Chapter Summaries

Calgar ordered Cawl and Yvraine to end Guilliman’s stasis and attempt to revive him, despite the risk of his death. Guilliman awakened and took up the Emperor’s Sword, ready to drive Mortarion’s forces from his home.

• Calgar chose to risk Guilliman’s death and ordered the Ultramarines to defend the revival ritual.
• Cawl disengaged the Stasis Field, and Guilliman’s poisoned body died as he fitted it with the Armour of Fate.
• Yvraine severed Guilliman’s remaining conduits and poured the power of the god of death into him.
• As Calgar accused Cawl and Yvraine of killing Guilliman, the Primarch’s heart began beating again and he awakened.
• Guilliman rose, seized the Emperor’s Sword, and declared that he would drive the traitors from his home.

The Nurgle daemon army overwhelmed the defenders outside the Fortress of Hera until Roboute Guilliman returned and led a counterattack. He drove the Emperor’s Sword into Ku’gath’s heart and unleashed sacred flames within the daemon.

• Liu Zhipeng and Saint Celestine prepared a final charge against Mortarion, Ku’gath, and Scabeiathrax as the defenders faced defeat.
• The Fortress of Hera’s gates burst open, and Roboute Guilliman emerged to confront Mortarion.
• Guilliman led the Ultramarines in a countercharge, and Liu Zhipeng rallied the Ember Guard to join them.
• Guilliman’s first strike sank into Ku’gath’s blubber, and the Great Unclean One attacked him with flies, toxins, and a rusted claw.
• Guilliman endured Ku’gath’s Plague Flail, drove the Emperor’s Sword into his black heart, and flooded the wound with sacred psychic flames.

Liu Zhipeng and Guilliman defeated Mortarion, ending the Nurgle daemon assault on Macragge. After Guilliman learned that Liu Zhipeng and Yvraine had helped awaken him, he called for a private meeting to hear how the galaxy had changed.

• Liu Zhipeng killed Scabeiathrax after his golden sword overcame the daemon's regeneration.
• Guilliman and Liu Zhipeng fought Mortarion together, and Guilliman pierced him with the Emperor's Sword before Liu Zhipeng kicked him away to die.
• The Nurgle daemon army collapsed, and sunlight returned to the battlefield as Ultramarines, militia, and Skitarii knelt before Guilliman.
• Guilliman asked Liu Zhipeng who he was, and Liu introduced himself as Ember or Overlord and named Yvraine as his partner.
• Guilliman ordered Calgar to secure the Fortress of Hera and arranged a private meeting with Liu Zhipeng, Yvraine, Cawl, and Celestine.

After Liu Zhipeng left Macragge, Guilliman learned how far the Imperium had fallen and resolved to lead humanity despite his despair. Liu Zhipeng and Yvraine then set course for Commorragh to unite the Aeldari and awaken the god of death.

• Guilliman accepted Liu Zhipeng’s offer of cooperation, ordered Cawl to calibrate his armour, and requested ten thousand years of historical records.
• As news of Guilliman’s return spread, he read the records, grew horrified by the Imperium’s decline, and broke a dataslate in anger.
• Calgar reported that Nurgle’s remaining forces on Macragge had been eliminated, and Guilliman gathered strength to address the people.
• Liu Zhipeng and Yvraine returned to the Deep Webway, where Liu Zhipeng chose Commorragh as their next destination.
• Liu Zhipeng vowed to use the souls of Drukhari who refused to submit to awaken the god of death, and Yvraine offered to guide him through the Webway.

Liu Zhipeng and Yvraine entered Commorragh through the Shattered Mirror passage and headed for its great gladiatorial arena to surprise Asdrubael Vect. Liu crashed into the arena like a golden meteor, destroying the Pain Beast and leaving the stunned crowd in silence.

• Yvraine guided Liu Zhipeng through the Shattered Mirror passage and recalled her years fighting in Commorragh's gladiatorial arena.
• Liu Zhipeng ordered the Ember Guard to wait outside while he and Yvraine entered the Webway rift.
• Asdrubael Vect watched a slaughter in the great gladiatorial arena and complained that Commorragh had become dull.
• A golden fissure opened above the arena, and Liu Zhipeng fell through it like a meteor.
• Liu Zhipeng crushed the Pain Beast on impact, shattered the arena floor, and injured thousands of Drukhari spectators.

Liu Zhipeng and Yvraine entered the Gladiatorial Arena, where Vect turned their arrival into a spectacle and sent Xilis to attack. Liu Zhipeng defeated Xilis and used his primordial fire to sever her connection to Slaanesh, leaving her transformed by the sudden relief.

