Chapter Summaries

Warren used his life savings to save Leo and urged him to live decently, showing Konrad that the future could be changed through kindness. Konrad and Warren began preventing disasters across Nostramo, but Konrad’s growing visions revealed atrocities committed by the city’s nobles and powerful officials.

• Warren gave Leo his six hundred credits to pay his debt and warned him to stop gambling, avoid harming the weak, and help others in need.
• Konrad waited for the murder he had foreseen in Section Seven, but Warren reported that the family of three was alive and well.
• Konrad realized that his prophecies were warnings of preventable disasters and began working with Warren to avert them.
• Konrad and Warren prevented escalating violence and disrupted gang deals by introducing small changes before events turned bloody.
• Konrad’s heightened senses revealed nobles and officials torturing people, endangering miners, and selling civilians into slavery.
• Konrad recognized that their efforts could not end Nostramo’s suffering without rooting out the powerful sources of evil, and his instincts awakened again.

Konrad proposed ruling Nostramo’s nobles through fear, but Warren taught him that lasting order required law, evidence, and justice that people could scrutinize. After rapidly mastering legal and investigative principles, Konrad set his sights on replacing Nostramo’s corrupt system of edicts with law founded on equality.

• Konrad told Warren he planned to terrorize and kill Nostramo’s nobles to force the city into order.
• Warren rebuked Konrad, warning that an order sustained by fear would collapse and lead to worse violence.
• Warren explained that lasting order depended on shared laws, evidence, and fair procedures that constrained rulers as well as ordinary people.
• Warren began teaching Konrad jurisprudence, including chains of evidence and procedural justice.
• Konrad rapidly mastered law and investigative methods, then resolved to replace Nostramo’s corrupt edicts with a system based on evidence, reason, and equality.

Konrad gathered irrefutable evidence of the nobles’ crimes and, with Warren, distributed copies throughout Nostramo’s Underhive. As the lower classes began to unite and the aristocracy realized the threat was real, Nostramo’s Ruling Council sought to respond to the unseen source.

• Konrad stopped killing and secretly recorded the crimes of Nostramo’s nobles, then brought the evidence to Warren.
• Warren copied the records onto Data Cards and quietly distributed them through his Underhive contacts.
• Workers and low-ranking gang members began discussing their exploitation and questioning their divisions as the evidence circulated.
• Nostramo’s nobles tried to trace the Data Cards’ source, but arrests and torture failed to reveal it.
• After confirming the records were genuine, Nostramo’s Ruling Council reached a consensus in response to the growing threat.

As the nobles’ brutal purge devastated the Underhive, Konrad wanted to attack the guards, but Warren warned that doing so would provoke an even deadlier retaliation. Warren then locked Konrad in a blast-resistant conduit and surrendered himself to the guards as the “Ghost” who had distributed the evidence.

• Thousands of city guards sealed off the Underhive’s food, water, and ventilation, leaving civilians to starve amid widespread violence and disease.
• Konrad urged Warren to let him become the Night Wraith and strike the guards, but Warren warned that the nobles would escalate the slaughter and destroy the Underhive.
• Warren told Konrad that someone had to become the first flame, then shoved him through a concealed hatch into an underground conduit.
• Warren locked the hatch, disabled its controls, and left Konrad trapped inside despite his pleas.
• Warren walked into the guards’ searchlights and declared that he was the Ghost who had distributed the evidence.

Konrad watched Warren face immediate execution and nearly gave in to a violent rampage, but the lessons Warren had taught him restored his reason. He chose to act as Nostramo’s judge, while Warren was dragged onto the gallows in Central Square.

• Nostramo’s rulers announced Warren’s immediate execution and broadcast it across the planet.
• Konrad saw Warren on the broadcast and nearly surrendered to his rage and the Night Haunter’s savagery.
• Remembering Warren’s teachings about law and due process, Konrad regained control and chose to uphold order rather than unleash slaughter.
• Speaker Heimdall ordered Warren executed without a trial, and guards dragged him onto the gallows.

Warren publicly exposed Nostramo’s rulers’ crimes before his execution, but Konrad appeared and saved him. Konrad advanced through a hail of gunfire, evading every bullet as the square looked on.

• Warren recited evidence of Speaker Heimdall’s, General Marr’s, and other officials’ crimes before the crowd.
• Speaker Heimdall ordered Warren hanged, and Warren urged the people of Nostramo to stand up as the executioner pulled the lever.
• An invisible gust cut the noose, and Warren fell onto the platform alive.
• Konrad walked down the avenue toward the execution platform, ignoring General Marr’s order to stop him.
• Hundreds of guards fired at Konrad, but he evaded the bullets with tiny, precisely calculated movements.

Konrad defeated Nostramo’s guards without killing them, rescued Warren, and addressed the planet as its judge. He exposed evidence of the nobles’ crimes on the city’s billboards, leaving the population to see the truth.

