Anasius is on the brink of war, and with an army unprepared, ill-equipped and utterly outnumbered, defeat seems inevitable. As they are extracted into this new world, Jason, Zak and their friends find themselves pulled into a web of torture, betrayal and death, and when they face the terrors and traumas of battle in an increasingly one-sided war, there is little hope. As tragedy strikes back home at the worst possible moment, can they put their horror and haunting emptiness aside, work together, and summon the courage to fight to the end? Can life be drawn from the crucible of death?