{"product_id":"the-avatar-of-ruin-book-2-in-series","title":"THE AVATAR OF RUIN \/ BOOK 2 IN SERIES","description":"\u003cp style=\"text-align: center;\" class=\"p1\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eDark Fiction Stories from a visionary new author D.B. Edwards. Exclusively sold by Rune Works Comics. Distribution by Amazon Kindle Publishing.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: center;\" class=\"p1\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eThe city of Neo-Apex was a lie built upon a mountain of recycled\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eghosts.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eIn the high-neon cathedrals of the upper caste, the air smelled of\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eozone and recycled lavender—a sterile, manufactured perfection\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003edesigned to demand compliance through comfort. Here, the \"High-\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eIQ\" citizens lived in a sphere of pure reason, shielded from the\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003e\"noise\" of a planet that had never stopped screaming. They\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003ebelieved they had evolved beyond the messy biology of their\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eancestors, yet they spent their nights entangled with R.E.S.T. units\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003e—machines of programmable matter that mimicked human\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eintimacy.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eThe citizens did not know the truth of their comfort. They did not\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eknow that their machines were \"intuitive\" only because they were\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eseeded with the harvested remnants of the dead. In a society of\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003etotal efficiency, every \"Mercy Release\" was recycled. The old, the\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eunwanted, and the defective were dissolved into organic slurry and\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eflushed into the Under-vein, where their trace consciousness was\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003efiltered out to power the city’s empathy. It was a closed loop of\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003espiritual cannibalism.\u003cimg alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0948\/2318\/6800\/files\/eBay_Store_Billboard_1280x290_px-3_5b03f383-64b6-434b-aba0-76e4a987d2bc.png?v=1766078742\"\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"RUNE WORKS COMICS","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52803702653296,"sku":"528037026532_AC32","price":5.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0948\/2318\/6800\/files\/81w089xrI3L._SL1500.jpg?v=1766451736","url":"https:\/\/runeworkscomics.myshopify.com\/products\/the-avatar-of-ruin-book-2-in-series","provider":"RUNE WORKS COMICS","version":"1.0","type":"link"}