Older Ash hefted the enchanted shotgun with obvious satisfaction, then glanced toward the Kandarian Dagger resting on the table beside the damaged Book of the Dead. "So what do we do now?" he asked. Young Ash looked at both artifacts and answered, "We take the dagger and the book back to Lionel. If anyone can use Professor Knowby's notes to perform the real destruction ritual, it's him."
Older Ash picked up the Kandarian Dagger and studied its grotesque design. "This thing looks like somebody intentionally made the creepiest knife possible." Young Ash nodded and replied, "The hilt is carved from human bone, so I'd say they succeeded." Before either could say anything else, the entire cabin suddenly shook hard enough to knock old paintings, mounted decorations, and decades of dust from the walls.
The front door slammed open by itself, and a violent suction force tore through the room. Young Ash planted his feet to resist, but one of the rotted floorboards beneath him gave way directly above the old cellar, ruining his balance at the worst possible moment. Thick vines immediately burst through the doorway, wrapped around his waist, and dragged him across the floor before throwing him completely out of the cabin.
Ash twisted in midair and landed hard outside, only to realize that the attack was not coming from a single creature. Every door and window on the cabin began opening and slamming shut on its own, almost as if the entire building were laughing at him. The demonic aura he had sensed everywhere earlier had not simply soaked into the wood over decades. The cabin itself was alive.
"So that explains it," Ash muttered as the vines tightened around his body again. Hellfire erupted from him in the next instant, racing along the plantlike restraints and reducing them to black ash before they could pull him farther. He landed on his feet, looked across the clearing, and finally saw the enormous creature that had been working with the cabin.
The tree demon stood roughly twenty feet tall, its enormous body formed from an ancient trunk twisted into a crude humanoid shape. Dark-red, diseased bark covered its body like rotting flesh, while countless vines hung from its arms and shoulders and enormous crimson eyes glared above a mouth filled with jagged wooden fangs. Rootlike legs sank into the soil beneath it, and every heavy movement shook the ground.
Behind Ash, the living cabin grew even more arrogant now that its partner had appeared. A wet, tongue-like appendage extended from the center of the circular door hardware and waved mockingly in his direction. Ash slowly turned his head toward it, and the cabin immediately seemed to reconsider its decision.
Black mist began pouring from Ash's body while Hellfire ignited inside it, turning his usual demonic cloak into something even more threatening. Crimson-gold flames burned in his eyes, and the narrow grinlike line across his face glowed with the same infernal color. He raised both hands and said, "Congratulations. You get to be the first house I've ever threatened with Hellfire."
The cabin instantly pulled its tongue back inside. Two massive columns of flame erupted from Ash's palms and tore toward the building, forcing it to rip loose furniture and wooden panels from inside and throw them into the path of the attack. The tree demon roared and charged to protect its ally, its root-covered feet smashing deep pits into the earth with every step.
Ash disappeared before the first blow landed. The tree demon's foot crashed into empty ground while the living cabin tore off a wooden plank and hurled it against the creature's shoulder, almost as though desperately pointing out where its enemy had gone. A second later, the shadow beneath the demon's own body rippled like dark water.
Ash rose from the darkness directly behind it. His crimson-gold eyes flared as Hellfire surged from deep in his throat and blasted into the back of the creature's head. Bark cracked loudly under the heat, green fluid leaked from the scorched wound, and the liquid evaporated almost immediately under the infernal flames.
The tree demon convulsed and lashed dozens of vines backward, but Ash had already dropped into another nearby shadow. In a forest this dense, nearly every trunk, branch, and patch of moonlight created another route for Shadow Travel. The environment was almost perfect for him.
There was one limitation Ash understood clearly: Shadow Travel worked through actual shadows, not simple darkness. A place without light did not automatically become a passage unless something cast a real shadow there. Fortunately, the forest provided more than enough stationary silhouettes for him to move between them almost freely.
The tree demon grew more violent and sent vines ripping through every nearby shadow it could reach. Ash appeared beside one trunk, vanished before the attack landed, and emerged several yards away beneath another canopy. Every vine that came close enough to touch him met the Hellfire wrapped around his body and burned apart before it could secure a grip.
Then the tree demon changed tactics. Several nearby trees groaned as their roots tore free from the earth, and the trunks bent unnaturally toward the creature before merging into its body. Fresh layers of wood reinforced the burned sections while smothering some of the lingering flames, but Ash immediately noticed the unintended result.
The surrounding shadows were disappearing.
As the nearby trees were absorbed, moonlight reached more of the clearing, leaving Ash with fewer stationary shadows to use. The tree demon had no idea how his ability worked, yet instinctively it had stumbled onto the correct countermeasure. Ash smiled and muttered, "Not completely stupid, then."
