Chapter Summaries

Dante began summoning the Blood Angels' successor Chapter Masters to address their flaws and restore the standards he remembered from the Great Crusade, drawing attention from the Imperium Department of Internal Affairs and the Inquisition. After telling Mephiston that the Chapters were unworthy of their name, Dante was left worrying about the successor Chapters’ growing attachment to him.

• A Blood Angel brought Dante pending matters, and Mephiston visited to monitor the changes to Dante’s soul and the effects of his awakening on the Chapters.
• Dante decided the Red Thirst, the Black Rage, and other practices among the Blood Angels’ successor Chapters had to be addressed, so he began summoning their Chapter Masters.
• The Imperium Department of Internal Affairs and the Inquisition watched Dante’s broad outreach, fearing it could resemble a new Legion reformation like the Last Wall Protocol.
• Dante told Mephiston that he was not trying to reform the Ninth Legion but to make the Blood Angels Blood Angels again, and said the present Chapters were unworthy of the name.
• After Mephiston left, Dante worried that the successor Chapters might become attached to him because his appearance and bearing resembled his father.

Han Mingxuan arrived in the Blood Angels’ Relic Archive and confronted Dante about the books he had wrapped and stored there. After testing Dante’s knowledge, Han Mingxuan struck him with a stick, leaving the Blood Angels tense and baffled.

• Han Mingxuan appeared in the Blood Angels’ Relic Archive and found the Evernight Code and the Literary Pivot of Splendid Chapters wrapped up among relics from the 30K era.
• Han Mingxuan unwrapped the books and asked a guard to take him to Dante, prompting the Blood Angels to raise the alarm and surround the archive.
• Dante recognized Han Mingxuan and fell to his knees, while Mephiston demanded to know who the visitor was.
• Han Mingxuan struck Dante repeatedly until he stood properly and answered questions, then let him off for saying he had grown used to the books’ treatment.
• Han Mingxuan questioned Dante for half a day about the books’ contents, praised his memory, and then struck him on the leg with his stick.

Han Mingxuan confronted Dante and Mephiston over the Blood Angels’ failure to study or share the Evernight Code, while his arrival and Dante’s use of the name Father of Night triggered upheaval throughout the Warp. The chapter ended with Han Mingxuan demanding that Mephiston answer for his defense of the Chapter’s restrictions.

• Han Mingxuan struck Dante and challenged him to explain why the Blood Angels had not spread the knowledge in the Evernight Code.
• Han Mingxuan tested Mephiston on a precise passage of the Code, but Mephiston admitted he lacked permission to read it in full.
• Dante’s words, “The Father of Night,” and Han Mingxuan’s use of Sacred Numbers shook the Warp, its Chaos powers, and the Well of Eternity.
• The Emperor sensed Han Mingxuan’s arrival, and Sinleech hurried from the Throne Room to find him near the Baal System.
• Han Mingxuan criticized Dante and Mephiston for keeping books inaccessible, called cowardice the true danger, and demanded that Mephiston answer his question.

Han Mingxuan left Dante with a message and a powerful stick for Sinleech, who used it to drive off the Inquisition and then attacked Tzeentch in the Warp. Meanwhile, the Night Haunter gave up searching the Laer System for Slaanesh and decided to visit Old Barbarus.

• Han Mingxuan told Dante he knew the world's history, then left him a stick to give to Sinleech with a promise of a proper talk.
• Sinleech arrived after Han Mingxuan had departed, received the stick, and transformed it into a staff with his Psychic Power.
• The Inquisition confronted Dante over the Blood Angels' reforms, but Sinleech rebuked them and they withdrew.
• Sinleech entered the Warp and struck Tzeentch repeatedly, throwing the unsettled Warp into chaos again.
• The Night Haunter found no trace of Slaanesh in the Laer System and decided to visit Old Barbarus to contact a Warp God.

