===Part Three: In the House of False Gods===

Inside the Temple of the Serpent Lodge Erebus observes the ritual that will send his mind into the spirit world to converse with Horus. In order to complete the ritual Lodge Priestess [[Akshub]] treacherously slits Erebus's throat. Awakening in a verdant meadow, Horus accepts his own death and goes exploring, but is disturbed by glimpses of a hellish industrial wasteland beneath the surface of the landscape. He finds Erebus disguised as [[Hastur Sejanus]] floating face-down in a stream and 'Sejanus' encourages him to flee a pack of wolves with the Imperial [[Aquila Imperialis|Aquila]] on their fur. Sejanus tells Horus that he has come as an emissary from [[Chaos Gods|great powers]] within the [[Warp]] whom he describes as benign and with no interest in the material universe but under attack by the [[Emperor]] who desires their power for himself. He shows Horus a shrine-world from the [[Imperium of Man|Imperium in the 40th millennium]] where the Emperor and the nine primarchs who will remain loyal in [[The Horus Heresy|the war to come]] are worshipped as gods but Horus is not, deceiving him with the lie that the Emperor abandoned the [[Great Crusade]] in order to obtain godhood and will leave [[Primarchs|his sons]] behind upon his apotheosis. He then takes Horus to the secret laboratories beneath Terra where the Emperor housed the [[Primarch Project|primarch project]], revealing that he used knowledge taken from the Warp gods to create Horus and his brothers and has orchestrated a vast lie in propagating his secular creed. The moment of the primarchs' scattering occurs and Horus's apparition is attacked by [[Custodian Guard|Custodian Guards]], but he kills most of them before allowing himself to be sucked into the raging Chaos vortex.

As days pass in the material universe nearly the entire 63rd Expedition camps outside the Temple of the Serpent Lodge. Loken visits [[Kyril Sindermann]], who has hidden himself away in the ''[[Vengeful Spirit]]'''s archives, and is horrified to learn of the connection between serpent cults and Chaos. Ignace Karkasy, inspired by the Astartes' brutality on the embarkation deck, writes damning poetry about it and begins distributing it throughout the ship. Euphrati Keeler is attacked on Davin by a group of soldiers angry at her commitment to the Lectitio Divinitatus, but is rescued by Torgaddon who brings her to see Sindermann, who now doubts the secular creed and wants to know about the Emperor as a god. They begin translating text from the [[Book of Lorgar]] and accidentally summon a [[daemon]]. Chief [[astropath]] [[Ing Mae Sing]] comes to their aid, but they are only saved when, in a miracle, Euphrati channels the Emperor's power and banishes the daemon before collapsing into a coma.