Chapter Summaries

The Lord of Change showed Bona that the universe repeatedly corrected itself toward humanity’s fall, but Bona’s existence could disrupt fate and might be the only way to save his father. He sent Bona to rest, declaring they would meet again ten thousand years later.

• The Lord of Change led Bona through a Warp Rift to the Microcosmic Galaxy and showed him the universe’s past and future.
• The Lord of Change demonstrated that radically different beginnings and altered events still converged on the same fate: the Emperor on the Golden Throne and humanity’s fall.
• The Lord of Change revealed that everyone was trapped in a false reality and that even he, the Fateweaver, could not change its outcome.
• Bona appeared in the Microcosmic Galaxy, causing it to descend into chaos, and the Lord of Change said Bona could help free the universe from fate and save his father.
• The Lord of Change sent Bona away to rest and said they would meet again in ten thousand years.

Inquisitor Arlith and Captain Dakan’s Rebel Company reached the Sanctuary of Eternal Wrath and broke its seals despite an approaching daemon assault. Arlith opened the stone coffin, and someone inside began breathing again.

• Captain Dakan and Arlith led the Rebel Company across the Warp-touched landscape toward the Sanctuary of Eternal Wrath.
• Arlith used a glowing human hand bone to begin unlocking the sanctuary’s sealed doors as daemons approached.
• Captain Dakan led the Thunder Warriors out to hold off the daemons while Arlith continued the ritual.
• The seals shattered, and Arlith and the storm troopers pushed open the doors to reveal a small chamber containing a stone coffin and an ancient Chainsword.
• Arlith opened the coffin as daemons broke through, and breathing sounded from within.

Bona awoke after ten thousand years, killed a daemon, and reunited with Captain Dakan and Inquisitor Arlith. He discovered Horus’s soul had survived inside his mind and set out to find a way to give Horus a new body, leaving with his companions despite Horus’s warning.

• Bona awakened in his coffin, killed the daemon attacking him, and reclaimed the Chainsword as the daemon tide vanished.
• Dakan and the Thunderhawk Second Company knelt before Bona, who learned it was 982.M41 and that ten thousand years had passed.
• Bona met Arlith, an Inquisitor of the Ordo Originatus, while Dakan and Arlith argued over the Inquisition.
• Horus revealed that his soul had survived inside Bona and explained that he wanted Bona to find him a Primarch’s body.
• Bona asked Dakan, the Thunder Warriors, and Arlith to accompany him, and they agreed to follow.

Bona visited Nurgle's Garden and asked the Grandfather to give Horus a body without adding anything extra. After emerging with Horus, Bona's group found a ship in the Warp and boarded Admiral Spire's cruiser, where Spire recognized the Rebel Company and Maxen.

• Bona protected his companions from Nurgle's Garden and asked the Grandfather to make Horus a body without an extra soul or alterations.
• The Grandfather gave Horus a towering body, and the group left the Garden with him.
• Bona learned that Arlith and Captain Dakan had no ship, then spotted an Imperial Lunar-class Cruiser in the Warp.
• Admiral Spire remained lost in the Warp aboard the Righteous Protector until a powerful psychic presence brought Bona's group onto the bridge.
• Spire recognized the Rebel Company and Maxen, and the bridge crew raised the alarm that the enemy had boarded them.

Bona negotiated with Admiral Spire to return the Rebel Company to realspace, then opened a path through the Warp that revealed the Emperor on his Golden Throne. The Emperor turned his attention to Cadia as Horus wept beneath his father’s silent, sorrowful gaze.

• Bona stopped the Imperium’s soldiers from attacking and persuaded Admiral Spire to let the Rebel Company leave once they reached realspace.
• Arlith spoke with Spire on the bridge while Bona and Horus finished their conversation.
• Bona used his psyker power to tear open the Warp, revealing the Emperor seated upon his Throne.
• The Emperor’s presence brought the crew of the Guardian of Justice to their knees, and Horus wept after hearing his father’s sigh.
• Bona saw the Emperor suffering beneath the burden of humanity, and the Emperor turned his gaze toward Cadia.

After emerging from the Warp, Bona learned how much the Imperium had changed and took command of the Guardian of Justice with Captain Spire’s support. He led Horus and the Thunder Warriors in a raid on the Ecclesiarchy World Atas to seize relics that could help him stay under control, and the group fought its way toward a cathedral.