The Night Haunter learned from Xarathi that he must avoid the Warp and ensure the Emperor follows his original destiny, while the Silent King entered the Warp to help its allied forces. The Chaos Gods revealed that Tzeentch had disappeared and that they needed to destroy a key in his maze before the Black Sun of the Warp brought ultimate destruction.

• Xarathi told the Night Haunter to avoid the Warp and said the Prince of Pleasure could find Father only if the Emperor followed his original destiny, then sent him through the Webway.
• The Night Haunter returned to the Nightfall and told Curze what he had learned; they decided to proceed at full speed, relying on Necrontyr technology and the Emperor's original destiny.
• Xarathi sent the Silent King a message urging him to enter the Warp, and Chrispeck advised him to go while guarding the Peaceful Star System.
• The Silent King led the Necrontyr into the Warp and joined the Chaos Gods' forces against despair's incarnations.
• Slaanesh told the Silent King that Tzeentch had disappeared, and Khorne explained that they had to reach the Maze of Tzeentch and destroy a key.
• Nurgle warned that the Black Sun of the Warp threatened ultimate destruction as the Silent King agreed to fight alongside the allied forces.

Magnus entered the Warp to investigate a sudden change and returned badly injured, prompting Lorgar to activate the Dawn Protocol. After Magnus warned the Primarchs of despairing flames and visions of Horus’s rebellion and the Great Angel’s death, their forces set out for Terra and the Great Crusade Frontline with unexpected reinforcements.

• Magnus sensed a world-threatening change in the Warp and entered it with Lorgar’s Psychic Power protecting his soul, but returned after a minute and a half coughing blood.
• Lorgar activated the Dawn Protocol, and Magnus told the assembled Primarchs that black flames of despair consumed the Warp and that he had seen Horus begin the rebellion and the Death of the Great Angel.
• Khan and Curze urged the forces to reach Terra, while Lorgar assigned part of the Dawn Army Group and Draco Thune’s Evernight Legion squad to support Magnus and Lorgar.
• The Dawn Army Group and Allied Forces split up, then met Russ, who revealed secret orders to help the Fifteenth and Seventeenth Legions.
• Vulkan joined them and explained that the Primarchs had received separate secret orders through Uncle’s Private Guard; the group then set out for the First Legion’s Great Crusade Frontline.

Lion El'Jonson struggled to hold the Great Crusade front together after Uncle disappeared, fearing that the Legion Coalition's journey to Terra could lead to disaster. Vulkan delivered Uncle's secret edict, which kept Lion on the front lines and sent Lorgar to Macragge to find Roboute, while Lion was left wondering whether he had been too softhearted.

• Lion El'Jonson told Luther that he had halted the advance and focused on defending the Great Crusade front while the Imperium awaited answers about Uncle's disappearance.
• Magnus contacted Lion and said the arriving group had come to deliver Uncle's secret edict, which Vulkan said was blank.
• A fog appeared aboard the ships, and Lion emerged to take the Evernight Secret Edict and Dawn Protocol from Vulkan.
• Lion declared that he would remain on the front lines with the Dawn Army Group and welcomed Lorgar, relieved that they had not become enemies.
• Lorgar prepared to leave for Macragge to find Roboute, while Tu'en stayed behind with his men.
• Lion reread his secret edict and wondered whether Aequus had been right that he was too softhearted.

Lion El'Jonson kept Uncle's devastating secret orders from Luther, while Horus returned to Terra and warned Dorn that Warp travel had become unsafe. After Curze agreed to spread the warning and Dorn ordered routine defenses, Horus forced his way into the Throne Room and found the Emperor in an ordinary, weary form, ready to talk.

• Lion El'Jonson remained silent when Luther asked about his orders, concealing Uncle's mission to use supernova explosions against threats to the Great Crusade.
• Horus told Dorn that Warp travel had become impossible and that Nostramo-descended members of his Legion resisted psychic and Warp interference.
• Dorn contacted Defensio, then Curze, who agreed to warn the Imperium to suspend Warp travel and explained that he wanted to keep his promise to his father.
• Curze spread the warning, and Dorn ordered Sigismund to return Segmentum Solar's patrols and defenses to routine.
• Horus defeated Valdor, entered the Throne Room, and found the Emperor looking like a tired, ordinary middle-aged man.
• The Emperor invited Horus to sit and talk.

