Chapter Summaries

Horus ordered an all-out assault on Terra as Rogal Dorn withdrew the loyalists to the Eternal Wall. Zardu Layak opened a massive Warp rift above the Imperial Palace, unleashing daemons and beginning the true siege of Terra.

• Horus dismissed his commanders’ failures and ordered every force to attack the Imperial Palace before sunset.
• Rogal Dorn ordered the loyalists to abandon the outer defenses and retreat to the Eternal Wall.
• Zardu Layak summoned the Chaos gods and opened a vast Warp rift above the Imperial Palace.
• Rogal Dorn prepared to defend the Eternal Wall as daemons poured from the rift and attacked the Final Psychic Shield.
• Chaos war machines and corrupted armies advanced on the wall while Imperial defenders fought the assault and struggled against its psychic terror.

Liu Zhipeng activated Canoptek Scarabs to repair and reinforce the Eternal Wall, then tapped into the Palace’s ancient energy core to create a Reality Stabilization Field. The field disrupted Angron’s connection to Khorne as he attacked the wall, leaving him weakened.

• Liu Zhipeng activated the Canoptek Scarabs embedded in the Eternal Wall, and they repaired a massive breach caused by a rebel Titan’s Volcano Cannon.
• The Iron Hands witnessed the wall regrow stronger, while Rogal Dorn was bewildered by its impossible structural integrity.
• Liu Zhipeng entered the hidden energy nexus, revealed his Necron Overlord body, and connected his tendrils to the ancient energy core.
• Liu Zhipeng unleashed a Reality Stabilization Field centered on the Eternal Wall.
• Angron’s attack faltered as the field disrupted the Warp energy sustaining him, weakening his body and dimming his sword’s hellfire.

Liu Zhipeng’s cold energy of Order weakened Chaos across the battlefield, but Angron and Ka'Bandha still broke through the Eternal Wall. Sanguinius descended into the breach and confronted Ka'Bandha, whose suppressed strength failed to overwhelm him.

• Liu Zhipeng’s energy of Order drained the power of Angron, Ka'Bandha, and Fulgrim and erased lesser daemons and Warp constructs.
• Angron and Ka'Bandha struck the same point on the Eternal Wall and opened a breach despite the Canoptek Scarabs’ repairs.
• Jaghatai Khan returned to the command center and called for the breach to be sealed, but Sanguinius volunteered and charged into it.
• Sanguinius’s arrival stunned loyalists and traitors alike before Ka'Bandha rushed to attack him over their past encounter at the Signus Cluster.
• Sanguinius parried Ka'Bandha’s axe with the Spear of the Archangel, and Ka'Bandha found that Order had weakened him enough for Sanguinius to stop his blow.

Sanguinius defeated Ka'Bandha and banished Angron after overpowering him in combat, then stood alone at the breach. Horus watched and ordered a teleport so he could confront Sanguinius himself despite the field suppressing his power.

• Sanguinius impaled Ka'Bandha with his spear and destroyed him with the Crimson Holy Sword, banishing the daemon to the Warp.
• Angron charged Sanguinius, but Sanguinius outmatched him and pierced his chest with a golden Power Fist.
• Sanguinius discharged the Power Fist and banished Angron back into the Warp.
• The traitor forces stopped attacking in fear as Sanguinius remained standing alone at the breach.
• Horus watched Sanguinius from the Vengeful Spirit and ordered Abaddon to activate the teleport so he could go down himself.

Horus defeated Sanguinius and was about to kill him when Liu Zhipeng distracted the Warmaster with insults, giving Sanguinius time to be teleported away. Horus lunged at Liu Zhipeng, who escaped into the Eternal Wall, leaving Horus raging on the battlefield.

• Horus appeared before Sanguinius, overwhelmed the no-magic zone, and fought him until he broke Sanguinius's wings and armour and knocked away the True Red Sword.
• Horus seized Sanguinius and slammed him into the ground, then prepared to deliver a fatal blow as Dorn and the Khan watched helplessly.
• Liu Zhipeng fired a Turbo Laser between Horus and Sanguinius, interrupting the attack, then taunted Horus over the loudspeaker.
• Horus abandoned Sanguinius and charged Liu Zhipeng, who activated a Custodes teleportation beam to send Sanguinius away.
• Liu Zhipeng used his Phase Shift to escape into the Eternal Wall, leaving Horus with nothing but his fury.

