chapter 259
<b>Chapter 259:</b>
<b>Bang!</b>
<span style="font-weight:400">The female demon’s head whipped backwards as she was sted in the face with a slug round. I think the armored guy actually nailed her directly in the eye…
<span style="font-weight:400">It took me a second to remember how I even recognized the armored guy. He looked vaguely familiar to me. I know I had seen him before.
<b>[You have, on a tv screen…back in your past life…]</b>
<i><span style="font-weight:400">‘Wait… Doom yer?’ </i><span style="font-weight:400">I asked in disbelief.
<b>[Yep. I’m just as surprised as you are.]</b>
<span style="font-weight:400">It was actually the real Doom yer!?
<span style="font-weight:400">What the hell was he doing in our world–no, our Universe!? Was there an obvious crossover I skipped over this past year or did he just spring up out of nowhere?
<b>[Lady Death told you that you broke Space and Time. Maybe that brought him here?]</b>
<b><i>‘</i></b><i><span style="font-weight:400">I was expecting some alternate versions of some Marvel heroes to pop up, I wasn''t expecting a video game character to pop into reality!’</i><span style="font-weight:400"> I replied in my head.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Ow, my eye! That freaking stings, you asshole!” the female demon shrieked at Doom yer in outrage. Her eye looked a bit red, but otherwise waspletely fine. Regr human weapons just didn''t have enough firepower to put down higher level beings.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Now now, Jezebel. No need to get so upset about getting hit by a pathetic mortal weapon.” Mephisto chastised his–daughter? She looked like a female version of him so I suspected they were rted. She also seemed to be a chip off the old block.
<b>{Daughter of the Devil, Jezebel: Level 66}</b>
<span style="font-weight:400">Jezebel pouted at her father. “How about I shoot you in the eye and you''ll find out what it feels like!?”
<span style="font-weight:400">Mephistoughed. “I''ve been shot and stabbed in pretty much every single possible location over the millions of years I''ve been around. At this point, nothing can hurt me,” Mephisto said while ncing down at all of us. He was trying to intimidate us by mentioning his age and his made up “invulnerability.”
<b>[What a liar! He was screaming like a baby after thest time you kicked his ass!]</b>
<span style="font-weight:400">That wasn''t exactly a surprise. Mephisto lies about everything. That''s pretty much his thing.
<span style="font-weight:400">Doom yer nced down at the gun in his hands. I couldn''t see his face with his helmet on, but I could imagine he was disappointed with its performance just now. A perfect headshot barely even scratched Jezebel.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Try this instead.” I reached into my inventory and pulled out a few alien rifles I had swiped while I was on Knowhere. They were energy based weapons that I suspected were nuclear powered, so they never ran out of ammo. I tossed him an energy shotgun and assault rifle.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Thanks.” Doom yer nodded at me. He slung the shotgun over his shoulder and aimed the assault rifle at Mephisto. “Does this hurt?” Doom yer asked before squeezing the trigger.
<span style="font-weight:400">Mephisto had been talking tough only a few seconds ago, so I found it hrious when he started letting out yelps of pain. I swiped those weapons from the Collector’s collection and they packed a pretty decent punch.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Fuck–ow!” Mephisto yelled while being pelted by high speed semi-nuclearser fire. Doom yer held down the trigger until the gun started to overheat and had to temporarily shut itself off. Mephisto was covered in welts that were already starting to heal, but he was no longer smiling so proudly. “I''m going to kill you first!” he eximed while pointing a sharp fingernail at the Doom yer.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Heh! I told you it fucking hurts!” Jezebelughed at her old man.
<span style="font-weight:400">I pped my wings and ced myself in the air between Mephisto and the Doom yer. I knew thetter was powerful, but he wasn’t ready for the top of this Universe quite yet. “You won''t be getting the opportunity today, Mephisto. You''re going to regret showing up in my world in your real body,” I dered while crossing my arms over my chest.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Yeah! You tell him hot stuff!” Johnny Storm cheered from below. <b>“me on!” </b><span style="font-weight:400">he yelled and rocketed directly at Mephisto. “Prepare to get wrecked–urgh!”
