Caleb Schumann’s Reviews > Deus Encarmine > Status Update

-he must stay alive to help save the Angels from falling into the clutches of the chaos gods, who have engineered everything to put Arkio - who in reality recieved *their* blessing - in command of our favourite vampire-boys. Such a thing would certainly cause a civil war in the imperium.. dark times. What next? Will Rafen be able to stop the machinations around his brother? Or is all lost?
Next book, we'll see.

Rafen awakes after a while recuperating from his grievous injuries. He finds that the company has sworn itself completely to Arkio as Sanguinius reborn, and is even gathering recruits, planning to return to baal and challenge Dante for control over the Angels. The die is cast- and now Raf has to make a choice, as sacjiel demands at gunpoint he swear loyalty to his brother. He does, but only as a ploy, knowing-

- to stop Iskavan, but is wildly overmatched. However, Arkio, hearing word of the attack, decides to head the angels to kill the wordbearers against sachiel's urgings. Tearing through the disorganized heretics with his men, Arkio arrives just in time to kill an injured Iskavan in a climactic duel- at the end, before Rafen passes out from blood loss, he sees Arkio starting to sprout wings- like Sanguinius. Uh oh.

Here we go! Iskavan and the wordbearers cut their way through a hospital, the dark apostle seeking a cache of virus bombs to destroy the planet. Rafen engages in a one man pursuit to try and stop it, but things seem grim- until Arkio, firey as ever, hears news of the heretic attack and leads the angels to stop them. Rafen is badly wounded fighting a chaos spawn and only barely gets to the cache in time-

It seems that Stele plans to turn the Angels using their veneration of Sanguinius- and Arkio, as his false reincarnation, against them. Arkio wants to discard the codex astartes, reunite the Angels into a legion, and embark on a crusade; such a blatant power grab would inevitably cause a schism in the imperium and force the Angels onto the side of Chaos. If Rafen can't stop it, the imperium is doomed- humanity withit

The plot reveals itself- Rafen has a heated discussion with Arkio about his "blessing", and we a get a pov from Iskavan, whose summoning ritual fails; the dark apostle, with a hand from tzeentch, won't let him as it would disrupt his plan to corrupt the Blood Angels via Arkio; Stele is a true heretic after all! He insults Iskavan, seemingly trying to goad him into an attack, and it works- only Raf can save the Angels

Once proclaimed blessed, now anointed as Sanguinius come again. Stele's plot continues to unfold, as Arkio becomes the subject of more and more reverence. Rafen's warning reached Baal and Dante has deployed a cruiser to investigate, but Stele is hardly foiled yet- he discovered someone sent out a message and executed the ship astropaths. Surely, his next moves will be to search for the loyalist.. Rafen better watchit

On the ground, things are dicier. Our angels fight hard, but they're outnumbered; all seems lost as Iskavan shows up, but then Sachiel, stele, Arkio, & 7 honour guards teleport into the fray, Arkio wielding the Spear of Telesto. The spear inspires the angels into a furious surge & the day is won. Rafen mourns Koris, and then steals his commlink to send a message back to Baal- warning Lord-cm Dante of Stele's scheme.

We learn that Koris has been caught in the throes of the black rage and seems irretrievable; a great loss. Rafen, newly promoted after failing to plead for Koris to be given a chance, leads an attack on Shenlong's Ikari fortress, making good headway. In the carnage, Koris falls, but not before regaining lucidity and warning 'Raf of Stele's plot (he poisoned cmd) & not to trust Arkio. Uh oh.

The approach to Shenlong continues. Rafen and the tech-priest lucion embark on a spacewalk to disable one of the world's mines which was embedded in thr ship's hull, & Rafen's irritation with the reverence of his brother among the Angels grows. Kris & the command staff come to convince Stele to change courses, but he expertly manipulates them into playing along- he'll get the bloodbath he's baying for in secret.