Horus confronted the Emperor about Han Mingxuan’s disappearance and learned that Malcador had no way to help, but received Han’s message urging him to remain loyal. Meanwhile, the Eighth Legion Coalition reached the Segmentum Solar and began negotiations with the Terra Defense Force, leaving a clash over the Emperor’s answer imminent.

• Horus challenged the Emperor’s claim that fate caused the tragedy and asked what had happened to Uncle, but the Emperor said he did not know after the surgery to make him a Perpetual.
• Horus visited Malcador, who gave him the Evernight Secret Edict that Han Mingxuan had left for him; it told Horus to remain loyal.
• Horus met Dorn and regretted not listening to him, then agreed to help with the defense.
• The Eighth Legion Coalition entered the Segmentum Solar, surrounded it with its forces, and prepared to confront the Seventh and XVI Legions and the Adeptus Custodes.
• Defensio and Impetus began negotiations with the Terra Defense Force, but its representative said he had to remain loyal.

Dorn argued that loyalty to humanity mattered more than loyalty to the Emperor, and Horus gave him command of the XVI Legion before withdrawing from the decision. In the present, Dorn led the Terra Defence Force against Curze’s allied forces, and the battle ended in a decisive victory for the Imperial Fists among the Eighth Legion.

• Dorn asked Horus whether he was loyal to the Emperor or humanity, and Horus answered that he was loyal to humanity.
• Dorn urged Horus to minimize the fighting and find their uncle, warning that a civil war could tear the Imperium apart.
• Horus gave Dorn command of the XVI Legion, then said he would visit their father or tend flowers at Uncle Ma’s rather than face the decision.
• Dorn and Sigismund went to meet Curze and the Eighth Legion’s allied forces, while Horus left to spend time with their father or uncle.
• Curze placed Dorn’s Nostramo-descended Scions on the front line, and Dorn ordered them to fight their former Seventh Legion comrades.
• The battle ended in less than three hours, with the Imperial Fists among Curze’s forces overwhelmingly defeating the original Seventh Legion Space Marines.

After bringing the allied forces to the Throne Room, Curze tried to limit the conflict to the legions and the Adeptus Custodes while demanding to know what had happened to the Emperor. The Evernight Legion defeated the Custodes without killing them, and Trazyn the Infinite helped end the battle so Curze could enter.

• Dorn and his Scions, along with Space Marines from the Sixteenth Legion, were taken prisoner, while Sandamel and the survivors tended to the battlefield.
• Sandamel reassured a troubled Imperial Fist that staying alive let him continue serving humanity, while Curze kept the fighting from escalating.
• At the Throne Room, Valdor refused to let Curze pass, and Curze ordered the Evernight Legion to engage the Adeptus Custodes.
• Sevatar challenged Valdor as the Thirteen-Person Group fought the Custodes’ strongest warriors, and the Evernight Network amplified the Legion’s strength against both the gold-armored and black-armored defenders.
• The Evernight Legion incapacitated the Custodes without killing them, and after ten hours Trazyn the Infinite brought the battle to an end.
• Valdor watched as Trazyn told Curze it was time to enter the Throne Room.

Curze and the Primarchs entered the Throne Room to obtain the Klein bottle, but the Night Haunter appeared and stabbed the Emperor with poisoned power claws. The Primarchs discovered that the assassin was another Curze from a different world, who said he had acted to protect his younger self from bearing the stain of killing the Emperor.

• The Necrontyr overlord froze the Custodes, and Sevatar led the Evernight Legion and Eighth Legion in guarding the Throne Room while Valdor was tortured.
• Curze met the Emperor and received the Klein bottle from Endymion, then handed it to Trazyn.
• Curze asked the Emperor where his father was, but the Emperor said he did not know and began to explain a plan.
• The Night Haunter appeared and stabbed the Emperor with poisoned power claws, accusing him of betraying his father.
• The Khan removed the assassin’s robe, and the Primarchs realized that the Night Haunter was another Curze.
• The Night Haunter told Curze he had committed the assassination in his place and invited his brothers to talk.

