Chapter Summaries

Titus freed the Lion from Khorne’s control, and the primarch revealed that his unleashed Warp Essence made him difficult to remain in the physical world. Across the galaxy, the Crimson Tide and Imperial fleets thwarted Chaos’s advances, but Abaddon’s trap aboard the Vengeful Spirit redirected Jaghatai Khan’s boarding pod toward the enemy flagship.

• Titus pulled the blood axe from the Lion, ending Khorne’s control, and the Lion ordered him to stay while they thwarted the Blood Legion’s attack.
• The Crimson Tide fleet attacked Khorne’s forces, while a hidden fleet ambush helped stop the Blood Legion from advancing.
• Abaddon chose not to commit everything to an assault on Terra and led the Black Legion toward the Iron Fist, expecting to seize it.
• Tech-Priest Mapus’s disguised bio-ships and hidden defenses delayed Abaddon, giving the Iron Fist time to evacuate before Jaghatai Khan arrived with the Seventh Fleet.
• Abaddon boarded the Iron Fist while Khan chose a shielded Boarding Pod, but Tzeentch’s Labyrinth Altar redirected it toward the Vengeful Spirit.

Jaghatai fought through Tzeentch’s labyrinth aboard the Vengeful Spirit, where Slaanesh sent Fulgrim to challenge him to a duel. The chapter ended with the wounded Khan still fighting Fulgrim, having turned the contest with a sudden change in swordsmanship.

• The Khan invoked the Techno-Daemon’s True Name, then led his guards into a beautiful landscape that he recognized as a trap.
• The Khan used the Key of Helrek to carve through Tzeentch’s shifting labyrinth as its clashing sights and sensations disoriented him.
• Slaanesh hurled Fulgrim toward the Vengeful Spirit, where the Khan remained trapped in Tzeentch’s Grand Array.
• Fulgrim confronted the Khan in a gladiatorial arena and challenged him to prove whose swordsmanship was superior.
• The Khan battered Fulgrim’s swords and drove him back with a furious attack, but Fulgrim’s tail struck the Khan and badly wounded him.
• The Khan switched to Taiji Swordsmanship, countered Fulgrim’s attack, and kept fighting despite his injuries.

The Khan was overwhelmed by Fulgrim and Tzeentch’s attacks, leaving him blind and badly wounded as his Guard fought to escape the maze aboard the Vengeful Spirit. Abaddon left the Iron Fist to pursue the weakened Primarch, while ancient war machines began awakening within the Iron Soul.

• Ashlan and the Primarch’s Guard searched the maze for an exit, destroyed and burned its furnishings, and discovered that its shifting passages had begun to expand around them.
• Fulgrim weakened the Khan with his bells and attacks, but the Arena ruptured and filled with magma as the maze’s powers collided.
• Tzeentch struck the Khan with Haze, blinding him and injuring his lungs, and Ashlan called the Apothecary before the Guard retreated into the Vengeful Spirit under fire.
• Tzeentch’s representative ordered the Possessed to abduct the Khan while Fulgrim remained trapped in the tangled maze.
• Abaddon left the Iron Fist to return to the Vengeful Spirit after sensing the Khan’s weakness, while Techmarines and ancient Dreadnoughts began restoring the Iron Soul’s defenses.

Lysander’s Terminators were trapped and ground down by the Iron Hands’ defenses aboard the Iron Fist, while Abaddon advanced through the Vengeful Spirit to attack the weakened Khan. Abaddon wounded Jaghatai, but the Khan seized his arm, leaving their confrontation poised to continue.

• Lysander’s Terminator force advanced toward the Iron Fist’s Core Region, where furnaces, gravity traps, and Iron Hands Dreadnoughts inflicted heavy losses.
• Three Adamantium Warriors waited outside the Hammonk’s defenses for a chance to join the counterattack.
• Abaddon returned to the Vengeful Spirit, gathered warriors, and moved toward the Khan as Slaanesh’s power strengthened him.
• Abaddon’s force destroyed a loyalist boarding party, but one surviving warrior escaped with a Teleport Beacon.
• Abaddon reached the Khan, killed or wounded his guards, and struck Jaghatai with the Talon of Horus.
• Jaghatai seized Abaddon’s arm despite being unable to see or hear.

