i'm pretty sure you're correct, just reporting observations i have, on more than one occasion, gotten the ax AFTER the final boss, had nothing to fight with it, and then it disappear before the next round, even if there is still charge on it the "you will be tested" (as far as i know) ALWAYS comes before the final boss, so who knows, all i can say is that i no longer have any trouble at all at the Forge, except for SPECIFIC forge bounties, like tons of captains, stuff like that