<span style="font-weight:400">Mephistozily swung his arm and smacked the Human Torch away from himself. Johnny sted off, careening into a nearby skyscraper. He was lucky Mephisto didn''t take him seriously, or he could have been seriously hurt trying to take on someone so many levels above him.
<b>{The Human Torch, Johnny Storm: Level 56}</b>
<span style="font-weight:400">Mephisto barely gave Johnny a second nce before he scoffed at my bravado. “You were lucky you only had to face a weak avatar of mine thest time we met.” He spread his arms to the sides challengingly. “Now you face the real me!” he proimed as malevolent energy began to surround his entire body.
<b>{The Devil of Marvel, Mephisto: Level 168 (Avatar)}</b>
<span style="font-weight:400">I scoffed right back at him after using <b>Observe</b><span style="font-weight:400">. Of course he was too cowardly to invade Earth in his main body. Once again he was using an Avatar, although I suspected this to be one of most powerful bodies–if not his most powerful Avatar. Losing it would definitely set him back quite a bit.
<b>{Emergency Quest Initiated! Repel or y Mephisto’s Avatar and save New York City before he drags it into his Hell Dimension!}</b>
<b>{Reward: Level up x 3! & An Ultimate Skill!}</b>
<i><span style="font-weight:400">“Status,” </i><span style="font-weight:400">I thought to myself. I expected this to be a big fight, and I wasn’t going to hold back anything. Mephisto was going to regret thinking he could invade my home city with no consequences.
<b>[La of the Fallen]</b>
<b>[Title: Fourteen Winged Angel, Goddess of Angels, Death’s Favored.]</b>
<b>[Level: 97]</b>
<b>[Sacred Gears: Purger of Darkness, Orb of Infinity]</b>
<b>[HP: 117,000]</b>
<b>[MP: 120,000→130,000]</b>
<b>[Faith Energy: 5,345,678]</b>
<b>[Vigor: 10,300]</b>
<b>[Strength: 5,200]</b>
<b>[Intelligence: 12,200→13,000]</b>
<b>[Luck: 2300→2500]</b>
<b>[Avable Free Stat Points: 1000→0]</b>
<b>[Perks and Skills:]</b>
<b>-Goddess of Angels (10x Increase in all Stat Points. ess to all Angelic Abilities. Can turn other races into white or ck winged Angels depending on the person''s Karma.)</b>
<b>-Death’s Favored (Resurrect on Death after 24 hours. Can resurrect up to three people a day.)</b>
<b>-Daughter of Heaven''s Will (Passive Skill: Ask and you shall receive! The universe bends to your whims and circumstances that you wish for are far more likely to ur!)</b>
<b>-Observe (Max: No one''s level is hidden from your gaze. No one can detect you using Observe on them.)</b>
<b>-Light Maniption (Max: All Light Abilities Cost 10x less MP to Cast.)</b>
<b>-Senjutsu (Max: Passively regenerate 1000 MP/Min.)</b>
<b>-Rinnegan (Max: All Rinnegan abilities cost 5x less MP.)</b>
<b>-Faith Pool (Can draw upon Faith Energy when MP runs out.)</b>
<b>-Cosmic Energy (Instead of air, you know breathe Cosmic Energy. All abilities are drastically improved along with ess to Cosmic powers.)</b>
<span style="font-weight:400">I was still pretty low on <b>Faith Energy </b><span style="font-weight:400">from my battle with Arishem, but I did have <b>1000 Free Stat Points </b><span style="font-weight:400">to work with. <span style="font-weight:400">I dumped <b>800</b><span style="font-weight:400"> of them into Intelligence to push my <b>MP</b><span style="font-weight:400"> to <b>130,000 </b><span style="font-weight:400">and give myself a nice extra damage buff. Even if almost <b>10,000 </b><span style="font-weight:400">more<b> MP</b><span style="font-weight:400"> didn’t seem like much, there was a big difference between<b> 13,000 Intelligence </b><span style="font-weight:400">and<b> 12,000</b><span style="font-weight:400"> was going to result in a massive increase. I threw the leftover points into <b>Luck.</b>
<b>{Challengepleted: (Un)lucky number 13,000!}</b>
<b>{For reaching 13,000 in a single stat, you have received a random reward!}</b>
<b>{Now Rolling random reward from the Multiversal Reward Pool…}</b>
<b>{...Reward received!}</b>
<b>{Congrattions! You have received your very own Asauchi–A nameless Zanpakuto capable of severing and ying souls directly!}</b>
<span style="font-weight:400">Wow! An Asauchi!? That was from the anime <i><span style="font-weight:400">Bleach</i><span style="font-weight:400">! It was the main weapon of the Shinigamis.
