Author note: heya my readers! The guys will finally face Amelyssan in this chapter!
On a side note, I'm working on the sequel to this story, a BG2/Black Death crossover titled "Sacred fire, holy water" and I will probably post the first chapter around the second week of December, so stay tuned! ^ᴥ^
oxoxoxoxoxo
After making the necessary preparations, the party stood before the portal for what was going to be the last time and Meg took a deep breath as her eyes swept over each and every one of her companions: she wanted nothing more than to go face Amelyssan alone, but she knew it was madness, so she steeled herself and said only one word. "Ready?". They all nodded and Minsc grinned widely, waving his halberd, "Minsc and Boo are ready to kick the butt of the evil woman who wants to become an evil goddess, little Meg! She will learn to fear the buttkicking abilities of a ranger from Rashement and his Miniature Giant Space Hamster!", he announced cheerfully and Boo squeaked his agreement.
She smiled slightly and turned back to face the portal, which activated sensing her presence. "You can use the Planar Door to reach many places. Where do you wish to go?", it asked and she squared her shoulders and held her head high. "We're ready to face Amelyssan. Bring us to the Throne of Bhaal". "The way is open". Without another word, they entered the blackness and once on the other side, their eyes widened in shock: they were on a platform, made of what looked like pure jade streaked with gold and silver, which hovered in space with nothing under it or around it aside from three smaller platforms, stars scattered around and stardust swirling in the darkness.
In the middle of it was a huge pillar of golden light buzzing with power and in front of it stood Amelyssan herself, standing at more or less ten feet tall and dressed in the tackiest attire they'd ever seen in their life, with a black leather corset, high-heel acid green leather boots, skintight scarlet pants with blue flames and a huge feathered hat that made her look like an oversized turkey with a horrible sense of fashion. Imoen looked her up and down and arched an eyebrow, "Ya know what would make it look better?", she asked nobody in particular. "Setting it on fire?", Daniel answered, causing everyone to chuckle. "No, some pink! Pink makes everything better!", his sister said as if it was obvious.
Amelyssan narrowed her eyes at them, "What do you think you're doing here?", she spat, "Do you really believe you can defeat me? I'm a Goddess now, you fools!". "You are the fool", Meg replied, "I won't let you take the Throne, Amelyssan: even if I have to lose myself to the Taint to kill you, I swear before all the Gods that you. Will. Go. Down", she growled, tightening her grip on her mace. "Is that so? Show me what you've got then", the Bhaalite smirked and evoked seven shadows which turned into creatures similar to the Slayer.
Imoen, Edwin and Chinchilla used the Shapechange spell to turn into Mind-Flayers and immediately started shooting mind-blasts at Amelyssan to slowly erode her cognitive abilities, while Anomen and Meg summoned a Deva each and Aerie kept herself away from the fight to cast a Wish spell, summoning a Djinn. "What do you wish for, mistress?", the Djinn asked.
"I wish for our spells to be fully replenished and our health to be completely restored every time they reach half of their full level until Amelyssan the Blackhearted is dead for good", the Avariel answered and he bowed. "Your wish is granted, mistress", he snapped his fingers and vanished, leaving behind a translucent cocoon of soft blue light around all the party members. She smirked and summoned a Deva, then she too shapeshifted into a Mind-Flayer and attacked Amelyssan with a sound that in her intentions should have been a fearsome war cry, but given her current form sounded more like the squish of a wet sponge being stomped on.
Meanwhile, Daniel summoned a score of Earth elementals and Jaheira summoned a pack of furious wolves to attack the Bhaalite priestess. With a much appreciated display of quick thinking, Chinchilla used the mind-controlling abilities granted by his new form to submit the fake Slayers to his will and made them turn on Amelyssan as well, taking her off guard and inflicting her plenty of additional damage since the shadowy monsters were extremely strong. "Not so cocky now, are you?", Gromnir taunted her, but Amelyssan just sneered. "Fools! I'm not defeated yet!", she spat and in a flash, she appeared inside the pillar of golden light, absorbing the Taint to heal herself.
"F***ing bitch!", Daniel snarled, then he noticed that a sort of path made of golden light went from the main platform to a smaller one on their left, "Oi, look at that! She's taking the power from there!", he shouted, pointing at it. "Let's cut it off then. The summons will stay here with Chinchilla, the rest of you comes with me", Meg decided, running towards the source of power, but as she approached she saw that it was guarded by six vampiric wraiths and five air elementals and their leader was none other than Yan-C-Bin, the elemental prince of Evil Air, also known as 'Shadow of the Four Winds' and 'Howling Hatred'. "That's not good", Yoshimo grimaced, readying his bow as he saw them moving forward menacingly.
