Chapter Summaries

Lox and Guilliman discussed humanity’s lost age of progress, the Emperor’s rule, and the burdens of immortality. The chapter left Lox wondering whether he had once possessed psychic power.

• Lox told Guilliman that humanity’s ignorance and fanaticism had become means of survival in a galaxy consumed by war.
• Guilliman reflected that the Emperor may have left the Imperium to mortals because he remembered humanity’s earlier age of progress.
• Guilliman wondered whether Lox’s revered Chief had been one of the Emperor’s identities, but Lox argued that the Chief would not have treated the primarchs as the Emperor had.
• Lox told Guilliman that he had loved, raised children, and watched his family die as he remained young across the ages.
• Guilliman asked why Lox lacked psychic power, and Lox wondered whether he had ever possessed it.

Lox told Guilliman about the Necrons at Pharos, and they agreed humanity should avoid provoking them until the civil war ended. Guilliman ordered a massive search for Blackstone across the Ultima Segmentum, while Lox warned him to leave any suspected Necron tombs undisturbed.

• After chatting for several hours, Lox explained what had happened at Pharos and described the Necrons to Guilliman.
• Guilliman agreed that humanity should not provoke the Necrons while the civil war continued and asked Lox what resources he needed to create a human Pharos.
• Lox requested Blackstone mines, explaining that Blackstone was essential to Pharos and could also be used to resist the Warp.
• Guilliman ordered the Ultramarines, Rogue Traders, and Adeptus Mechanicus to survey planets throughout the Ultima Segmentum for Blackstone.
• Lox warned Guilliman to abandon and cordon off any mines that appeared unnatural, since they might conceal Necron tomb worlds.
• Guilliman worried that the Adeptus Mechanicus would ignore his orders and disturb the sleeping Necrons.

Guilliman discussed the Space Wolves’ mission and the danger of his Librarians’ psychic powers with Titus Praetor and Lady Euten. Lady Euten confronted him about shouldering the Imperium’s responsibilities alone, while Lox tried to explain Guilliman’s refusal to call himself regent.

• Guilliman welcomed Lady Euten and Titus Praetor, who warned him that Fafnir and the Space Wolves might react dangerously if they discovered the Ultramarines’ Librarians were using psychic powers.
• Guilliman acknowledged that he had broken the Edict of Nikaea but said he intended to keep the Space Wolves close and make them understand the crisis.
• Lady Euten scolded Guilliman for risking himself and urged him to let the Four Champions command the forces and Lox handle research.
• Lox told Lady Euten that Guilliman would not call himself regent or sit upon a throne, but she argued that he might have no choice if no other loyal primarchs remained.

Guilliman received news that Ventanus had returned from Calth, but a meteor suddenly breached Macragge’s defenses and struck the city. After ordering Dolor to investigate, Guilliman considered Lox’s suggestion that a Warp storm had brought it there and went to meet Ventanus.

• Titus fell behind while Guilliman and Lady Euten argued, and Lox was caught between them until Dolor arrived to speak with Guilliman.
• Dolor reported that Ventanus had reached Macragge with wounded survivors from Calth, and Guilliman arranged to meet him privately in the hydroponic gardens.
• Titus warned Guilliman that his psychic gift had sensed danger as a piercing vibration filled the room and a fiery meteor streaked across the sky.
• Dolor reported that the meteor had struck the Anno District near Octagonal Fortress, and Guilliman ordered him to determine how it had evaded Macragge’s defenses.
• Lox suggested that a Warp storm might have brought the meteor directly into the atmosphere, and Guilliman accepted the possibility before setting out to see Ventanus.

Guilliman reflected on leadership and the dangers of power as he prepared to receive Ventanus, who had come from Calth after years of brutal underground fighting. Ventanus reported that most of Calth’s underground regions had been cleared, and Guilliman recognized how deeply the war had changed him.

• Lox discussed seeking battlefield firepower and gathering warriors from more Legions into his personal guard, while Guilliman urged him to make better use of the Red Alert database.
• As they walked a corridor built by King Konor, Guilliman reflected on a ruler’s duty to examine himself and questioned whether the Warmaster title had helped lead Horus toward rebellion.
• Guilliman considered how he should balance war and leadership while ruling the Ultima Segmentum.
• Guilliman removed his power gauntlets and welcomed Ventanus, whose scarred Mark IV armor showed the hardships of the war on Calth.
• Ventanus reported that most of Calth’s underground regions had been cleared, and Guilliman noticed that the captain remained tense and ready to draw his weapon.
• Guilliman felt that his sons had borne too much for Calth and resolved that it was time to compensate them.

