The instant Shar vanished, the candle flames on the floor of Pandemonium burst apart.
With an agonized roar, smoke rose from the candle. The wavering cloud soon took on a more definite shape-a mastiff nearly as large as a horse, its body covered in writhing maggots.
"Freedom!" Kozef howled. "Freedom!"
The putrid gas spewing from the Chaos Hellhound's mouth extinguished every flame in the space. Saliva dripped from his dangling, ragged tongue, burning a small hole in the cobblestones at his feet.
The moment Kozef saw Mask, he crouched, then sprang.
The Chaos Hellhound's drooling fangs came within a hair of catching Mask and tearing a dying scream from the God of Thieves' throat.
In his utter panic, Mask unleashed astonishing strength. He twisted and dodged, sliding beneath Kozef's pounce with a textbook sliding tackle. His two daggers sliced along Kozef's belly, opening the Chaos Hellhound's abdomen.
What happened next nearly frightened the God of Thieves out of his wits.
There was no blood inside the Chaos Hellhound's belly, only thousands upon thousands of tightly packed maggots!
As his belly split open, the maggots spilling from Kozef swarmed forward, surrounding Mask in a seething mass. They gnawed his flesh and sucked up the divine blood flowing from the wounds Shar had inflicted, then returned to the hound.
Sated, the maggots writhed and crawled over Kozef's rotting body, making him look considerably fuller.
The Chaos Hellhound had starved for far too many centuries. One taste of delicious flesh was enough to make him arch his back.
"Mask!" Kozef laughed in delight. "Fancy seeing you here!"
"Aaaaaah!" Mask screamed as he ran for his life. The God of Thieves knew that, whatever else happened, he had to escape this place!
"So this was your little trick? Ha!" Kozef laughed in wheezing gasps.