Chapter Summaries

Leo escaped through the Dolmen Gate as a massive Drukhari fleet poured into the Maynarkh Dynasty, leading Hekaton to brand him the Dynasty’s greatest traitor. Hekaton’s forces devastated the invading fleet, but Vect’s flagship overwhelmed him, and he destroyed himself and nearby attackers in a final blast.

• Leo used his Phase Shifter to evade Hekaton’s Gauss Cannon as he emerged from the Dolmen Gate.
• Thousands of Drukhari warships surged through the gate, forcing Hekaton to abandon his attempt to seal it and activate the Cataclysm protocol.
• Hekaton and the dock’s batteries erased the leading Drukhari frigates, but more ships swarmed the defenses and attacked him.
• Vect arrived aboard the Eternal Torture and sent grappling hooks to capture Hekaton alive.
• Hekaton triggered his self-destruct protocol, destroying himself, nearby defenses, and several Drukhari warships as Leo watched from a distance.

Phaeron Xunbekel learned that Leo had brought Asdrubael Vect’s Drukhari fleet to Maynarkh, and she unleashed the Dynasty against the invaders. As Vect’s forces began losing ground, Leo realized Xunbekel might turn her fury on him if Vect retreated, and searched for a way to escalate the war.

• Xunbekel prepared to order the Orks and Aeldari destroyed, but learned that Hekaton had self-destructed and Void Dock had fallen.
• Asdrubael Vect contacted Xunbekel, revealed that he had come for his stolen property, and threatened to make her palace his collection room.
• Xunbekel awakened the Maynarkh Dynasty’s legions, Exterminators, and Eternal Vanguard to attack Vect’s fleet.
• Leo hid in a scrap heap and watched the Necrons and Drukhari clash, pleased that he had set them against each other.
• Leo saw Vect’s fleet losing ground and feared that Vect would retreat, leaving Xunbekel to hunt him, so he decided to bring in more backup.
• Leo’s sensors suddenly went off again.

Leo discovered that the Imperial fleet had arrived under the Emperor’s orders to rescue him, and he sent it intelligence about the Necrons and Drukhari. Sanguinius used Leo’s information to direct the fleet’s attack as the Blood Angels prepared to reach the planet.

• Leo identified the incoming ships as an Imperial fleet and found its mission briefing, which named the rescue of Tech-Sage Kastor Alpha as its objective.
• Leo realized the fleet had come for him and sent the Red Tear detailed intelligence about the Maynarkh dynasty and the Drukhari.
• Sanguinius received Leo’s data and recognized that Kastor was trapped at the center of the conflict.
• Sanguinius ordered the fleet to target the Necrons’ exposed vulnerabilities, while the Iron Hands and Ultramarines engaged the Drukhari and the Blood Angels prepared to land.
• The Imperial Fleet used Leo’s targeting information to destroy a Necron warship by striking its main reactor.

As Sanguinius led the Blood Angels assault on the Maynarkh Dynasty’s Highest Dome, Leo slipped into its Core Database and discovered he could not destroy it through conventional means. He plunged the Khaine Shard into the Dynasty’s Hall of Souls, where its divine rage began to overwhelm the Necrons’ data lake.

• Vect’s fleet retreated under precise bombardment, while Phaeron Xunbekel discovered the Blood Angels were landing at the Highest Dome and ordered her forces back to defend it.
• Sanguinius led thousands of Blood Angels toward the Throne Room, drawing the Dynasty’s guards away from Leo.
• Leo phased through the Dome’s defenses and entered the Maynarkh Dynasty’s Hall of Souls, where he found the Core Database holding the consciousness data of its Necrons.
• Leo failed to delete or physically damage the Core Database because its defenses required the Silent King’s decree and rewound his attack.
• Leo brought out the Khaine Shard and drove it into the data lake, causing its green light to turn blood red and the lake to boil.

Liu Zhipeng destroyed the Maynarkh Dynasty’s Core Database with Khaine’s Wrath, ending the Necrons’ ability to reanimate and plunging their forces into fear and death. Xunbekel’s grief-stricken scream devastated the battlefield and gravely wounded Sanguinius, leaving her facing the surviving Blood Angels with blackened eyes.

