Chapter Summaries

Zelanis’s new Imperial technology routed Harken’s Chaos vanguard and shattered Abaddon’s confidence, driving him to challenge Horus directly. Beneath Vigilus, Horus and Kaldia advanced toward the Crawling Patriarch’s lair in the Four-Armed Emperor’s cult territory.

• Alcato’s Iron Fist battlegroup destroyed the Orks’ largest war machines, while Astartes armed with Storm Mk-III Gauss Impact Rifles devastated their ranks.
• Al Khan’s Dawn fleet used Ghost Void Shields, Phase Torpedoes, and coordinated hit-and-run tactics to rout Harken’s vanguard fleet.
• Abaddon heard the voice that stirred his buried loyalty to Horus, killed a sorcerer who reported the troops were wavering, and ordered his forces to converge for a duel with Horus.
• Kaldia told Horus that they had reached the heart of the Four-Armed Emperor’s cult territory and that the Crawling Patriarch was in a Holy Cocoon cathedral three kilometres ahead.
• Horus sensed the cultists’ despair and recognized it as fuel for primordial fire.

Horus and his squad found the Genestealer Cult’s gathering place, where he used [Primordial Fire] to turn thousands of cultists against the Hive Mind and toward him. After confronting Bishop Tyrantis Primus, Horus faced the Crawling Patriarch as it launched a devastating attack.

• Horus interrupted Bishop Primus’s sermon and faced a charge by thousands of cultists.
• Horus unleashed [Primordial Fire], showing the less-transformed cultists their enslavement and their fate as the Hive Mind’s biomass.
• Thousands of cultists dropped their weapons, knelt before Horus, and rejected the Crawling Patriarch.
• Horus appeared behind Bishop Tyrantis Primus and threatened him as his power overwrote the cult’s psychic links.
• The Crawling Patriarch leapt from the altar and attacked Horus with a psychic storm and corrosive fluids.

Horus killed the Crawling Patriarch and Bishop Tyrantis Primus, then ordered the surviving cultists to fight for the Emperor on Vigilus. In the command center, Calgar defended the operation’s results against Katavonus’s accusations, leaving the inquisitor speechless.

• Horus killed the Crawling Patriarch with the Talon of Horus, reducing him to charred grease.
• Horus broke Bishop Tyrantis Primus’s arm and beat him to death after he attempted the Genestealer Kiss.
• Horus declared the cultists’ old god dead and sent them to fight the Orks and traitors as a chance at redemption.
• Calgar received a report that Horus and twenty Royal Guards destroyed the cult’s command structure in under ten minutes with no friendly casualties.
• Katavonus accused Horus of replacing one heresy with a dangerous cult of personality, but Calgar challenged him to say what mortal lives were worth, leaving him speechless.

Prophet Khaeltok sensed a new fate-thread belonging to Horus, while Horus launched a plan to destabilize the Ork WAAAGH! by killing its biggest Warboss. Horus confronted Kroodaka "the Beast" in the Gargant factory and stopped his attack, leaving the duel poised to continue.

• Prophet Khaeltok saw a new, powerful fate-thread and ordered Quilanas to tell Commander Lhaelorl to suspend their plans and observe Horus.
• Horus surveyed the Ork forces on Vigilus and learned from Alcato that three Warbosses were sustaining the WAAAGH! field.
• Horus ordered Alcato to distract Dakkabad and Oglock while Kaldia led the shadows with him to attack Kroodaka.
• Horus entered the Gargant factory, killed Kroodaka's guards, and insulted the Warboss by calling his Gargant too small.
• Kroodaka attacked Horus with his Power Claw, but Horus stopped the blow with Worldbreaker and called him too small.

Horus killed Kroodaka, causing the Ork horde to collapse into civil war, while Alkhan’s fleet cornered Koval Nightlance’s Drukhari raiders. As the Drukhari tried to flee, the Dawn fleet’s unconventional technology overcame their stealth and pursuit maneuvers, and Alkhan ordered torpedoes launched.

• Horus shattered Kroodaka’s Power Claw, tore out his heart, and killed him, ending the WAAAGH! field.
• Dakkabad and Oglock saw Kroodaka’s corpse and turned their forces against each other to claim leadership.
• Koval Nightlance delayed the Drukhari withdrawal, hoping to raid the battlefield, but dozens of Imperial frigates surrounded his destroyer.
• Alkhan announced that the Drukhari would become part of the hunt and ordered his fleet to attack.
• Koval Nightlance’s destroyer tried to escape through the asteroid field and hide behind its shadow field, but the Dawn fleet’s Ghost Thrusters and Eye of Truth array countered its maneuvers and cloaking.
• Alkhan ordered the frigates to launch torpedoes.