Jaghatai Khan fought Abaddon aboard the Vengeful Spirit, enduring the Chaos Warmaster’s attacks before turning the hunt against him and forcing him to flee. As Imperial reinforcements arrived, Fulgrim confronted the Khan’s rescuers, while Leman Russ secretly led the Space Wolves toward the battle and asked Bjorn to help restore their legion.

• Jaghatai Khan used Abaddon’s wrist and the Talon of Horus to throw him, then fought through his injuries and countered Abaddon’s attacks.
• Abaddon split the Talon of Horus with Drach'nyen, escaped by teleporting, and ordered the Vengeful Spirit’s passages sealed.
• Chaos Terminators charged the Khan, but a Loyalist warrior’s teleport beacon brought in several Terminator Squads and surrounded them.
• Ashlan stood between the Khan and the attackers until Fulgrim appeared and a psychic clash knocked Ashlan unconscious.
• Leman Russ traveled secretly aboard the Cold Hunt with Bjorn and his chosen warriors, then asked Bjorn to help bring the Space Wolves back to their former strength.

Leman Russ and the White Scars joined the battle against the Black Legion, and Russ rescued Jaghatai Khan from Fulgrim with Janus’s blood. The Loyalists were transported aboard the Iron Fist, while the battered Black Legion repelled their attack and prepared for the arrival of more Imperial forces.

• Morigen’s White Scars fleet emerged from the Warp and joined the battle alongside Leman Russ’s forces.
• Leman Russ boarded the Vengeful Spirit and found the Khan’s Primarch’s Guard dead while Jaghatai fought Fulgrim in a chaotic realm.
• Russ disrupted Fulgrim’s attack with Grey Knights blood, and Slaanesh’s forces retreated as the Khan and Russ confronted the Daemon Primarch.
• The blood’s power expanded Tzeentch’s realm and transported the Loyalist Astartes from the Vengeful Spirit to the Iron Fist.
• Abaddon ordered his forces to attack and retreat, while the Iron Fist’s defenders fought off Chaos boarders and repaired the ship’s engines.
• The Black Legion repelled the Imperial offensive, but the Lord Protector withdrew to regroup as Abaddon anticipated the Raven Guard’s arrival and the Loyalist armies’ eventual union.

Alpha Assassins poisoned Leman Russ, forcing the Khan and Bjorn to protect him while Abaddon scattered his forces to raid the Imperium. Vulkan returned to battle against the Orks, landing alone on a Battle Moon and confronting a giant mech.

• The Wolf King bit an infiltrating Alpha Assassin whose hidden Chaos poison made him foam at the mouth, and the warriors placed him in a stasis field.
• After awakening, the Khan sent most warriors back to their ships and gathered the Wolf Brothers aboard the Iron Fist to verify their identities by scent.
• Bjorn demanded to guard Russ himself and urged the Khan to seek Cawl, but the Khan persuaded him to wait for the Raven Guard Expeditionary Force before splitting their forces.
• Abaddon allowed the Chaos Lords to scatter and raid Imperial territory while his fleet moved toward the Eastern Fringe, hoping to force the Khan to choose between pursuit and defending the Solar Sanctum.
• Vulkan emerged in newly forged armor as the Salamanders began their counterattack, and the Imperial fleet advanced on six Ork Battle Moons with support from the Phalanx and the Forge Chalice.
• Vulkan launched himself onto a Battle Moon, blasted a path through it with micro-nukes, and charged a giant Ork mech, smashing its missiles aside before leaping over its wall of fire.

Vulkan fought his way through Ork mechs on the Battle Moon while the Deathskulls Boss prepared to face the invading forces. Elsewhere, the Laughing God recorded the Wolf King’s drunken capture, and William’s attempt to save a fortress world ended in a devastating shipyard collision.

• Vulkan destroyed a Weirdboss’s mech with his hammer and named his pistol Longing before climbing toward the Battle Moon’s surface.
• The Deathskulls Boss displayed its captive assassin and trophies, then set out to find the invading blue-armored forces itself.
• Vulkan defeated another mech but could not locate the Battle Moon’s true boss, so he tried to reach a position where teleportation might work.
• The Laughing God kept a record of the Wolf King’s capture in a Stasis Field and watched the galaxy’s battles unfold.
• William’s flagship swallowed the crashing Lamenters’ battle barge, but the collision devastated the shipyard and killed its occupants.

