointed Qile to restore a rational Imperial Creed and offered her support from the Grey Knights, Inquisition, Assassinorum, Ultramar’s followers, and the Night Lords.
• Lox suggested that Malcador and Constantin Valdor had disappeared to carry out contingencies against the Dark King, while Guilliman agreed they might still be working to protect the Emperor.
• Guilliman and the others agreed to handle the Greenskin Orks while Qile opposed Elfreda’s Ecclesiarchy.