Everyone expected Alexander Kepler to fail during Bury's first year, Alex included. But being moshiach is only the first impossible test meant to weed out the weak-willed, the unworthy, and the unlucky. Now the real training begins, and Alex's already wondering how he'll get through. It's not just that it's gruelling and maliciously brutal, or even that it's designed to stretch the brain's capacity for pain beyond endurance. It's Yahweh, who's made it his personal mission to teach Alex exactly how powerless he is-unless he betrays himself.

Although Alex might be weaker than moshiach ben David, he still has his own identity, and has a will of iron. And leadership is forgetting the most important lesson Yahweh has taught him: moshiachs make their own rules. But a determination to survive won't be enough.

Because Alex knows the real secret hidden for centuries-and nothing, not even Yahweh, may be enough to save the human race in the end.