Ronan's Judgement Call. Counter does not despawn when target enemy is KO'd

JSP869

In Four Stand Accused I was fortunate enough to have Ronan's second Judgement Call counter target Thing. The boosted match damage very quickly KO'd Thing, actually on the first turn I targeted him, thanks to a match 5 and resulting cascade.
Instead of despawning the counter remained and continued to tick down for 3 more turns, increasing my match damage against a no-longer present Thing, while reducing my match damage against Sue and Reed.