Horus Lupercal’s intervention turned the battle for Vigilus into an Imperial victory, while Abaddon challenged him to a duel above the planet. Horus accepted, determined to confront his former son and offer the Black Legion’s lost souls a new life.

• Koval Nightlance died when Alkhan’s Phase Torpedoes destroyed his black destroyer, and Alkhan ordered his forces to report that the threat was cleared.
• As the Orks fought among themselves and the Chaos Fleet retreated, Calgar ordered the Imperial forces to advance and reclaim Vigilus.
• Horus returned to the Unyielding Spirit and watched the Vengeful Spirit, expecting Abaddon to come; Alcato pledged himself to the Emperor.
• Abaddon assembled Khayon, Lucius, Zek, and Typhus, then ordered a public duel with Horus above Vigilus to prove his authority as Warmaster.
• Calgar warned Horus that Abaddon’s challenge was a trap, but Horus accepted, saying he would defeat Abaddon and give the Black Legion’s lost souls a new life.

Horus left his fleet under the command of Alcato, Alkhan, and Kaldia, then faced Abaddon in a duel on an asteroid above Vigilus. After defeating Abaddon, Horus killed him and heard him call him “Father” with his final breath.

• Horus ordered Alcato, Alkhan, and Kaldia to hold Vigilus while he went alone to meet Abaddon.
• Horus and Abaddon confronted each other on an asteroid, and Abaddon attacked after calling Horus an impostor.
• Liu Zhipeng trapped Drach'nyen in his wounded left arm and battered Abaddon with three punches, disarming him.
• Horus told Abaddon that he had never understood Horus’s reason for rebelling and that he had only imitated a fallen Horus.
• Horus killed Abaddon with the Talon of Horus, and Abaddon called him “Father” before he died.

After Horus defeated Abaddon, the Black Legion surrendered and the other Chaos forces scattered or turned on one another. Inquisitor Katavonus launched a coordinated assassination attempt against Horus, but his allies intervened and stopped the first wave.

• Khayon mourned Abaddon and ordered the Black Legion to lay down their weapons, while Typhus fled, Lucius withdrew, and Zhufor attacked the Word Bearers.
• Horus turned from Abaddon's corpse toward the surrendered Black Legion, but Katavonus ordered four Officio Assassinorum assassins to strike him.
• Alkhan deflected the Vindicare's shot, Alcato blocked the Eversor, and Kaldia intercepted the Callidus's blade.
• Celestine dispelled the Culexus's null field and attacked him with the Sword of the Seraphim.
• Alcato, Alkhan, Kaldia, Calgar, and Cawl shielded Horus as Calgar angrily confronted Katavonus over the public channel.

A Cabal assassin struck Horus with an Aeldari spear designed to kill gods, and its magic began erasing his life. As his allies gathered around him in shock and grief, Horus tried to calm them and prepare to put things in order before he died.

• The Cabal assassin waited for Katavonus’s distraction and hurled a concealed spear at Horus’s heart.
• The spear pierced Horus’s armor and began destroying his flesh, resisting his Primarch healing.
• Alcato noticed Horus’s wound, and Celestine failed to heal it because the spear repelled her holy power.
• Alkhan searched for the vanished assassin while Katavonus celebrated Horus’s apparent defeat.
• Horus stopped Calgar from confronting Katavonus and said he needed to put everything in order before he disappeared.

Horus died after entrusting Cawl with a crystal chip and giving his companions instructions for the future. His death shattered the chance for peace on Vigilus, as Khayon prepared the Black Legion to attack Inquisitor Katavonus and Calgar ordered Imperial forces to defend him.

• Horus gave Cawl a crystal chip and asked him to use it to create a better Imperium, then ordered Alcato, Alkhan, and Kaldia to return to Zelanis and tell Fulgrim to take his place.
• Horus entrusted the loyal warriors from Solemnace to Marius Calgar, who vowed to protect them and grant them the Ultramarines' standing.
• Horus gave the Space Marines' salute, spoke his final words, and disintegrated as Cawl and the others watched.
• Khayon ordered the Vengeful Spirit and the Black Legion fleet to aim their guns at Inquisitor Katavonus's position.
• Cawl erupted in fury at Katavonus for destroying the future Horus had hoped to build, while the Black Legion's warriors took up their weapons again.
• Calgar ordered Imperial forces to form defensive positions and protect Katavonus as the Black Legion prepared to attack.

