Chapter Summaries

The Iron Hands destroyed a giant Slaaneshi Flesh Train at heavy cost while the Morlag Clan’s raid succeeded and Slaanesh escaped with stolen gene-seed. Evan experienced the battle through shared memories, and the Crimson Tide faced a confused defense against Emperor-worshipping pilgrims before Khorne’s Blood Legion attacked.

• The Iron Hands condemned the Neophyte’s disobedience, while the Morlag Clan Chief reported that the raid matched his combat predictions except for six Warp-tainted enemy ships.
• Borgus warriors and a Fellblade trapped and killed a giant Chaos eel, but one Adamantium Warrior died and his surviving co-pilot was left permanently trapped in the armor.
• Chaos beasts hatched from the eel’s corpse, forcing the Borgus Clan into another battle of attrition, while Slaanesh’s Terminators escaped with stolen gene-seed and Bronze Claw captives.
• Evan experienced the battle through the memories of its participants and reflected on the Emperor’s long game as Slaanesh’s fleeing ship was intercepted by a Tzeentch Warband.
• William’s forces confronted Emperor-worshipping Pilgrims incited by Tzeentch Cultists, and Kazhaniv proposed using Evan’s videos to educate them through a mech-virus.
• Khorne’s Blood Legion burst from the Mandeville Point and attacked the Crimson Tide and the Pilgrim Ships, catching William’s intelligence network by surprise.

William’s Crimson Tide and the Imperial Navy fought Khorne’s fleet across the system, using the Light of the People and a boarding assault on the Conqueror to inflict heavy losses. As battles raged aboard the enemy flagship, Boomblasta received a vision from Gork and Mork and led the Orks to set sail for war.

• William withdrew the Crimson Tide fleet toward the system’s asteroid belt while the Imperial Navy prepared a crossfire against Khorne’s advancing armada.
• The Crimson Tide used hit-and-run attacks, then the Light of the People’s guns shattered several enemy ships before Khorne’s main force charged the flagship.
• William positioned the Light of the People near the star and rallied its crew as the Conqueror approached through the asteroid field.
• Kazhaniv and his squad teleported aboard the Conqueror, where they fought the World Eaters and Kazhaniv faced the Skull Collector in the Blood God Arena.
• A Librarian battled Khârn in the arena while Boomblasta awoke from a vision of Gork and Mork and ordered the Orks to set sail for a fight.

The Salamanders faced Boomblasta’s overwhelming Ork vanguard while trying to evacuate Solonk Four and coordinate the unruly Imperial forces. As the battle escalated, the Flesh Tearers committed to defending the planet alongside its determined civilians, while Hiber’s fleet fell back behind Number Four World.

• The Assassin Mentor warned the Salamanders that Boomblasta was approaching and proposed an assassination plan, while the Librarian agreed to prepare a decapitation strike.
• The Orks overwhelmed the system’s forward defensive belt, and Hiber ordered the Imperial forces to withdraw toward Solonk Four as evacuations continued.
• Hiber learned that the Governor had accepted orders to keep the Death Korps of Krieg on Solonk Four, so he ordered the Executioners to execute the Governor and Gabriel Seth volunteered the Flesh Tearers to defend the world.
• Gabriel Seth’s troops evacuated civilians, then accepted the remaining locals who claimed to be Planetary Defense Force soldiers and urged them to prepare to fight for their home.
• The Assassin Mentor revealed that the Ork vanguard’s larger force included the Space Gungat and told Hiber to hold it in the system until reinforcements arrived.
• Ork boarding parties breached the Salamanders’ ships, and Hiber withdrew the Command Fleet behind Number Four World as Ork vessels began falling toward the planet.

Gabriel’s forces fortified Solonk Four as Orks adapted to the toxic planet, while Hiber led a costly assault on a massive Ork warship. Pons Izak and Hiber seized an Ork super-tank and drove it through the enemy, leaving them racing toward the Warboss.

• Gabriel ordered Krieg artillery placed at the cliff edge, and Ork Kommandos infiltrated the human camp before a Flesh Tearers Librarian killed them.
• Hiber assembled an assault fleet to attack the gigantic Ork vessel, and Salamanders and Silver Skulls warriors teleported aboard it.
• Hiber and Pons Izak fought through the Ork bodyguards, killing one enormous brute together.
• Hiber and Izak decided to seize an approaching Ork armored vehicle and use it for a rapid assault.
• Izak boarded the super-tank, killed its Mekboy and Gretchin crew, and took the controls while Hiber held on at the rear.
• Hiber and Izak leaned their weight to steer the tank, fooling nearby Orks into thinking it was being driven by an Evil Sunz Ork.