• Bona returned to realspace, spoke with Inquisitor Arlith about the Ecclesiarchy, and realized the modern Imperium had abandoned the Imperial Truth.
• Captain Spire gave Bona command of the Guardian of Justice, and Bona asked him to join a raid on an Ecclesiarchy World.
• The group landed in the Holy City of Apollonus on Atas and headed toward the cathedral where the relics were stored.
• Defenders opened fire on the Thunder Warriors, who returned fire and overcame them.
• Horus fought off attacking women warriors and grabbed a silver-haired, blue-eyed woman, but Bona ordered him to keep her alive.

Bona confronted the Ecclesiarchy’s faithful, took the relic scepter from the Great Cathedral, and questioned a scribe about the Church’s history. Horus learned of the Ecclesiarchy’s role in the Age of Apostasy, and he and Bona agreed to speak privately.

• Captain Dakan identified the armed women as Sisters of Battle as the faithful gathered to block the group’s path.
• Bona silenced the faithful with psychic power, condemned their Emperor worship, and forced them aside.
• Bona took the scepter from the cathedral’s relic coffin and questioned Bishop Corleone’s scribe about the Ecclesiarchy.
• The scribe recounted the Emperor’s Salvationist faction and the Age of Apostasy, angering Horus with the Ecclesiarchy’s decision to send mutated Chapters into the Eye of Terror.
• Horus and Bona agreed to find somewhere to talk.

Bona and Horus discussed the danger posed by the Golden Throne and began planning to build their own forces in the Eastern Fringe. Meanwhile, a massive Imperial force arrived at the Ecclesiarchy World to investigate what had happened.

• Bona warned Horus that the Golden Throne was gathering human souls and might overwhelm the Emperor, but Horus rejected killing the Emperor's divine aspect because it would extinguish the Astronomican.
• Horus proposed secretly building forces in the Eastern Fringe, and Bona agreed to seek recruits capable of capturing a Forge World.
• Company Captain Dakan suggested Huron Blackheart and the Red Corsairs, but helping Huron would require rescuing his friend from Commorragh; the Black Legion and Abaddon were also discussed.
• The bishop watched the Ecclesiarchy World fall under the control of a large Imperial force after unbelief spread among the congregation.
• A Golden Giant ordered the bishop to explain everything that had happened.

Inquisitor Blackhammer, a Black Sentinels Chapter Master, and Trajann Valoris considered evidence that Horus Lupercal had returned and ordered a search for the renegade force. Meanwhile, Bona recruited Slaanesh’s daemon Teresa to help him enter Commorragh and agreed to make Yvraine and Roboute Guilliman fall in love, as Slaanesh’s plan drew an angry protest from an Aeldari deity.

• Inquisitor Blackhammer showed Trajann Valoris and a Black Sentinels Chapter Master footage of Horus Lupercal and warned that the Primarch might be real.
• Inquisitor Blackhammer issued a secret directive to find the renegade force.
• Bona asked Slaanesh for help entering Commorragh, and Slaanesh assigned him Teresa, a young Keeper of Secrets.
• Slaanesh asked Bona to make Yvraine fall in love with Roboute Guilliman and have him return her love, and Bona accepted after asking about Guilliman’s status.
• Slaanesh returned to the palace as Astartes fought into the Third Ring and flicked away a protesting Aeldari deity.

Bona brought Teresa aboard the Righteous Protector despite the crew’s fear of the Greater Daemon, then learned that Slaanesh had misled him about his bargain involving Yvraine and Roboute Guilliman. He staged a fake excavation at an Aeldari battlefield and planted a psychic lure, hoping to draw the Drukhari toward the ship.

• Bona ordered the crew to lower their weapons and allowed Teresa to remain aboard under restrictions, despite Captain Dakan and Admiral Spire’s concerns.
• Horus questioned Bona about how he had acquired Teresa, and Bona revealed his deal with Slaanesh to bring Yvraine and Roboute Guilliman together.
• Horus explained Roboute Guilliman’s importance, and Bona learned from Slaanesh that Guilliman had been paralyzed for ten thousand years; Bona demanded extra payment in daemons and Aeldari information.
• Bona brought the Righteous Protector to an ancient Aeldari battlefield and had Imperial troops stage an excavation to make the site seem important to the Aeldari.
• Bona used a cheap crystal ball to create a brief psychic disturbance, evacuated the excavation, and sealed the ball inside the ship to attract the Drukhari.