<span style="font-weight:400">I closed the notifications as a nondescript Katana materialized in front of my eyes. I reached out and grabbed it out of the air.
<span style="font-weight:400">A weapon that could sever and y souls directly sounded pretty useful right about now…
<span style="font-weight:400">Mephisto was controlling his meat puppet remotely through some kind of soul magic obviously. Destroying his Avatarst time hurt him, but this time, I was nning on doing more than just hurting him.
<span style="font-weight:400">I wanted to <i><span style="font-weight:400">HURT</i><span style="font-weight:400"> him! And now I had a way to do just that.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Cool sword, did you get it at the flea market?” Mephistomented sarcastically as I gripped the hilt of my new Asauchi in my hands. He had no idea what I was currently holding.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Here we go again,” I said to myself as I took a deep breath and mentally prepared myself for another intense fight. My knuckles turned white as I tightly gripped the sword in my hand. I pped my wings hard, the sound barrier broke as I flew towards him to try and cleave off his head!
<span style="font-weight:400">Mephisto conjured a ming sword and our two des shed with a devastating force that sent shockwaves all around us!
<span style="font-weight:400">…
<b>–Susan Storm–</b>
<span style="font-weight:400">“Holy Crap! She’s moving so fast that I can’t even see her,” the Thing said as the air vibrated around them after La blurred forwards.
<b>BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!</b>
<span style="font-weight:400">Susan stumbled and struggled to stay on her feet as huge gusts of air repeatedly mmed into her. She could hardly believe that just the shockwaves from La’s battle were proving to be too much for her to handle!
<span style="font-weight:400">She realized that the Fantastic Four were currently in way over their heads. Her brother had gotten swatted away like he was nothing more than an annoying firefly just a second ago.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Susan! Hurry up and untie me while everyone is distracted,” Reed practically begged her. “Hurry up!” he said a second time while ncing nervously at the fight in the sky. A battle of true titans was urring directly above them. This was one of the few times she had ever seen his arrogant self actually looking genuinely afraid. It seemed that Reed Richards finally realized he had bitten off more than he could chew.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Ok, I''m hurrying.” Susan took a step towards him before an armored hand once again stopped her. The man who had saved her still didn’t want to free Reed.
<span style="font-weight:400">“No,” the Doom yer told her. “He doesn’t go free. He has to answer for what he’s done,” he told her with no room for argument.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Fuck you! Who the hell do you think you even are! In case you didn’t notice, the Baxter building is private property! You''re currently trespassing, and by not untying me you''re aiding and embedding kidnapping! Mywyers will see you in prison if you don’t help me,” Reed tried his best to threaten the man.
<span style="font-weight:400">A man who had literally killed his way through an entire army of demons to reach the top of the Baxter building…
<span style="font-weight:400">Susan didn’t think the threat of wyers” was going to make the man think twice. Also, she was very much aware of the fact that Reed Richards was on the verge of bankruptcy. He alone spent the vast majority of their funds creating his crazy inventions. Inventions that he refused to market so that they could make some of their money back…
<span style="font-weight:400">“No,” the Doom yer dismissed Reed’s threats as Susan suspected he would.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Y–You son of a–” Reed started uttering some very out of character curse words and insults. Most of them were directed at the Doom yer, but a few of them were also directed at her for not helping him.
<span style="font-weight:400">She’d known and worked with Reed Richards for years. She had always respected him as a Scientist along with his never give up work ethic. Lately, she didn’t know if Reed felt the same about her however. Did he keep her on his staff because he respected her as a fellow scientist, or because he was infatuated with her? Was it even worth protecting him at this point?
