Older Ash took a slow breath before finally turning toward the bench vise. The yellowed skull clamped between the rusted jaws was gone, replaced by Linda's beautiful face exactly as he remembered it from decades earlier, complete with soft hair and familiar eyes. The illusion would almost have been comforting if not for the raw red flesh steadily growing from the base of her neck, rebuilding itself over exposed bone. Linda looked at him with wounded sadness and whispered, "You left me here, Ash."
"Because you died," older Ash answered quietly, and for once there was no joke in his voice. Linda's expression twisted as she accused him, "You killed me." The chainsaw on Ash's right arm began to growl as he raised it between them. "Because you weren't Linda anymore. You turned into a monster."
Linda's eyes filled with false hurt. "You don't love me anymore?" Older Ash's face hardened as the manipulation became more obvious, and he snapped, "Shut up. You're not Linda. You're a dead head wearing her face." The sadness disappeared from Linda's expression, replaced by a cruel smile as she told him everyone he loved eventually died and that he would always be left behind.
She continued trying to pull at his memories, promising affection and closeness if he would only lower the chainsaw and stop resisting. Older Ash's grip tightened instead, because he had already fallen for this kind of manipulation once in his life and had no intention of repeating the mistake. He raised the weapon higher and said, "You picked the wrong day to try this again."
Before he could swing, the shed door exploded inward.
A tall blonde woman rushed through the doorway carrying a grotesque dagger nearly two feet long. She shoved older Ash aside, crossed the cramped shed in two strides, and drove the blade straight into Linda's reconstructed head.
"Traitor!" Linda screamed.
The beautiful face collapsed almost instantly.
Skin shriveled away, hair disappeared, and the illusion dissolved back into the same yellowed skull trapped inside the vise.
Older Ash steadied himself and shut down the chainsaw. He stared at the blonde woman, then at the bizarre weapon in her hand. "Okay. Who the hell are you?"
The woman pulled the dagger free and gave him an irritated look. "You break onto my family's property and ask who I am?"
Older Ash glanced around at the collapsing shed and the ruined cabin beyond it. "Family property? Lady, this place looks like raccoons lost interest in it twenty years ago."
Her expression tightened. "My name is Ruby Knowby. Professor Raymond Knowby was my father."
Older Ash's eyebrows rose.
That name he remembered.
Professor Knowby had been the archaeologist whose research brought the Book of the Dead to this cabin in the first place. Older Ash had also met Annie Knowby, Raymond's daughter, decades earlier when she arrived at the cabin and became trapped in the same nightmare that had already destroyed everyone else.
"You're Knowby's daughter?" he asked suspiciously.
Ruby gave him a cold smile. "One of them."
Older Ash studied her face more carefully. There was enough resemblance to Annie that the claim did not sound completely impossible, though he had learned long ago that appearances meant very little around demonic artifacts. Before he could decide whether to believe her, Ruby extended one hand and demanded, "Where is the book you stole from my family?"
Older Ash immediately became defensive. "Stole is a strong word. I've had that thing for thirty years."
"You took it from this cabin."
"I took it after everybody here died."
"And I've spent those same thirty years cleaning up the messes you left behind," Ruby shot back. "You think the spirits released by that book simply disappeared whenever you walked away? If nobody had hunted them down afterward, your precious world would have been overrun a long time ago."
Older Ash's expression tightened.
Neither of them noticed young Ash approaching until the cabin door opened behind them.
He stepped outside carrying the wrapped Book of the Dead and immediately looked between older Ash and Ruby. "Seriously? We're trying to save the world and you somehow found time to pick up a woman in the middle of nowhere?"
Older Ash recovered instantly. "Please. I have standards."
Ruby slowly turned toward the younger man.
Older Ash continued, "Besides, she's a little old for me."
Young Ash looked Ruby over once, deliberately provoking her. "Could've fooled me. You usually stop caring about age the second somebody smiles at you."
Ruby's jaw tightened.
Ash's stacked Succubus Affinity did nothing useful here. Ruby was clearly not an ordinary human, and whatever supernatural resistance surrounded her completely prevented the passive charm effect from improving her opinion of someone she had already classified as an enemy.
Then young Ash noticed the weapon in her hand.
His joking expression vanished.
The dagger was almost exactly the same as the illustration in Professor Knowby's notebook. Its grotesque bone-like hilt, skeletal design, and unusually long blade made it look closer to a short sword than a conventional dagger.