• Liu Zhipeng escaped the collapsing spatial bubble as Khaine’s Wrath erased the Core Database and its soul records.
• The Maynarkh Necrons lost their Reanimation Protocols, became mortal, and began fleeing as the Imperial forces attacked them.
• Vect ordered the Drukhari to capture the helpless Necrons and bring them aboard the Eternal Torture as loot.
• Xunbekel felt her subjects and Dynasty vanish, then unleashed a scream that shattered nearby fighters and wounded Sanguinius.
• The surviving Blood Angels charged Xunbekel as her eyes turned pitch-black.

After Xunbekel became an embodiment of hunger and despair and nearly killed Sanguinius, Leo attacked her but was seized by Trazyn, who wanted to keep him as a museum exhibit. Leo detonated himself, destroying the Throne Room and Xunbekel, while Trazyn escaped; Leo received a new ability before beginning his sixth life.

• Xunbekel transformed into a monstrous embodiment of the Flayed Ones curse and threatened to devour Sanguinius and the surviving Blood Angels.
• Leo used his Phase Shifter to attack Xunbekel, but Trazyn appeared and grabbed Leo’s energy core.
• Trazyn declared Leo a perfect addition to his museum and offered to preserve him in stasis.
• Leo overloaded his core and held onto Trazyn as he detonated, vaporizing Xunbekel and destroying the Throne Room while Trazyn escaped by severing his arm.
• Leo’s fifth life ended, and he received the permanent passive ability Temporal Wraith before his sixth life began.

Liu Zhipeng awoke in the body of Horus Lupercal’s failed clone, H-02, in Fabius Bile’s ruined laboratory on Harmony. After discovering how he had survived Abaddon’s attack, he heard a faint sob coming from a sealed room and went to investigate.

• Liu Zhipeng broke out of his growth tank and found himself in the wreckage of a laboratory filled with shattered growth tanks.
• Liu Zhipeng recognized his reflection as Horus Lupercal and realized he was in Fabius Bile’s laboratory on Harmony.
• Liu Zhipeng searched the ruins and found Fabius’s logs identifying him as H-02, a soulless failed clone who had been hidden in an underground bunker.
• Liu Zhipeng concluded that he had survived Abaddon’s attack because Fabius had discarded him in the junk room.
• Liu Zhipeng heard faint sobbing beyond a rubble-blocked door, cleared the wreckage, and opened it.

Horus found a baby Fulgrim clone in an incubation pod and discovered that Fulgrim retained the memories and emotions of his loyal pre-fall self. Horus used his [Primordial Fire] to calm him, then began considering what to do with the tiny Phoenix.

• Horus opened the incubation pod and saw a baby with silvery-white hair and violet eyes.
• Horus recognized the baby as Fabius Bile's perfect Fulgrim clone, the one traded to Trazyn the Infinite.
• Baby Fulgrim recognized Horus as the traitor he blamed for his suffering and began to wail.
• Fulgrim struck Horus's finger, hurt his hand, and cried even louder as his infant needs overwhelmed him.
• Horus used [Primordial Fire] to soothe Fulgrim and lifted him gently from the pod.
• Fulgrim stopped crying in Horus's warm palm, while Horus began forming an audacious idea.

Horus refused to hand the infant Fulgrim over to Trazyn and instead claimed him as his brother, preparing to escape the ruined laboratory with him. The chapter ended as Horus passed Fulgrim’s former cultivation pod, making the baby shudder.

• Horus decided to save Fulgrim from Trazyn and told the infant that they were brothers.
• Horus found synthetic canvas in a storeroom and fashioned himself a crude covering.
• Horus made Fulgrim a diaper and harness, then carried him on his back despite his protests.
• Horus searched the ruined laboratory for weapons and noted the evidence of Abaddon’s past battle.
• Fulgrim shuddered when Horus passed the cultivation pod numbered III, where he had been created.

Horus hid with baby Fulgrim in the B-04 storage room as Fabius returned to the ruined base to reclaim its geothermal core and establish a new nursery. Fabius sent Mace and the New Men to clear the lower passages, and Number 7 discovered Horus behind the locked door.

