"He knew when he faces me that it was the only chance possible," Tharizdun thought, recalling the moment. "Gord was relying mainly on my lack of completeness. perhaps he was correct . . . but the demon's act was one of wicked sort, a fitting evil; and it is I alone who am Evil! Could there have been any other result than what eventuated? No, I do not think So!"
To have gained the whole of himself again was worthwhile. To have lost his opportunity to slay Gord at a single, effortless stroke was infuriating. But there were consolations. He had completed his pack and now the three greatest hounds would hunt for and find his three little foes. Then Tharizdun would stride into the final fray without any doubt of its outcome. That was because only one thing could result. Now that he had his full faculties, he would triumph without fear of injury. The sword? That would be undone from a distance prior to actually facing Gord. Tharizdun had planned that contingency even when lacking a portion of his power. Very soon now there would be but one thorn left to extract....
"Lord Entropy!" the archfiend called telepathically with a force that sped through planes and spheres as a shout echoes along a deep canyon. "Come and share my sport!"
An indeterminate amount of time passed, then the deepening darkness indicated the coalescence of the entity. "You imagine the contest as mere sport now?" Entropy said in its slow, mechanical voice.
"Is it anything other?"
After the laughter from the being died away, Entropy spoke again. "Two near-fatal rounds indicate otherwise, Tharizdun. Even had you been the almost-victor in both."
That stung the haughty Master of Malevolence. "You dare to speak to me thus? I'll ..."
"I speak to any and all as I choose. You will do nothing; you cannot harm me, that's why." It wasn't entirely so, but the entity thought it best to always retain an edge by obfuscation and mental domination. There was yet much to accomplish, and the lord of Evil was a tool which had to be plied with force and much direction. "There are fundamental errors in your assumptions. It is wise of you to ask for my assistance."
Tharizdun was not fooled, nor would he allow the words of the entity to drift away into realms of forgetfulness. Whether or not there was truth in Entropy's assertions, the archfiend knew what it sought. If he used his powers to continue life, creativity, activity and the formation of new things. Lord Entropy was weakened and his power abridged. Tharizdun could certainly harm the boastful entity. The trouble was, such actions were very much against the archfiend's own desires and undercut his own domination as well. That, too, annoyed Tharizdun.
Because of that, he spoke to the other matter. "Your assessment of the duels is what is full of bull-dung, leaden lump," Tharizdun countered, forcing a deep laugh to underscore his contempt for Entropy's words. "The first engagement was set up to take me without my strength gathered. In the second, the three rings were used to lever away all the forces I could bring to bear. No more can either situation apply. Sport it will be, soon, just as I stated."
Ignoring the illogic of the claims, Entropy addressed only that which was of interest to itself. "You are so certain of easy victory in a third contest?"
"Of course!"
"The foes still have the bands forged by the greatest masters of Weal."
Tharizdun was not impressed. "The power of those rings is waning as I wax, and soon the whole of the spheres of illumination will he closed to the so-called champion and his helpers."
"Perhaps, but until that occurs they do draw new energy into the rings, and that gives them strength. There is the sword, too. Do you forget that it is forged of both dark and light? Any sphere can be used to energize its dweomers, Tharizdun. The three are again growing stronger, and the longer you dally here, the larger looms the chance for defeat — your downfall! You think it meet to use epithets such as 'leaden' in addressing me, yet it is Tharizdun who epitomizes inertia."
"Untrue! I have been most active in my work. All that lies below the Plane of Hades now feeds my power. Each netherrealm now wears the collar of slavery I have fashioned. I do not tarry uselessly. wliy do you seek to incite my rage, you slow and ponderous bungler?"
Entropy was unaffected by such words. "If I bungle, I also seek to prevent you from doing the same, Tharizdun. You must lay waste all potential fonts of energy, clamp tight the springs which could send power flowing to your foes. Ravage all, hunt them down! Finish the champion soon, Tharizdun, or the third match might go as the first went."
In truth, there could never be a fourth confrontation between him and Gord. Tharizdun knew full well that the next duel would be the final engagement between them. The archfiend frowned briefly, then stood and smiled his evil smile. "But why do you prate so, Lord of Entropy? All you rant of may or may not be so, but the reason you are here doing that seems to have been forgotten — by you!" Tharizdun drew himself up in hauteur, his face an arrogant mask of pride and malice. "It was I who summoned you to me. I do not languidly sit while the foe gains strength. You were called to witness my last campaign. The yeth are about to be released. I will lead them across the planes and bring my quarry to bay."
"And the despoiling, archfiend? Will you deny your enemy aid from all sources?"
"You seek to do no more than further your own ends, Entropy," Tharizdun sneered. "I know your desires. For this occasion I concur, though. you tell me nothing I do not already know, but you may have whatever satisfaction you might from this: I will lay waste to any sphere which has harbored the champion, and I will raze all which lends strength to him!"
"That is exactly correct," Entropy droned loudly.
"Please commence your work."
* * *
The exact number of hounds in the pack was impossible to tell. New ones joined the howling throng constantly, others departed for one reason or another. Perhaps a hundred of the things howled and slavered there at one instant, then three times that number were present, giving voice to their hatred and insanity as they sought to destroy all that was not like them — fully alive, clean, sane, unfettered. Whether a hundred strong or a thousand, however, there were always three monstrous members of the pack at its head. Laughing hideous mirth, Tharizdun was always there too, whipping those three on from the center of the howling, snapping press as it ran across the spheres in spectral fashion.
It was the yeth named Mephisto which the archfiend chose to head the howling pack as it ravened through the realm of shadows. "this is for your failure!" Tharizdun said afterward, thrashing the hound-thing with excrutiating tendrils of barbed-toothed energies because the hunt had not brought Gord and his companions to bay. Somehow, just before the master and yeth came, the three had slipped away, vanishing into the vast and convoluted basin of time.
Entropy could not enter, and the archfiend refused to follow, for it was becoming apparent to Tharizdun that the being who was called Chronos had only enmity for him. And because of the wild confusion of this version of the cosmos now precluded orderly tracing of energies, It was not possible to scry or use similar means to locate his prey. Having loosed the hounds, the archfiend had no other recourse. It suited the entity very nicely, of course, for in the savage fury of destruction that Tharizdun and his yeth hounds visited upon a sphere, the coming of Entropy was hastened.