Baldur's gate II_ throne of Bhaal - Drew Karpyshyn [101]
"I am Abdel Adrian! Hero of Baldur's Gate! Savior of the Tree of Life! Son of Bhaal, ward of Gorion, lover of Jaheira!"
Abdel finally understood.
He stopped trying to deny the part of him that was his father's legacy. The taint of Bhaal was within him, it was a part of who he was. Gorion and Jaheira had tried to suppress that part of him, and to please them Abdel had tried to separate himself from it. Balthazar had succeeded in accomplishing what Abdel could not. He had cut himself completely off from his immortal taint, caging it so completely that he was not able to call upon it when he needed it. That was not the answer. By denying that part of his soul, Abdel left a hole in his own identity.
But Sarevok, the Five and even Melissan had gone too far in acknowledging the essence of the Lord of Murder within the Bhaalspawn. They had fed and nurtured the small bit of evil within them, until it became consuming and they lost themselves to their father's fury. That was not the answer either.
He was a Child of Bhaal. It was a part of him. But only a part, nothing more. It did not define him-he would not let it define him. He was who he was, nothing more, nothing less. He was Abdel Adrian.
"I am Abdel Adrian." he declared once more, affirming his individuality against the force drawing him in toward a single, collective existence.
The current sucking him down toward the center of the pillar was suddenly gone, and Abdel was able to float back out into the void to confront Melissan again.
Surprised, she watched him emerge from the glowing column of divinity. Abdel casually swung his fist at Melissan's face. As before, her form simply dissolved and reformed, completely unharmed by his punch.
"Your fortitude and persistence surprise me, Bhaalspawn," she admitted. "But no matter. I have no need of your essence to complete my ascension. And once I am a god I will crush you without a second thought."
"You are no god," Abdel said simply. "You are Melissan, nothing more."
He reached out again and swung his fist through his foe's insubstantial form. But this time he felt a hint of resistance as he made contact. From the expression on her face as her spirit reformed, he knew Melissan felt it too.
"You are Melissan, Bhaal's Anointed," he insisted, "False protector of the Bhaalspawn. Betrayer of the Five. Manipulator. Liar. Deceiver. But you, Melissan, are no god. You are an invader in this realm. You are not a part of this world. You do not belong!"
Abdel's fist caught Melissan beneath a suddenly solid chin, and he felt the jaw bone crack beneath the force of his blow. Her hairless head snapped back, and her mouth twisted into an O of shock and pain.
Long before he had met Melissan or even Jaheira, long before he had any hint of his immortal heritage, Abdel had been a brawler. A blade for hire. A mercenary and a sellsword. He settled his disputes with fists and weapons, and all his problems could be solved with simple brute force.
With the knowledge of who and what he truly was, Abdel's life had become much more complicated. The responsibilities and challenges facing the son of a god were convoluted and complex, and required more than mere fisticuffs to solve. But now, on the cusp of immortality, facing the greatest challenge of his life, Abdel had returned to his simple roots.
"I am Abdel Adrian," he declared, slamming his heavy hands into Melissan again and again, "and you are no god."
He pummeled the suddenly all too physically real spirit of Melissan with his bare hands, pounding her body into submission as it feebly tried to ward off his fists. He beat the woman who had betrayed and manipulated him since Saradush until she was nothing but a bloody, bruised pulp of physical, mortal existence. Then he grabbed the thing that would be a god by its shoulders and hurled it into the glowing, pulsating pillar.
The column flared momentarily as Melissan's screaming form was consumed by the light. The essence of Bhaal that she had already managed to steal became one with the greater whole. The insignificant