Ash's eyes narrowed.
"The Kandarian Dagger."
Ruby looked at him with mild surprise. "So you know what it is."
"I found Knowby's notes."
Older Ash glanced between them. "Great. Everybody knows more about this place than I do."
Young Ash ignored him and asked Ruby, "You said you can destroy the Book of the Dead. How?"
Ruby pointed toward the wrapped volume in his hands. "The Kandarian Dagger can damage it, but cutting the book apart isn't enough. Complete destruction requires a ritual."
Ash did not react outwardly.
That matched Professor Knowby's notes exactly.
Ruby continued, "The book is currently bound to him." She pointed toward older Ash. "That means he has to perform one of the required steps himself."
Older Ash frowned. "Bound to me?"
"You carried it for decades, activated it, and repeatedly interacted with its power. Whether you intended to or not, the book recognizes you as its current holder."
Young Ash remembered the ritual section he had read.
Still consistent.
But he had another problem.
Ruby smelled wrong.
Not literally, but spiritually.
A deep demonic residue clung to her body, far stronger than what Ash would expect from an ordinary hunter who merely fought evil creatures occasionally. At the same time, she did not feel exactly like a conventional demon either.
That contradiction kept him cautious.
"Give us a minute."
Ash grabbed older Ash by the shoulder and pulled him several yards away from Ruby. Once they were out of comfortable hearing distance, older Ash whispered, "What do you think?"
Young Ash rubbed his chin. "I think she's hiding something."
"Based on?"
"She's carrying enough demonic residue to set off every supernatural instinct I have."
Older Ash glanced back toward Ruby. "She says she spent decades hunting Deadites. That could explain it."
"It could."
"But?"
"It could also mean she works with them."
Older Ash shrugged. "Junior, neither one of us exactly looks trustworthy either."
Young Ash immediately frowned. "Speak for yourself."
"You walk around covered in black demon smoke."
"I work for the federal government."
"That does not improve your argument."
Ash pointed at himself. "I am firmly on humanity's side. The day they give me a proper office, I'm putting a plaque on the wall that says Bane of Evil."
Older Ash stared at him.
"You're eighteen."
"Exactly. Plenty of career growth ahead."
Older Ash shook his head. "You're a strange kid."
Ash ignored that and asked, "Are you absolutely sure she could be Professor Knowby's daughter?"
"I met Annie Knowby thirty years ago." Older Ash glanced toward Ruby again. "Ruby looks enough like her that I can believe they're related."
Ash knew Annie's name from the notes and fragments of older Ash's story. She had come to the cabin during the second major Kandarian incident and ultimately died there after becoming caught in the chaos surrounding the dagger and the Deadites. That did not prove Ruby's identity, but it made her story plausible enough to test.
Young Ash finally nodded. "Fine. We try the ritual."
Older Ash grinned. "That's the spirit."
"But the second she does anything that doesn't match Knowby's notes, shoot her."
Older Ash patted the enchanted shotgun. "My baby's ready."
Ash looked at the gun. "I meant that one."
Older Ash smirked. "Good clarification."
Young Ash turned away before the conversation deteriorated further. "Just keep your attention on Ruby."
The three returned to the cabin.
Ruby had already cleared part of the old table and placed the Kandarian Dagger across it. When she saw them come back together, her expression relaxed slightly. "I assume you've reached a decision."
"We'll try it," young Ash said. "Tell us every step before we perform it."
Ruby nodded. "First we weaken the book's magic. Because Ash is the current holder, he must use the Kandarian Dagger himself and cut through the outer cover."
Young Ash's fingers brushed against Professor Knowby's notebook hidden inside his coat.
Correct.
The first ritual instruction said almost exactly the same thing.
He looked toward older Ash and gave a small nod.
Young Ash handed him the Book of the Dead.
Older Ash accepted the grotesque volume, then reached toward the Kandarian Dagger.
Before his fingers touched the weapon, young Ash suddenly froze.
Something had changed.
His supernatural perception caught a disturbance outside the cabin.
"Wait."
Older Ash stopped immediately.
Ruby's expression shifted for only a fraction of a second before she forced it back under control. Her hand moved slightly closer to the dagger, but she did not attack.
"What's wrong?" she asked.
Young Ash slowly turned toward the darkness beyond the cabin windows.
His eyes narrowed.
"Something's here."