Evan endured a year of prayers and concluded that humanity should share the psychic burden the Emperor bore, but his thoughts were shattered before he could explain how. Vulkan fought the Deathskulls Boss on a Battle Moon, where the Ork prepared a trap and Boomblasta readied a massive explosion.

• Evan considered ways to protect humanity from Chaos and concluded that the Emperor should disperse his path by connecting and strengthening everyone's souls, but the thought was destroyed and he cursed Belisarius Cawl.
• Vulkan reached the Battle Moon after receiving the Ultramarines' report that they had located the Ork Warboss, then teleported to Izak's Teleport Beacon.
• Vulkan fought the Deathskulls Boss for hours, destroying its mech with Destruction Tremor while surviving the Ork's attacks through his armor and regenerative body.
• The Deathskulls Boss teleported away and began building a trap for Vulkan, while Weirdbosses took turns fighting the Primarch as Boomblasta prepared a huge explosion.
• The Deathskulls Boss's stolen Boomblasta name had led the Orks to believe it was Boomblasta, shaping its growing love of explosions and heavy armor.

Vulkan fought the Deathskulls Boss aboard a Battle Moon while Imperial forces destroyed two Battle Moons and evacuated the Forge Chalice. Vulkan killed the Boss but fell into a teleportation trap and was destroyed by Lance Batteries; the last Battle Moon then set course for Terra.

• Vulkan helped the Imperial forces vitrify a Battle Moon, and the Phalanx and Forge Chalice sacrificed sections of the Forge Chalice to detonate an enormous Ork missile and launch a Vitrification Missile into another Battle Moon.
• The Phalanx towed the damaged Forge Chalice toward the Mandeville Point while the Deathskulls Boss prepared traps and confronted Vulkan in a compact suit of Power Armour.
• Vulkan destroyed the Boss's flight module and defeated him in a fight on a suspended passage, but the Boss's body fell into the Ork Energy Generator and activated a teleportation beam.
• Vulkan was teleported above hundreds of Lance Batteries, which destroyed him, while the Imperial Fleet destroyed a Mars-class Battleship and brought the Ork forces close to defeat.
• The last Battle Moon ignored the Imperial Battleships and sped toward Terra.

The Orks fled toward Terra in a red-painted Battle Moon while Chaos assaults worsened across the Solar System and the Imperium shifted forces to meet new threats. On the Webway front, Dorn ordered Ralph to help protect the final reserve Blackstone Spire as the battle continued to destabilize the realm.

• The Painboss turned Boomblasta’s half-living head and corpse into a mech, while Orks painted their Battle Moon red and followed it into the Warp.
• The Ork fleet escaped toward Terra, and the Imperial forces learned that it was traveling without Gellar Fields; the Battle Moon emerged into bombardment near Luna.
• Trajann Valoris sent Custodians to aid the Webway and discussed an assassination plan with Victor, while reports arrived of an approaching Tyranid bio-fleet.
• The Lord Regent called forces back toward Terra, and the Khan began a pursuit that battered Abaddon’s Black Legion while drawing it toward a battlefield suited to the White Scars.
• Ralph took command after Barton and Vlorus died, gathered their relics, and continued fighting alongside Custodians and Dreadnoughts.
• Dorn returned to the Webway battle and ordered Ralph to cover the last reserve Blackstone Spire as Daemons seized fragments of the shattered Spire and the realm grew unstable.

Rogal Dorn and the Crimson Tide fought through the daemons to restore a damaged Blackstone Spire, while Dorn resisted the voices tempting him to abandon his duty. The spire rose again, but news that Vulkan had returned came with the report that he was missing after a failed attempt to assassinate an Ork Warlord.