Guilliman welcomed Ventanus and nine other Ultramarines who had returned from Calth, believing they were battle-scarred veterans seeking a reunion. Lox noticed inconsistencies too late: the warriors attacked Guilliman, and he fled to alert the Victrix Guard.

• Guilliman offered Ventanus new armor and wine, but Ventanus refused to remove his helmet and asked to bring his battle-brothers inside.
• Guilliman let nine armed Ultramarines enter and keep their weapons, despite Lox's growing unease.
• Lox questioned Ventanus about Tauren and Hurst, and Ventanus's answers revealed that he did not know Hurst had died on Calth.
• Guilliman noticed the warriors would not remove their helmets, then saw them draw their boltguns and attack as another struck the door's activation button.
• Lox escaped through the doors as a bolt round passed through his projection, then shouted to the Victrix Guard that assassins were in the room.

Guilliman fought off an Alpha Legion assassination attempt in his chambers while the Victrix Guard struggled to breach the sealed door. The assassins delayed the guards with a magnetic device as Guilliman, wounded and poisoned, tried to hold out for reinforcements.

• The Victrix Guard found the chamber door’s controls and hydraulics destroyed, then attacked its reinforced frame while avoiding a blast that might harm Guilliman.
• Guilliman recognized the attackers as Alpha Legion assassins firing banestrike rounds and realized Ventanus had not betrayed him.
• Guilliman used an overturned desk for cover and killed one assassin by hurling a desk leg through his helmet.
• A banestrike round wounded Guilliman and spread toxins through his body as he tried to buy time for the guards.
• The assassin at the door attached a disguised magnetic device, creating a field that hindered the Victrix Guard’s efforts to breach it.

Guilliman fought ten Alpha Legion assassins trapped with him in his office, realizing their attack pointed to a failed assault on Terra and fearing his Legion had been infiltrated. He killed several attackers, but a hidden shooter struck him in the head with a toxin-laced bolt.

• The Alpha warriors' gunfire forced Guilliman to abandon his desk and evade their attacks in the cramped office.
• Guilliman used a collapsing throne to crush three assassins, then tore an arm from another and wielded the body as a shield.
• Lox distracted the attackers, allowing Guilliman to seize two short swords and attack the Alpha warriors.
• Guilliman tried to make the assassins reveal who had ordered the attack and inferred that the Warmaster feared Guilliman would reinforce Terra.
• Guilliman killed two more enemies with precise swordsmanship, but a hidden Alpha warrior hit him in the back of the head with a toxin-laced bolt.

Guilliman fought off an Alpha Legion assassination attempt in Macragge’s inner court but was gravely wounded before the Victrix Guard arrived. As physicians treated him under lockdown, Lady Euten and Valentin Dolor waited anxiously for him to awaken.

• Alpha Legionaries ambushed Guilliman, who killed several attackers while the sealed doors delayed the guards.
• Guilliman fought off Ventanus and crushed the last attacker before the Victrix Guard broke through and killed the surviving assassins.
• Lox identified a fallen ritual dagger as the attackers’ intended Warp-imbued killing blow, which Guilliman had narrowly avoided.
• Physicians carried Guilliman to the medical center, where Tarasha Euten and Valentin Dolor learned that he was wounded but should survive.
• Macragge went into complete lockdown as Dolor coordinated security checks and Lady Euten waited outside the emergency room for Guilliman to awaken.

Guilliman recovered from an assassination attempt while Lox and the Ultramarines watched over him. After overhearing Lady Euten challenge the belief that he was invulnerable, Guilliman asked Lox to protect the Five Hundred Worlds if he ever fell.

• The Mechanicus Biologis and Apothecaries examined Guilliman, treated his wounds, and filtered deadly toxins from his blood.
• Lady Euten argued with Fratus Auguston and Praetor Titus that Guilliman was mortal and should not be treated as an invulnerable god.
• Guilliman awoke and admitted to Lox that he had wanted to see whether the Five Hundred Worlds could endure without him.
• Lox urged Guilliman to stop imagining his own fall and focus on staying safe.
• Guilliman asked Lox to take responsibility for his realm if he died, and Lox told him to remain Macragge’s leader.