Alcato and Imperial forces refused to protect Inquisitor Katavonus, allowing the Black Legion to reach him. Perturabo arrived before Khayon could kill the Inquisitor and crushed Katavonus, ending the confrontation.

• Alcato ordered the Imperial Fists to withdraw, while Imperial Army forces and most Space Marine Chapters let the Black Legion pass without resistance.
• Khayon and the Black Legion broke into the Inquisition fortress and seized Katavonus.
• Perturabo and his Iron Warriors teleported into the fortress and blocked Khayon from reaching Katavonus.
• Perturabo condemned Katavonus for disrupting his experiment and crushed him with a warhammer.

After the fleets departed Vigilus, Calgar reported the extraordinary events and Horus’s final message to Guilliman, who ordered Cawl to study the technology chip and decided to visit Zelanis. Months later, Guilliman’s flagship arrived in the system, putting its defenders on high alert.

• Perturabo killed Katavonus, and the Black Legion and Horus’s Dawn fleet withdrew from Vigilus.
• Calgar told Cawl to prepare a report for Guilliman, who learned that Horus had appeared, saved Vigilus, killed Abaddon, and been assassinated by Katavonus.
• Cawl showed Guilliman the technology chip and relayed Horus’s message, prompting Guilliman to doubt that Horus was truly gone.
• Guilliman ordered Calgar to continue defending Vigilus and instructed Cawl to turn the chip’s technologies into weapons.
• Guilliman learned about the young, uncorrupted Fulgrim clone on Zelanis and decided to go there.
• Several months later, Macragge's Honour arrived at Zelanis, and the system’s forces went on full alert.

Guilliman recognized young Fulgrim as his brother and appointed him Warmaster of Imperium Nihilus, claiming the Emperor had sanctioned it. After Horus’s sixth life ended, Liu Zhipeng received a fused ability and prepared to begin his seventh life.

• Guilliman met Fulgrim on Zelanis and confirmed that Horus was dead.
• Guilliman spoke privately with Fulgrim, then entrusted him with a major task for the Imperium.
• Guilliman persuaded the High Lords of Terra to appoint Fulgrim Warmaster of Imperium Nihilus by invoking the Emperor’s will.
• Liu Zhipeng’s sixth life ended, and he received the fused ability Golden Judgment.
• The system began Liu Zhipeng’s rebirth for his seventh life.

Liu Zhipeng was chosen as the Young King and thrown into the shrine to awaken the Avatar of Khaine, but his golden soul resisted the god’s will. He engulfed the Khaine Shard in Primordial Fire and began claiming its power.

• Liu Zhipeng woke in Craftworld Biel-Tan’s shrine, restrained by four Howling Banshees and dressed for the Young King’s sacrifice.
• The Farseer said Biel-Tan was near destruction and ordered the Banshees to send Asuriel into the Avatar of Khaine’s shrine.
• The Avatar’s will attacked Liu Zhipeng’s soul, but found a golden fire shaped by his six reincarnations.
• Liu Zhipeng bound Khaine’s will with Primordial Fire and declared that he wanted the god’s power rather than his rage.
• Liu Zhipeng’s golden fire erupted and swallowed the Khaine Shard.

Liu Zhipeng emerged as a golden, transformed Avatar of Khaine and used his power to rally Biel-Tan’s terrified Aeldari. He annihilated hundreds of Slaaneshi Daemonettes, leaving the daemons afraid of being erased completely.

• Liu Zhipeng burst out of the temple as a golden Avatar of Khaine, startling the Aeldari and daemons on Biel-Tan.
• Liu Zhipeng suppressed Khaine’s bloodlust and used Primordial Fire to replace the Aeldari’s despair with courage.
• Liu Zhipeng promised to protect the Aeldari and insulted Slaanesh, prompting an exalted Daemonette to send hundreds of Daemonettes against him.
• Liu Zhipeng swept the End of Lament through the Daemonettes, and its Golden Judgment erased hundreds of them from existence.
• The surviving Slaaneshi Daemons halted in fear after witnessing the Daemonettes’ complete annihilation.

Liu Zhipeng used the Primordial Fire to destroy Slaanesh’s daemons and strengthen the Aeldari defending Biel-Tan. As Vyll Sla unleashed Slaanesh’s domain, he awakened the Craftworld’s ancient dead, who emerged in golden flames to join the fight.

