Chapter Summaries

Curze presented the nobles with a law code that imposed tailored rules and extreme punishments on their class, prompting Pationa to challenge its fairness. As the nobles turned their accusations toward Han Mingxuan, he began to answer, leaving the confrontation unresolved.

• Curze allowed the nobles to examine the law code, while Eternal Night Justiciar Legion members explained its provisions.
• Pationa questioned Curze about the punishments and challenged the code for applying extreme penalties specifically to nobles.
• Curze invoked the Night Haunter’s authority, and the Justiciar Legion rallied behind him as the nobles fell silent.
• Pationa and the other nobles accused Han Mingxuan of manipulating the law and threatened to resist.
• Han Mingxuan agreed that the law should not be manipulated, then told Pationa she had overlooked something.

Han Mingxuan used the new code and the threat of force to make Nostramo’s nobles accept the law and surrender their privileges. He spared them execution but imposed crushing fines and taxes, leaving the Tempatio Family to lead the payments.

• Han Mingxuan explained that nobles could claim the majority’s legal protections only by giving up their titles, resources, and privileges, and warned that violence underpinned power.
• Han Mingxuan demonstrated that his own influence outweighed the nobles’ and declared that he would use lethal force against those who resisted justice.
• Pationa knelt before Han Mingxuan, praised him as the Father of Night, and pledged the Tempatio Family’s support and its place among the general populace.
• Han Mingxuan read out the nobles’ charges, while the nobles resentfully blamed Pationa for distancing her family from their fate.
• Han Mingxuan accepted the Lord Inquisitor’s appeal to spare the nobles’ lives, then ordered the Tempatio Family to lead the payment of 95-percent fines and taxes.

Curze prepared the Eternal Night Justiciar Legion to conquer Nostramo’s hive cities after Fourth Hive City moved against Quintus. Before Curze set out, Han Mingxuan warned him about the four Warp gods, and Curze departed with a clearer understanding of their threat.

• Curze learned that Abyssus, the Fourth Hive City, was sealing underground routes to Quintus and called a prewar meeting with the ten Justiciars.
• Curze ordered Sevatarion to lead two thousand Justiciars to join Talos and take Fourth Hive City, then advance on the second and third Hive Cities, while Shen and Curze led two hundred men toward the first Hive City and eight hundred guarded Quintus.
• Curze told Han Mingxuan he planned to conquer the planet within three standard Nostramo months, and Han Mingxuan began explaining the Warp before Curze’s departure.
• The Night Haunter appeared and cautioned Han Mingxuan against telling Curze about the Warp too soon, but Han Mingxuan introduced the four gods as Tzeentch, Nurgle, Khorne, and Slaanesh.
• Curze identified the gods’ domains and recalled Han Mingxuan’s teachings that gods should serve people and that miracles were merely misunderstood science, then set out with his forces.

Curze’s forces rapidly seized ground across several Hive Cities while First Hive City’s nobles prepared to unite against him. In Quintus Hive City, Han Mingxuan received Pationa Tempatio and asked Sevatar to answer her questions about the code of law.

• Curze ordered his forces to infiltrate Fourth Hive City, where Talos reported that he had secured the city and infiltrated parts of Third and Second Hive Cities.
• Curze sent Talos to remain in Fourth Hive City and led the rest of his forces toward First Hive City, spreading confusion as the Eternal Night Justiciars appeared across the planet.
• Grand Duke Vasavin showed First Hive City’s nobles evidence of the mass deaths outside Quintus and urged them to unite with the other Hive Cities against Curze.
• Sevatar told Han Mingxuan that Pationa Tempatio had come to ask about the code of law, and Han Mingxuan allowed the visit.
• Han Mingxuan asked Sevatar to explain the code’s provisions to Pationa while he listened to test Sevatar’s studies.

Han Mingxuan investigated unrest in the Underhive District and found a gigantic man named Mills Tarry, who said hunger and strenuous mining work had driven him to cause trouble. Mills began explaining that he and his brothers were abandoned ones who had struggled to reach the hive.

• Pationa left after Han Mingxuan helped her understand the Evernight Code, and he ordered Sevatar to kill her if she ever influenced him toward extremes.
• Han Mingxuan and Sevatar received a report of unrest in an uncleared area of the Underhive District and went there with Eternal Night Justiciars.
• The security team reported that there were no major casualties and that the suspect had stayed at the scene waiting for Han Mingxuan.
• Han Mingxuan met the enormous Mills Tarry, who said he had caused trouble because he was hungry and found mining work strenuous.
• Mills told Han Mingxuan that he and his brothers were abandoned ones who had struggled to reach the hive.