After the assassination attempt, Guilliman rebuked his sons for blaming one another and ordered them to heed Lox if he fell. The story left him preparing to meet a Word Bearer who still claimed loyalty to the Emperor.

• Lady Euten scolded Auguston for blaming the palace guards and reminded him that Guilliman had also been careless.
• Guilliman apologized to Lady Euten, reassured her, and accepted her care as he recovered from his wounds.
• Auguston demanded that the Victorious Army and palace guard be held accountable, but Guilliman rebuked his sons and urged unity.
• Guilliman ordered his sons to follow Lox’s counsel and commands if he fell, declaring Lox his closest friend and a capable adviser.
• Dracus Glord reported that Captain Ventanus had arrived with a Word Bearer loyal to the Emperor, and Guilliman ordered them brought in.

Ventanus brought Hermit, a restrained Word Bearer who had surrendered during the war on Calth, before Guilliman. Hermit explained that he rejected Lorgar’s path and believed the Emperor’s destruction of Perfect City should have been accepted as a divine trial, then revealed he had foreseen that the betrayal on Calth would strengthen the Ultramarines.

• Ventanus apologized to Guilliman for arriving late, and Guilliman comforted him before Ventanus introduced Hermit.
• Ventanus explained that Hermit had surrendered during the underground war on Calth and claimed to have taken part in the massacre on Isstvan V.
• Guilliman questioned why Hermit had surrendered despite hating the Ultramarines for destroying Perfect City.
• Hermit said war had shown him that the Word Bearers had taken the wrong path and that their faith required them to accept the Emperor’s destruction of Perfect City as a trial.
• Hermit condemned Lorgar as a false believer who worshipped power rather than the Emperor and said the betrayal on Calth would only make the Ultramarines stronger.

The Hermit explained why he had surrendered to the Ultramarines and grieved over the Word Bearers’ betrayal of the Emperor. Guilliman commanded him to live and atone by using his knowledge of the Legion and Warp sorcery, leaving the Ultramarines poised to strike back against their enemies’ schemes.

• The Hermit said he surrendered at Calth after realizing the Word Bearers had turned against the Emperor and helped Chaos destroy humanity’s future.
• Lox and Guilliman recognized the Hermit’s self-destructive guilt and decided to keep him alive for his knowledge of the Warp and the Word Bearers.
• Guilliman declared that the Hermit could atone and ordered him not to seek death before earning the Emperor’s forgiveness.
• Guilliman commanded the Hermit to help loyalists expose the Word Bearers’ plots, and the Hermit pledged to use his religious knowledge against his former brothers.
• Lox asked whether the Hermit could use rituals to summon Warp daemons for intelligence, and the Hermit said he could.

Guilliman and Lox planned to build a Blackstone fortress to summon and enslave Warp creatures, using untouchables to contain them and extract intelligence. The plan depended on finding enough Blackstone, while Lox also raised the possibility of using it to safely restore artificial intelligence.

• Guilliman explained that he wanted to build a Blackstone fortress on a moon of Macragge and have the hermit summon controllable Warp creatures inside it.
• Lox recognized that untouchables could drain the creatures’ essence and help force them into service.
• Guilliman argued that enslaved Warp creatures could provide valuable knowledge and intelligence while the Ruinstorm cut off communication between the Ultima Segmentum and the Sol System.
• Guilliman acknowledged that they needed Blackstone and said the Mechanicum and the fleets of the Five Hundred Worlds were searching for deposits.
• Lox suggested that Blackstone might also create a Warp-safe environment where humanity could use artificial intelligence, and Guilliman deferred judgment until its effects were verified.

Lox visited the imprisoned Word Bearers hermit and told Ventanus that Guilliman had chosen him to lead the Legion’s counter-infiltration work. The hermit described seeing Calth’s dead guided by golden light in the Warp and a cold sun he believed revealed the Emperor’s power, while Lox reflected on his own influence over the timeline.

• Lox found Ventanus guarding the hermit in a heavily secured underground prison cell.
• Lox told Ventanus that he and Guilliman wanted him to take charge of intelligence and counter-infiltration against spies, especially the Alpha Legion.
• Lox explained that a weather-control device and geomagnetic generators would help make Calth habitable again, and said the planet would be rebuilt as a monument to resistance.
• The hermit said Calth’s dead had been guided away from Warp daemons by golden light and welcomed by blazing skeleton warriors resembling Space Marines.
• The hermit described a cold sun in the Warp as a glimpse of the Emperor’s immense power and called Lox the Unpredictable One, beyond the reach of foresight.
• Lox considered how his actions from Isstvan to Terra had changed the original timeline and would continue to shape it.

