Margaret flipped through the file in her hands while older Ash stood across from the reception desk, his usual confidence slipping slightly under her calm scrutiny. "You never actually tried to hide what happened at the cabin," she said. "The problem was that nobody around you believed the story about demons, so most people in your hometown concluded that you murdered your girlfriend, your sister, and the others yourself.
Afterward, you started telling different stories about how you lost your right hand, and that only made people more suspicious of you."
Older Ash scratched his cheek with his remaining hand and gave an awkward laugh. "Alright, fine. I really did cut the hand off because it got possessed, but try explaining that to people who already think you're crazy." Margaret closed the file and smiled faintly. "Honestly, the truth is much more interesting than the lies you invented afterward.
If you cleaned up your behavior a little, you might actually be a charming man." Older Ash stared at her for a second before grinning. "Thanks, but behaving myself has never really been my thing."
Young Ash returned to the lobby just in time to hear that answer and immediately nodded in agreement. "That might be the most truthful thing you've said all night." He gave Margaret a polite greeting, grabbed older Ash by the shoulder, and started steering him toward the secure elevator. "Pablo, Kelly, Amanda, come on. We're going downstairs to find out whether my father's sword can destroy one of these Books of the Dead."
Pablo, Kelly, and Amanda quickly rose from the nearby bench and followed them. Older Ash looked pleasantly surprised as he glanced at the silver-white greatsword in young Ash's hand. "You actually found a solution?" Young Ash shook his head. "I found an experiment. If it works, great. If it doesn't, we figure something else out without accidentally opening another doorway to Hell."
The five descended into one of the AIIB's reinforced underground training areas, where Ash chose the Naturom Demonto volume recovered from the condemned apartment building as the first test subject.
He handed older Ash's personal Book of the Dead back to him, then placed the fang-edged volume from Danny's room on the floor near the center of the training space. "Everybody stay back.
If this thing reacts badly, I don't want anyone standing next to it." Older Ash glanced around the mostly empty training area and complained, "That's it? No protective circle, no chanting, no priest?"
Ash pointed toward the nearby weapons racks. "If you're nervous, grab something. Those are real guns." Older Ash lovingly rubbed the chainsaw attached to his right arm before adjusting the shotgun over his shoulder. "I already brought my favorites." Pablo, Kelly, and Amanda were less sentimental and each collected a shotgun, then moved toward the edge of the room while keeping their attention fixed on the grotesque book.
Once everyone was in position, Ash stood over the Naturom Demonto and raised his father's greatsword with both hands.
The moment the blade came close to the book, the engraved Latin prayers reacted to the evil radiating from its cover, and a pale holy glow spread along the silver-white metal.
Within seconds the light intensified until it resembled thin flames burning across the inscriptions. Ash tightened his grip, drew a breath, and drove the sword straight downward.
The blade pierced the humanlike face molded into the cover with a wet, disturbing sound. The entire Book of the Dead immediately convulsed like a living creature pinned to the floor, and the vague facial features on its surface sharpened into an expression of agony.
Thick blood began leaking around the blade while the two rows of sharp fangs along the book's edge opened wide.
Then an unbearable scream erupted directly inside everyone's mind rather than through the air.
Older Ash staggered slightly, while Pablo, Kelly, and Amanda instinctively covered their ears even though the gesture did almost nothing against the psychic assault.
The pages beneath the cover began thrashing and trying to open, but the greatsword had pinned the entire book to the floor.
Black smoke poured from the wound and crawled up the blade, colliding violently with the holy glow surrounding the Latin prayers. A harsh sizzling sound filled the room as the two supernatural forces fought against each other.
Ash felt a tremendous pressure coming from beneath the sword, as though something inside the book were trying to force the blade back out. His arms tensed, muscles bulging beneath his sleeves as he leaned forward and pushed harder. The greatsword sank through another layer of pages, but the resistance increased with every inch. At the same time, the holy glow around the inscriptions began flickering under the strain.