As Horus’s forces reached Terra, Malcador prepared to sacrifice himself on the Golden Throne while Liu Zhipeng delivered a voice synthesizer to the Emperor. The Emperor left to confront Horus aboard the Vengeful Spirit, where father and son finally faced each other.

• Horus realized he had been tricked and roared in rage as his Chaos energy reached Terra.
• Malcador prepared to take his place on the Golden Throne, and Liu Zhipeng appeared with a voice synthesizer for the Emperor.
• The Emperor recognized Liu Zhipeng’s role, accepted the device, and set out for the Vengeful Spirit with the remaining fighting Custodes.
• Malcador sat on the Golden Throne and restored the Imperial Palace’s Final Psychic Shield with his psychic power.
• The Emperor crossed the corrupted Vengeful Spirit and approached Horus, who greeted him from a throne of corpses and gold.

The Emperor fought Horus on the bridge, but Horus mortally wounded him after feigning remorse. When Horus erased Ollanius Pius, the Emperor’s rage surged and he destroyed Horus’s body and soul.

• The Emperor crushed Horus’s Power Claw and stabbed him with the Emperor’s Sword, burning away the Chaos power within him.
• Horus feigned remorse, then pierced the Emperor’s chest with his daemonic hand and inflicted a mortal wound.
• Ollanius Pius fired his Lasgun at Horus, who erased the veteran with a casual blow.
• The Emperor saw Ollanius Pius’s death, unleashed his power, and annihilated Horus’s body and soul.

The Emperor killed Horus but suffered mortal wounds, so Rogal Dorn carried him back to Terra and connected him to the Golden Throne. With Horus dead, the traitors’ siege collapsed into a retreat as the surviving Loyalist Primarchs began a counteroffensive across Terra.

• The Emperor killed Horus, then collapsed from his wounds as Rogal Dorn reached the bridge and carried him back to the Imperial Palace.
• Dorn connected the Emperor to the Golden Throne, where the Emperor spoke and ordered Sanguinius and the Khan to purge Terra and avenge the loyal warriors.
• Horus’s death shattered the traitor forces’ coordination, and Perturabo ordered his fleet to retreat.
• Abaddon took the Talon of Horus and led the Vengeful Spirit and the remaining Sons of Horus fleet toward the Eye of Terror.
• Sanguinius, the Khan, Dorn, and Vulkan led the Loyalists in a counteroffensive across Terra.

Liu Zhipeng fled Terra in a damaged Necron craft and activated a return protocol to his Tomb World in the Orpheus Sector. After the world’s defenses found him, its Canoptek constructs dismantled his ship and placed him in a repair chamber.

• Liu Zhipeng escaped the Imperial Palace in his Night Shroud craft as the Loyalist fleet pursued the traitors.
• He activated the return protocol, and the craft traveled through nether space while he entered stasis.
• The craft emerged near a dead planet, and Liu Zhipeng’s ancient identification signal opened a portal beneath its surface.
• The portal drew him into a vast, silent tomb city, where Canoptek Scarabs dismantled his ship and swarmed over him.
• Canoptek Spyders and an ornate Reanimator Chamber arrived, and the Scarabs placed the badly damaged Liu Zhipeng inside its repair fluid.

Overlord Leo awoke in the Maynarkh Dynasty as its Tomb World activated and discovered that its Necron warriors were afflicted by the Flayed Ones curse. He remained immune, but realized he was the only sane being among an awakening army of deranged, armed Necrons.

• A powerful energy wave awakened Liu Zhipeng, whose repaired body emerged from its golden coffin as Overlord Leo.
• The Tomb World powered up, and millions of Necron Warriors awakened and connected to Leo’s command network.
• Leo watched a warrior tear apart a Canoptek Scarab and mutilate its own face, while other warriors attacked their companions.
• Leo recognized signs of Llandu'gor’s Flayed Ones curse and confirmed that he himself remained unaffected.
• Leo realized that being surrounded by a massive army of maddened Necrons might be more dangerous than facing Angron.

Leo answered Phaeron Xunbekel’s summons in the Maynarkh Dynasty’s throne hall and discovered that she was lucid and understood the threat of her Dynasty’s inevitable madness. After she ordered him to raise his head, Xunbekel studied him at close range.

