Chapter Summaries

Corax and Curze intercepted Kor Phaeron and Erebus as they wandered through the Warp, but Curze claimed Erebus for himself. Erebus was trapped in a blood-filled realm where the victims of his past crimes rose to drag him under.

• Erebus accused Kor Phaeron of leading the Word Bearers astray, but Kor Phaeron defended his search for a god worthy of worship.
• Corax's ravens attacked the Word Bearers, and Kor Phaeron was killed while Erebus escaped with a teleportation spell.
• Curze stopped Corax from pursuing him by warning that Terra's situation could worsen, then turned his attention to Erebus.
• Erebus awoke in a sea of blood and saw the original Erebus, whose identity he had stolen and whose family he had harmed.
• Erebus blasted the blood-formed victims with spells, but they repeatedly rose and dragged him into the sea.

After the Primarchs celebrated their victory and returned to the Imperial Palace, the Emperor ordered them to attack the forces ruling Imperium Nihilus and demanded that they kill their brothers. When Guilliman and Russ refused, Lion El'Jonson chose to oppose the Emperor.

• Nearly ten thousand military formations and the Primarchs paraded through Terra during a thirteen-day celebration of their victory.
• Trajann Valoris led the Primarchs to the Throne Room, where the Emperor praised their achievements and clearly answered them for the first time in ten thousand years.
• Lion El'Jonson reported Abaddon's death, the closing of the Eye of Terror, and the plan to hunt the remaining Chaos forces.
• The Emperor ordered the Primarchs to attack Horus and the other forces in Imperium Nihilus, including the brother who had left ten thousand years earlier.
• Guilliman rejected the Emperor's demand for civil war, and the Emperor struck at him; Vulkan shielded Guilliman while Russ refused the order to kill them.
• The Emperor demanded Lion El'Jonson choose a side, and Lion El'Jonson told him, “You are wrong, God-Emperor.”

The Primarchs fought the Weeping Angels in the Throne Room until a voice from the Throne urged them to flee, and Corax carried them out before being struck down. Outside, they found the Imperial Palace and the Solar System in battle, while Guilliman appeared to have arranged support from the Ultramarines.

• The Emperor ordered the Primarchs killed, and the Weeping Angels emerged to attack them with weapons that caused unbearable pain and annihilated souls.
• Ferrus Manus and the Legion of the Damned joined the battle, but the Weeping Angels overwhelmed them until a voice told the Primarchs to escape.
• Vulkan forced open the hall doors, and Corax's shadow ravens carried the Primarchs out as a six-winged angel hurled a javelin through the flock and pierced Corax's shoulder.
• Lion El'Jonson saw the Imperial Palace under attack and the Corona Fleet firing on the Phalanx and Space Marine Strike Cruisers.
• Ultramarines Thunderhawk Gunships entered the Palace and struck the attackers, and Lion El'Jonson realized Guilliman had arranged the intervention.

Calgar struggled to contact Sicarius as the Ultramarines’ assault on the Imperial Palace stalled, while Omega’s Alpha Legion agents sabotaged the Webway on Mars. Omega confronted his long-lost brother Alpharius beneath Mars, and the brothers agreed to go to Terra together after learning that Alpharius had given the Emperor’s name to someone he believed could save him.

• Calgar pressed his Techmarines to reach Sicarius as the Ultramarines fought through the Palace’s outer defenses and stalled at the Custodes’ inner walls.
• Alpha Legion infiltrators stopped the Webway from opening on Mars and were ordered to destroy it.
• Omega cast aside Dragon Guard Dalia and reached the labyrinth beneath Mars, intending to release the sleeping Void Dragon.
• Alpharius confronted Omega and revealed that he had secretly opposed the Emperor’s ascension and given the Emperor’s name to someone who needed it.
• Alpharius told Omega that Valdor had died on Molech, and Omega learned that his brother had deceived him for ten thousand years.
• Alpharius offered Omega his spear, and the brothers agreed to go to Terra together.

Bona’s coalition launched its assault on Terra, where the divided defenders fought back with Titans, advanced weapons, and heavy casualties. As the attack advanced toward the Imperial Palace, Bona entrusted Dakan with preventing the war machine from turning against humanity if the Emperor rose.

