Lionel Hawkins had devoted most of his adult life to occultism, demonology, forgotten religions, and supernatural texts, yet until today he had never personally touched anything that could undeniably be called supernatural. The moment he confirmed that the grotesque object on his counter was a genuine Book of the Dead, his eyes actually grew wet. Decades of being dismissed as an eccentric bookseller obsessed with nonsense suddenly felt worthwhile because the impossible artifact he had spent years studying was sitting directly in front of him.
Older Ash understood the emotion better than anyone else in the room. After surviving the cabin massacre when he was young, the police had never managed to prove that he murdered his girlfriend, sister, and friends, but that had not stopped people in his hometown from treating him like a killer. Every time he tried explaining that demons had possessed the others, people assumed he was inventing supernatural excuses to avoid responsibility. That experience was one of the reasons Ashley J. Williams had spent most of his later life drifting around Michigan instead of returning to the place where everyone remembered him as the lunatic who survived while his friends died.
Older Ash gave Lionel an encouraging look and tapped the counter. "Yeah, yeah, your whole life wasn't wasted. Now that we've established you weren't crazy, can you figure out how to stop this thing from summoning more Deadites?" He gestured toward the book. "Open it, look through whatever you need, and find us an off switch."
Lionel looked almost afraid to touch it. "You're actually letting me open it?"
"That's why we came here."
Older Ash gave him a serious nod, though young Ash suspected he mostly wanted somebody else to take responsibility for messing with the book. Lionel carefully pushed the magnifying lamp aside, retrieved a pair of white archival gloves, and slowly opened the flesh-bound cover.
The instant the Book of the Dead opened, the lights throughout Books from Beyond flickered. A low electrical hum passed through the store, several hanging fixtures dimmed at once, and even the air seemed to gain a subtle pressure that made Amanda's hand drift instinctively toward her weapon. Young Ash felt his Demonic Power react and released a controlled trace of it, suppressing the disturbance before it could spread any farther.
The lights immediately stabilized.
Ash folded his arms. "Classic horror-movie behavior."
Lionel barely noticed. The grotesque illustrations and symbols inside the book fascinated him far more than the lights, and he leaned closer to examine pages painted with dried red markings, distorted figures, and scenes of ritual violence. "Incredible," he murmured.
Young Ash looked at the book with considerably less affection. "Sure. Incredible. Cost me the blessing on my father's sword."
Lionel glanced up. "Do any of you actually know where these books came from?"
Older Ash immediately laughed. "Of course I know. I've been carrying one around for decades."
Young Ash looked at him.
Older Ash subtly looked away.
Young Ash sighed. "I know there are supposed to be three volumes. Beyond that, go ahead."
Lionel smiled knowingly and carefully turned several pages until he reached a large illustration. The image showed a gathering of tall humanoid figures hidden beneath heavy robes, their faces buried inside deep pointed hoods that revealed nothing but darkness. They looked less like ordinary cultists and more like ancient beings wearing the shape of people.
"These are the Dark Ones," Lionel explained. "According to the fragments I've studied, they were ancient beings that were neither human nor ordinary demons. They created the Books of the Dead for purposes connected to controlling humanity and opening paths between our world and darker realms."
Young Ash studied the illustration. "So they made all three?"
"That's what the surviving references suggest." Lionel ran one gloved finger beside the symbols without touching them directly. "The books were supposedly bound using human flesh, while the writing and illustrations were created with human blood. The symbols themselves aren't merely a language—they function as part of the supernatural mechanism that allows the books to establish connections with Hell, or whatever realm these entities actually inhabit."
Pablo grimaced. "That is possibly the worst publishing process I've ever heard."
Kelly nodded. "And somehow Ash still thought reading one while drunk was a good idea."
Older Ash pointed at her. "We already discussed that."
Lionel continued before another argument started. "The three volumes belong to the same larger system. Some accounts claim that bringing them together could create a much larger gateway or give whoever controlled them influence over the forces summoned through the books."
Young Ash shrugged. "Then humanity caught a lucky break."
Lionel looked confused. "Why?"
"I destroyed one."
Lionel stopped breathing for a second.
"You what?"
"Destroyed it."
Lionel stared at him with the horrified expression of a historian hearing that someone used the Dead Sea Scrolls to start a campfire. "You actually destroyed one of the Books of the Dead?"
"It cost me nearly all the holy power stored in my father's greatsword, so trust me, I'm not doing it again for fun." Ash waved toward the book. "Continue."
Lionel looked genuinely heartbroken but forced himself back to the subject. "If one volume is permanently gone, then some of the larger functions described in these texts may no longer be possible. This book should still be capable of summoning whatever demonic entities are bound to its pages, though, and I can already see references to rituals involving control, containment, fusion, and manipulation."
