Dance of Demons

Chapter 19

It was refreshing after a million groveling devils and daemons to see only a handful of half-defiant demons enter to stand before him. Tharizdun gave no greeting, no welcome to these creatures who defied the rest of the Abyss in coming here to pledge fealty. There was a prince of their kind amongst the assemblage.

"You, the one called bulumuz, come first and prostrate yourself," Tharizdun commanded harshly.

The demon prince stepped forward boldly and, rather than doing as ordered, simply bent knee and head. "I am your servant. Greatest of Malevolence!"

Tharizdun arose, grew, and became nearly amorphous as he did so. Suddenly a tentacle-like pseudopod shot from his mass and yanked the now-snarling and bellowing demon lord into the huge body mass. Tharizdun's substance became transparent, so that all the others there could see the horrible digestion of Bulumuz. It took a long time, and the muffled shrieks of the one inside were audible to the viewers as well.

Then Tharizdun resumed his manlike form and sat back in his plain chair. "That one was rebellious. He fakes to justify he existence. I consumes him fully, and the force that was he now resides in me. Go back to demonium, you few. Inform all there that I shall do the same to them, all the lords of the Abyss, unless they immediately accept my absolute sovereignty!" The remaining demons started to shuffle off.

"But before you leave," the darkest of Evil drawled, halting them in mid-stride "there is one other thing you must note. You!" he said, pointing to one of the consumed prince's fellows. "Step forward and prostrate yourself."

Trembling visibly in obedience, the demon did just that, falling upon his face at Tharizdun's feet. The ultimate one of darkness kicked the demon lightly. "You are not Bulumuz," he announced, "and in you a greater dweomer than the former prince of that name possessed. There is no lord amongst you that can not be replaced thus. Tell that to all, Graz'zt and Orcus, and all of the kinglets!"

The group of them left hurriedly as soon as given leave, glad to have survived and hoping that their early homage would make them greater in vassalage than they now were within independent demonium. "Stupid and wild brawlers," Tharizdun said cynically. "but bullies and louts serve a purpose, too."

"That was a very sly trick Tharizdun. Only I amongst all noticed you used your will to make the demon lord unable to obey. A self-created object lesson. It will go far in hastening the submission of most of those demons whom you would use."

The greatest of Evil scowled at the formless darkness nearby. "I gave you no leave to speak, Entropy."

"I need no such leave, but I shall elect to remain silent most of the time in any event, so have no fear. I won't disturb your machinations. In fact, and quite to the contrary," the entity droned on, "I intend to help you and make vital suggestions as needed. You are free, thanks to me, and your total domination of the cosmos will be hastened through my efforts."

"Is that so?" Tharizdun sneered. "And what if I refuse to heed your maunderings?"

"I will exert myself against you," came the simple answer. "Do you care to oppose yourself against such weight?"

Tharizdun stood up and paced angrily. "I made no compact," he finally said after much time. "I will use my own eldritch force to drive you hence."

"But you did compact with me, as well you know. Like it or not, you made your own cause a collateral of my own. You must accept me and hear my voice. Some things cannot be avoided, Tharizdun."

"If we are thus the same, go and seek out the enemy champion. come back with the soul of that man, and I will elevate you to absolute coequal."

"Elevate? No matter. You would never willingly do that, as we both know, and I have no desire to be despotic ruler of such a cosmos as you plan. It will suffice for me to be a silent advisor now and then. As to the one named Gord, I am unable to harm him directly, just as he is powerless to affect me. Haven't you drawn sufficient powers from the subject netherspheres to make you confident of victory?"

"There is never sufficent of anything until one has all!" Tharizdun barked in retort "Who knows what trick and stratagem the rightminded little fool will attempt? Had I only not. ."

"Not what Tharizdun?"

"Not. . not. . Shit! Something causes me to be unable to recall the detail. the champion of the enemy has managed to withhold some advantage he gained. I am stronger now than ever befor, and soon I'll have the demonic energy too. yet I am not whole!"

It was mildly disturbing to the lord of Entropy that Tharizdun spoke thus, and a little annoying to the entity that he had no clue as to what the being of malice really lacked. "The circumstances should make you doubly glad that we are allies then, Tharizdun."

"I am never pleased with allies, slow-speaking dolt! I am happy to have subjects, servants, thralls! Yet in this one case I do accept alliance. Yes, Lord of Entropy, you speak most persuasively. I shall remain your ally, you mine, so that we may cooperatively annihilate the foe."

"A certainty when I participate, but you must swiftly conclude your gathering of energy, Tharizdun. Until all of the netherspheres are subject to your will, you cannot close upon the forces of malign order nor evil chaos; both are needed to tap the stream of destructive antimatter which will be the culmination of your greatness."