"STOP!", Meg thundered suddenly and in her voice resounded so much strength, so much authority and power that the enemies stopped dead in their tracks, "You know whose power I wield. I am the heir to the Throne of Blood and it's a source of my power that you're guarding. By the blood in my veins and my station as the heir of Bhaal, I command you to either submit to me and aid us in our fight, or be gone from this plane. Any attack on me or my companions will be punished with death", she growled, her back ramrod straight and her eyes glowing with emerald light as she stared down at the enemies.
There was a brief pause, then a couple of air elementals vanished in the blink of an eye, preferring to go home instead of risking annihilation, while the rest floated in place and turned as one to their leader, a sort of miniature tornado who moved forward until he was in front of the Ilmatari. "I am Yan-C-Bin, the prince of Evil Air", he spoke with a low voice that sounded like the mournful howling of the wind in a canyon, "What do you offer in exchange for my assistance, child of a dead God?".
She smirked, "I think your life should be payment enough. I'd rather not have to kill you like I did with Olhydra and Ogremoch, but if you force my hand, I won't hesitate to strike you down without mercy". The prince hummed at that and then slowly, his form changed until he turned into a tall, thin, elderly humanoid with pale skin and long dark hair, "So be it: my minions and I will aid you against your enemy as thanks for destroying my hated rival Ogremoch", he said, gesturing to his followers to move away from the pool. "Glad to hear it", she nodded and wasted no time in plunging her free hand into the water-like energy, absorbing every single drop of it and feeling her strength and power increase a hundredfold, "Ah, that's much better. Let's go and show that bitch who's the boss".
oxoxoxoxoxo
After fighting Amelyssan a second time only for her to retreat again inside the pillar of light to heal herself when she found herself in straits; recruiting the guardians of the second pool, which were a dozen ice elementals led by Cryonax, the elemental prince of evil ice creatures; fighting Amelyssan once more (with the same result as the first two times) and recruiting the guardians of the third pool, which were a fallen Solar plus half a dozen denizens of the Abyss, Meg finally led her companions to face Amelyssan one last time.
Despite having absorbed some of the power of the pillar, the Bhaalite looked worse for wear, actually worse than her enemies: she was fully healed, yes, but her eyes filled with fury were red-rimmed and bloodshot, her clothes were stained with dried blood and sported many gashes and burn marks, her face was covered in dried blood and sweat and her hair was a mess, "I will destroy you!", she screeched like a madwoman, "I've had enough of you, you little pests! I am a Goddess and you are nothing!".
"You're a delusional fool", Meg spat, her eyes glowing strongly with the power she had absorbed from the pools, "Your end has come, Amelyssan. But if you lay down your weapon and surrender now, I'll let you live". Amelyssan just laughed in her face, "You will let me live? You will do nothing but die here!", she exclaimed, swinging her halberd down, but her blow was blocked by the fallen Solar, who smirked cruelly. "Do not hurt my mistress, bitch", the abyssal creature growled before her own blade made of infernal fire pushed the halberd aside and left a deep gash on the Deathstalker's side, making her scream in pain. Amelyssan glared at the creature, then summoned a score of demons…
Which was a very bad idea, for Edwin and Chinchilla cast a spell to protect themselves and their companions from evil and then Aerie used the mind controlling power granted by her current Mind-Flayer form to turn them against their summoner, just like it had happened with the shade Slayers, right before casting Dragon's Breath after Dragon's Breath. Cespenar was bravely doing his part as well, clawing and biting at every unprotected bit of flesh he could find, his efforts not doing much damage, but still adding to the pile of growing bleeding wounds on the enemy.
In the meantime, the Air prince and Ice prince along with their followers were attacking relentlessly the Bhaalite from every side, including from above, since the air elementals could float high enough to reach her head and claw at her eyes and neck, their long talons opening several gashes in her skin, each of them not deep enough to kill, but still enough to make her lose a little more blood and the vampiric wraiths drained her life force as much as they could.
Anomen, for his part, summoned a new Deva and then cast all the damaging spells he had at his disposal, Jaheira summoned a pack of wolves, Daniel cast Insect Plague and then used vines to restrict her movements as much as possible while Toop viciously plunged his short sword into the enemy's left leg as often as he could. Minsc for his part was slashing at the Bhaalite with his own halberd, the blade leaving behind several wide wounds as he hacked at her like a woodcutter would a tree, while Gromnir and Sarevok put their swords to good use at his side and Balthazar kicked and punched with all his strength.
All four fighters focused their blows on her right ankle until it finally broke and she lost her balance, falling on one knee with a cry of mixed surprise and pain. This gave Sarevok the chance to thrust the blade of the Sword of Chaos in the right side of her neck, followed by Minsc's halberd and Gromnir's sword, while Anomen's flail, Jaheira's spear and Toop's short sword hit the left side, similar to what they had done with Yaga-Shura. At last, all the wounds she had suffered caught up with Amelyssan, the loss of blood made her head spin and she fell flat on her face, still alive, yet unable to stand back up. She tried to get up, bracing herself with her hands against the floor, but her arms shook too much and gave out under her weight, making her fall once more just as a bright white light appeared before them all.