<span style="font-weight:400">Hundreds of thousands of Demons pouring into the City was bound to cause more than a few casualties. Even if La revived everyone afterwards, those deaths were going to end up tarnishing the Fantastic Four’s reputation. The team hadn’t been together long, but she knew that it was pretty much done for at this point. Susan suspected that it was time to just cut her losses and move on with her brother…and Ben, if he also chose to finally abandon Reed after all this.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Damn slut! The only reason I hired you was for your looks, and then you never even bothered putting out! What good are you then!?” Reed spat at Susan. She was momentarily taken aback. He had never spoken to her that way before, and now she knew his true feelings about her.
<span style="font-weight:400">That pretty much sealed her decision. She also red at him for degrading her. “Fuck you, Reed! I have three PHDs and over a dozen fortune 500panies have offered me jobs with them! I’m leaving, and I’m taking Johnny with me!”
<span style="font-weight:400">Reed let out a squawk of disbelief as she turned back towards the Doom yer.
<span style="font-weight:400">The Doom yer nodded at her. “Good. Go check on your brother.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“What are you going to do?” she asked her savior.
<span style="font-weight:400">“I''m going to do what I do best,” he said while marching past her towards the portal. He aimed the assault rifle in his hands towards Jezebel who looked more than a little eager to get her revenge against him.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Are we really not freeing Stretch?” Ben asked her as gunshots started going off nearby, along with the sound of Jezebel’s demonic screeching.
<span style="font-weight:400">Susan shook her head at Ben. “We can’t free Reed… We’ll be seen as his aplices in all of this if we do. Let’s just go and check on Johnny. After that, we’ll take down as many demons as we can until this is all over. We need to be seen acting as heroes here,” she said and Ben solemnly nodded at her.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Guys! Don’t just leave me here tied up! Come on! T–This wasn’t my fault!” Reed called out behind their backs while thrashing against the ck chains holding him in ce. “Sue! I''m sorry! I didn’t mean what I said…”
<span style="font-weight:400">“...”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Johnny! Are you ok!?” Susan called out worriedly as they entered the next door building Johnny had been sted into. Susan was able to fly them over by creating a forcefield underneath herself and using it as a mobile tform. It was a trick she hade up withpletely on her own–despite the fact that Reed kept telling people that it was <i><span style="font-weight:400">his</i><span style="font-weight:400"> idea…
<span style="font-weight:400">God, she hated how he always tried to take credit for everything…
<span style="font-weight:400">“Heh, you got a good clobbering there kid.” the Thingughed, trying to lighten the mood a bit.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Yeah, I did. I think my arm is broken…” Johnny whined while trying to pick himself up. He was lying inside a destroyed office cubicle that had halted his momentum. “That guy hit me a lot harder than I was expecting him to. Who was he?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“I''m pretty sure he’s the literal Devil.” Susan told her brother. “La is fighting him right now. Their battle is shaking every building around us.” Susan said, a few nearby windows rattled so hard she thought they were about to shatter.
<span style="font-weight:400">Johnny ended upughing as he stood up with one working arm. “Hahaha! I got bitch pped by the Devil? I don’t know why that’s so funny to me, but it is,” he said and Susan smiled. She loved that her little brother could always make light of whatever weird situation they tended to find themselves in.
<span style="font-weight:400">Their lighthearted mood ended abruptly.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Humans! I found humans over here!” a garbled voice yelled towards them.
<span style="font-weight:400">She snapped her head to the side. She saw a small squad of Impsnd inside the building and point their pitchforks at the three of them.
<span style="font-weight:400">“The woman is mine! I want to have some fun with her before I eat her. Woman flesh is the most tender!” one of the disgusting creatures said while leering at her.
<span style="font-weight:400">Did this creature just say he was going to–?
<span style="font-weight:400">Susan scowled! Susan formed an invisible circr shield, and then shepletely ttened it while rapidly rotating it at the same time. She created an invisible buzzsaw and hurled it at the disgusting Imp. The perverted demon’s head was sliced clean off of its shoulders. The rest of the Imps screamed at her in rage and charged.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Nice one, sis! <b>me on</b><span style="font-weight:400">!” Johnny called out as he started roasting them alive. It turned out that burning demons did not smell nice…
<span style="font-weight:400">“It’s clobberin time!” Ben leapt past Johnny’s mes and started smashing some demon heads as well. Their pitchforks harmlessly bounced off of his rock hard skin.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Good job,” Susan said. “We’re not done yet though.” The smell of blood and sounds of fighting had attracted a few more squads of Imps to their location.