• Liu Zhipeng slaughtered the daemons with Golden Judgment while the Primordial Fire consumed their energy and amplified nearby Aeldari warriors.
• The Aeldari rallied under Liu Zhipeng’s orders and wiped out the daemons at the Temple Plaza, but the Warp Rift continued to expand.
• Vyll Sla, a powerful Keeper of Secrets known as Slaanesh’s High Courtesan, descended and unleashed Slaanesh’s domain across Biel-Tan.
• Liu Zhipeng drove his sword into Biel-Tan’s wraithbone conduits and poured the Primordial Fire into the Infinity Circuit.
• Countless ancient Aeldari warriors emerged from Biel-Tan’s wraithbone, statues, and Spirit Stones, their weapons and bodies burning with pale golden flames.

Liu Zhipeng and the golden spirits turned the battle on Biel-Tan, destroying a Chaos Titan and driving back Slaanesh’s daemons. Liu defeated and banished Vyll Sla, leaving the battlefield in the spirits’ favor.

• Hundreds of thousands of golden spirits charged Slaanesh’s daemonic tide, and Liu Zhipeng ordered them to attack.
• Liu Zhipeng caught a Chaos Titan’s Chainsword, snapped it in two, and destroyed the Titan with a single punch.
• Vyll Sla attacked Liu Zhipeng with psychic lightning, a spear, and a whip, but he deflected her attacks and fought her in the sky.
• Vyll Sla created thousands of attacking copies, but Liu Zhipeng sensed the real one and seized her by the neck.
• Liu Zhipeng pierced Vyll Sla with the End of Lament, and its golden flames banished her to the Warp.

After defeating the Slaaneshi Daemons, Liu Zhipeng defied Slaanesh and chose to remain on Biel-Tan as its protector, naming himself Ember. He began reshaping Aeldari life and organizing the surviving warriors and awakened heroic spirits to rebuild the world.

• After the Greater Daemon fell, Liu Zhipeng ordered the remaining Daemons killed and raised his middle finger at Slaanesh before the Warp Rift closed.
• With Biel-Tan and its Infinity Circuit intact, Liu Zhipeng refused to return to the temple and told the Aeldari to call him Ember.
• Liu Zhipeng told Biel-Tan's leaders that his flames would protect their souls so they no longer needed to suppress their emotions through the Paths.
• When Mavis Irissong said the awakened heroic spirits did not want to return to the Infinity Circuit, Liu Zhipeng ordered them organized into a new order called the Ember Guard.
• Liu Zhipeng ordered the Aeldari to rebuild Biel-Tan and declared that they would make the Aeldari great again.

Shadowseer Hylark and the Midnight Sorrow troupe arrived at Biel-Tan expecting to help fulfill Cegorach’s prophecy, but Liu Zhipeng invited them to support a new campaign instead. At a strategy meeting, Liu laid out plans to unite the Aeldari and seek help from the Imperium, prompting outrage from Biel-Tan’s leaders.

• Shadowseer Hylark arrived with the Midnight Sorrow troupe and found Biel-Tan thriving under Liu Zhipeng’s leadership rather than devastated as prophecy had predicted.
• Liu told Hylark he wanted Cegorach to rewrite the script as an Aeldari counterattack against Slaanesh, and Hylark agreed that her troupe would stay to watch.
• Liu gathered Biel-Tan’s leaders and said they needed to unite the Aeldari before fighting Chaos and the Tyranids.
• Liu ordered envoys to contact the other Craftworlds and proposed burning Slaanesh’s mark from the Drukhari’s souls to bring them into the alliance.
• Liu proposed calling on the Imperium of Man for backup, and Biel-Tan’s leaders erupted in disbelief and anger at cooperating with humans.

Liu Zhipeng organized Biel-Tan’s forces to help close the Eye of Terror and left to rescue Iyanden from Hive Fleet Kraken. As Iyanden’s defenses collapsed and the Avatar of Khaine was destroyed, Khaelmon ordered the Craftworld’s Heart of Fire activated as a final act of defiance.

• Liu Zhipeng announced his Galactic Cleanup plan, assigning technology and special forces to the Aeldari and logistics and armies to humans.
• Biel-Tan dispatched courier ships while Liu Zhipeng assembled hundreds of thousands of Spirit Warriors and left Mavis Irissong in charge of reconstruction.
• Liu Zhipeng led the Ember Guard through the Webway toward Iyanden, where Hive Fleet Kraken had overrun the Craftworld.
• Tyranids broke Iyanden’s defenses, and the Hive Tyrant killed the Avatar of Khaine.
• Khaelmon ordered the Heart of Fire activated, despite the Prophets’ warning that it would destroy Iyanden and its infinity circuit.