The creature is battled in Mary's parlor, after which she and Sir Edward confer over its methods. Grey is approached by and rebuffs August Swain, representing The Heliopic Brotherhood of Ra; the mysterious cabal wishes to acquire the creature's bones. Mary then leads Edward and The Captain to a church, where Rev. Blum tells of how the survivors of Hyperborea, the first people, fled to the hellish inner world and created the very kind of creature who stalks them.