Izak and Hiber fought through the Space Gungat as the Salamanders and their allies attacked the Orks, but Boomblasta unleashed a system-wide Waaagh that overwhelmed the defenders. When Hiber and the Librarian charged Boomblasta, the cries of the dying Salamanders reached Vulkan, who emerged from the Warp to strike the Ork warboss.

• Izak and Hiber attacked the armored Goff Big Boss, while Izak held him back so Hiber could carry the Teleport Beacon to the Weirdboss.
• Hiber and the arriving Librarian fought the Weirdboss at his psychic throne, and the Weirdboss broke the throne and gravely wounded Hiber before Boomblasta's power silenced the battlefield.
• Boomblasta's Waaagh spread across the star system, empowered the Orks, and left Hiber and the surviving Salamanders facing the enormous warboss.
• Hiber and the Librarian charged Boomblasta, while Vulkan heard their cries from within the Ork Energy Projector of Destruction and fought his way toward them.
• As Boomblasta killed Hiber, the Librarian's psychic death scream opened a gap in the Waaagh field, and Vulkan's skeletal hand emerged from the Warp to swing a warhammer at Boomblasta.

Vulkan returned to life and fought Boomblasta as the Imperial forces struggled to reach the Space Gungat’s final battlefield. After a coordinated attack exposed Boomblasta to a devastating fleet weapon, Vulkan delivered the final hammer blow, ending the Ork Warboss’s life.

• Vulkan returned as a skeleton, destroyed Boomblasta’s mech connections with Destruction Tremor, and began regenerating after the explosion hurled him away.
• Pons Izak charged Boomblasta but was pulled from its psychic storm by the still-regenerating Vulkan, who faced the Ork Warboss alone.
• The Astartes gathered at the battlefield and attacked Boomblasta, while the disguised Callidus Assassin used an explosive weapon to drive the Phase Sword deeper into it.
• An Imperial Black Ship fired a beam guided by the Phase Sword, devastating the Space Gungat and freeing the C’tan shard inside Boomblasta.
• Vulkan survived the blast, used the Executioners veteran’s thrown Thunder Hammer to reach Boomblasta, and struck the final blow.

The Deathskulls Boss took over the Orks after Boomblasta’s death, while the Imperial Navy’s failed counterattack led to the loss of Number Four World and Vulkan’s retreat. Elsewhere, Kazhaniv and Li Anjun defeated a Greater Daemon, only for Khârn to appear as the next threat.

• The Deathskulls Boss teleported to Boomblasta’s corpse, then later transplanted his head onto Boomblasta’s body and rallied the Orks as their new boss.
• The Imperial Navy mistook the Orks’ disarray for defeat, advanced into a trap, and suffered devastating losses as the Orks recovered.
• Gabriel Seth ordered the surviving Imperial forces to retreat before Exterminatus, while Vulkan agreed to withdraw with the Salamanders and the fleet abandoned Number Four World.
• The Deathskulls Boss stayed behind to loot the system and repair the Space Gungat as the Phalanx set out to join the retreating Salamanders.
• Li Anjun wounded the Greater Daemon with the Eternal Sorrow, and Kazhaniv killed it with his Lightning Power Claws.
• Khârn appeared before Kazhaniv, holding the Black Templars’ Thunder Hammer.

Li Anjun and the Crimson Tide forces tried to seize the Conqueror while trapping the Blood Army in the asteroid belt, but Khârn and Khorne’s blessings prevented them from capturing the battleship. They escaped the doomed system after sacrificing an Aeldari Craftworld to trigger catastrophic stellar upheaval, leaving the Blood Legion crippled and the system a death zone.

• Li Anjun and Kazhaniv summoned the Chief Librarian, who fought Khârn and two Lord of Skulls with heavy weapons and a rocket-like thrust attack.
• The Crimson Tide fleet trapped most of the Blood Army in the asteroid belt as boarding forces attacked the Conqueror and the Light of the People.
• Khârn overwhelmed Li Anjun and Kazhaniv until Mad Wolf and reinforcements intervened, but the attackers could not capture the Conqueror and withdrew with heavy losses.
• The Light of the People escaped around the star while the Lamenters and Blood Army pursued, and the Blood Army discovered an Aeldari Craftworld blocking its route through the asteroid belt.
• Khârn ordered a retreat after realizing the Craftworld had no controls, but it plunged into the star and caused a massive stellar eruption that destroyed most of the Blood Legion fleet.
• The surviving Blood Legion ships escaped through a warp rift formed by Void Shield detonations, while the system became an uninhabitable death zone.

