Flaring tensions over Jerusalem's Temple Mount

have led to the complete structural collapse of the Dome of the Rock. Prophesied for millennia, the final terror is at hand, followed by seven long years of apocalyptic warfare locked in stalemate. And then the war is over. Or so it would seem.

From out of nowhere, and to the cheers of an exhausted globe, a charismatic teacher and mystic calling himself Janus Philio has crowned himself King of kings in Jerusalem. World-healing miracles ensue, but is he the second coming of Jesus Christ-which he refuses to call himself-or another in a seemingly endless series of Antichrists?

Meanwhile, rising from obscurity in plague-ravaged Los Angeles, preacher's son and former NFL superstar Julian "the Mighty" Quinn leads a grassroots rebellion that topples the war-happy government in Washington, propelling him to the pinnacle of American political power. Viewed as the only counterweight to Philio's heresy, Quinn soon falls under the spell of a secret society known only as "the Guardians" set on assassinating the King of kings to hasten a return to traditional values.

It's after Armageddon that the ultimate battle over the future of mankind on Earth begins.