The Fifth Rib

For the first time in history, the Upper and Lower Kingdoms are well and truly at war. Worse, now that Ilya has shown what he is capable of, no human, immortal, god, or goddess is safe from suffering Aurelius' fate, not even Mikael. Although confident that he can defeat his brother no matter how many of his cowardly, ungrateful, former citizens abscond to the Lower Kingdom, Mikael has a new fear to contend with: death. Not the unceremonious kind Gabriel dolls out to the denizens of the Upper Kingdom who exhaust their usefulness, but a new type of annihilation that only Ilya could possibly mete out. While preparing to bring Gabriel to his knees once and for all, Mikael has been working on a new weapon, something unique, novel, and powerful enough to protect him from whatever displeasure he might attract from Ilya. Luckily enough, with the war well on its way, he has no shortage of test subjects for his newest project. Although unknown to him, the culmination of Mikael's several lifetime's worth of resentment and jealousy towards Gabriel will echo far beyond their Kingdoms and may have untold consequences for the future of absolutely everything.