• Leo received Xunbekel’s summons and went to the Highest Dome.
• Leo knelt before Xunbekel and waited in silence until she addressed him.
• Xunbekel said the Karakor Binary Stars had gone dark, and Leo reported that the Silent King’s alarm had sounded.
• Xunbekel questioned whether the Dynasty would be cleansed before its enemies cleansed it, revealing her awareness of its fate.
• Xunbekel ordered Leo to raise his head and stared closely into his eyes.

Xunbekel discovered that Liu Zhipeng possessed a real soul and declared him the antidote to Llandu'gor's curse. When she ordered her guards to capture him intact, Liu Zhipeng fought through them and raced for the throne room exit.

• Xunbekel sensed the flame of a soul inside Liu Zhipeng and realized he was alive.
• Xunbekel identified Liu Zhipeng as the antidote to the Necrons' lost souls and ordered her Immortal Guards to seize him intact.
• Liu Zhipeng blocked a War Scythe, shattered a guard's shield and body, and took the guard's weapon.
• Liu Zhipeng cut down guards as they attacked, broke free of their Stasis Field, and threw a War Scythe through three attackers' necks.
• Liu Zhipeng sprinted toward the throne room's only exit.

Liu Zhipeng escaped Xunbekel’s throne room by phasing through the floor, then used his remaining authority to turn the Third Legion against the Dynasty’s command network. The chapter ended as Xunbekel learned that key energy-grid nodes had been seized.

• Xunbekel trapped Liu Zhipeng with dimensional shackles and declared that he would become the Maynarkh Dynasty’s sacred relic.
• Liu Zhipeng used his Overlord authorization to phase through the throne room floor and escape.
• Xunbekel ordered the Dynasty locked down and commanded that Liu Zhipeng be captured alive.
• While fleeing through the phased dimension, Liu Zhipeng ordered the Third Legion to seize energy nodes and prevent other legions from awakening.
• Xunbekel deployed the Faceless Ones to hunt Liu Zhipeng, then learned that nodes A-2, B-4, and C-1 had been seized.

Xunbekel responded to Leo’s escape by ordering the First Legion to crush the Third Legion, plunging the Maynarkh Dynasty into civil war. Meanwhile, Liu Zhipeng hid elsewhere and lured Aeldari Corsairs and Orks toward the tomb world to worsen the chaos.

• Xunbekel learned that the Third Legion had attacked Canoptek Spyders and destroyed Overlord Ixtator-Tek’s stasis tomb, then ordered the First Legion to suppress the Third Legion while other forces hunted Leo.
• The First Legion and Third Legion began fighting near the energy nexus as Liu Zhipeng hid in an abandoned communications hub instead of going to Sector D-9.
• Liu Zhipeng sent the Blood Sails Corsair Band a message claiming Xunbekel had stolen a relic called Khaine’s Blood Tear and supplied coordinates to the tomb world.
• Liu Zhipeng broadcast a loud, insulting WAAAGH challenge to provoke nearby Orks into attacking the Maynarkh Dynasty.
• Liu Zhipeng shut down the array and went to find a hiding place while he waited for the Aeldari and Orks to arrive.

Liu Zhipeng hid in the Maynarkh Dynasty’s graveyard of discarded Necron Warriors and searched its ancient records for an escape route. As Aeldari pirates and Orks headed toward the civil-war-torn Tomb World, he found a dormant Webway gate whose corrupted activation data required living energy.

• Liu Zhipeng used his last Phase Shift to hide in Zero Reclamation Station and left Xunbekel to deal with the arriving guests.
• Khael ignored his Prophet’s warning and ordered the Blood Sail to approach the Maynarkh Dynasty in search of its supposed blood-tears and Blanks.
• Skar-Eye took a provocation as a challenge and sent his Ork fleet racing toward the Tomb World.
• Liu Zhipeng shut down his systems, hid among the ruined Necron Warriors, and searched the reclamation station’s ancient database for a way out.
• Liu Zhipeng discovered Dolmen Gate-Number 077, a dormant Webway portal, and realized its living-energy requirement might be met by himself.

Liu Zhipeng’s decoy kept drawing Necron hunters into chaos while his forces disrupted the Dynasty’s energy nodes. When Aeldari Corsairs infiltrated the Highest Dome and Orks crashed into the starport, Xunbekel redirected her armies against them and decided to hunt Liu Zhipeng herself, giving him the distraction he had been waiting for.