• Vect recognized Yvraine and Liu Zhipeng, then ordered Xilis to fight him for a lavish reward.
• Yvraine warned Liu Zhipeng that Vect would send challengers to test him, and Xilis attacked from behind.
• Liu Zhipeng caught Xilis after her dagger broke against his neck and burned away her poison.
• Liu Zhipeng enveloped Xilis in primordial fire, which burned through her connection to Slaanesh.
• Xilis's agony gave way to relief as the hunger and fear imposed by Slaanesh vanished.

Liu Zhipeng and Yvraine revealed that Xilis had escaped Slaanesh’s hunger, stirring the Drukhari to hope for freedom and threatening Vect’s rule. Vect tried to trap Liu with a stasis field, but Liu ignored it and advanced toward Vect as the Archons hesitated.

• Xilis knelt before Liu Zhipeng and declared that Slaanesh’s hunger was gone and she was free.
• Yvraine announced to the arena that Liu could offer the Drukhari salvation from Slaanesh, and the crowd turned its attention from Vect to them.
• Vect recognized the threat to Commorragh’s order and confronted Liu, who challenged him to act like a real leader.
• Vect activated the Void Suppression Field and Dimensional Stasis Net, but Liu walked through the field unaffected.
• Vect ordered the Archons and Incubi to kill Liu, but they stayed still as they watched Xilis follow him in freedom.

Liu Zhipeng persuaded Vect and Commorragh’s leaders to accept his flames, severing their ties to Slaanesh in exchange for helping seal the Eye of Terror. After purging Commorragh and assembling its fleet, they set out to join the Aeldari forces.

• Vect abandoned his attack on Liu Zhipeng and invited him and Yvraine to negotiate at his palace.
• Liu Zhipeng offered to purify the Drukhari and demanded they end large-scale raids and help him at Cadia; Vect agreed on condition that he and the other leaders be healed first.
• Liu Zhipeng ignited Vect and Commorragh’s leaders, freeing them from Slaanesh’s mark and transforming the palace into a treatment center.
• Drukhari who sought salvation joined the Ember Faithful, while Vect and Yvraine crushed those who refused and used their souls to awaken the Avatar of Ynnead.
• Vect led tens of thousands of Drukhari warships into the Webway toward Ulthwé and the gathered Aeldari forces.

Liu Zhipeng’s Drukhari fleet rescued Ulthwé from a Slaaneshi attack, then Aeldari leaders gathered there with Khaine Shards for his ritual. He began absorbing the shards despite Prince Yriel’s warning about their maddening will.

• Eldrad told Ulthwé’s defenders that reinforcements had arrived as a vast fleet emerged from the Webway.
• Asdrubael Vect received Liu Zhipeng’s permission to attack the Flawless Host and led the Drukhari in destroying it.
• Ulthwé’s warriors watched the Drukhari fleet return to formation after erasing the Chaos Warband.
• Eldrad welcomed Liu Zhipeng as a god and opened Ulthwé to the arriving Craftworld fleets and their Khaine Shards.
• Prince Yriel warned Liu Zhipeng that the shards could drive him insane, but Liu began drawing in the largest shard.

Liu Zhipeng absorbed all the Khaine Shards and merged their power with his own before revealing the Four Pillars Plan to seal the Eye of Terror. He led the Aeldari fleet to Bloodfang and began clearing the planet of Khorne’s forces.

• Liu Zhipeng devoured the Khaine Shards, compressing their power into his body and merging it with his primordial fire and Golden Judgment.
• Liu Zhipeng proposed building four planetary-scale Blackstone Obelisks around the Eye of Terror to create a web of reality and seal it.
• Vect commanded the combined Aeldari fleet to Bloodfang, where its guns destroyed the Chaos forces in orbit.
• Liu Zhipeng descended onto Bloodfang and purified approaching daemons with his golden flames.
• Liu Zhipeng erased a Chaos champion, the Space Marines behind him, and a stretch of the planet with one punch, then vaporized an escaping battleship.

Liu Zhipeng and the Aeldari began building four Blackstone Spires, provoking a massive Chaos assault before Roboute Guilliman arrived with the Indomitus Crusade to reinforce them. Guilliman assigned Imperial forces to defend three nodes while the Aeldari took responsibility for the Slaanesh node, and both sides prepared for the war ahead.