<span style="font-weight:400">Despite being surrounded by demons from hell and fighting for her life, Susan actually found herself smiling. She found the fighting to be cathartic in a way. She realized that this was the first battle she’d ever been in where Reed wasn’t barking out annoying orders to everyone mid fight. In fact, without Reed’s constant yelling distracting them, Susan found that the three of them were fighting as a much more cohesive unit. They were tearing through any demons that came at them with ferocious precision.
<i><span style="font-weight:400">‘The Fantastic Four were no more, but the Fantastic Three might turn out even better than the original.’</i><span style="font-weight:400"> Susan thought to herself.
<span style="font-weight:400">…
<b>–La–</b>
<b>[You’re going to need to learn how to properly use a Katana at some point. You’re just swinging the thing like it''s a bat.]</b>
<i><span style="font-weight:400">‘I’m doing my best, System! I’m used to spears, not swords!’</i><span style="font-weight:400"> I thought back with some snark.
<b>ng! ng! ng!</b>
<span style="font-weight:400">My Asauchi shed against Mephisto’s ming sword over and over in the sky. I hadn’t been able tond a solid hit yet to really hurt him.
<span style="font-weight:400">I did have a few opportunities tond some light cuts on him, but I held back on all of them. As soon as my Asauchi makes contact with him, he’ll be aware of just how dangerous my new weapon is against him. I didn’t know if I would get more than one shot on him with it.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Is this all you’ve got, La of the Fallen? I expected more!” Mephisto taunted me as he blocked my overhead strike. I was begrudgingly impressed by his strength. He was matching me blow for blow.
<b>{-500HP!}</b>
<span style="font-weight:400">Air left my lungs as hended a solid kick directly in my diaphragm. Of course, as an edgelord superviin/devil, Mephisto was wearing boots covered in metal spikes. Metal spikes that stabbed me when his kicknded.
<b>{You have been poisoned! -50 HP/Second!}</b>
<span style="font-weight:400">And of course, he poisoned his freaking shoes…<b></b>
<span style="font-weight:400">“Not even the special poison I prepared for you seems to be working. I have to say, La, that you have the strangest physiology I’ve evere across. All of your injuries end up disappearing within seconds.” Mephistomented while observing the puncture wounds in my stomach fade away. “I can’t wait to rip the secrets of your body out of your corpse. Maybe I’ll even resurrect you as my zombie sex ve once I''m done with you.” he added with a chuckle.
<b>“Almighty Push!” </b><span style="font-weight:400">I hastily threw out my hand <span style="font-weight:400">and sted him off of me.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Fuck!” he cursed, a wave of condensed gravity smashed him in the face. Mephisto flew back a dozen meters before extending hisrge wings to both sides. His wings caught the air around him and halted his momentum. “It''s that annoying gravity attack again. Haven''t you learned anything new since ourst fight?” he asked in irritation.
<span style="font-weight:400">My Rinnegan locked onto his form. “As a matter of fact, I have learned something new. <b>Amaterasu!</b><span style="font-weight:400">” ck mes covered his form from head to toe! He waspletely engulfed by the mes of <b>Amaterasu</b><span style="font-weight:400">.
<span style="font-weight:400">“I” took that split second opportunity while his sight was cut off to n out my next move…
<span style="font-weight:400">The mes burned atop his red skin, but there weren’t any screams of paining from the Devil. “Now you’re just spoiling me,” Mephisto said from underneath the fire. “Mmmm, these mes are delicious. I love devouring divinity.” He opened his mouth wide and started sucking in all the ck fire surrounding his body. He let out a happy belch after swallowing all of them. “I rule over Hell, you actually thought I would be harmed by fire?” he asked me in disappointment.
<span style="font-weight:400">“It was worth a shot.” We were fighting above the popted city, so I had to stick with my attacks that caused as little destruction as possible.
