As Abner laid bare everything he had done, as though he had seen it with his own eyes, Mayor Lancer's expression grew uglier. He repeated the question he had asked before:
"Who exactly are you?"
At the same time, he finally realized that matters were slipping beyond his control. The growth of the Decay power had nearly stalled...
Abner ignored him completely. With a soft chuckle, he continued:
"After getting close to Summer's incarnation, the patrol captain gradually broke free of your control and regained his senses. So he decided to help the last Summer fight you.
"Using what he'd learned while under your corruption, he taught Summer how to wield the Divine Kingdom's power, even though Decay had eaten into it... That weakened you to the level of a mere Sequence 7. You could no longer ignore the weapons carried by ordinary townspeople.
"So on one hand, you had others lead Summer on. You exploited his eagerness for power and his weakness for pleasure, making him release the Scarlet Plains' last reserves of vitality to create those 'seasonal' regions where resources could be harvested quickly. That pushed the Divine Kingdom further toward total Exhaustion.
"On the other hand, by some means I couldn't 'see,' you took the place of Summer's Fate—even the God of Seasons' Fate. You wanted to become the vessel for the Monarch of Decay's descent when the task was complete, merging with your master so nothing else could go wrong.
"But I'm sorry. Something went wrong anyway... And this time, that something was me!"
At that, Abner clapped lightly. The phantoms of four longswords appeared at the villa's four corners, sealing off the surrounding space.
Four high-ranking Demonesses had used the supernatural longswords Abner had made to set up a "reenactment" ritual based on a certain