• Vect ordered Aeldari propaganda networks to broadcast Liu Zhipeng's victory as construction crews began raising Blackstone Spires on four death worlds.
• The Four Gods sent vast daemon armies to attack the construction sites, and the Aeldari alliance struggled to hold its defensive lines.
• Roboute Guilliman arrived with the Indomitus Crusade and struck the Chaos army's flank, turning the tide of the battle.
• Liu Zhipeng, Yvraine, and Vect teleported aboard the Macragge's Honour and met with Guilliman to plan the defense of the four nodes.
• Guilliman assigned the Blood Angels to Bloodfang, the Ultramarines to the Garden of Decay, and Belisarius Cawl with Custodes support to the Crystal Labyrinth, while the Aeldari took the Slaanesh node.
• Guilliman ordered all forces to battle stations, declaring that they had no way back.

Perturabo launched a massive assault on the four planets, forcing Guilliman’s forces into simultaneous battles against Chaos armies and Daemons. The Blood Angels and Ultramarines held their lines with help from the Grey Knights and Guilliman, while the fighting continued across the besieged worlds.

• Guilliman recognized Perturabo’s saturation attack and ordered the Imperial fleet and planetary defenses to intercept the drop pods and bombardment.
• Dante led the Blood Angels against the invading Chaos forces, but Ang'grath’s arrival drove many warriors toward the black rage.
• The Grey Knights teleported in and suppressed the black rage, allowing Dante to rally the Blood Angels against Ang'grath and Khorne’s Daemons.
• Rotigus unleashed toxic rain that devastated Marius Calgar’s defensive line and killed many mortal soldiers.
• Guilliman teleported in and used the Emperor’s Sword to create a purification field, then left Calgar to hold the line.
• Calgar rallied the Ultramarines and Imperialis Militia to defend the hallowed ground against Nurgle’s Daemon Army.

Belisarius Cawl fought Kairos Fateweaver’s attempt to corrupt the Blackstone Obelisk’s construction formula while the Imperials defended it from Tzeentchian daemons. On another battlefield, Liu Zhipeng swiftly defeated Syll’Esske and left Vect’s Drukhari to overwhelm her twelve Keepers of Secrets.

• Belisarius Cawl ordered his forces to adapt to the unstable planet and battled Kairos Fateweaver’s attack on the Obelisk’s construction formula.
• Adeptus Custodes and Imperialis Militia forces defended the Obelisk from waves of Tzeentchian daemons.
• Syll’Esske emerged from the mist with twelve Keepers of Secrets and challenged Liu Zhipeng.
• Liu Zhipeng seized Syll’Esske, negated her powers, and punched her out of realspace into the Warp.
• Vect commanded the Drukhari to attack, and they engulfed the stunned Keepers of Secrets.

The Four Gods destroyed three Blackstone Obelisks just before the Four Pillars Plan could succeed, and Liu Zhipeng led the surviving Aeldari into the expanding Eye of Terror to attack Slaanesh’s palace. Guilliman rallied the Imperial survivors to defend the Eye and keep Liu Zhipeng’s way home open.

• The Four Gods descended into realspace and destroyed the obelisks at Bloodfang, the Garden of Decay, and the Crystal Labyrinth, killing countless Imperial warriors.
• Liu Zhipeng withstood Slaanesh’s strike, but the final obelisk cracked and Guilliman ordered the forces to retreat as the Eye of Terror began expanding.
• Liu Zhipeng urged the surviving Aeldari to follow him into Slaanesh’s palace, and their golden fleet plunged into the Eye of Terror.
• Guilliman grieved over the Aeldari sacrifice, then rallied the Imperial fleet to form a defensive line around the Eye of Terror.

Liu Zhipeng led the Ember Legion into Slaanesh’s first ring of temptation, where illusions of everything the Aeldari desired lured souls away to be devoured. A Saim-Hann chieftain sacrificed himself to break the ring’s illusions, allowing the legion to pass, while his remaining spark was trapped behind.

• Liu Zhipeng gathered the Aeldari souls into the Ember Legion as their fleet was destroyed in the Warp, and Yvraine warned that Slaanesh’s six rings guarded the Palace.
• Liu Zhipeng led the legion into the first ring, where visions of restored Craftworlds, wealth, and power tempted souls to break away and die.
• Vect urged the legion to resist the illusions, but the temptations continued to draw souls from the torrent.
• A Saim-Hann chieftain sacrificed himself in a burst of pure will, awakening the bewitched souls and shattering the ring’s illusions.
• Liu Zhipeng led the rallied legion through the breach, while Yvraine saw the chieftain’s remaining spark trapped in the ring.