Belisarius Cawl found the Khan absent from his defensive sector as Jaghatai Khan’s raids disrupted Abaddon’s advance, while Magnus led a massive assault into the Webway. The Chaos forces broke a Blackstone Spire and altered its power, forcing Rogal Dorn and Constantin Valdor to counterattack as Evan struggled under the growing strain of the Emperor’s power.

• Belisarius Cawl went to the Khan’s sector and found that the Khan was not on the defensive line, while Jaghatai Khan’s raids had already destroyed Black Legion forces and disrupted Abaddon’s plans.
• Magnus entered the Webway and fought the Imperial defenders, eventually bringing down the Reaver Titan Fervent Mind before Constantin Valdor and the Sisters of Silence drove him back.
• Chaos forces targeted the Blackstone Spires and their chains, and Tzeentch, Malice, Vashtorr, and Slaanesh committed Titans to capture a spire.
• Magnus absorbed the daemons’ sacrifices, grew to Emperor-class Titan size, and drove the dead Titans into a Blackstone Spire, breaking it and allowing cultists to alter its polarity.
• Rogal Dorn assembled an improvised assault force with Ina, Custodians, and Crimson Tide veterans to retake or destroy the altered spire, while Evan felt the Iron Chain Link fail and struggled to bear the Emperor’s power.

Evan endured an overwhelming flood of prayers and memories as the Imperium’s crisis worsened, witnessing the sacrifices and battles of the Crimson Tide, White Scars, and other Imperial forces. The memories eventually shifted to the Fourteenth Black Crusade, leaving him watching the Imperium’s history unfold backward as he struggled to remember himself.

• Tzeentch’s followers used changes in the Astronomican to intensify the Ecclesiarchy’s prayers, while Abaddon’s conquests reduced the thoughts reaching Evan.
• Terra’s people rioted, and the Adeptus Arbites stepped forward to maintain order as Evan’s growing psyker power began damaging his body.
• Evan witnessed a mortal soldier survive a battlefield attack and charge with the Crimson Tide, then saw a Night Lord torment a ship captain and prepare the captain’s child for recruitment.
• William, Gajie, and Kshevich fought the Sons of Horus; Kshevich died holding the line, and Evan could not tell how Gajie had died.
• Evan watched Deika lead White Scars into an Ork assault and later fight beside a Combat Servitor against Genestealers, who died saving Deika.
• Evan’s memories filled with battles from the Fourteenth Black Crusade, and he reflected that watching the Imperium’s history backward made it seem to be improving.

Angel DeWyn spent his remaining life holding back daemons as the Aeldari, Black Legion, and Imperial forces converged on the Blackstone Fortress. When Guilliman sought the Lion’s help against Angron, Alpharius revealed his identity and began copying the Lion’s appearance and Warp essence to borrow his strength.

• Angel DeWyn used his final immortal vitality to drive back the daemon horde, while an Aeldari High Farseer received a confused prophecy about the coming turning point.
• Yvraine’s Reaper Host attacked the Blackstone Fortress, where the Black Templars, Red Corsairs, daemons, and Adeptus Mechanicus reinforcements plunged the battle into chaos.
• Abaddon sought Narvo Quinn’s help to find the Iron Fist and recruited him to the Council of Four Kings, then sent forces to pursue Aeldari Craftworlds and aid the Red Corsairs.
• Jaghatai Khan pursued the Black Legion as Guilliman redirected forces toward the looming threat of Angron and went to seek the Lion’s aid.
• Alpharius revealed himself to the Lion and bit him, beginning to copy the Lion’s form and Warp essence so he could fight Angron.

Alpharius impersonated Guilliman and then became the Lion to lead Imperial forces toward the Khan’s defensive sector while the Three Holy Litanies broke free of the Jupiter Shipyards and crashed into Luna. Trajann Valoris prepared the Custodes and Imperial forces for a lunar ground war, then ordered Victor to take command if he fell.

• Alpharius told the Lion and Azrael that he had taken Guilliman’s place, ordered Azrael to keep the truth secret, and departed disguised as the Lord Regent.
• Alpharius led the Victrix Guard and Solar Auxilia toward the Khan’s defensive sector as the Black Legion’s advance slowed under Imperial resistance and Alpha Legion attacks.
• Khorne’s forces corrupted the Three Holy Litanies’ engines, tore the vessel free of the Jupiter Shipyards, and forced Trajann Valoris to withdraw the Custodes as Imperial fleets bombarded it.
• A mysterious force from Luna drew the Three Holy Litanies toward the moon, where it crashed and scattered debris that threatened Terra.
• Trajann Valoris deployed Custodes, Solar Auxilia, and preparations for Titan Legions across Luna as Khorne’s daemons emerged from the wreck.
• Trajann ordered Victor to teleport to the target area and lead the war if Trajann Valoris fell.