The demon opened its enormous mouth and charged again, throwing its reinforced body straight toward him. Ash remained still until the last possible second, then activated Invisibility and Presence Concealment together, erasing both his physical appearance and supernatural aura. The tree demon crashed through the place where he had been standing and stopped in confusion.
Ash had already entered its shadow.
This time he tried something he had never done before. Rather than simply using the shadow as an entrance and exit point, he moved upward through the silhouette cast by the tree demon's own body, traveling from the ground toward its massive legs without exposing himself.
For several seconds, it worked.
Then the tree demon moved.
Ash was immediately expelled from the moving shadow and forced back into physical space near the creature's thigh. He caught himself against the rough bark and muttered, "Confirmed. Moving shadows still kick me out."
Although he remained invisible, the sensation of his boots touching the demon's body was enough to alert it. Vines swept across its legs and torso in wide patterns, searching for him by contact rather than sight. One passed close enough to brush the Hellfire around Ash and ignited instantly, revealing his approximate position.
The tree demon reacted immediately and sent several more vines toward that spot. Ash had already climbed higher, using cracks and ridges in the creature's bark while its massive body shook violently beneath him. A huge wooden hand swept toward his position, but he jumped to the shoulder before it could slap him away.
The demon twisted its head and opened its fanged mouth, trying to bite him directly off its own body. Ash grabbed a deep crack in the bark near the neck, vaulted upward, and landed on top of the creature's head before those enormous crimson eyes could track him. He dropped to one knee and pressed both palms against the diseased surface.
The tree demon froze.
Ash's crimson-gold grin widened. "Enjoy this."
Hellfire erupted directly from both palms. Instead of burning across the surface, Ash forced the infernal energy through cracks in the bark and drove it deep into the creature's skull-like structure, allowing the flames to spread from the inside outward.
The tree demon's enormous eyes bulged and then burst simultaneously. Thick green fluid sprayed outward but evaporated under the heat before it could travel far. Cracks spread from the eyes and mouth across the entire head, with dark-red fire glowing through each opening.
The creature released one final roar that shook the forest. Its head began collapsing from within, breaking apart into burning charcoal-like fragments until the entire upper section exploded outward in a shower of sparks and blackened wood. The headless body remained standing for only a moment before crashing to the earth with enough force to kick up a cloud of dirt and dead leaves.
Ash jumped clear before the impact and landed several yards away. The flames surrounding his body gradually faded, leaving only black mist curling around him before it too sank back beneath his skin. He looked once at the smoking corpse of the tree demon, then turned toward the cabin.
The living building had become completely still. Every window was closed, the front door had shut itself, and not a single loose board moved. It now looked exactly like an ordinary abandoned structure desperately pretending it had never done anything wrong.
Ash walked up the porch steps and lightly kicked one of them. "Playing dead?"
The cabin remained silent.
Ash lifted his foot again. "Open the door."
The front door immediately swung inward.
Ash nodded with satisfaction. "Good house."
He stepped inside and stopped almost immediately. Ruby Knowby was alive again, her body completely restored despite having been burned into a charred corpse earlier, and the Book of the Dead was now in her hands. Older Ash stood several yards away trying to line up the enchanted shotgun, but Ruby flicked one hand before he could fire.
An invisible force slammed into older Ash and hurled him across the cabin. He struck the far corner hard enough to shake the wall, while young Ash immediately raised one hand and launched a Hellfire projectile directly at Ruby. The blast struck her chest and threw her backward, blackening flesh and carving a scorched wound through her newly regenerated body.
Ash narrowed his eyes as she began healing again almost immediately. Burned skin peeled away in strips, fresh flesh formed beneath it, and the damage that should have crippled any ordinary supernatural creature rapidly disappeared. Both Hellfire and Demonic Power could destroy spiritual entities directly, yet Ruby had already survived attacks from both.
Even Jason Voorhees had not regenerated like this.
Jason's body could rebuild itself, but once Ash reached the corrupted spirit sustaining him, he could be permanently destroyed. Ruby's recovery appeared far more extreme because even attacks capable of harming both body and soul were failing to keep her down.
Ruby slowly stood.
Her eyes moved past Ash toward the enormous tree demon corpse lying outside.
Then she looked back at him.
"What did you get from it?"
Ash paused.
Ruby gestured toward the dead creature behind him. "The tree demon. What ability did killing it give you?"
For the first time since returning to the cabin, Ash looked genuinely surprised. He had never explained the real mechanics of his strengthening ability to Ruby, and she had barely known him long enough to observe more than a few fights. Yet she had somehow recognized that killing supernatural creatures granted him something afterward.
Ash tilted his head, curiosity replacing anger for a moment.
"How did you figure that out?"