• Dorn led Ralph and the Crimson Tide toward the damaged Blackstone Spire, shielding the warriors as they advanced through daemonic attacks.
• Dorn fought and killed a Gluttony Daemon, then battled a Bloodthirster while resisting the voices in his mind.
• Bone-Scribes prepared the remains of Sisters of Silence to reinforce the Iron Chain Link, while an Adeptus Mechanicus vehicle transported a replacement Blackstone Spire to the front.
• The Transport Vehicle raised the Blackstone Spire, restoring its anti-psyker protection and allowing the Titans to reposition and suppress the daemons.
• A Tech-Priest gave Dorn news that Vulkan had returned, then reported that he was missing after his attempt to assassinate an Ork Warlord failed.

Dorn and Sagittarius Malak reorganized the Webway defense for a prolonged war, while an Ork Battle Moon broke through Pluto’s defenses and advanced into the Solar System. Alpharius, disguised as Lion El’Jonson, accidentally teleported onto a Krieg transport and requisitioned its troops for Terra.

• Malak awakened in a Custodian Dreadnought, joined Dorn’s fight, and proposed more sustainable defenses with rest, ammunition, and fortified positions.
• Malak proposed connecting the Webway entrance to Krieg, and Dorn agreed to continue holding the line while Chaos gathered its forces.
• The Ork Battle Moon attacked Pluto, captured Charon, and advanced into the Solar System as Imperial forces struggled to stop it.
• Alpharius led Titus and the Primarch’s Guard through a dangerous Warp jump disguised as Lion El’Jonson, arriving in a Death Korps of Krieg transport.
• Alpharius learned the transport was bound to assault a world threatened by Orks and ordered its troops to head for Terra at maximum speed.

Alpharius and Vulkan fought through the Ork Battle Moon but failed to find its Warboss, while the Orks converted Pluto into a new Battle Moon and sent it toward Terra. In the Webway, Dorn resisted Chaos’s temptation to take psyker power, though the threat to his forces and the Imperial defenses remained dire.

• Alpharius left the Krieg transport, guided its Navigator through the Warp, and entered the Solar System as Orks and Daemons attacked Terra and Luna.
• Alpharius teleported toward the Ork Battle Moon, but he encountered Vulkan in the Warp and persuaded him to join the fight.
• Vulkan helped Titus repel Orks, then joined Alpharius in searching the Battle Moon for its Warboss, Boomblasta.
• After weeks of fighting, Alpharius and Vulkan learned that the Orks had rebuilt Pluto as Gork's Mockery and were sending it toward Terra.
• Dorn faced visions of the Webway's destruction and resisted the voice urging him to accept psyker power, while Ralph arrived carrying Ina's corpse.

Rogal Dorn discovered his essence as the unyielding wall and transformed into an adamantium mountain that sealed the Webway breach, ending the war there. As the Imperium celebrated, Vulkan and his allies learned Dorn was alive but immobile, while the fighting around Terra and its moons continued.

• Dorn examined his life and realized his deepest purpose was to bear danger and suffering in the Emperor's place.
• Dorn's power awakened, freezing the daemons around him as he grew into a vast adamantium mountain and sealed the Webway breach.
• The daemons fled, and Ralph rallied the Adeptus Custodes to charge into the Webway while Dorn remained to guard the breach.
• Mortals launched suicidal attacks on the Battle Moon as the Orks' assault and seismic destruction caused heavy losses.
• Vulkan prepared to pursue Boomblasta, while Victor questioned his loyalty and Alpharius declined to leave the Battle Moon.
• Constantin Valdor arrived and told Vulkan that the Webway war was over and Dorn was blocking the breach; Custodians then reinforced Terra and destroyed daemons and Orks.

Evan survived the Emperor’s return and received an immense infusion of psyker power, while the Emperor explained that humanity’s faith would be used to create a second batch of Primarchs. The Emperor sent Evan to inspect the Webway as preparations began, leaving Evan alive but expected to fight for humanity.

• Evan’s memories and overflowing psyker power opened a Warp Rift, and the returning Emperor struck him while Magnus’s shockwave blasted him into the air.
• The Baina Robe covered the area around the Imperial Palace as human figures formed across it and resisted the invading evil powers.
• The Emperor extracted Evan’s chorionic gland and its accumulated memories, then explained that humanity needed him and called him the sun at eight or nine in the morning.
• The Emperor revealed that he planned to create a second batch of Primarchs from his own divinity and the faith gathered around Evan, but Evan’s soul had to disappear for the process to work.
• The Emperor said he would send Evan back to Earth before creating the new Primarchs, and Evan proposed that humanity could continue fighting from Macragge if Terra fell.
• The Emperor ordered Evan to go take a look at the Webway.