The Ember Legion crossed Slaanesh’s Ring of Gluttony, where Yriel and Iyanden’s warriors sacrificed themselves to clear a path, then entered a ring that forced each soul to face its deepest desires. Vect embraced his mirror image, leaving his fate uncertain.

• The Ring of Gluttony’s seductive energy slowed the Ember Legion and began assimilating souls who stopped moving.
• Yriel and tens of thousands of Iyanden warriors formed an Ancient Spirit Array, absorbing the corruption so the legion could pass.
• After Liu Zhipeng led the legion through, the Iyanden warriors’ overfilled souls exploded and merged with the Ring of Gluttony.
• In the next ring, mirror images embodied the legion’s hidden desires, forcing each soul into a private struggle against corruption.
• Vect admired his mirror image, which embodied his desire for power, intrigue, and betrayal, then opened his arms to embrace it.

Vect led the Ember Legion out of Slaanesh’s Ring of Lust by rejecting his false reflection, then broke the Ring of Domination by turning its rulers against one another. The legion continued onward, but Vect’s soul-fire dimmed from the effort.

• Vect rejected and destroyed his reflection, inspiring the Ember Legion to overcome their desires and escape the Ring of Lust.
• The legion entered the Fourth Ring, where enslaved souls tried to strip away their free will under a false system of perfect order.
• Yvraine warned that the Ring’s laws made resistance ineffective and allowed the Enslavers to assimilate the legion’s warriors.
• Vect infected the Inquisitors with suspicion and betrayal, causing them to turn on one another and collapse the Ring’s order.
• Liu Zhipeng led the legion through the halted Enslavers while Vect withdrew his will, visibly weakened by the effort.

Liu Zhipeng led the Ember Legion through the Ring of Vanity by turning them away from false glory and toward the suffering of realspace. Vect sacrificed himself to destroy the Pleasure Titan in the Ring of Sloth, waking the exhausted survivors, who reached the Palace of Slaanesh.

• Liu Zhipeng showed the souls realspace’s suffering, helping the Ember Legion resist the statues’ false glory and bring down the Ring of Vanity.
• The Ember Legion began sinking into the soothing river of the Ring of Sloth, overcome by exhaustion.
• Vect rallied the sleepers, then detonated his soul against the awakening Pleasure Titan, destroying it and disrupting the river’s spell.
• Liu Zhipeng led the fewer-than-one-tenth survivors out of the Ring of Sloth, and they saw the Palace of Slaanesh ahead.

Liu Zhipeng led the surviving Ember Legion into Slaanesh’s palace and confronted the Dark Prince while Yvraine and the remaining Aeldari withdrew. He admitted he could not yet kill Slaanesh, but vowed to make the god suffer.

• Liu Zhipeng and Yvraine mourned Vect, then Liu gathered Ember’s surviving power and smashed through Slaanesh’s palace doors.
• Liu charged into the palace with the Ember Legion, ignoring the daemons and focusing on Slaanesh upon the throne.
• Slaanesh welcomed Liu and threatened to make him an eternal slave beneath the throne.
• Liu ordered Yvraine and the surviving Aeldari souls to retreat, leaving him alone to face Slaanesh.
• Liu condemned Slaanesh for feeding on the Aeldari and treating the galaxy as a game, then declared that he would make the god suffer.

Liu Zhipeng wounded Slaanesh with the Emperor’s fire and Khaine’s Wrath, then detonated his soul as the Four Gods fought over him. The blast devastated Slaanesh and her palace, weakened the other gods’ manifestations, and eased the Great Enemy’s pull on Aeldari souls, while Liu Zhipeng vanished in the explosion.

• Liu Zhipeng struck Slaanesh through the god’s domain and burned a grievous wound into the source of Slaanesh’s divinity.
• Khorne, Nurgle, and Tzeentch entered the palace and reached for Liu Zhipeng, each claiming his soul, while Slaanesh also tried to seize him.
• Liu Zhipeng abandoned resistance and detonated his soul, fused with Khaine’s divinity, primordial fire, and millions of Aeldari souls.
• The explosion erased much of Slaanesh’s palace and inflicted the god’s worst injury since birth, forcing Slaanesh to withdraw from the Great Game.
• Khorne, Nurgle, and Tzeentch’s manifestations were damaged and retreated, while across the galaxy Slaaneshi Daemons fled and the Aeldari felt Slaanesh’s soul-draining pull weaken.