Rogal Dorn and Ralph led the Iron Warriors and Imperial Fists in a costly assault to retake the Blackstone Spire from Magnus. Magnus was struck by a Sisters of Silence Thunderhawk’s turbo-laser as he fought Ina and Dorn, leaving the battle unresolved.

• Victor wondered why he had been kept at the Pharos as teleportation support while Constantin Valdor and Rogal Dorn fought the daemon hordes.
• Ralph led 2,353 Iron Warriors toward the Blackstone Spire, rejected Dorn’s attempt to take command, and explained that they were a siege formation.
• Dorn acknowledged Ralph’s expertise and ordered the Iron Warriors to breach the Titan wreckage while the Imperial Fists followed in support.
• The Iron Warriors used rockets to scatter across the position and then converge on Magnus, while Dorn attacked him with a Bone Shield and forced him away from the Blackstone.
• Magnus used his whip and the reanimated Titan weapons to hold off the Imperium’s forces, but Ralph and the Iron Warriors grabbed the whip to keep Dorn from being pulled away.
• Ina climbed the chain of warriors and attacked Magnus, then a Sisters of Silence Thunderhawk struck him with its turbo-laser cannon.

Ina was mortally wounded while helping Dorn bring down Magnus, and Dorn ultimately defeated the Daemon Primarch but could not save her. As the fighting subsided, Dorn asked Cawl to make a blackstone coffin for Magnus, while Ralph carried Ina’s body and resolved to bring it home.

• Ina stabbed Magnus and was crushed by the pressure of his counterattack, leaving her fatally injured.
• Dorn and the Imperial Fists and Iron Warriors attacked Magnus while stasis bombs briefly halted the battle, but the White Scars reinforcements were destroyed by Vashtorr’s Titan weapons.
• Ralph and the Techmarines failed to find a way to save Ina, while the Adamantium Warriors held their lines and drove the daemons back.
• Dorn overpowered Magnus, broke his spine, and drove pieces of a Blank’s skeleton into him while demanding that Magnus return his brother.
• Dorn asked Cawl to make a blackstone coffin for Magnus, and Ralph placed Ina’s body in a hollowed blackstone fragment and carried it on his back.

Rogal Dorn secured the wounded Magnus for transport while the Crimson Tide and allied forces held the Blackstone Spire and fought across the surrounding fronts. The Penal Legion reached the Blackstone Fortress, where Ken proved his marksmanship and the newly arrived prisoners helped a Black Templars warrior defeat a Possessed.

• Rogal Dorn had Cawl reinforce a War Coffin with Blackstone and Sisters of Silence bones, then strapped the barely living Magnus to his back and resolved to return with him.
• Ralph carried Ina's armored body as the Crimson Tide's new banner, while Vlorus ordered fresh troops to relieve the exhausted defenders and hold the line.
• The Adamantium Warriors and Sisters of Silence destroyed a Great Unclean One, frightening the daemons and easing pressure across the defensive fronts.
• The Khan harried the Black Legion as the Aeldari defended and repaired the Blackstone Fortress, and the Penal Legion arrived to reinforce the battle.
• Inquisitor Flieg led the Penal Legion into the fortress, where Ken found a Lasgun and fought effectively against Chaos Cultists.
• The Penal Legion encountered a Possessed fighting a Black Templars warrior, and their gunfire distracted the daemon long enough for the warrior to kill it.

Ken led the surviving Penal Legion soldiers through the devastated battlefield, earning their loyalty and redemption after fighting beside a wounded Black Templars warrior. As they reached a clash between powerful Aeldari and Chaos forces, Ashlan found Ken’s battered unit and recognized their call as the wanderer came home.

• After the commissar died, Inquisitor Flieg put Ken in charge of the Penal Legion and ordered the soldiers to follow the Black Templars warrior.
• Ken guided the soldiers through the wreckage, helped them survive an Aeldari attack, and earned Flieg’s approval, which led to his explosive collar being removed.
• Ken armed and organized the survivors, then killed a Chaos Warrior with the Aeldari monomolecular Combat Knife after the Black Templars warrior fell.
• The battered unit advanced toward a massive battle between Aeldari and Chaos forces, while Ken’s soldiers rallied behind him.
• Ashlan encountered Ken’s unit and exchanged the White Scars’ calls with Ken, recognizing that the wanderer had returned.