Evan learned to control his psyker power as he discovered Ina had died fighting Magnus, then led the Crimson Tide out of the Webway and unleashed his rage against Khorne's forces. He reached Pluto and joined Vulkan's fight against the Orks, summoning a phantom army that charged into battle.

• Evan left the Golden Throne for the Webway, where two Imperial Emissaries recognized the Emperor's power surrounding him and let him pass.
• Evan found Ina's coffin and learned from Rogal Dorn that she had died fighting Magnus; overcome with grief, he drifted into the Warp and began mastering his destructive psyker power.
• Evan ordered the Adamantium Warriors to leave the Webway and return home, then entered the Warp as Kaldor Draigo launched the Grey Knights' counterattack.
• The Emperor taught Evan to tear open a Warp Rift, and Evan emerged above Pluto before crashing into the Battle Moon where Vulkan fought Boomblasta.
• Evan declared that one should give one's life for the nation and summoned waves of crimson phantoms, who charged the Orks and concentrated their attacks on a single foe at a time.

Evan and Vulkan defeated Boomblasta and prevented the Orks from destroying Pluto, while the Emperor trapped the surviving Deathskulls Boss. The Emperor then began reviving the Primarchs, leaving Guilliman, Lion El'Jonson, and the Wolf King reunited on The Rock and convinced that Alpharius had deceived them.

• Evan led waves of crimson phantoms against Boomblasta, weakening the Ork mech's Waaagh power as Vulkan broke through its armor and killed the Warboss.
• The Deathskulls Boss activated Pluto's self-destruct sequence, but Evan's phantoms had killed the Orks guarding the weapons, and the Emperor caught the Boss through a Warp trap.
• Evan returned to the Emperor and discussed weapons, the Number Eleven Primarch, genetic ascension, and the Emperor's plans before the Emperor sent him to reinforce the Tyranid front.
• The Emperor revived Guilliman and Lion El'Jonson, then brought the Wolf King out of stasis and carried him to The Rock.
• Lion El'Jonson told Guilliman what he had seen while in stasis, and the two Primarchs agreed to punish Alpharius when they next met.

After the Imperium’s counterattack began, Evan returned to the Light of the People and learned that he would become a Primarch at the cost of his memories and soul. He left the flagship with the Emperor to begin the transformation, but the Emperor kicked him toward Earth and Evan missed his target, tumbling into the dark void.

• The Emperor returned carrying an unconscious Leman Russ, then ordered Guilliman to lead the counterattack toward Ultramar and Lion El'Jonson to clear the Solar System.
• Alpharius arranged to meet Yvraine, and fifteen days later Guilliman and Lion caught him colluding with the Aeldari and beat him before he escaped.
• The Emperor interrogated the Haemonculi and Vect about building the Webway while Evan traveled to the battlefield aboard a Wind and Cloud-class Battleship.
• Evan told William that he would become a Primarch but lose his memories and soul, and William was to guide the new being and help restore those memories.
• Evan left the celebration aboard the Light of the People and joined the Emperor in a journey beyond the reach of psyker power to begin his transformation.
• The Emperor kicked Evan toward Earth to send himself back toward the Imperial Palace, but Evan flew past Earth and continued into the darkness.

Xiao Lan awoke in early 43K and learned that Evan had become a Primarch but lost his memories in the process. At a gathering of three legions, Evan suddenly regained his memories and explained that the Dark King and the King of Light had batted him back and forth like a tennis ball.

• Xiao Lan woke from stasis and discovered that William now inhabited Anthony's Dreadnought.
• William told Xiao Lan that Ina and their old brothers had died, while Evan had become a Primarch at the cost of his memories.
• William brought Xiao Lan to a feast where the Crimson Tide, Salamanders, and White Scars celebrated their victory and discussed plans to repair the Webway.
• Xiao Lan and William reunited with Evan, but a burst of psychic power made him fall and roll across the floor.
• Evan recognized Xiao Lan and William as his memories returned, then said the Dark King and the King of Light had batted him back and forth like a tennis ball.