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Considering how hot that molten iron was, the fact that it had only left scorch marks was a testament to how resistant Chort was to heat.

What a tough bastard.

Pauline was being awfully quiet, though, Hector thought. "So? Sense anything?"

'Ah. Yes, the Beast's aura is almost entirely gone now,' she said.

Hector found that answer unsatisfactory. "'Almost?'"

'It is still dwindling,' she elaborated. Her eyes went to some of the smaller monsters that were currently being dragged closer by Salvador and Matteo. 'But I suspect that its aura will never truly disappear so long as its spawn remain.'

Salvador and Matteo seemed to have heard what she said as well, because they both turned to eye the critters, too. Then they went back to staring at the Sparrow.

No doubt, they had questions, but they weren't posing them yet.

Mevox was less reserved, though. 'What the fuck is goin' on around here, huh?! Someone please explain, because I am confused as shit, right now!'

Salvador began talking to his reaper, who was still attached to his shoulder, but the man didn't even get a full sentence in before Roman flew down and landed on the other side of Chort's charred corpse.

Which, of course, allowed Voreese to join the conversation. 'I second that motion! Someone tell me that this shit is finally over! Because that fight was all kinds of fucked up, and I hated every second of it!'

Hector did his best to do so, but he couldn't fully confirm that the matter was indeed settled without reiterating what Pauline had just said. The reapers didn't seem to know what he meant by 'auras'--and hell, neither did he, really--but now didn't seem like the best time to try opening that can of worms.

'Okay, okay, so what you're basically saying is that's it's dead, but not really,' said Mevox, 'and that we need to kill its stupid murder-babies in order to finish it off, right?'

'That is one way of putting it, yes,' said Pauline.