• Horus found an alloy support column and fashioned it into a spear.
• Horus heard a Chaos ship land and fled with Fulgrim into the B-04 storage room, sealing its lead door.
• Baby Fulgrim began crying, and Horus silenced him with a measured smack.
• Fabius arrived at the base and revealed that he wanted its geothermal core to power his new nursery.
• Fabius ordered Mace and the New Men to clear the lower passages, where Horus and Fulgrim were hiding.
• Number 7 smelled Horus inside the storage room, slammed into its door, and began trying to break it down.

Horus defended himself and Baby Fulgrim from Mace and his New Men in the underground facility, killing the creatures and crippling the Chaos Space Marine. He stood over Mace and prepared to execute him.

• Horus killed Number 7 with a stomp as Mace arrived and recognized him as the Warmaster.
• Horus kicked Number 7's corpse into Mace, then killed two New Men and badly injured a third.
• Mace fired three bolts at Horus, but Horus parried them with his alloy spear and sent one back to destroy Mace's vambrace and forearm.
• Horus approached the helpless Mace and raised his spear to execute him.

Horus carried infant Fulgrim through the corridor, where Fulgrim pleaded with him to spare Mace, a fallen Emperor’s Child. Fulgrim’s gaze made Mace recognize his gene-father and break down in grief, and Mace began confessing that his Legion had been wrong to pursue perfection.

• Baby Fulgrim bit Horus and pleaded for him to save Mace, pointing toward the Chaos Space Marine on the floor.
• Horus reluctantly showed Mace the infant, and Mace recognized Fulgrim in the child’s violet eyes.
• Mace crawled toward Fulgrim, but Horus kicked him away to keep him from touching the infant.
• Mace called Fulgrim his father and broke down, confessing that he and the Emperor’s Children had been wrong.

Mace asked Horus to protect Fulgrim, then surrendered himself and was killed after revealing a Stormbird’s location. Fabius Bile learned that Horus and baby Fulgrim had entered the base, sounded the alarm, and ordered his forces to capture them alive.

• Mace asked Horus to keep Fulgrim safe and revealed that a Stormbird in Hangar Three was authorized to the Gene-Father.
• Horus accepted Mace’s atonement and killed him with the Alloy Spear at Mace’s request.
• Horus comforted the crying Fulgrim, took Mace’s Dataslate and Boltgun, and headed toward the Main Laboratory to reach the hangar and confront Fabius Bile.
• Fabius heard Mace’s final transmission and realized that the supposed failure H-02 had killed an elite Chaos Space Marine.
• Fabius activated the base alarm and ordered the New Men and Modified Humans to find Horus and Fulgrim and bring them back alive.

Horus fought through Fabius Bile’s New Men and confronted the Gene-master in the Main Laboratory. Fabius became obsessed with the mysterious silver-haired creature on Horus’s back and ordered three Noise Marines to capture it.

• Horus charged through a corridor of New Men, killing them with his spear and bare hands before breaking into the Main Laboratory.
• Fabius Bile praised Horus as a masterpiece until he spotted a tiny silver-haired figure clinging to Horus’s back.
• The figure made a faint, disdainful sound, and Fabius rushed to a console before becoming even more fanatical about it.
• Horus raised his Boltgun and fired at Fabius, but a Noise Marine blocked the shot with his Sonic Blaster.
• Fabius ordered the Noise Marines to bring him the creature on Horus’s back, and three Noise Marines surrounded Horus.

Horus defeated two Noise Marines in Fabius Bile’s laboratory, then revealed the baby Fulgrim he had been carrying. Fulgrim reached out to Fabius, stirring a buried sense of loyalty in him.

• Horus dodged the Noise Marines’ sonic attacks and impaled one with his Alloy Spear.
• Horus smashed the whip-wielding Noise Marine’s head, leaving the guitar-cannon Marine as the sole survivor.
• Baby Fulgrim screamed, so Horus removed his backpack and tipped him into his palm in front of Fabius Bile and the surviving Noise Marine.
• The surviving Noise Marine dropped his weapon and knelt, believing Fulgrim had returned as his father.
• Baby Fulgrim reached toward Fabius, who felt his old genetic loyalty awaken and cried out in distress.