• Konrad disarmed and incapacitated hundreds of guards without killing any of them.
• Konrad climbed the gallows, helped Warren to his feet, and removed the noose from his neck.
• Konrad told Warren that he would carry out the judgment and addressed the people of Nostramo.
• Konrad accused the nobles of plundering and abusing the population, then displayed evidence of their crimes across the city.

Konrad led Nostramo through a lawful mass arrest and open trial, then oversaw the planet’s renewal as its Lord of Law. After celebrating the new legal code, he knelt beside Warren and told him they had succeeded.

• The people of Nostramo rose against their rulers, and guards joined the revolt or laid down their weapons.
• Konrad kept the uprising orderly and established a People's Court to try the accused publicly using evidence and due process.
• The court convicted and sentenced the former rulers, while Nostramo established a new legal system and began purifying its polluted skies.
• Konrad became Nostramo's Lord of Law and used his foresight to investigate crimes and prevent them.
• At the celebration for the new legal code, Konrad found Warren in the crowd, knelt beside him, and said, "Father, we did it."

After Warren died peacefully in Konrad’s arms, Liu Zhipeng’s fifth glimmer descended to Barbarus and awakened inside the body of an elderly doctor. The old doctor stepped out of his shack into the poison fog, beginning Liu Zhipeng’s next life on the deadly world.

• Warren touched Konrad’s face and told him he had never doubted him before dying peacefully on the bench.
• Konrad knelt beside Warren, held his hand, and mourned as celebrations continued around them.
• Liu Zhipeng’s fifth glimmer traveled to Barbarus, a world ruled by xenos overlords and submerged in toxic fog.
• Liu Zhipeng awoke in the body of the old doctor, a mortal physician whose lungs had been ruined by the planet’s poison.
• The old doctor put on his handmade gas mask, took his cane, and stepped outside into the fog.

Mortarion fell from the summit after failing to withstand Nakare’s supreme poison mist and sank into the poison marsh. An old doctor found him and treated his wounds, leaving Mortarion beginning to recover as the chapter ended.

• Mortarion attempted to challenge Nakare at the summit but retreated when the poison mist overwhelmed him.
• Mortarion crashed into the lowland poison marsh and lay near death.
• An old doctor crossed the deadly mist, found Mortarion, and cut away his necrotic flesh.
• The old doctor applied his Universal Antidote Salve and forced a concentrated herbal extract down Mortarion’s throat.
• After waiting beside him, the old doctor watched Mortarion stir and open his eyes.

Mortarion woke in the toxic mist to find that an old doctor had saved him, and his pride turned the rescue into a source of fury and humiliation. When the doctor headed to a nearby village to treat sick children, Mortarion followed him, seeing the oppressed villagers as a possible army for his rebellion.

• Mortarion regained consciousness and realized the old doctor had treated his wounds.
• Mortarion confronted the doctor, insisting that he needed no pity, but the doctor calmly said he had saved him simply because he did not want anyone to die.
• The doctor told Mortarion he was going to a village to check on children harmed by the latest experiments.
• Mortarion decided the village's oppressed inhabitants could serve his plans and followed the doctor into the poisonous mist.

Mortarion reached a village on Barbarus and roused its oppressed people to rebel against the xenos lords. As the villagers prepared to follow him, the lords unleashed a deadly "Purification Rain" upon them.

• Mortarion arrived at the village and saw the hatred and strength hidden among its frightened, impoverished people.
• Mortarion addressed the villagers, urging them to rise up against the xenos lords and reclaim their world.
• The villagers emerged with makeshift weapons and shouted their support for Mortarion's call to storm the mountaintops.
• The sky turned sickly green, and an old man recognized the approaching storm as the "Purification Rain."
• The xenos lords sent concentrated toxic fog pouring down onto the village.

Mortarion watched the poisonous mist kill the villagers and blamed their weakness for ruining his plans. When he mistook the old doctor’s medicine for xenos sorcery, the doctor defied him and carried the black paste into the poison storm.

• The poisonous mist overwhelmed the villagers’ crude masks, killing them as Mortarion remained unharmed.
• Mortarion shouted at the dying villagers and berated them for being too weak to endure the poison and take revenge on the Tyrant.
• Mortarion spotted the old doctor brewing a black medicinal paste and became convinced that he was performing xenos sorcery.
• Mortarion grabbed the old doctor and accused him of sacrificing the villagers, but the doctor struck his hand and broke free.
• The old doctor lifted the steaming pot of medicine and plunged into the poisonous mist.

An old doctor used black ointment to save villagers poisoned by toxic mist, forcing Mortarion to confront the limits of his beliefs and his treatment of the weak. After the doctor collapsed, Mortarion stayed to help the villagers for the next few days.

• The old doctor treated a dying woman with black ointment, neutralizing the toxins and saving her life.
• The old doctor used the ointment to rescue other villagers, while Mortarion watched in shock and questioned his belief that every inexplicable miracle was sorcery.
• The old doctor ordered Mortarion to carry the rescued villagers into nearby houses, and Mortarion obeyed, saving them from the toxic mist.
• After treating the last wounded villager, the old doctor collapsed and explained that the ointment worked through chemistry and pharmacology, not sorcery.
• Mortarion caught the old doctor as he fell, and the old doctor told him that true endurance meant the strong shielding the weak rather than driving them toward death for revenge.
• The old doctor lost consciousness, and Mortarion remained with the villagers for the next few days.