Han Mingxuan discovered that Kamon, a Thunder Warriors captain, had held the missing brush that calmed the warriors’ madness. He brought Kamon and fifty Thunder Warriors to the Upper Hive, then realized his cheat had arrived in installments and the brush was its key.

• Mills took Han Mingxuan and Sevatar to meet Kamon, who showed Han the brush matching the one in his mind.
• Kamon explained that the brush had calmed his brothers’ madness and had eventually written Han Mingxuan’s name, so he returned it to its owner.
• Han Mingxuan invited Kamon and his brothers to come with him, and Kamon accepted after Han called him a person and offered him a peaceful rest.
• Han Mingxuan and Sevatar left the Underhive with fifty Thunder Warriors, shocking the nobles in the Upper Hive District.
• Han Mingxuan arranged for Sevatar to care for Kamon and the others, then locked himself in his study and realized the brush was the key to his cheat.

Han Mingxuan reconsidered his plans after his cheat fully arrived, while the Emperor revealed that the Will of Earth had protected Han Mingxuan from bodily transformation and blocked the Emperor from finding him. On Nostramo, Curze exposed Archduke Vasavon's schemes and launched a bloody takeover of First Hive City, declaring that Nostramo would be reborn.

• Han Mingxuan stared at his newly arrived cheat and reconsidered retiring after Nostramo returned to the Imperium.
• Malcador asked the Emperor about the Warp’s changes, and the Emperor said his price for winning was that he could no longer sit still.
• The Emperor recalled that the Will of Earth had forbidden him to subject Han Mingxuan to Astartes transformation and had blocked attempts to probe Han Mingxuan’s intentions.
• The Emperor ordered Horus to continue the Great Crusade’s advance toward Segmentum Obscurus.
• Curze confronted Archduke Vasavon in First Hive City and showed him evidence of his schemes with other Hive City leaders.
• Curze’s forces slaughtered their way through First Hive City as Shen searched its records, and Curze declared that Nostramo would be reborn.

Konrad Curze unified Nostramo and transformed its atmosphere, bringing sunlight to the planet and earning its people’s gratitude. As a new ordered storm stirred in the Warp and the Emperor’s fleet approached, Han Mingxuan emerged from seclusion and prepared to act.

• Curze rapidly brought Nostramo’s Hive Cities under his control and began planning to judge the nobles and rebuild the planet.
• Curze used nanobots to cleanse Nostramo’s atmosphere and create an artificial orbital light source, allowing the sun to shine on the planet.
• Nostramo’s people praised their new leaders and called the planet’s rebirth the Day of Salvation, while their unified belief sparked a calm, orderly storm in the Warp.
• The Emperor sensed order in the Warp’s fluctuations and told his red, one-eyed son to head there, where he would meet a new brother.
• Han Mingxuan left his study, struck Sevatar for kneeling, and heard how Curze had changed Nostramo as Thunder Warriors marched toward them.

Old Kamon and the Thunder Warriors volunteered to help Nostramo, while Curze planned to rebuild the planet and went to negotiate with the Adeptus Mechanicus. The negotiation began with Curze killing the apparent Grand Magos, and he learned the forge temple had only two Grand Magi because Nostramo was in Segmentum Obscurus.

• Old Kamon told Han Mingxuan that the Thunder Warriors wanted to join Nostramo’s efforts, and Han gave them safety armbands and promised to coordinate their work.
• Curze considered destroying the Third Hive City but proposed dismantling and rebuilding Nostramo instead, with the Night Haunter agreeing that the plan was feasible.
• Curze decided the Adeptus Mechanicus would have to follow Nostramo’s laws and took Cyrion to the forge temple to negotiate.
• Curze demanded the Adeptus Mechanicus take Nostramo’s entire ore output and triple its previous production for three years, then killed the supposed Grand Magos.
• Curze learned that the forge temple had only two Grand Magi and that the Adeptus Mechanicus had neglected Nostramo because it was in Segmentum Obscurus.

Curze questioned Tech-Priest Herbert and discovered that the Evolutionist Sect prized human flesh and limited consciousness transfers. After Herbert revived Archmagos Angrak, Angrak agreed to meet Curze’s father before deciding whether to leave Nostramo.

• Herbert explained that the Evolutionist Sect had been driven out by Mars and described its materialist beliefs to Curze.
• Herbert revealed that the sect avoided extensive mechanical augmentation and limited each member to five consciousness transfers.
• Herbert revived Archmagos Angrak in a cultivation chamber using his first consciousness transfer.
• Angrak rejected Curze’s apology and said he would leave Nostramo with his colleagues.
• Curze offered Angrak half of the planet’s mineral resources and asked him to meet his father, and Angrak agreed to meet him once.

