What had happened to his arms? -- why had they smoothed -- where was the definition -- where was the size -- where was the strength? What had happened to his iron mind, once so resolute, now reduced to weeping at irregular intervals -- at what? At the sight of dead kittens in a bag, washed up on a riverbank? At the sight of a member of the Demon Path of the Electric Whip[1] flogging the back of a young member of the Heavenly Demon Club clan[2] for an offense an elder had committed, but did not wish to suffer for? At the sight of a woman undressed, and pretending to smile? What had happened to his cock, once so proud, softened etched and worn over the course of a thousand baths of acid? Where did this weakness come from? Had not the impurities been removed in the forge? But then where did this weakness come from? Had there always been a vein of it running through him? Where did this weakness, where did this decay, where did this senility come from? In a man with an iron body, a man of only twenty-seven?

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

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[1] --too obvious--

[2] It was never specified -- what was heavenly about the clubs? What, I wonder, made them blessed?