Young Ash raised an eyebrow. "Fusion?"
"Possibly combining multiple summoned entities or possessed bodies. I'd need far more time to translate the context."
Ash thought about the multi-body monstrosity he had just fought in New York.
"That would explain a few things."
Lionel carefully turned another page. "There are other passages whose purposes I can't identify yet. This language is fragmented, and some of the symbols seem to change meaning depending on their placement."
Pablo leaned closer without crossing the counter. "This thing is evil even by evil-book standards."
Lionel immediately looked offended on the book's behalf. "The book has the capacity to summon evil, but it doesn't necessarily activate itself without someone using it. A person still has to read the relevant passage or otherwise trigger the mechanism."
Everyone slowly turned toward older Ash.
Ashley J. Williams shifted uncomfortably.
Lionel noticed the looks. "What?"
Older Ash cleared his throat. "Hypothetically, suppose an extremely handsome guy accidentally opened the book and, through a series of understandable circumstances, also accidentally read the summoning passage out loud."
Kelly folded her arms.
Amanda stared at him.
Pablo looked toward the ceiling.
Older Ash continued as though nothing was wrong. "What would this hypothetical hero need to do to send everything back and close the book again?"
Lionel started searching through the pages. "There should be something about reversal or withdrawal. Give me a minute."
He flipped carefully through several sections, comparing repeated symbols until he finally stopped. His eyes narrowed as he began working through the archaic wording aloud.
"The method of withdrawal... lies at the origin of man... no, that doesn't fit." Lionel frowned and reread the line. "Inside the originator. Or perhaps within the one who began it."
Young Ash slowly turned toward older Ash.
Older Ash immediately noticed the look.
"No."
Ash smiled.
"No what?"
"I know that face."
Young Ash pointed at him. "It says the answer is inside the person who started everything."
Older Ash backed away half a step. "That does not mean what you think it means."
Ash's smile widened. "We cut you open, put the book inside, stitch you back together, problem solved."
Older Ash stared at him. "You're enjoying this."
"For the sake of humanity, I'm willing to make the sacrifice."
"Your sacrifice?"
"I'll be emotionally devastated."
"You can barely stop smiling!"
Lionel quickly raised both hands. "Before anybody starts performing surgery, my translation might be wrong. This is an ancient language with multiple lost grammatical structures. 'Originator' could refer to a person, a place, the original summoning point, or something else entirely."
Older Ash immediately pointed at Lionel. "See? Smart guy."
Young Ash sighed. "Too bad."
Pablo shrugged. "Would be easier if we could just ask somebody who actually understands the book."
Older Ash froze.
Then his eyes lit up.
He slapped Pablo on the shoulder hard enough to make him stumble. "That is the smartest thing you've said all day."
Pablo immediately became suspicious. "I don't think you understood what I meant."
"Oh, I understood perfectly."
Older Ash turned toward Lionel. "Summon the weakest demon you can find."
Pablo's eyes widened. "That is absolutely not what I meant."
"We bring one over, lock it down, and ask it how to stop the book."
Amanda frowned. "You want to deliberately summon another demon after everything that happened?"
"We're prepared this time."
Young Ash considered the idea rather than rejecting it outright. Between his Demonic Power, Shadow Travel, enhanced strength, older Ash's experience, the firearms they carried, and the AIIB standing behind them, one weak controlled summon was far less dangerous than leaving the book active indefinitely.
Kelly noticed Pablo's concern and nudged him. "Relax. We've got young Ash."
Pablo looked toward the eighteen-year-old federal agent who had already destroyed a Book of the Dead, killed multiple demons, and reduced a fused Deadite monster with a grenade launcher.
He slowly nodded. "Okay. That does help."
Lionel was already excited again.
For someone who had waited his entire life to confirm that supernatural forces existed, the opportunity to participate in an actual summoning ritual was apparently impossible to resist. He disappeared into the back room and returned carrying bags of salt, incense, candles, and several ritual supplies before clearing a large section of the floor.
Lionel poured salt into a wide circular boundary, then added smaller symbols and intersecting lines inside it according to instructions copied from the Book of the Dead. He placed incense around several points of the circle, lit each bundle, and checked the arrangement repeatedly before declaring the containment field ready. "The circle should trap whatever we summon. As long as the boundary remains intact, the demon shouldn't be able to cross it."
Young Ash looked down.
The nearest section of salt was only inches from his boot.
He looked back at Lionel.
"So this entire demon prison can be destroyed by somebody stepping on it?"
Lionel hesitated.
Ash stared at the thin white line.
"That feels like a design flaw."