The Drukhari attacked the Righteous Protector to reclaim their sacred relic, forcing the crew to defend the ship. Horus drove the boarding party from the bridge, while Dalk escaped and ordered his forces to capture the vessel.

• The Drukhari disabled half the Righteous Protector’s propulsion engines and surrounded it with three battleships and seven cruisers.
• Bona ordered Captain Dakan to defend the Relic Room and Captain Spire to prepare for losses, as the Drukhari began boarding.
• Admiral Spire ordered the crew to fall back, while Thunder Warriors cut down Kabalite Warriors trying to reach the Relic Room.
• Dalk split his forces and led an assault toward the bridge, where Arlith worried that its defenses were too weak.
• Horus smashed through Dalk and his attackers on the bridge, sending the Kabalite Warriors sprawling.
• Dalk fled to his warship and ordered his crew to tow the Righteous Protector back for him.

Bona led a Thunder Warriors team into Commorragh to rescue an Astral Claws veteran and find Yvraine, while the Drukhari fleets pursued their transport because it carried a relic. After the Thunderhawk’s right wing was destroyed and it began an emergency landing, Horus asked Bona if he was scared, and Bona compared the coming arena dangers to the Eight Arenas of the Blood God.

• Horus returned to his own body as Drukhari warships towed the Righteous Protector toward the Webway gate and left it unable to fire on the Aeldari vessels ahead.
• Bona ordered Admiral Spire to repair the Guardian of Justice’s propulsion system, then assembled the Thunder Warriors and assigned them to rescue an Astral Claws veteran and find Yvraine.
• Bona asked Arlith to work with Teresa if they were in danger, and the Thunderhawk carried the team through the Webway gate into Commorragh.
• Mukhadas and Dalk argued over the captured humans, but the Drukhari ships stopped firing when they sensed a relic aboard the Thunderhawk and chased it instead.
• Other Aeldari warships moved toward the Righteous Protector as Admiral Spire prepared to fight, while Bona inspected his chainsword aboard the Thunderhawk.
• The Thunderhawk’s right wing was destroyed and the pilot began an emergency landing; Horus asked Bona about the arenas, and Bona said he had been to the Eight Arenas of the Blood God.

Bona tricked rival Drukhari Archons into fighting over a false holy relic while Horus and the Thunder Warriors escaped into the city. They continued through the chaos, where Bona revealed his power by burning a squad of Kabalite Warriors, then chose to detour around the ongoing battle.

• Horus and the Thunder Warriors emerged from their crashed Thunderhawk as Drukhari forces surrounded them and demanded the holy relic.
• Bona feigned submission and presented a crystal showing Isha, prompting Dalk and Mukhadas to argue over who should claim it.
• Bona staged a fall that sent the relic flying into Dalk's arms, and Mukhadas accused him of marking it before ordering his Kabal to attack.
• The two Kabals and their warships began fighting, allowing Horus and Bona's group to slip away.
• Bona burned a squad of Kabalite Warriors with ghostly flames, absorbed their blue flames, and led the group away from the main battle.

Teresa emerged as a Keeper of Secrets to drive the Drukhari from the Righteous Protector, while Bona and Horus continued their mission through Commorragh. The group entered the Death's Howl Wych Cult arena, where a corridor of impaled corpses awaited them.

• Arlith brought Teresa out of her secret chamber after Bona left, following her master's order to keep Teresa confined until the Inquisitor summoned her.
• Admiral Spire ordered Commissar Korn to evacuate deck sector A-03, drawing the Drukhari into a junction on the Righteous Protector.
• Teresa attacked the advancing Drukhari, killing them and offering their souls to Slaanesh while the Imperial forces stayed behind blast doors.
• Bona stopped Horus from attacking the Wrack outside the Death's Howl Wych Cult arena, then used his power to compel the Wrack to let them in.
• Bona and Horus entered the arena through a corridor lined with impaled corpses.

Bona and the Thunder Warriors searched Commorragh’s slave prison for Bals and found him alive inside an Ork-built Dreadnought. Bona freed the prisoners and promised to take Gagags with them as a riot spread through the arena tower.

• Bona offered freedom to any captive who could lead him to Bals, and a xenos pointed him toward the prison’s depths.
• Bona found Gagags Ironklaw, an Ork Mekboy, beside a scrap-built Dreadnought that contained the still-living Bals.
• Gagags explained that Bals had been cut in half by a Drukhari but survived after Gagags put him inside the machine.
• Bals recognized the Imperial Aquila and learned from Horus that the Thunder Eagle Chapter had come to rescue him on Huron’s orders.
• Bona promised to take Gagags out of Commorragh and shattered the cages and shackles as Drukhari guards approached.
• The freed slaves attacked the Drukhari, sparking a riot at the base of the arena tower.

