Symphony of the Abyss [Descendants]

Chapter 3: Path

What had happened? Mal couldn't explain what was happening before her eyes. Her mother was furious like she had never seen her before and never will be in her life. She had grabbed her scepter, her knuckles white from how much she had squeezed it. In an instant they were both gone.
Empty, nothing was left in that cathedral, except them. It seemed that time had stopped moving and yet, shortly after, there they were again. Hades and Maleficent reappeared, out of nowhere, just as they had arrived, still, fixed in front of each other.
What had happened in that lapse of time?
The answer didn't come to her mind, who knows why she knew she shouldn't investigate further.
The clash followed like the death of a star, confusing and precise. Blue fire engulfed green smoke and acid-colored discharges. The duel took place between dancing blue flames and an enveloping green smoke, like a choreography of an elemental power. The flames, glittering like unexploded stars, illuminated the light, while the green smoke writhed with sinister elegance, enveloping everything in its path.
Each spark of fire and each coil of smoke intertwined in an intricate ballet, like opposing forces seeking to dominate the other. The flames, burning with a heavenly heat, shot out sparks of energy, while the green smoke advanced with an insidious steadiness, enveloping and dimming the light of the flames.
The sound of the fight was a symphonic display of pops and hisses, while the ceiling filled with a surreal aura. The contrast between the fiery blue and the mysterious green painted a visual spectacle of battling magic, where energy collided and merged in an explosion of color and power that culminated in a dull roar and a transformation.
It all happened so quickly. The dragon Maleficent, opened the hole that had already opened in the ceiling even more, Hades came out quickly flying out guided by black wings in stark contrast with the brightness of that always serene sky. The dragon followed him and they disappeared from their sight for good.
<Where are they going?> asked Carlos finally getting off Jay's arms
< I don't know. Ben look what happened, I warned you of the dangers of opening the barrier. Look what happened, Maleficent, Hades, they are out and about, wandering around the kingdom. Do you have any idea how much effort we put into catching that god?> the Beast had lost his temper, yet he was saying the right things.
Jane had taken the wand from her mother because she had met her, Maleficent's daughter, who had given her, for a moment, the place she longed for.
Ben looked down, a boulder settled on Mal's heart, guilt, inadequacy, contempt... guilt and only guilt. Could she fix what had happened to her existence? Why did she want to fix it? She cared so much about Auradon, even though she had been there so little, that she wanted to make sure it remained whole, unchanged just as it had welcomed her.
<Don't be so cruel, it was something unpredictable> Belle tried to calm him
< Unpredictability was the greatest question of having the children of the villain come here to us you had to...> the sentence, the rebuke, remained suspended in the thick air of the cathedral.
Something fell, or rather, fell with a thud just in front of them. Maleficent stood up in the dust, Hades in front of her appeared from who knows where.
<Why do you want to protect them? You don't want to punish them, you know what I care about but why protect them? What for?> Maleficent screamed, her tone was different from anything she had ever heard. Was it the tone of fear?
Hades, right between them and Maleficent, calmly stood up, closing his wings on his shoulders. Mal saw his shoulders hiding her mother.
<Look at them> Maleficent continued <those naughty little children who bite the hand of those who fed them>
Hades' head tilted to the side as slowly as her mother's words entered her head and were processed <so what?> he said with such dead calm.
Maleficent gritted her teeth <you just don't want to understand. MAL!> her mother's face barely popped up from the god's side as she leaned forward in automatic response to her mother's call <I can't believe you're completely ignoring the path I've set for us. I've invested time and energy to secure us, to secure me, a better future, and you betray it. Reconsider your choices, Mal, because this path will lead to nothing good. It's not what you want, it's not what you are>
<Mother...you don't know what I am and what I want, you've never known and you've never cared>
<I know you, you're not like these pink-cotton princesses. You don't dream of Prince Charming and you don't have ridiculous dreams of balls and lives aimed at others when the first thing they do is turn their backs on those they don't like. Or am I wrong? I wasn't invited to a ceremony why? Because I was different from them, just like you are. This is not your place>
Mal didn't know how to answer her, she was different but that was the only reason she had to walk away from them. Ben loved her, he would continue or he would stop at some point. No, Ben couldn't.
Mal couldn't answer, Hades stopped her first <We have to let them do it. You don't hold the future in your hands Maleficent just like they don't>
<Oh shut up, sometimes you talk like an oracle>
Hades smiled <an oracle who knows the past, present and future unlike a witch who thinks she's a deity>
<Oh yes here we have a real god in flesh and blood. Mal either come with me now or you can be sure that this road you've taken will become as dark as the night. I will throw everything I invent onto Auradon. This place will become ash and ash will become ash until infinity, until you regret having betrayed the hand that fed you. If you dare defy my will and embrace the light, be aware of the curses that will rain down upon you. The world you choose will be shrouded in darkness, your light suffocated by the shadow I myself will cast. The friends you think you protect will burn in the flames of your rebellion, the warmth of their lives snuffed out by my vengeance. Your love will be like a rose struck by the eternal frost, it will wither without hope until it fades like a fragile dream. Every joy, every laugh you dare share, will vanish into the void of my anger. Your heart will be heavily burdened by the chains of my curses, and your fate will be intertwined with the darkness I have woven. The darkness I carry with me will erase every trace of your happiness. Your path will be marked by unimaginable misfortunes. Every laugh will become a cry, every love will be a lost illusion and your heart will know nothing but loneliness>
The curses she cast upon her weighed on her heart. She saw Auradon in flames, she saw her companions and trusted friends burned and buried alive...she saw Ben disappearing into a gray and heavy fog.
Maleficent's words crept into her mind with a cold tingle of apprehension. Her heart, once firm in its resolve to embrace the light, now wavered under the weight of the dark prophecies. She felt the weight of the curses, like invisible chains tightening around her soul. The prospect of losing everything she held dear enveloped her in an oppressive atmosphere.
<ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!> Hades's scream came suddenly like a flash.
He held out a hand in front of him. The floor began to spin. A pole emerged from the ground causing the earth to rotate around its axis. A golden bident.
<Videbimus invicem in inferno... we'll see each other in Hell> he grabbed the bident, after that Latin phrase that clashed with everything except the place. The time of a heartbeat, that's what Hades needed to make Maleficent disappear.
Silence...
<Where?> the Fairy didn't know what else to say
<Far away, free, but far away> he only answered, then he turned and looked at the Beast, Belle, the Fairy, Ben and the boys then he gave a quick glance at the crowd, scared and still as the stone of the church. He turned and walked calmly down the nave, one hand raised as a greeting.
Mal only unblocked when she saw him cross the door, she had to follow him, she couldn't leave everything hanging like that, answers was what she was asking for.
Where had he sent her mother? Why had he helped them?
She started running, pulling up the dress that Evie had made for her, unexpectedly the others also joined her. She went out, she saw him with his wings open and his gaze turned to the sky, she couldn't speak because the black wings were already all that could be seen in the sky. They moved with such lightness for that body, a harmony. He disappeared without a word, leaving them alone with what he had done.
Inside Mal now there were only shadowy questions about the future of everything she knew.