Jaghatai Khan led a lightning-fast assault through the Blackstone Fortress, devastating the Reaper Host and forcing Yvraine’s forces to retreat into the Webway. After the Khan withdrew under fire, Ken confronted Inquisitor Flieg over the penal troops’ orders, while Abaddon celebrated the Spirit Stones seizure and moved the Black Legion toward the Iron Fist.

• Ashlan scouted the enemy forces and reported that the battlefield held a Keeper of Secrets, a Shard of Khaine, and the Aeldari Avatar of Ynnead as Jaghatai Khan charged into battle.
• Jaghatai Khan shattered Khaine’s body, drove back Heartflayer, and wounded Yvraine and Lelith as he tore through the Reaper Host.
• Yvraine and Visarch withdrew through the Webway with Lelith and a captured White Scars warrior, while the Khan stopped to rescue his son.
• Narvo Quinn ordered the Black Legion fleet to fire on the Blackstone Fortress, so the Khan withdrew with his forces and told his troops to stay alive.
• Ken defied Inquisitor Flieg’s orders, claiming the Emperor’s angel had authorized him to use Aeldari weapons, while the soldiers sided with Ken.
• Abaddon celebrated the Black Legion’s seizure of the Spirit Stones and ordered the fleet toward the Gloriana-class Battleship Iron Fist.

A Penal Legion survivor named Ken was captured by the Night Lords, who took control of the Blackstone Fortress and eventually restored its ability to move. Meanwhile, Terra’s weakening reality barrier left the Emperor’s defenses faltering until Kaldor Draigo returned and took the place of the last Grey Knight sustaining the Grand Array.

• A Penal Legion survivor followed the Night Lords after they killed Ken and recruited him as an auxiliary, and he witnessed them seize the Blackstone Fortress.
• The Adeptus Mechanicus activated the fortress using Spirit Stones, and the Night Lords later worked with rival Mechanicus factions to restore its mobility.
• Chapter Master Morigen and the Raven Guard Expeditionary Force received orders connected to Jaghatai, while the Emperor’s worsening condition left Terra vulnerable to Chaos.
• As the Grey Knights dwindled, the last young Grey Knight tried to take his place at the Altar, but Kaldor Draigo returned and stopped him.
• Kaldor Draigo took the Altar’s place in sustaining the Emperor, unleashing the Grand Array and vast storms of power against the Daemons.

Alpharius confronted Angron aboard the Duel Winner, using a forest illusion to wound the Daemon Primarch before the illusion was shattered. As the fight turned against the depleted Victrix Guard, the Lerna Terminators and Alpharius’s true Primarch’s Guard arrived to attack Angron.

• Khorne sent Angron to break the Primaris forces in Khan’s Defense Zone, and Angron boarded warships while Cawl struggled to find a way to stop him.
• Alpharius confronted Angron aboard the Duel Winner, and the two Primarchs fought through the ship as Titus and the Victrix Guard battled the World Eaters.
• Angron battered Alpharius’s armor and destroyed the Emperor’s Icon, but Alpharius revealed that he was using the Lion’s likeness and trapped Angron in Mistwood.
• Khorne’s intervention shattered the forest illusion, leaving Angron wounded while Titus and the remaining Victrix Guard fought to hold back the World Eaters.
• The Lerna Terminators teleported in to aid Titus, and Alpharius’s true Primarch’s Guard arrived with advanced weapons to attack Angron.

Alpharius led the Primarch's Guard in a battle that shattered Angron's body, but Angron wounded him with a final axe strike and dragged him into a struggle within his mind. As the Alpha Legion Librarian sacrificed himself to expose the wound, Titus seized the axe embedded in the Primarch and refused to let go.

• Titus fought beside the disguised Alpha Legion reinforcements while Alpharius and the Primarch's Guard attacked Angron with relic weapons.
• Alpharius taunted Angron, trapped him with a Thunder Shield, and struck him with the Emperor's Sword before the Librarian fired Sunfall into the mist.
• Angron's final blow passed through the Emperor's Sword and shattered his own body, while his axe struck Alpharius and pulled him into Khorne's Domain.
• Alpharius revealed that the apparent battlefield was his mind lake and summoned Imperial forces to fight the daemons invading his soul.
• Alpharius directed the Alpha Legion Librarian to shoot an arrow made from his own life at the wound in the sky, and the Librarian sacrificed himself to strike it.
• Titus saw the axe embedded in the Primarch, grabbed its haft, and held on as the Lerna Terminators joined him and the Purity Chains shattered.