Asdrubael Vect exposed Mukhadas’s supposed Holy Relic of Isha as a human-made toy and ordered him sent to the Haemonculi. Meanwhile, a slave revolt erupted in the Arena, and Bona’s group split up as Bona and Horus set out to find Yvraine.

• Asdrubael Vect arrived after the Kabal battle and watched Mukhadas challenge him with the supposed Holy Relic of Isha.
• The relic’s light vanished, revealing an engraving that identified it as a human toy blessed by the Emperor and made on Agripinaa Industrial World.
• Mukhadas begged for forgiveness, but Vect ordered the Incubi to take him to the Haemonculi.
• Slaves broke into the Arena and attacked the Drukhari, giving a small squad a chance to slip away.
• Bona told Captain Dakan to take Bals and Gagags back to the Righteous Protector while he and Horus went to search for Yvraine.

Bona searched Commorragh for information about Yvraine and fought off a Succubus who tried to capture him. He left the Succubus wounded after feigning defeat and healing himself with his blood.

• Bona burned through roughly a hundred low-ranking Drukhari before finding that Yvraine was a rising Gladiator from the Craftworld Aeldari.
• Bona defeated an ambush and fought through Ethereal Hounds that could slip into the Warp.
• A Drukhari Succubus confronted Bona, blamed him for ruining her operation, and attacked him with illusions, poison, and poisoned darts.
• The Succubus stabbed Bona in the shoulder, numbed half his body, and forced him to his knees.
• Bona blasted the Succubus away with psychic lightning, healed his wound with his blood, and revealed that he had only pretended to be defeated.

Bona fought his way into Commorragh to rescue Yvraine on Roboute Guilliman’s orders, but Vect and Lady Maleris confronted them as they tried to escape. When Vect challenged Bona to prove he could take Yvraine, Bona opened a Warp rift and summoned Slaanesh’s daemons.

• Bona interrogated the Succubus and learned that Yvraine was held in the largest spire.
• Yvraine reflected on her rise from Biel-Tan prodigy to Commorragh Succubus and feared she would be trapped there until she died in the Arena.
• Bona found Yvraine, identified her from his Scroll, and said Roboute Guilliman had ordered him to take her out of Commorragh.
• As Bona led Yvraine toward his warship, Vect and Lady Maleris confronted them, and Visarch appeared to plead for mercy.
• Vect gave Bona a chance to take Yvraine, and Bona opened a Warp rift that let six Slaanesh Daemon Hosts and six Keepers of Secrets enter Commorragh.

Bona escorted Yvraine, Visarch, and rescued Imperial forces toward a Lunar-class Cruiser while Slaanesh’s daemons ravaged Commorragh. As the ship came under Drukhari pursuit, an Ork-built engine upgrade sent it hurtling away at tremendous speed.

• Bona spared Yvraine and Visarch from the daemons, then led them through the chaos toward the waiting cruiser while explaining that Roboute Guilliman wanted to meet Yvraine.
• Horus welcomed Bona’s group aboard the cruiser, and Captain Annoth’s Blood Angels arrived and mistook Horus for their fallen primarch.
• Horus knocked out the Blood Angels and loaded them onto a Thunderhawk before Admiral Spire ordered the cruiser to flee Commorragh.
• Vect’s ships attacked the Righteous Protector as it tried to escape, but an Ork-engineered WAAAGH upgrade launched the cruiser forward at extraordinary speed.

Bona arranged to keep Yvraine aboard while telling her and the Blood Angels they could leave at the nearest Imperial world. He then began a psychic plan to reach Yvraine through a dream, where she met a handsome vision of Roboute Guilliman.

• Yvraine asked to return to her homeworld, and Bona said she could leave once they reached a star system.
• Bona told the recovering Blood Angels that their rescuers had lost people in Commorragh and offered to drop them at the nearest Imperial world instead of taking them to Baal.
• Bona met Horus and Teresa in a secret chamber, then used his psyker power to begin an attack through Yvraine's dreams.
• Yvraine dreamed of a beautiful garden and met a vision of Roboute Guilliman, whom she found irresistibly handsome.
• Visarch stayed awake guarding Yvraine, sensing that something might be wrong without knowing what was happening in her dream.