great war in demonium was doubly disturbing. As he sought to complete his base of power, Tharizdun had to contemplate the fact that a deadly and implacable antagonist also waited somewhere to strike. Gord, Champion of Balance, had the wherewithal to slay the greatest evil ever spawned. Let the worthless troops die in their thousands, for time now seemed to be working against Tharizdun. Edgy, always on guard against sudden assault by his foe, Tharizdun himself rode through the Abyss on the back of a three-headed fired rake. He was there to spur his hordes to greater fury in their assaults; besides, there was greater safety for him when surrounded by such troops.
The cacodemon marches of Pandemonium, where demonkin and chimeras held sway, were as difficult to subdue as demonium itself, but the sheer weight of the attacking forces Tharizdun brought to bear managed the task with rapidity, for there were no great fortresses and mighty leaders to command as there were in the Abyss. After but a period of six of Oerth's days, the Ultimate One of Evil could point to all of Pandemonium as conquered territory, and view a map of the many tiers of the Abyss that showed but a score of little islands remaining resistance. But there was one blot to reckon with, too. It was Ojukalazogadit.
Ojukalazogadit! A great stratum unto itself. The greatest of demon brutes, too. The monstrous thing was a being, perhaps even a demonking of sorts, although its only subject was itself. Ojukalazogadit could send forth portions of itself. Not a few, not a thousand. The brute demon could create a field a force of legions that were but bits of its being. Dim, demented, Ojukalazogadit the unconquerable.
During the course of the earlier wars in the Abyss, when the daemon Infestix had rallied a coalition of enemies against the would-be emperor of all demonium. Graz'zt the brute demon had served as battlefield and warrior both. With the help of it Graz'zt had almost triumphed, and through its assistance, the ebon demonking had been able to withdraw to safety after defeat there. In its madness, the thing had certainly devoured many of the force it had allied with, but only a tithe of the number of the opposing horde that its suddenly opening mouths and rampaging portions slew and absorbed.
Now the living layer of the Abyss served as a citadel for the beleaguered demons. Graz'zt and all his remaining subjects, Elazalag and the Abat-dolor, and whatever others of the lords of demonium who could manage it retreated to the fastness of Ojukalazogadit and waited. With them they brought their arms, treasures, and herds of demon-beasts. Whether it was the feeding upon elephantine kine or the dim realization that doom threatened it, Ojukalazogadit refrained from wanton predation upon those refugees making their last stand upon it. Perhaps after the last morsel of the ferocious flocks and hideous herds of things that demons kept as would a man tend sheep and cattle, then the demon brute would devour warrior and lord in refuge. Now, the being sent forth the masses of its chimerical body to combat the dreggals and cacodaemons who tried to advance onto Ojukalazogadit's surface. They, along with turncoat demons, devils, maelvis, dumalduns, and the others of Tharizdun's millions were greedily eaten by the rampaging excretions that served to defend the brute and its refugees. Oddly then, as the Abyss was torn, weakened, and devastated, the gross stratum battened and grew stronger.
Because of this, also because of the last isolated pockets of resistance were those citadels commanded by the greatest of demons, the survivors of the sudden assault upon the Abyss broke out and moved toward the vast place that was the demon brute Ojukalazogadit. Distracted by his contemplation of the Champion of Balance, immersed in the creation of his yeth hounds. Tharizdun saw what was occurring almost too late. When he did finally take note of the movement, the Master of Malevolence drove his forces with relentless fury. The small groups of embattled demons were hunted, exterminated at times, and always decimated. Many of them survived nonetheless, and the resistance grew on the three hundred and sixty-sixth tier of the Abyss, the stratum of the demon brute, the layer that was Ojukalazogadit.
'Entropy! The fools have played into my hands,' Tharizdun cried. 'If you are to gain your reward, it is now time for you to truly earn it. Place your inertial weight upon the dim-witted brute. Bring it to senility and decay! Then I will finish the pitiful remainder easily.'