After the old doctor’s words made Mortarion question whether his revenge made him any different from Barbarus’s tyrant, he asked to learn science and medicine. The doctor agreed, making Mortarion his apprentice and laying down strict rules.

• Mortarion cared for the unconscious old doctor and reflected on how his treatment of mortals resembled Nakare’s cruelty.
• For three days, Mortarion kept watch beside the old doctor and reconsidered his beliefs about endurance and power.
• When the old doctor awoke, Mortarion gave him warm water and asked him to teach him the sciences.
• The old doctor agreed to teach Mortarion on the condition that he obeyed him as an apprentice, and Mortarion accepted.

Over the following year, the old doctor and Mortarion helped Barbarus’s mortals build gas masks, chemical weapons, and a fighting force. When xenos sorcerer Narsh led a squad to attack their settlement, Mortarion prepared his first planned battle, luring them toward a hidden tunnel ambush.

• The old doctor and Mortarion traveled through mortal villages, treating the sick and gathering materials as Mortarion learned to forge protective gear.
• Mortarion made effective gas masks, inspired villagers to join his ranks, and trained them while promising to protect them.
• The old doctor taught villagers to create poison-neutralizing spray and chemical firebombs.
• A nearby xenos lord sent Narsh, lesser sorcerers, and more than thirty Stitched Beasts to destroy the growing mortal settlement.
• After a scout warned of the approaching force, Mortarion ordered his warriors into position according to their battle plan.
• Narsh led the attackers into a narrow gorge above tunnels Mortarion and the warriors had dug and concealed beneath the poisonous mud.

Mortarion led mortal warriors in an ambush against Narsh and the xenos, whose hallucinogenic toxic fog failed against the gas masks the old doctor had prepared. The old doctor then used a decontamination spray to neutralize the fog, leaving the xenos sorcerers’ attack shattered.

• Mortarion and the mortal warriors burst from a concealed tunnel and attacked the stitched beasts and xenos sorcerers.
• Mortarion directed the warriors to fight in groups while he smashed a beast, and the ambush killed many enemies.
• Narsh and the remaining sorcerers summoned purplish-red hallucinogenic fog, but the warriors breathed safely through Mortarion’s gas masks.
• The old doctor explained that the fog was a nerve gas and urged the warriors to use their decontamination sprays.
• The warriors sprayed the fog, triggering a reaction that broke it apart and made it vanish.

Mortarion and the mortal warriors used chemical weapons to defeat Narsh’s xenos harvesting squad, then marched on Lord Karag’s fortress with makeshift trebuchets. The chapter ended as Mortarion ordered the first volley released.

• Mortarion charged through the dispersed toxic mist and cut down two Stitched Beasts with his War Scythe.
• The mortal warriors threw incendiary bottles, burning the xenos sorcerers, while Mortarion seized and killed Narsh.
• The old doctor warned that Lord Karag remained a threat, so Mortarion rallied the warriors to attack the fortress.
• Two hours later, the mortals assembled before Lord Karag’s fortress with trebuchets built under the old doctor’s guidance.
• Mortarion gave the order to loose the trebuchets.

Mortarion led the human soldiers through a breached fortress wall and killed the xenos lord Karag in battle. With Karag dead and the remaining xenos fleeing, Mortarion raised Karag’s severed head above the battlefield.

• Mortarion ordered the trebuchets to bombard the fortress wall until it collapsed.
• Mortarion led thousands of masked human soldiers through the breach and overwhelmed the xenos guards.
• Karag emerged from the main building and confronted Mortarion with his axe and psychic pressure.
• Mortarion used precise, forceful strikes to interrupt Karag’s spells and cut off his head.
• The Stitched Beasts dissolved, the lesser xenos fled in panic, and Mortarion raised Karag’s head by its tentacles.

Mortarion and the Barbarus Resistance killed the xenos lord, inspiring humanity to declare its independence and establish an organized rebellion. After preserving the fortress’s scientific equipment and supplies, Mortarion prepared to challenge his foster father, High Lord Nakare.

• Mortarion threw the dead xenos lord’s head into the mire, and the mortal warriors celebrated their victory and founded the Barbarus Resistance.
• The resistance freed more than a thousand slaves from the fortress dungeons, and Mortarion stopped the crowd from destroying the xenos laboratories.
• The old doctor explained how captured equipment and scientific knowledge could protect the resistance, and Mortarion ordered all technical materials preserved.
• The resistance dismantled and loaded the fortress’s equipment, chemicals, generators, and alloy structures for transport.
• Mortarion looked toward Nakare’s mountaintop stronghold and vowed to bring humanity’s ingenuity and fury against it.