Curze brought Archmagos Angrak and Priest Herbert to meet Han Mingxuan, who welcomed their materialist branch of the Adeptus Mechanicus to Nostramo. Curze and Angrak began planning the planet’s transformation while Han Mingxuan started learning to forge from Herbert.

• Curze introduced Archmagos Angrak and Priest Herbert to Han Mingxuan, who learned they were materialist heretics opposed to the Adeptus Mechanicus.
• Han Mingxuan welcomed them to Nostramo, and Curze assured them they could remain there as long as they obeyed local law, even if the planet later joined the Imperium.
• Curze tasked Angrak with transforming Nostramo, and Angrak said his team could restore the atmosphere and make most of the planet habitable within a year if supplied with enough resources.
• Han Mingxuan asked Herbert to teach him forging, and Herbert agreed while explaining that he specialized in forging and Angrak in biology.
• Curze and Angrak took charge of the planet’s transformation while Han Mingxuan began forging lessons with Herbert, asking him to call him Old Han.

Curze learned that Archmagos Angrak had an STC and proposed relocating Nostramo to a habitable world, but Angrak’s greater concern was the Father of Night’s mortality. The chapter left Curze grieving and angry after learning that his father could live at most five hundred years and that the Night Haunter had known.

• Archmagos Angrak showed Curze a colonization STC and explained that the Evolutionists wanted to use technology to serve humanity rather than worship it.
• Angrak warned Curze that Nostramo’s environment made it unfit for long-term human survival and proposed moving its people, resources, and culture to a habitable planet.
• Angrak revealed that he had scanned the Father of Night and found him physically and psychically ordinary, despite his survival in Nostramo’s brutal conditions.
• Angrak told Curze that the Father of Night’s body resisted genetic alteration but could be killed by an ordinary weapon, and that rejuvenation procedures might extend his life to five hundred years at most.
• Curze asked the Night Haunter whether he had known about their father’s mortality, and the Night Haunter admitted he had kept it from him because he was still young.

Curze struggled to accept that Han Mingxuan would die and rejected the temptation to open a door that promised godlike power. As the Night Haunter, he arranged Nostramo’s evacuation while concealing his plans from his father, and prepared to face the coming changes.

• Curze stood before the mysterious door, but the Night Haunter stopped him and reminded him of their father’s teachings and the bracelet’s five virtues.
• Curze said he could not accept Han Mingxuan dying so soon, and the Night Haunter urged him to remember that their father’s spark would live on through his sons.
• The Night Haunter told Magos Angrak to spend minimal resources rebuilding Nostramo and devote the rest to converting its moon into a cargo ship for migration.
• The Night Haunter postponed the voyage until the Warp’s weather calmed and the False Emperor’s army approached, hoping to use Nostramo itself to travel without a Geller Field.
• The Night Haunter gained the nobles’ support for the migration, then warned Pationa that he knew she was a Warp creature and threatened her if she plotted against him.
• The Night Haunter asked someone if they had recovered, and they agreed they had to face painful changes and let some things go.

Han Mingxuan encountered Trazyn the Infinite, whose attempt to collect him was thwarted by Han's mysterious brush. The Will of Earth then revealed that Han had to uncover his buried soul projection in the Warp himself before she could send him home.

• Trazyn the Infinite trapped Han Mingxuan and announced that he intended to add the planet to his museum.
• Han Mingxuan struck Trazyn with his brush, which pinned the Necron Overlord to the floor and left him in agony when he detached his arm.
• Han Mingxuan escaped to his study with the brush, while Trazyn remained incapacitated.
• The Will of Earth appeared and explained that Han Mingxuan's soul projection was a mosaic in the Warp, preventing her from retrieving him.
• The Will of Earth told Han Mingxuan that he had to dig out his own soul projection before she could take him back to Earth.

Han Mingxuan learned that his cheat could help Necrons develop souls, but he could create soul seeds for only three objects with his current power. When he offered to help Trazyn, the Necron Overlord rejected him and threatened to kill him.

