The only substances which could cause a Vampire pain were silver and, to a lesser extent, unless it penetrated the Vampire's heart, wood. The surest way to kill a Vampire was to drive a wooden stake or a silver blade through his or her heart. The stake or blade prevented the heart from supplying ichor to the rest of the body. If the stake or blade was removed, however, even if the Vampire's body had crumbled to dust, the Vampire's mystical vitality would restore his or her body to the condition it had before the Vampire was slain, and return him or her to Vampiric "life." Beheading a Vampire would also kill him or her as well as extensive damage to the majority of his or her body. However, there were only three methods of making sure of destroying a Vampire permanently. One was to expose the Vampire to direct sunlight and then to scatter the ashes. Another was to pierce the Vampire's heart with wood or silver, sever his or her head, burn the head and body in separate places and scatter the two resulting piles of ashes in separate locations. The third was mystically, most notably by using the incantation known as the Montesi Formula (after the monk who first realized its significance). Montesi created the incantation by studying fragmentary copies of the Darkhold. It was lost amid many other documents copied by various anonymous monks over the centuries. Research by various Vampire hunters over the past few decades revealed its significance, and it was sought by both those hunters and by Dracula, who wished to destroy all copies of it. The incantation apparently cancelled the mystic curse that allowed any Vampire within earshot to exist, causing it to crumple to dust. The danger is that, as the Montesi Formula was created from black magic theory from the Darkhold, those untrained in the mystic arts who use it lose their souls.