"It is Entropy," whispered a voice that might have been that of Chronos. This is the last hour of the last great battle. ..."

Then we have not one breath's pause to spare," Gord cried to his two companions. "You heard it too, didn't you?"

"Aye, we did, old comrade," the troubador growled.

"I as well heard what was timely," Leda called. "We're with you. Hurry!"

He went on at a trot. Leda was at his right hand, Gellor at the other. The increase in pace seemed to disturb Ojukalazogadit more than ever, and because they were making a virtual beeline, the brute sent up what might have been a long ridge of stone. It was rank and rough, but the surface made for very easy travel indeed. Gord increased his pace to a near-run. "I see the standard of Graz'zt ahead," he shouted.

There was a deep wedge of attackers driving into the packed bands of defending demons who fought beneath the dark banners of Graz'zt and the other lords with the demonking. It was no surprise that it was Tharizdun himself who fought at the point of the thrust. The archfiend was as starkly naked as when first arisen, and he carried no physical weapon in his hand. Lightnings and bolts of energy shot from Tharizdun's body, palms, fingers, eyes, even mouth, as his whim dictated. It was because of his presence that the defenders were crowding back Each gout of energy the terrible being sent forth slaughtered all in its path, whether least demon or proud noble able to stand before a charging behemoth and laugh.

The wedge was aimed directly at Graz'zt and his fellow sovereigns of demonium. Ojukalazogadit had attempted to break the spearpoint of the attack by the ulcerous volcano that spewed forth hungrymouthed stuff whose very touch dissolved most substances. Whether or not Tharizdun had laughed at that attempt, he did delight in the opportunity to punish the brute who had cost him much in the way of slave soldiers. The archfiend had used his force to crumble the mountainous upthrusting, and then proceeded to skewer the lavalike flows with other beams. They hung in the air, writhing, almost as if pennons being tossed in a wild wind. Then Tharizdun let them fall upon the heads of the demons who had been aided by the stuff, and even in its death throes the substance of the demon-brute was potent enough to eat away those it covered in its falling. Ojukalazogadit made the atmosphere vibrate to its agony as that occurred.

The demons guarding Graz'zt, Orcus, and the others there tried to escape the inexorable archfiend. Great dweomers played upon Tharizdun, and the daemons and devils who came behind were burned, melted, shredded, rotted, or simply vanished into nothingness. As fast as a thousand were thus destroyed, a fresh thousand rushed up to take the places of the slain, and their dreadful master advanced yet nearer to his goal. This was truly the last battle to be fought in demonium, the last hour of the fray, the end of the Abyss as it had been. In very short time Tharizdun would reach the place where the last of the demonkings waited. These foes of the Ultimate One of Evil had no further place to go, no other choice than to stand, fight, and die. Tharizdun gave no quarter. Because of that, the lesser tried to flee and were slaughtered, the greater fought desperately and died with their teeth or talons gouging life from their attackers.

Suddenly Gord, Leda, and Gellor appeared in the midst of the towering knot of desperate demons, having come up unseen from behind. Only Graz'zt paid more than momentary heed to the three — he and Elazalag, to be exact. The rest, even Orcus, Marduk, Arioch, Nergel, a dozen others but glanced at the humans, cursed them, and returned to concentrate on hindering the advance of their deadly foe. The ebon demonking seemed not to be so concerned with the archfiend's advance, however, as to neglect the ones whom he regarded as the instruments of his forthcoming destruction.

"You have come into my grasp!" Graz'zt croaked through a throat parched from battle screams. Then he recoiled. The forces of time and probability might have been responsible. Perhaps it was the sudden pulsing — bright, then dark — from the unsheathed length of Courflamme.

Elazalag directed the Eye of Deception squarely at them, focusing its force on Leda. "One at least shall pay," the demoness grated with frightful countenance.

"Walt!" Gord shouted, and somehow his command made the princess of the Abat-dolor hesitate. "Time enough to settle any such scores between us after we do our work"

"What new mischief, bastard man? Do you wish Graz'zt's bollocks now?"

"Not at all. We three are come to take the head of Tharizdun!"

The feral eyes of the great demoness went wide at that. "If that you can do. Champion, then not any of the princely demons of the Abyss will dare to call you to account for past grievances. But if you seek out that one, why come into our midst?" she asked suspiciously.

"Play the Eye's energy upon them!" Graz'zt screamed in fury.

"Shut up," Elazalag told him without anger. "Well, Gord the Champion?"

"It should be evident to you — all. This is where Tharizdun comes. He might flee from me should his eyes spy me from a distance. In this place, sheltered by your massive forms, hidden by the surging dweomers. the foe will not notice us until it is too late for him to escape. He will have to fight against us then!"

"Very well, but you must go forth from our midst before his powers are brought to bear upon us here!"

"Agreed, demoness. Judging from the rate Tharizdun advances, it will be only a short wait indeed."

Gord's prediction was accurate. The archfiend, laughing wickedly all the while, advanced almost unhindered, leaving an ever-growing wake of death behind. The recoiling demons before him began to break entirely, and the scene became a debacle of destruction and rout. Only a thin scattering of exceptionally mighty demon-warriors remained to support the lords of the Abyss as Tharizdun came to within a hundred paces. Elazalag was about to command Gord hence when the champion suddenly darted from the midst of the demon kings and lords to confront the Juggernaut.

"You sought the greatest adversary of demonium, I know," Gord shouted to the startled archfiend. "Yet I think I now command precedence!"

"You!!" At that bellowed sound a hush fell upon the place: even the demon-brute fell into near motioniessness. "You dare seek me out?" the darkest master of Evil bawled, and because of the spreading quiet the query was heard all around. So was the reply.

"Dare? I am here! I will slay you!" Gord cried, and at the last words he rushed straight for Tharizdun.

The archfiend sent out three blasts of force meant to wither his small adversary into a husk Two dark rays of destruction shot from Tharizdun's hands, while a gush of fiery radiation vomited from the terrible being's mouth and splattered down upon Gord.

There was a sudden blue glow around the champion at that. Dark beams vanished as they contacted the azure sphere. The burning hell of the radiation belched upon Gord was reduced to a dim and spattering rain of leaden ash by the adamantite force. Even so, the soft cinders of the malign effluent seared any exposed flesh, and where shadow armor was contacted the stuff made it pale and weak Bent low as if advancing in the face of a blizzard, the young man came on.

Now it was Tharizdun trapped against a press from behind, rather than the archfiend trapping and slaughtering demons caught thus. Gord was upon him too quickly for the being to do more than attempt a second attack resembling the first. Courflamme met the force spewing from Tharizdun's mouth, severing it as if it were a material object, ending the onslaught and threatening one of its own.

"Die!" the archfiend cried with near desperation.

Gord ignored such exchange, contenting himself for the moment with a series of rapid strokes. The sword cut back from left to right, upward on the opposite track then down in a overhand from high above his left shoulder. The effect was most gratifying. for Tharizdun's naked paleness was now crossed with red furrows. Seeing the clear power of Courflamme, the champion now taunted his adversary. "Who will die?"