• Liu Zhipeng’s ghost signal evaded the Faceless Ones and caused havoc in Sector D-9, while the Third Legion used dynastic law to fight the First Legion over an energy node.
• An Aeldari squad infiltrated the Tomb World through ventilation ducts, prompting Xunbekel to order her forces to defend the Highest Dome.
• Ork ships rammed the main starport, and Ork Boyz poured out to battle Necron Warriors and scavenge their weapons.
• Xunbekel assessed the Aeldari, Orks, and Third Legion, then ordered the First, Eighth, and IV Legions to eliminate the external attackers.
• Xunbekel ordered a lockdown and set out for Sector D-9 to find Liu Zhipeng, while the Dynasty’s mobilization created the distraction he had planned for.

Liu Zhipeng slipped through the chaos at Zero Reclamation Station and reached the ancient warships and Dolmen Gate in Dock Thirteen, 'Oblivion.' There, Hekaton, the gate’s guardian, identified him as corrupted and attacked, leaving Liu Zhipeng to confront him with a desperate question.

• Liu Zhipeng used the Phase Shifter to escape the wreckage while the Phaeron’s systems were overwhelmed, and he saw a Necron Warrior afflicted by the flayer curse.
• Liu Zhipeng evaded the fighting and infiltrated Dock Thirteen, 'Oblivion,' where he found a vast collection of ancient ships and the Dolmen Gate.
• Hekaton, a Phaeron’s Guard assigned to protect the gate, demanded Liu Zhipeng’s access key and cited the edict declaring Overlord Leo corrupted.
• Liu Zhipeng charged for the console, but Hekaton struck him into a wall and damaged his body.
• Liu Zhipeng shouted at Hekaton, demanding to know what he thought he was protecting.

Liu Zhipeng tricked Hekaton, escaped Maynarkh through the Dolmen Gate, and sabotaged the Dynasty on his way out. He celebrated aboard a Night Shroud as it tumbled through the Webway, leaving Xunbekel furious and the Dynasty in chaos.

• Liu Zhipeng confused Hekaton with claims that Xunbekel had gone mad, then phased into a Night Shroud and activated it.
• Liu Zhipeng opened the Void Dockyard gates, releasing ancient warships onto the battlefield, and ordered the Third Legion to take revenge against the Dynasty.
• Liu Zhipeng called Hekaton a “Dumbass” and plunged the Night Shroud through the Dolmen Gate into the Webway.
• Xunbekel received warnings that the dockyard and Dolmen Gate had activated, saw her fleet crash onto the battlefield, and heard the Third Legion's rebellion broadcast.
• Liu Zhipeng celebrated his escape from Maynarkh aboard the tumbling Night Shroud.

Leo was pulled into Commorragh and fled its pursuing Drukhari ships by using Phase Translocation, which sent his scout craft crashing into Asdrubael Vect’s private collection chamber. He emerged face-to-face with Vect, who reacted with curiosity rather than anger.

• Leo’s scout craft was dragged into Commorragh by a spatial anomaly, and the city’s defenses drew a swarm of Drukhari warships toward him.
• Leo activated Phase Translocation without choosing a destination, and the craft vanished just before the pursuing ships could strike it.
• Asdrubael Vect admired a shard of Khaine in his collection chamber when Leo’s damaged scout craft tore through the palace defenses and crashed nearby.
• Liu Zhipeng emerged from the craft, recognized Vect and his Incubi bodyguards, and realized he had landed in Vect’s private quarters.
• Vect studied Liu Zhipeng with curiosity and asked whether the Necron had come there to die.

Leo stole the Khaine Shard from Vect’s collection chamber and escaped with it, provoking Vect into mobilizing Commorragh’s forces against him. With the Drukhari fleet pursuing him through the Webway, Leo headed for the Dolmen Gate leading to the Maynarkh Dynasty.

• Leo seized the Khaine Shard and taunted Vect by claiming Phaeron Xunbekel had sent him to take it.
• Leo used the Phase Shifter to escape Vect’s collection chamber with the shard.
• Vect ordered his fleets and forces to pursue Leo and vowed to attack Xunbekel and her Dynasty.
• Leo raced through the Webway as the Drukhari fleet attacked and his scout ship’s systems began to overheat.
• Leo steered toward the Dolmen Gate route to the Maynarkh Dynasty, carrying the Khaine Shard with him.