Lox questioned a hermit who warned that the Emperor favored him and that the Chaos Gods had noticed him, then wandered Macragge and saw how his reforms were improving ordinary lives. He resolved to preserve not only humanity but its civilization for future ages.

• The hermit told Lox that he bore the God-Emperor’s favor, was crucial to a plan, and should keep The Book of Rowell with him.
• Lox left the prison with Ventanus, who warned that the Word Bearers would hunt the hermit if they learned he had abandoned the Warp.
• Lox used his projection to travel to a civilian district on Macragge and walk among its residents.
• Lox observed falling food prices and reflected on how synthetic food, cheap electricity, and free education were changing life on Macragge.
• Lox concluded that preserving humanity’s civilization and cultural spirit mattered as much as passing on its flame.

Captain Gantula and the White Scars arrived in Macragge’s orbit and were stunned by the immense metal structure that served as a planetary shipyard. Their fleet docked at Hera Space Dock, where Gantula led his battle-brothers inside to explore.

• Gantula’s fleet approached a metal satellite more than 3,400 kilometers across, which the Ultramarines’ navigator clarified was not the smaller battle planet Amattra.
• Gantula and Kliver marveled at the giant structure and its enormous spaceports as their ship passed through its energy shield.
• The fleet was guided into a berth at Hera Space Dock, where the ship’s engines were shut down and its reactor output reduced.
• The navigator welcomed the visitors, then departed in a small craft, leaving them to move about freely.
• Gantula led the White Scars from their ship and into the planetary shipyard.

Gantula and the White Scars and Iron Hands warriors toured the vast Hera Planetary Dockyard, marveling at its automated repairs and star-powered facilities. Lox, Roboute Guilliman’s trusted mortal adviser, met them and offered to show them a new warship under construction.

• Gantula and the others watched automated machines rapidly dismantle and repair warships with a process that fused their hulls into exceptionally strong structures.
• A Servitor explained that the Hera Planetary Dockyard had been built in two Terran years by the Adeptus Mechanicus and the Mustafar Forge World on Roboute Guilliman’s orders.
• Gantula asked about the dockyard’s main purpose, but the Servitor refused to answer because he lacked authorization.
• Gantula and Cliver saw the dockyard’s hollow central structure and its stellar mirrors channeling energy to a furnace, while the Iron Hands warrior admired the automated facility.
• Lox met Gantula at a space elevator, exchanged greetings with him, and offered to show the group a new warship under construction.

Lox consulted veteran White Scars and Iron Hands officers about the warships he planned to produce at the vast Hera shipyard. After Gantula argued that speed was central to the White Scars’ naval doctrine, Lox invited the group to inspect the ships under construction at Shipyard Three.

• Lox oversaw the Hera planetary shipyard’s preparations to build new warships for Roboute Guilliman’s fleet.
• Lox met Captain Gantula and other White Scars and Iron Hands officers to seek their advice on Imperial warship design.
• Lox outlined the Imperium’s battleships, strike-craft carriers, and void fortresses, and contrasted their strengths and weaknesses.
• Gantula recommended fast, highly mobile battleships, citing the Stormblade and its role in breaking the Alpha Legion’s encirclement at Sondax.
• Lox led the officers toward Shipyard Three to inspect the warships under construction.

Lox showed Gantula and the White Scars the enormous planetary-class warship under construction in Dockyard Three, explaining that its design prioritized speed and that he privately called it Thundercloud. The unfinished vessel was intended to outpace every Imperial warship and strike enemy forces with its powerful energy weapons.

• Gantula asked Lox how many similar conversations he had held and realized Lox was speaking through a projection rather than his real body.
• Lox led Gantula and the White Scars to Dockyard Three, where they saw a colossal warship under construction.
• Lox explained that the warship used a widely available, self-repairing alloy instead of adamantium and would exceed one hundred kilometers in length.
• Lox said the vessel would be faster than the White Scars' Blade Storm and every other Imperial warship.
• Lox revealed that he called the planetary-class warship Thundercloud and described its Exterminatus-level main cannon and role in dividing and striking enemy forces at high speed.