With Salan's final death, the terrifying black storm around them gradually dissipated.
Exhausted, Alton and the Steel Warriors leaned against one another, like a heap of discarded metal statues.
The Steel Direwolf's first fusion could last only ten minutes. After killing the steel giant, it had gone on to slaughter a mountain of steel monsters.
Even after they separated, the group had no chance to rest. Numb as machines, they kept cutting down the steel monsters charging at them.
They did not even have the energy to wonder what the black storm above the altar was.
Then, all at once, the steel monsters that had been attacking like mad lost the will to move or fight.
They stood there in a daze, motionless.
Like robots that had lost control, they became steel statues.
At the sight, Dutch asked blankly, "What happened?"
Alton burst out laughing. "What else could it be? Big Brother won!"
After a brief silence, everyone collapsed to the ground, too drained to do anything but celebrate their great victory.
Hou Ting, Mokaka, 108, Mountain Dog, Girlfriend, Wheelchair, and the others were dead. Nothing remained of their bodies.
Polar Bear carefully gathered 108's prosthetic eye, Mountain Dog's black blade, and the other important equipment.
Just then, two guards who had been caught in Bishop Martin's final explosion twitched. They struggled to their feet.
Polar Bear's eyes widened in terror. She knew all too well how fearsome these things were.
But just as Polar Bear raised her weapon to fight again, the two giants that had struggled upright...
Collapsed to the ground with a thud, as though their power source had gone dead.
Polar Bear instinctively looked ahead. Only then did she realize that the terrifying pressure was gone!
"Could it be...?!"
Polar Bear burst into tears of joy.