<span style="font-weight:400">Mephisto shook his head at me. “It seems that I have overestimated you. You obviously can’t defeat me in my real form. I suppose I might as well finish you off now. Maybe your beautiful sister Gabriel will be more fun?” He taunted me.
<span style="font-weight:400">I grit my teeth and red at him hatefully! “I wont lose here and I won''t let you touch her!” I yelled loudly. “I''ll stop you!”
<span style="font-weight:400">“You will try,” he replied dryly.
<span style="font-weight:400">I flew directly at him again and started wildly swinging the Asauchi in my hands. I wasn’t going for any subtle moves this time, every single swing of mine was aimed to take his head off!
<b>ng ng ng ng!</b>
<span style="font-weight:400">Mephisto effortlessly parried every single one of my strikes with a grin on his face. “Wow, you really are trash with a sword, aren’t you? You should have stuck with spears…” We continued to rapidly exchange swords strikes for another 30 seconds. In that short window, I must have swung my sword thousands of times! Not a single blow managed to connect with him. He was right, I was trash with a sword.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Rah!” I yelled again. “Just die, you monster!” I stabbed my de towards his non-existent heart!
<span style="font-weight:400">“I don’t think I will.” Mephisto parried my strike out of the way before spinning his de and delivering a high speed cleaving strike.
<span style="font-weight:400">A cleaving strike thatnded directly on my neck…
<span style="font-weight:400">An expression of pure shock appeared on my face as my head separated from my body! Thest thing my eyes saw was Mephisto’s smirk of victory.
<span style="font-weight:400">And then my body exploded into smoke…
<span style="font-weight:400">…
<b>–Mephisto–</b>
<span style="font-weight:400">He had done it! He had finally in the annoying Fallen Angel and gotten his revenge. The expression of shock on her face as he separated her head from her shoulders was glorious. Mephisto was going to remember this amazing moment for eternity. He couldn’t wait to present her head to her family members and witness their collective despair!
<span style="font-weight:400">He reached his hand out to snatch her severed head out of the air. Before he could grab hold of it though, it disappeared in a puff of smoke!
<span style="font-weight:400">Mephisto frowned. “What the–”
<b>Puchi!</b>
<span style="font-weight:400">A sword exploded out the front of his chest! Someone had impaled him from behind when he was distracted by his victory! <i><span style="font-weight:400">‘How dare they!’</i>
<span style="font-weight:400">Mephisto nced down at the de sticking out of his chest. He recognized it, it was the same weapon that La had been trying to fight him with. The strange and average looking Katana that had randomly appeared in front of her before they started fighting.
<span style="font-weight:400">He turned his head to see who had stabbed him. To his shock, it was a very familiar face.
<span style="font-weight:400">“But…How…?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“You’re not the only one that can use clones, Mephisto. I knew you would let your guard down after <i><span style="font-weight:400">killing me</i><span style="font-weight:400">,” La told him while twisting the de in his chest. “My <b>Shadow Clone </b><span style="font-weight:400">was pretty convincing wasn’t it?”
<span style="font-weight:400">Mephisto was starting to feel strange… He was starting to feel incredibly weak. Not just his Avatar either, he felt like something was wrong with his main body! “W–What did you do to me? What is this word?” Mephisto coughed out a mouthful of blood.
<span style="font-weight:400">“It’s called a Zanpakuto,” La told him. “It’s a weapon that directly cuts and sever souls. A weapon that can harm you just by cutting your avatar here!” she exined to him with a smirk.
<span style="font-weight:400">Mephisto’s eyes widened! That was–that was very bad for him. No wonder he was feeling so weak. He needed to cancel the connection with his Avatar immediately! He was in the process of doing just that when La ripped the de out of him and caused him to scream in pain.
<span style="font-weight:400">“You’re not escaping that easily. If you survive this, I want you to know that I will finish the job some day!” La dered before quickly swinging her de horizontally.
<span style="font-weight:400">In an ironic twist of fate, Mephisto ended up losing his head. La had in another one of his Avatars.
<span style="font-weight:400">As for his main body, back in hell…
<span style="font-weight:400">It experienced more pain and agony than he had ever thought possible. Before his world went ck, hisst thoughts were of how he had been defeated by La for a second time now…
<b>XXX</b>