The Uttermost of the Netherworlds drew back at Entropy's suggestion. "Do you think I am totally mad? Have no thought save lust pgr domination? Draw from the great void of dark energy I will, but never will I draw such a river as you urge, entity!"

"That is something which remains for later observation," Entropy drawled. "When do you go forth to ferret out the little man who thinks to oppose your rulership?"

Although he noted the sudden switch in tone, Tharizdun was actually pleased to hear the Lord of Entropy refer to matters in such a manner. "It has been but a short time since I broke free of the restraints. In that time all of the ordered portions of the lower spheres have submitted, and so only the spheres of demonkind remain to be subjugated. In a few days, I think, as men reckon time, I will have a stream of demon lords here to give homage. let us say another week. Then I will gather my hounds and hunt the champion and his rabbits!"

Thoroughness was what Entropy admired, was what he used when reducing action to inaction, the quick to eternal stillness, hot activity to sterile chill. "What hounds, Tharizdun? I am not so knowledgeable in affairs of this sort as you might suppose."

The greatest of Evil laughed wickedly at the recollection. "Ah, yes, dull entity, those were days, that fell age when I roamed far and wide with my pack of yeth! Did you know that mortals have it written in their myth? The truth of it is brightened, but it sends primordial shivers of fear down their weak spines nonetheless. In the face of the unyielding opposition of the Lords of Light I ventured forth with my hounds, and we fed wildly on flesh, blood, spirit, and soul too. now my hounds will be greater!"

"What do you mean?"

"From daemonkind I will form one, and it will obey perfectly. from the furnaces of the hells will I fashion another, and that devil-mastiff will search relentlessly. From the depths of demonium will my savage yeth be made, the hound to attack without reason. To these great ones will I add the rest — every malign form of life will be represented in the pack."

"Such as?"

"Unliving golems from netherchaos, the great goblins of Acheron, chimeras, dreggals, maelvis, netherhags, all!"

The stuff of the entity deepened, and a portion glowed in interest. "Be so kind as to show me. Master of Malevolence."

Pleased at the tone and the title, Tharizdun clapped his hands and gave a call. As the shrieking wail, a sound like that of a child dying in agony perhaps, rose and then dwindled there came a distant baying in reply. The air in the huge chamber grew smoky, as if a cloud from a fire were forming. Then out of the reeking vapors burst a pack of monstrous dogs, black, and whose lolling tongues drooped from heads that were unmatched to the canine bodies that bore them. There was one with the head of a terrible hag of nightmare, another with the grinning visage of a vampire, and beside those two were so varied an array of hideous countenances that any demonking would have been pleased to claim the lot as his own.

"Leap, Mephisto!" A devil-headed hound sprang obediently. "Now, Thrax, get that one!" and as Tharizdun gave the command he pointed at a brute whose pumpkin-round head showed it to be a megagoblin. Ferociously but efficiently, the yeth called Thrax used its daemon teeth to shred the lesser hound.

"You waste your force."

"Bah! The joy of seeing that is well worth the little effort required to shape another of the goblin sort." He turned his back on the entity and called his lead dogs. "To me, Mephisto and Thrax!" The yeth came slinking, growling, hellish hatred in their lambent stares. Tharizdun beat both, but he did so only perfunctorily, so no injury was done. "Be quicker to obey, or next time it will be worse for you! now return and quiet the pack." The two huge hounds bounded away, savaging the smaller ones immediately. There was a great yowling and snarling for a brief span; then the whole of the group of yeth hounds was as silent as death.

"You see them? those are the ones to hunt out the foes, oh yes! As soon as I have the third, the demon-hound. I think it shall be named graz. Do you find that amusing, lord of inertia?"

"Very amusing," the entity responded without any enthusiasm, let alone humor. "As it is of urgent requirement, the third of your greater yeth, I shall gather my presence in Pandemonium and the Abyss. The recaicitrant will be burdened by me, and your conquest thus hastened."

"If you so choose, but I think not that it adds to any agreement between us or that these will be a debt to repay?"

"Trouble yourself not at all on that score, archfiend. The compact we have is all that I desire. Consider this a willing effort, my special gift in honor of your return to power, Tharizdun."

