Chapter 1: Prologue

Haplo collapsed. He was inside the Seventh Gate, chamber from which there was a doorway to all the current worlds in existence and where those worlds alongside the Deathgate had been created, by destroying the old world. Haplo looked up and saw his master Xar concentrating in preparation of the spell that would break the worlds once more and return the old world. With untold humans, dwarfs and elves dying once again. But they were inconsequential; they were merely mensch, lower creatures not worth consideration. At least that was what the sartans and patryns as people thought. It was what Haplo used to think. But on the bidding of his master he had visited all the worlds, causing chaos and readying them for his master. But he had met the dragon worms, the ultimate evil personified. He had also seen the mensch at war, in love, confused, with a self-found purpose, unified, scattered and everything between. As he understood it, the only difference between them and the sartans/patryns was power, or more specifically rune magic. Oh yes, the mensch knew magic and basic science, but they had yet to archive even elemental magic. Without guidance they would not learn rune magic in a millenium, the closest thing to absolute power a mortal could have.

Despite Haplos' claims of stopping his master Xar, he had not defended himself from his masters' attack. Behind him, he could hear his first friend, the sartan Alfred, battling against a worm inside the chaotic hallway that was Deathgate. Deathgate, the corridor that could be used from a specific location within any world to travel to any other world. Yet the corridor itself could be accessed trough the Seventh Gate alone. Haplo had no strength left but still he had to do something, else his people and the sartans would be locked inside the Labyrinth, a world that in essence was a sentient prison and execution centre, and the mensch of the four worlds would be defenceless against the evil worms. And eventually even the patryns and sartans would fall to the dracoworms, even if they didn't kill each other off within the first few months. Pure evil that drew sustenance from disorder and fear would reign.

Haplo could not afford this. If he merely could close this end of the Deathgate and create a distraction, Alfred might be able to do the same on the other end. All travel between the worlds would become impossible as would be the spell Xar was about to cast, but at least there would be no more suffering, no more war between the patryns and the sartans for they along with the worms would be forever imprisoned within the Labyrinth. No more innocents would be caught in the battles of half-gods. Determined to end all this, Haplo crawled trough the door that had the rune representing death on it. He now stood on a narrow walkway that floated amidst a myriad of colours swirling around it.

The pure chaos of possibilities being created, destroyed, combined and separated all at the same time all around him was almost too much for his wounded body. Summoning all his remaining strength, bodily and magical, Haplo stood up and began to close the doorway, leaning on it. At first he wasn't noticed by anyone, but when the door was almost completely closed he heard shouts of distress and an evil hiss from the chamber known as the seventh gate. Xar and the worm urging him onwards had seen what Haplo was up to. But too late.

The door slammed shut. Haplo turned around and began drawing flaming runes into the air. It would not be a powerful spell, but Haplo had not the strength for anything more. Drawing the last rune into the air and pronouncing its name, its function, the spell fired.

The runes glowed fiercely, multiplied and finally condensed into a flaming ball. The ball flew trough the corridor towards the battling pair and… disappeared. Haplo could not believe his eyes. "This can't be happening!" he yelled aloud, powerless and hopeless, as he collapsed to his knees. But then he saw the reality of what had happened.

The ball had not vanished. It had been swallowed by the chaos swirling around him. He saw the possibilities around him affect the ball. Suddenly there were twenty fireballs, the next second only one, but with purple flames, the next blink of an eye it was a thrown dagger. Haplo had not expected this, but now as he thought of it, it certainly seemed possible. And even more, it seemed quite likely. His magic, based on weaving a possibility wave into becoming reality, had become as chaotic as the Deathgate itself, because Deathgate was a convergence point for all possibilities. Within the Deathgate, literally everything was possible.

Then the spell reached its target. At that point it was a huge spiked steel ball travelling at hundreds of miles an hour. The worm didn't know what hit it and Alfred, his hated enemy, his friend, finished it off. It would be reborn later, for as long as there was sufficient amounts of fear they would be truly immortal, but for know it was gone.

But Haplo didn't have time to rejoice of his successful attack. Barely conscious, Haplo could no longer resist the torrents around him. He collapsed on the narrow walkway and fell off of it. The last thing he saw was himself flying away from Alfred, who was looking towards Haplo with sad and desperate eyes, trying to catch him. Just close the damn door! he thought. He didn't have the strength to say it out loud. Then Haplo saw no more as he was pulled deeper into the chaotic swirl of possibilities.