The psychic screaming grew even worse, but Ash refused to let go. Black smoke thickened around his hands while the prayers on the blade dimmed and brightened repeatedly, almost as though the blessing itself were struggling to remain intact. Ash clenched his teeth and forced more physical strength into the downward thrust. A sharp cracking sound finally echoed through the training room.
The Book of the Dead's scream immediately broke into weak, irregular bursts filled with rage and desperation. Its sharp teeth shattered one after another, while thick black fluid began running from the eye sockets of the distorted face on its cover. Ash gave one final push and drove the blade completely through the remaining pages. The supernatural resistance vanished all at once, and the blood surrounding the wound rapidly darkened before crumbling into foul-smelling ash.
Within seconds, the book lost every trace of life. The face collapsed back into meaningless leather, the remaining pages stopped moving, and the once-powerful demonic presence disappeared completely.
Ash slowly pulled the greatsword free and nudged the ruined remains with his boot. "So brute force really can solve some supernatural problems."
The familiar sensation of strengthening immediately surged through him.
Whatever force governed his abilities had apparently judged the Book of the Dead as a living supernatural entity rather than an ordinary cursed object, because Ash felt both his body and spirit improve after destroying it.
The physical increase was noticeable but modest, while his mental and spiritual reserves expanded much more dramatically. His Demonic Power immediately felt denser, deeper, and easier to control.
A new ability surfaced alongside the enhancement: Demon Summoning. Ash's initial excitement lasted only a moment because the ability required him to establish a supernatural contract with a demon before he could summon that specific entity through an incantation. He stared into space for several seconds before saying, "So I have to find a demon, convince it to sign a contract with me, and then summon it later." Older Ash raised an eyebrow. "Sounds useful."
Ash looked at him as though he had said something offensive. "If I already found the demon, why wouldn't I just kill it?" Pablo opened his mouth as though he might offer an explanation, then wisely closed it again.
Ash shook his head in disappointment. "Great. I got a demon summoning ability that requires me to cooperate with demons. Completely backwards."
Kelly ignored his complaint and pointed toward older Ash's Book of the Dead. "You destroyed one. Do the other one." Ash nodded and raised the greatsword again, but the moment he brought it near the second volume, his expression changed.
The Latin prayers that had once glowed whenever the blade approached demonic power were now completely dark, and the sword showed no reaction whatsoever to older Ash's book. "That's not good."
Older Ash immediately tightened his grip on the book. "What do you mean, not good?" Ash examined the engraved prayers more carefully before lowering the weapon. "The blessing wasn't unlimited. The sword already spent some of its holy power against the Bloodthirsty Demon, and destroying that first Book of the Dead used whatever was left." Physically the weapon remained intact, but spiritually it had become nothing more than an exceptionally durable greatsword.
Ash stared at the blade with genuine pain in his expression.
It had belonged to Edwin Williams, one of the few important things his father had left behind, and Ash had just exhausted the supernatural blessing that made the weapon special.
"Who do I bill for this?" Older Ash blinked. "You're thinking about reimbursement right now?" Ash looked at him. "This belonged to my father. Raymond absolutely should've made the Church sign something before I stabbed an evil book with it."
The loss also helped Ash understand why the Church had been so reluctant to simply sacrifice a holy relic to destroy the Naturom Demonto. If eliminating a single Book of the Dead permanently exhausted the blessing stored inside a sacred weapon, then using such relics would be a serious cost rather than an easy solution.
Ash sighed while sheathing the blade and immediately decided he would pressure Raymond into finding someone capable of restoring the blessing. If possible, he also wanted the weapon modified so its holy nature would stop rejecting his Demonic Power whenever he tried to channel black energy through it.
Older Ash, however, was much more concerned about the book still in his hands. "Junior, mine is still active.
If we don't shut it down, it can keep summoning Deadites." Ash looked around the reinforced underground training room, then at the racks of firearms and ammunition along the walls. A slow smile appeared on his face as he shrugged.
"Then until we find another solution, we stay here. Every time the book summons something, we kill it."