As suddenly as the Lord of Entropy had come, its presence was no longer there in Tharizdun's hall. The darkest one of Evil was relieved, for as much as he hated to admit it, the entity made him uneasy, and Entropy's presence wore on his nerves, sapped his vitality somehow. "You will be no welcome visitor soon, thing," Tharizdun snarled softly as he pondered the role of the master of stasis. Once in full mastery of the cosmos, the archfiend would seek and find ways to dispatch Entropy, or at worst exile the entity from the vicinity of wherever Tharizdun happened to be. Perhaps the negative forces of the anti-cosmos were the answer, one given unwittingly to him by the stupid inactive one himself. That would be delightful and ironic. How would such a thing die? Slowly, no doubt, but probably without sufficient emotion to make the spectacle worthwhile. In this case, Tharizdun reckoned, the end would be worth it even lacking the sport.

That brought him to the matter of his adversary, Gord. It had required all of his skill at dissembling, acting and lying too to keep the truth of things from the Lord of Entropy. Tharizdun pondered, recalling clearly his rash act No ally, and certainly none of the slaves, must ever know of that act of weakness. Because of the lack of that last, essential portion of what he had been, Tharizdun knew himself to be both stronger than before and yet at the same time less potent. That was why he waited to complete his pack of yeth hounds, why he still sought the assistance of the master of inertia. Not only did the archfiend need to recover the skull and consume it, he had to wait to accomplish that after dealing with a deadly adversary prepared by every force that opposed him from time immemorial, honed since his last defeat.

"Even the demons gave to that opposition," Tharizdun snarled, "and such a price they will pay for that! That accursed sword wields energies drawn from ail aspects op my own domain; thus it b a weapon even I must he wary of. Yet no tool is better than the one using it, and I have the rede of the little knave who has been bequeathed with the mantle of Balance's power. Too flawed, you fools!" The last he shouted into the empty silences of his immeasurable hall there on the plane of Hades, and none heard.

He might have been a useful servant of Tharizdun's. That the darkest noted in studying the sordid history of the one called Gord. Well, there was no turning him around now, and his disgusting principles warped the drow priestess too, so that the clone grew apart from its true form. Ah, were but Eclavdra the one assisting the champion, she would have stung him as a scorpion! The many scenes involving Gord, Leda, Gellor too, all had been replayed by the archfiend as he wielded his arcane dweomers.

"I know my enemies now," he reassured himself. The troubador had always been tainted with wealsome ethic, beliefs that were weak and unselfish. That one could be forgotten,despite his nasty little harp. Gellor and Leda, supernormal now, but hardly above human capability if stripped of magical bolstering. Imbued or otherwise, he could handle the pair easily enough.

In combination with Gord, the matter became more problematic. Especially since the three now bore the tokens left for just such purpose by the elders of Light. Were they separable? If so, then it would be a swatting of butterflies. Put such happy prospects aside, though. What strength did the three mortals, with their rings, constitute?

The three had improved wisdom, reasoning, senses. Two to guard the flanks of the champion, Gord armed with Courflamme, the single weapon capable of actually ending Tharizdun's existence. The little turd also kept the boy's head too! Was there more? Yes … it was coming forth as the archfiend bent his will to the problem. Unknown agencies seemed to lend their assistance, but that help was. puny and nonvital. Fortune was to smile upon them — no matter, Tharizdun took no chances, not any more, and he always stacked the tiles so that there were no odds in favor of his opponents.

Again, the tempo of whatever occurred would beat at a pace useful to those three. But yet again it was a matter of small consequence. The archfiend would commence the hunt only when he was ready. Until then he would stay in his now unassailable realm in the netherspheres. With time favoring him, there accrued no advantage to the foes if it briefly surged in their direction.

"Only the sword remains. If I can negate the power of Courflamme, I can win without effort!" Time passed as Tharizdun contemplated that. mulling over the whole of the history of the sword. Then it came to him in a flash that was inspired. "It is of Balance, and the culmination of the ethos, the forces op that sphere's energy, are of mundane being where all others meet. Courflamme is agathokakological, a tool of Good and Evil forced in the gray neutrality of Balance. Now I have the final strategy."

Tharizdun paused in his contemplations and gave vent to uncontrolled peals of mirth, laughter so malign that its echoes rolled beyond the precincts of even so monstrous a hall as he sat in, and the whole of the netherworld trembled at the sound. "Let plodding master Entropy place his pall upon all he can to hinder you, gord the champion. I will use my yeth to hound you throughout the cosmos, and but one little hole will seem to be a place of safety. as hares you and your comrades will run into it, and there I'll wait. Never has there been a tool made which cannot be unmade, and I have the force which fashioned Courflamme there in the hidey-hole. It will be beaten into nothingness on the forge which formed it, and then you are mine!"

The wave of triumphant power that followed on the heels of that shouted proclamation also washed beyond the hall. At its passing, all the denizens of the dark planes were made stronger and exulted in the vileness of the energy. Now they were glad they were slaves of the greatest master Evil had ever spawned.