• The Will of Earth explained that Han Mingxuan could plant soul seeds using a small amount of his soul power, but his current projection limited him to three seeds.
• The Will of Earth said her consciousness would remain in the Warp until around the end of the Great Crusade and disappeared after telling Han Mingxuan to strengthen his soul mechanics.
• Han Mingxuan left the study and found Trazyn laughing wildly as he savored the pain he had felt.
• Han Mingxuan offered Trazyn a way for Necrons to develop souls, and Trazyn recalled the agony of losing his soul to the C'tan.
• Trazyn dismissed Han Mingxuan's offer, destroyed a table, and threatened to keep him as a collectible or kill him while Han Mingxuan desperately tried to respond.

Han Mingxuan gave Trazyn a sliver of soul, restoring memories and emotions that the Necron Overlord had lost. Trazyn thanked him, left him several powerful artifacts, and vanished, while Han Mingxuan warned him not to tamper with the soul before they met again.

• Han Mingxuan cut his palm and used his blood to create a golden thread he called a new soul.
• Trazyn dismissed the thread as fragile, but Han Mingxuan decreed that it enter Trazyn’s body.
• The soul stirred Trazyn’s buried memories and emotions, leaving him shaken and briefly collapsing.
• Trazyn recognized the soul as proof of the life the C'tan had devoured, apologized to Han Mingxuan, and thanked him.
• Trazyn gave Han Mingxuan a Blackstone ring, a phase teleportation pendant, and a time-crystal watch before saying he had to leave.
• Han Mingxuan warned Trazyn not to alter the soul before their next meeting, and Trazyn vanished.

A year after Nostramo began its reconstruction, Curze addressed the planet on its Day of Salvation and celebrated its recovery alongside Han Mingxuan. He declared that Nostramo would be known for rebirth and defiance, leaving the people united in a pledge to its enduring glory.

• Archmagos Angrak completed the first phase of Nostramo's reconstruction, making sixty percent of its land habitable as the planet's atmosphere and environment recovered.
• Han Mingxuan and Curze attended the Day of Salvation ceremony at Light-Bathed Square with Archmagos Angrak and Priest Herbert.
• Han Mingxuan encouraged Curze to take the spotlight, and Curze recognized his father's faith and pride in him.
• Curze placed his hand on a copy of the Evernight Code and broadcast a speech recalling Nostramo's former darkness and its recovery.
• Curze declared that Nostramo would rebuild its home and become a symbol of rebirth and defiance, and the crowd echoed that its glory would endure forever.

Nostramo celebrated its rebirth and honored Han Mingxuan as the Father of Night, while Curze and his family reunited. Han Mingxuan learned that the Emperor was coming and told Curze to meet him with dignity and continue their plans as usual.

• Curze praised Han Mingxuan and the people of Nostramo, and a monument to the planet’s rebirth was raised in the square.
• The Eternal Night Justiciar Legion guarded Nostramo while its celebrations lasted for three days.
• Han Mingxuan and Curze welcomed the Night Haunter, whose appearance and demeanor had changed greatly.
• The Night Haunter warned Han Mingxuan that the Emperor might be coming to visit their family.
• Han Mingxuan told Curze to remain himself, treat the Emperor properly, and carry on with their plans.

Han Mingxuan learned that Curze and Priest Herbert planned to transform Nostramo's moon and use it to move the population and resources away from the dying star. He confronted Curze over keeping the plan from him, then punished Curze and the Night Haunter for embracing their demigod identity; the Night Haunter ended the chapter kneeling and asking for forgiveness.

• Priest Herbert explained that the second phase of Nostramo's reconstruction would transform Tenebor, then use the moon to move Nostramo's population and resources elsewhere.
• Han Mingxuan learned Curze had been preparing the relocation plan without telling him and confronted him with a belt.
• Curze denied having anything to do with Pationa, and Han Mingxuan demanded that the Night Haunter appear.
• The Night Haunter appeared, and Han Mingxuan whipped Curze for treating himself as a demigod instead of a person.
• The Night Haunter knelt and refused to get up until Han Mingxuan forgave him.

Han Mingxuan confronted Konrad and Curze over their secret plan to move a planet, then reassured them that both were his sons and asked them not to become demons. He left promising to find a way to handle Nostramo’s reconstruction, while worrying about the family’s future education.

• Han Mingxuan asked Konrad why he had urged Curze to move a planet without telling him.
• Konrad admitted he wanted to prove himself by guiding Curze into becoming a qualified demigod and earning Han Mingxuan’s pride.
• Han Mingxuan praised Curze’s leadership and told Konrad that both of them were his sons, neither an outsider, and that he only asked them not to become demons.
• Han Mingxuan left to rest, and Curze called after him that he would always be his dad.
• Han Mingxuan told Curze and Konrad not to hide important matters again and said he would find a way to handle Nostramo’s second reconstruction phase.