12-10-2018, 11:22 AM
Nick wasn't "relying on" anything. The moment the idea struck him that he could use the staff to bring people back (not that he had any idea how to do it), Z's ashes started forming the vortex. All of their experience up to then told them that something bad was about to come out of it at them, because they'd never seen it do anything else. Nick grabbed the staff and pointed it at whatever was coming, and what happened after that wasn't anything anyone was expecting.