Fabius Bile rejected the chance to be redeemed by Fulgrim, declaring that his New Men represented the future, then attacked the infant Fulgrim. Horus protected Fulgrim and fought Fabius, ending the battle by impaling him with the Alloy Spear.

• Lion El'Jonson mistook Fulgrim's summons for an offer of redemption, but Fabius kicked him away and rejected redemption.
• Fabius called Fulgrim a ghost of the past and lashed at him with his whip.
• Horus shielded baby Fulgrim, tucked him into the carrier on his back, and charged Fabius.
• Fabius dodged Horus's spear strikes and briefly coiled his whip around the weapon.
• Horus used the spear to swing Fabius into a shattered incubation pod, then pierced his chest with it.

Horus killed Fabius Bile and escaped Harmony with baby Fulgrim in a Stormbird, using Fulgrim's gene signature to unlock the craft. As they flew into the Eye of Terror, Horus began searching for a safe place to hide, but the cockpit turned blood-red and filled with echoes of war.

• Horus killed Fabius Bile, who died insisting that his work would bring more death.
• Horus reached Hangar Three and used baby Fulgrim to pass the Stormbird's gene-template scan and open the cockpit.
• Horus flew the Stormbird out of Harmony as the New Men broke into the hangar.
• Horus maneuvered through warp storms and debris while baby Fulgrim protested from behind him.
• Horus considered how to hide from the factions of the Eye of Terror, then the cockpit lights turned blood-red and rang with the sounds of war.

Khorne tried to recruit Horus, but Liu Zhipeng rejected him by criticizing his offer and management. As Khorne attacked, Horus fled into a green nebula, where Nurgle’s influence slowed the Stormbird and made baby Fulgrim vomit on him; a gentle voice then spoke within Horus’s soul.

• Khorne offered Horus power and glory in exchange for joining him, but Liu Zhipeng demanded specific benefits and mocked the Blood God's forces and work culture.
• Baby Fulgrim sensed Khorne's bloodlust and cried in disgust, joining Liu Zhipeng in rejecting him.
• Khorne raged and opened a Warp rift behind the Stormbird, so Horus pushed the engines to maximum and fled into a green nebula.
• Nurgle's influence slowed the Stormbird and filled it with a revolting stench, making Horus recognize the god's presence.
• Baby Fulgrim vomited on Horus, who searched for something to clean himself with as a gentle voice sounded in his soul.

Liu Zhipeng rejected Nurgle’s tempting offer while Horus fled the pursuing World Eaters and Plague fleets. A desperate Warp jump carried the Stormbird into Slaanesh’s realm, where Horus vomited at the overwhelming sensory excess.

• Nurgle tried to lure Horus and baby Fulgrim into his embrace, but Liu Zhipeng cursed him and refused.
• Baby Fulgrim vomited golden psychic energy that dispelled Nurgle’s green mist and made the Chaos God wary.
• Nurgle sent Plague Drones and a Plague Ship after the Stormbird, while Horus dodged them and the World Eaters fleet.
• Horus ordered a Warp jump, but the Stormbird entered a region filled with Slaanesh’s decadent sights and sounds.
• Horus threw up even harder than Fulgrim as the Stormbird entered Slaanesh’s domain.

Horus and baby Fulgrim escaped Slaanesh’s forces in the Eye of Terror after the Emperor opened a Golden Way through the warp. They emerged into realspace near the Orpheus Sector in a badly damaged Stormbird.

• Slaanesh tempted Horus and Fulgrim, but Horus rejected the offer and Fulgrim cried out in anger.
• Slaanesh sent Daemonettes and warships to surround the Stormbird as Horus complained about being attacked from every side.
• The Emperor manifested in the void and destroyed Chaos forces with a golden thunderbolt.
• The Emperor opened a safe path to realspace, and Horus pushed the Stormbird through the Eye of Terror.
• The Stormbird emerged near the Orpheus Sector with its hull at 19% integrity and its engines failing, and Horus cursed the damage report.