The Night Haunter revealed that he had come from the original fate and had lived within Curze’s mind since Curze awakened, crediting the Emperor’s teachings with freeing him from madness. After Horus arrived and attacked him, the Night Haunter explained his purpose to Malcador and threatened the Emperor’s servants.

• The Night Haunter told the Primarchs that he had come from the original fate and had been in Curze’s mind since Curze awakened.
• The Night Haunter described Fulgrim as his teacher in the original timeline, just as Horus entered the Throne Room and saw the wounded Emperor.
• Horus charged the Night Haunter, who dodged him and tripped him, then explained that his prophetic abilities had changed under the Emperor’s teachings.
• The Night Haunter told Malcador that he had come to avenge the Emperor’s betrayal of his father and said his actions so far were only an appetizer for fate.
• The Night Haunter condemned the Adeptus Custodes for picking on his intellectual younger brother and described how he would use their bodies to make a palace.

Mortarion questioned the Night Haunter about fate, and Xiulikas activated the Klein bottle to search for the missing Father of Night. The ritual awakened a destructive phantom fate, prompting Nurgle to order Kairos to open a Warp Rift at Barbarus and warn Realspace.

• Mortarion asked the Night Haunter what would happen if the Father of Night took the Emperor’s place on the Golden Throne, and the Night Haunter said he would die.
• Xiulikas arrived and explained that the Father of Night’s disappearance had left the original fate as phantoms that could threaten the world through the Warp.
• Malcador agreed to let Xiulikas use the power of fate to search for the Father of Night, despite Horus’s protest.
• Xiulikas activated the Klein bottle, which flew to the Emperor and released an aura of cold, destructive power.
• An illusory Black Sun appeared over the Well of Eternity, and Nurgle ordered Kairos to take his children to destroy Barbarus and open a Warp Rift to contact Realspace.

The Silent King used ten C'tan Shards to open a brief rift and sent Kairos to curse Prospero as a warning. After learning the planet had fallen into darkness, Magnus left for home under Han Mingxuan's Evernight Secret Edict, while Roboute and Lorgar set out on separate missions.

• The Silent King rejected opening a Warp Rift that could feed the Black King, then detonated ten C'tan Shards and ordered Kairos to curse Prospero.
• Kairos found Prospero and cast the curse, plunging the planet into darkness as the Black King's power intensified it.
• Amon told Magnus that a Warp curse had engulfed Prospero, and Magnus decided to return with his legion.
• Roboute revealed Han Mingxuan's Evernight Secret Edict, which ordered Lorgar to go to the City of Truth and Magnus to return to Prospero.
• Magnus asked Roboute to recover his body if the crisis went badly, then parted from his brothers.
• Roboute went to Lady Euten, who gave him the oil lamp he had entrusted to her.

Magnus returned to Prospero as a Warp darkness spread from the planet, while Guilliman used the lamp in Macragge’s City of Truth to gather faith across Ultramar and create a torch of light. Both Primarchs made progress against the spreading threat, though its fate remained uncertain.

• Magnus refused Ahriman’s suggestion to seek Lorgar’s help and rushed back to Prospero despite his worsening condition.
• Magnus learned that Prospero’s darkness was spreading into Realspace and that the latest message said its people had evacuated near the City of Truth.
• Magnus used a Psychic Power Amplification array to burn his power and lead his force through the darkness toward Prospero.
• Guilliman used a comment in the Evernight Epic and his uncle’s lamp to test whether concentrated faith could become power.
• Guilliman’s words caused golden lights to gather from the City of Truth across Macragge and Ultramar, transforming the lamp into a torch.