'First, dark lord, you must assault the lesser ones massed upon the bulk of the thing. The numbers of those assisting the creature must be thinned.' It was untrue, of course. The entity could have done whatever he wished then and there. Entropy cared not at all if Tharizdun knew the truth of the situation. Entropy would have more. Extermination, extlnction, and decay were all it cared for.
'You will do what I command! Now! Now!' Tharizdun railed.
Blithely the Lord of Entropy droned, 'Yes, Ultimate Evil, as soon as your hordes have assailed the rebellious demons as I mentioned. Just after that will I obey your great command.'
'I will not undertake such an assault, fool!' Tharizdun thundered. 'We will sit and starve them out if need be.'
Although there was no means of the darkest one's detecting it, that did make the entity rethink its strategy. If by chance Tharizdun was defeated by the champion, Gord, then all of Entropy's hopes for rule of the multiverse were dashed for a billion years, perhaps a billion decades. 'I will gather myself and attack the demon brute, Tharizdun, but if I am to do so, your troops must simultaneously fall upon the others there. It will be a mass assault, or I will abandon your cause. What care I If you or the Champion of Balance prevails, if both are heedless of my wishes?'
Snarling, devising terrible tortures for the entity should he ever find a way to bring it into substance, Tharizdun protested long, but eventually gave in. 'Sweet-smelling vibrancy! Who do you believe is to rule all? Who, I ask — you?' Entropy was silent, knowing what he knew. 'Very well, leaden lump, I agree to your terms. I will order a massed advance onto ojukalazogadit the moment your inertial force is observable by me. When I see the ponderous pressure of your being bringing doom to the life force of the brute-thing, then will my millions of warriors attack unrelentingly. they will have orders not to cease their assaults until the last demon who dared to defy my sovereignty is annihilated.'
'Excellent, Greatest of Fiends. You are truly the archfiend fit to rule the whole of the netherspheres,'
Entropy boomed in monotonous gratification. At the end of such a battle there would not be one demon in ten left to roam the Abyss. The legions of the hells would be gone, as well as the majority of all of the other inhabitants of the other nether realms too. That made the entity recall something else. 'And your pack is it ready?'
'Oh, yes,' Tharizdun said, rubbing his hands in anticipation, almost forgetting the other, more important matters at hand. 'It is all but complete, and I feed its yeth constantly with the energies of those who were their fellows. each will be strong, full op insane fury, ready!' A fire sprang into the archfiend's eyes. 'After they hunt down the fob, Gord, I will loose them on the mortal worlds. They need souls to sustain their vigor!'
Had Entropy been able, the entity would have laughed, cheered, even caroled a merry ditty at that prospect it was not in its makeup, so it responded by stating, 'I now will begin the work of bearing down Ojukalazogadit into extinction,' and his presence vanished from Tharizdun's ken. Entropy was foreseeing a cosmos depopulated, suns dwindling to cold lumps, motion slowed, life waning ever more rapidly.
Unnatural or not Entropy did cause a sound to emanate from itself as it went about the work promised. It was as if a winter wind shrieked across great stone chimneys, sounding them as organ pipes in a minor key so bass as to be nearly inaudible. But it was a dirge of sustained notes and coming doom that Entropy felt quite pleased with.
'The whole of our wisdom is exhausted,' Proctor Chronos announced. 'Yet in all, I believe we have devised a plan which will confound your foe.'
'That is so,' agreed Lady Tolerance. 'It is a simple and direct course of action which will lay Tharizdun by his heels.'
'And thwart the meddling nihilist as well!' the ancient Master of Time asserted.
Gord and his two companions stood up, relieved. 'Let us set to it,' the young champion said with vigor. 'The enemy must grow ever more deadly as he gains ground.'
The Mistress of Probability hesitated, casting her peer a sidelong glance. 'Well…'
'Lady Tolerance is about to say that if your 'us' means you three, then well and good. Do not include her or me in your calculations,' Proctor Chronos informed them.
'You have nothing other than a plan to give us?' The angry query sprang from Leda.
'This is intolerable,' Gellor fairly snapped.
Gord remained calmer. 'Your words are not encouraging up to this point, honored beings. Will you be so kind as to enlighten us three?'