• Bona rallied the fleet for the final assault and told Dakan to curb the military leadership and use purges if necessary should the Emperor rise.
• Bona opened Valdor’s puzzle box, read the name “Neoth,” and watched the parchment burn to ash.
• Perturabo led the coalition’s attack on Terra and used Proton Beams to drain the Imperial Palace’s Void Shields.
• The defenders deployed an Emperor-class Titan and the Adeptus Mechanicus’s Time Clock, devastating the first attacking formations.
• Fresh forces and Titans renewed the assault as the defenders’ walls and Emperor-class Titans fell under waves of human attackers.

Bona led the final assault toward the Gate of the End while Horus and the Primarchs fought the palace’s defenders. He entered the Throne Room and confronted the Dark God, who appeared in the Warp as a figure in gray armor.

• Guilliman reported that the loyalist forces had enough strength for only one final assault, and Bona ordered them to attack immediately.
• Bona reached the Gate of the End as Horus rallied the warriors to fight the Adeptus Custodes and Weeping Angels guarding it.
• While the battle erupted across the plaza, Bona opened the Gate of the End and entered the Throne Room alone.
• Bona found the Emperor’s desiccated body on the Golden Throne and exchanged words with the Dark God before being drawn into the Warp.
• Bona faced the Dark God’s gray-armored form in a place of nothingness within the Warp.

Bona fought the Dark King in the Warp but was overwhelmed after his Sword of Hope shattered. As the Dark King prepared to kill him, Bona's father appeared, while the Primarchs had sacrificed themselves to restore him and send their power into the Emperor on the Throne.

• The Dark King attacked Bona, arguing that all life was trapped in a hopeless cycle, and shattered the Sword of Hope before preparing to strike him down.
• A warp rift opened over Terra, splitting Luna, devastating the fleets and planet, and unleashing Weeping Angels upon both sides.
• Horus, Magnus, and Alpharius explained that the Primarchs had to sacrifice themselves to restore their father, and the gathered brothers joined hands in acceptance.
• Horus activated Daemon Sword Drach'nyen, which sent a beam of power through the warp rift toward the Golden Giant.
• The Golden Giant caught the beam, endured the Dark King's lightning, and drove the light into the Emperor's withered body on the Throne before vanishing.
• Bona saw the Golden Giant confront the Dark King and recognized him as his father.

Bona sacrificed himself to destroy the Dark King and close the Warp Rift above Terra, while the Emperor survived and called the warriors to end the fighting. After discovering Bona had died, the Emperor renounced his title and left humanity to shape its own future.

• Bona poured his blood over the Sword of Hope and unleashed the power of countless living beings against the Dark King.
• The Emperor delayed the Dark King's blade long enough for Bona's strike to pierce him, destroying him and devastating the Warp.
• The Warp Rift above Terra vanished, and sunlight returned as the Emperor ordered the surviving forces to stop fighting and come to the Imperial Palace.
• The Emperor found Bona's silver sword embedded in the Golden Throne and realized his son would never return.
• The Emperor ordered an end to the civil war, called for governments modeled on Macragge and Cabalide, and dissolved the High Lords of Terra and the Ecclesiarchy.
• The Emperor cast away his laurel crown, declared that there would be no Emperor, and walked away.

Bona plunged into the Well of Eternity, and his released power formed a universe whose history followed the memories shaping it. A scholar finished writing the story and praised Bona’s courage before leaving the shattered Crystal Labyrinth.

• Bona reached the Well of Eternity and plunged inside, asking his father to let him rest.
• Bona’s restrained power exploded, creating the universe and beginning the passage of time and life.
• Bona’s memories shaped the universe’s history, bringing forth the Old Ones and C’tan, then the Necron Dynasty, Aeldari, Kolt Orks, and humanity.
• The universe’s history settled on the Emperor’s crusade, as the scholar finished writing the story.
• The scholar praised Bona for succeeding despite the story’s predetermined course, then took the book and left the Crystal Labyrinth.