Baal became a "god-like being" by absorbing the Talisman of Death.
Jamie Thompson loves his multiverse refs. In The Talisman of Death the gods of Orb has has the main character move the evil god Death's Amplifier Artifact to a world without mana. Earth. However, in "Lost in Time" in the Falcon books, Falcon can temporarily use a lesser artifact from Orb as a shield in his world, or at least an Alternate Continuity of his world. Presumably when Psychic Powers became common, they were able to enable at least some of the functions.- Whoever or whatever he originally was, Baal finds the Talisman of Death and uses its powers on himself. It cannot give him the same range that magic does, but it does expand his psychic powers to Sufficiently Advanced levels. Since Baal can travel through time on his own power, Time Dissonance occurs. He could have gained the talisman, gone back, got captured by the Precursors, then millions of years later escape and fight Falcon.