Magnus led the Dawn Army Group back to Prospero, where he discovered that a force of fate was causing the Thousand Sons to suffer the Flesh Change and threatening to consume them. After his warriors sacrificed their lives and souls to empower him, Magnus set out alone for the City of Truth, guided by their gathered power and the souls Han Mingxuan had left behind.

• Magnus guided the Dawn Army Group to Prospero, where they landed in Tizca and found the city black and white, deserted, and filled with despair.
• Ahriman reported that the remaining forces had suffered light losses but that all the books had been moved to the City of Truth.
• As Magnus led his warriors toward the City of Truth, the Thousand Sons began showing unstable symptoms of Flesh Change, and Ahriman warned that an evil force of fate was invading them.
• Ahriman burned his soul and transferred his Psychic Power to Magnus, and the other Thousand Sons followed, leaving only black-and-white Power Armour behind.
• Magnus opened both eyes, carrying his Scions’ power and the souls Han Mingxuan had left behind, and prepared to reach the City of Truth.

Magnus reached the City of Truth, where he learned that Ahriman and the other Thousand Sons had been lost to the same evil fate. As Lorgar began a ritual to create another Truth's Fire, Magnus decided to sacrifice Prospero's books and use the remaining soul power to light a missing third torch.

• Magnus followed the faint soul power left by Han Mingxuan, recovered his strength, and smashed through the gates of the City of Truth.
• Magnus told Amon that something had happened to Ahriman and the others, and Amon said they had faced the same evil fate.
• At the Attic, Magnus saw the soul traces of fallen warriors gathered beside Truth's Fire and wondered what Han Mingxuan wanted him to do.
• Lorgar returned to the original City of Truth, took a brick laid by Han Mingxuan, and began a ritual with Orikan's fanatical students to light another Truth's Fire.
• Amon saw a vision of two torches and a missing corner, and Magnus concluded that they needed a third torch.
• Magnus drew the remaining soul power into Truth's Fire and ordered Amon to burn Prospero's books so the people could become the missing torch.

Magnus burned the books of Prospero with the Flame of Truth, cured the Thousand Sons of Flesh Change, and opened a stable passage to the Warp. He joined the Chaos Allied Forces, where the God of War gave him two fragments that merged into a gemstone.

• On Prospero, Magnus used the Flame of Truth to burn the books in the City of Truth, drawing their golden wisdom into himself and freeing the Thousand Sons’ souls and wills.
• The darkness across Prospero vanished, the Space Marines regained their flesh, and Magnus confirmed the Flesh Change had been cured.
• Magnus sent the Book of Knowledge into the Warp to stabilize a passage, creating a third Flame of Truth that answered the other torches across the Imperium.
• After receiving a plea for help from the Warp, Magnus took his elite Scions to the Chaos Allied Forces and asked what he should do next.
• The Silent King told Magnus to wait for the result of the battle between the God of War and the Prince of Pleasure, who emerged from the Labyrinth carrying two fragments.
• The God of War handed the fragments to Magnus, and they merged into a gemstone in his hands.

Magnus and the others learned the Book of Knowledge would delay the destructive apparition while they sought its source on Terra. As the gods departed for their duties, the Primarchs waited beside the Emperor on the Golden Throne and heard the Night Haunter reveal his ultimate destiny.

• Magnus explained that the Book of Knowledge had formed from his Warp Essence, humanity's hope, and knowledge, and that it had gone to the Well of Eternity to resist the destructive apparition.
• Magnus identified the Terra Throne Room as the source of the destruction, while the God of War left to fight its afterimages and the Silent King departed to protect Nostramo.
• Grandfather and Slaanesh set out for Terra, with Slaanesh first collecting Mr. Han's letters to his family.
• Magnus realized that the Emperor would have to become fuel for the Golden Throne to make the original destiny of despair real and controllable.
• On Terra, the Primarchs played cards and questioned the Night Haunter about the Emperor's destiny as the Emperor remained on the Golden Throne.
• The Night Haunter said the Emperor's ultimate destiny was to become the oldest old hunk in the history of the Imperium of Man.