Beyond the Grave [ILLUMI X CHROLLO]

[ 14 ] Moral Support

Illumi was only granted a second to process the gallery beyond the light of Pride's dissolving flames in the air. They were outside of the library, and it was there that Pride collapsed on the tiles with an audible thud.

"P-Pride?" Illumi said, to no response.

He cursed, dropping to the floor beside Pride to turn him over onto his back. With much difficulty, he succeeded.

Pride's face turned to him, brow tight and hand raising to clutch his forehead with tense fingertips. His blood red eyes were, to Illumi's horror, wore the weight of crimson dust like bruises.

"Holy shit," Pride breathed and as he did, bits of him scattered.

Illumi was familiar with divine affliction like this only due to Wrath's condition all those years ago. Where Wrath glitched in and out of focus like bad television reception, Pride's very skin glowed red-hot between blotchy embers. The gaps it left behind gave way to the tile underneath him, and then the statues in the distance when he raised up onto his elbow. The glow warped gold like light reflecting through water on pool lining.

"Careful," Illumi said, panic scattering through his chest. He couldn't blink, lest he miss a divine disappearing act. "What happened?"

Pride's hand drifted up to his halo. It had stilled its frantic rotation from Chrollo's domain and now hovered, stagnant, just above his hairline. Where six irises used to stand, four weighed one side down. The eyes blinked against their steepled, diamond frames back at Illumi.

"Shit," Pride breathed, eyes on the floor between them. His hand curled into a fist around the gap and, with that fist, he slammed it to the tiles. His hand cracked through the marble. "Shit!"

Illumi jolted, steading himself with one knee to the ground as the entire gallery shook. He flinched, half-covering his head as a crash of marble scattered into pieces behind him.

Illumi counted the remaining eyes where the halo was still strangled in Pride's grip. "Does that mean... he used another gift?" he whispered.

"At this rate, the other four will be gone in a matter of hours," Pride said.

Where rage and solemn apathy used to reign on his face, Pride dissolved into abject horror. It reminded Illumi of the last time they'd seen each other in this castle. At a standstill over the threshold where Pride had tried and failed to prevent this from happening.

It's all my fault, Illumi thought.

All of his siblings he'd left behind were depending on him. As if he'd let his stupid mistake end it all.

"I'll find him. Let me go to New York—Can you take me to the moment I died?"

Pride sighed. "No, that's impossible. Because of Wrath and Killua's partners, we can only go to the time they're in. My wings would have followed this same logic whether they knew it or not."

Illumi dreaded to ask. "What... time is that."

Pride looked up past the short fringe of his hair to meet Illumi's eyes. "Five months from the moment you died."

And so, five months from the moment Illumi died, he entered Meruem's apartment for the second time in his existence. There was a vacant chill in the air and the refrigerator was empty when he checked. The rooms were all quiet, not a soul (or Sin) in sight.

Illumi shut the refrigerator door, which revealed Pride standing on the other side. He followed Pride's gaze down to where the his very human palm was held up to Illumi. Where Pride was solid, tanned, and lifelike, Illumi's skin still glowed gold and translucent as a ghost. Beyond it, the front of a silky gold button-up was left completely open. The snake tattoo was static between his pecs, though, and Illumi tried (and failed) not to stare.