Aoko followed Rellana into Messmer's secret chamber, where she saw a demigod of the Lands Between for the first time—possibly Messmer, the eldest son of Marika.
He was tall but gaunt, with long red hair identical to Radagon's, a stern and resolute face as if carved by axe and blade, and a single golden vertical pupil in his eye.
Yes, for some reason, Messmer had the appearance of a one-eyed man, with an empty socket where his other eye should have been.
In some sense, Aoko understood why Rellana liked Messmer. His looks were slightly more handsome than Radagon's, though his bone structure was rather striking.
This scion of Marika was surrounded by winged serpents.
Like some kind of eerie yet harmonious ornament, the serpents' feathered wings rested on Messmer's shoulders, while the heads of two snakes coiled around him, scrutinizing Aoko and her sister with watchful eyes. She could sense their wariness and assessment but not much hostility, so she did not respond with hostility toward this enigmatic demigod.
"…Speak," Messmer said after a long silence, his gaze fixed on them. "Tell me what you know about the current state of the Lands Between."
Aoko did not rush. At a steady pace, she began to recount everything to Messmer in the common tongue of the Lands Between (which she had already mastered). She started with Queen Marika shattering the Elden Ring, then moved on to the Shattering War, the Night of the Black Knives, and how the various demigod rulers seized the Great Runes and carved out their domains.
Each time Aoko reached a critical point in the story, she noticed Messmer's fists clenching and unclenching, his brows gradually furrowing. It was clear he was furious at these unfilial children of Marika.
"…And so, after failing to capture the royal capital, Leyndell, Radahn was repelled by Morgott and returned to Caelid," Aoko continued. "But what he didn't anticipate was that Malenia blamed him for Miquella's disappearance and launched a military campaign against him. Their forces clashed in Caelid, leaving both sides devastated. In the end, the Scarlet Bloom of Aeonia blossomed upon the land, forcing Malenia to retreat to the Haligtree while Radahn was left grievously wounded, on the brink of death."
"…I have a question," Messmer pondered for a moment before asking, "Who is this Morgott? And where is my mother?"
"Morgott is known as the Grace Given King. He is supposedly the child of Godfrey and Queen Marika, which makes him your younger brother," Aoko explained succinctly.
Messmer was bewildered by this revelation. His mother had given birth to another brother after he left for his expedition. How had he never heard of this? That was impossible!
Based on the information Aoko had provided, King Godfrey had been stripped of his grace and exiled from the Lands Between by Marika. But why?
"I don't know the exact reason why King Godfrey was stripped of grace and exiled," Aoko admitted honestly, "but I have a theory."
"Speak." Messmer's tone remained cold.
"When the Elden Ring shattered, the shockwave of its destruction turned many of those blessed by its grace into mindless living corpses," Aoko explained, implying something significant. "Perhaps that's why Queen Marika stripped King Godfrey and his warriors of grace and banished them—because shattering the Elden Ring was part of her plan all along."
"And what was her reason?" Messmer, quick-witted as ever, immediately caught the crux of the issue. "What was my mother's reason for meticulously planning the destruction of the Elden Ring?"
"Most likely, she wanted to break free from its constraints," Aoko answered as she retrieved the Scarlet Staff from her pocket dimension.
"Because Queen Marika probably realized a fundamental truth: any god who bears the Elden Ring will forever be bound by the Fingers. And the Greater Will is the dark cloud looming over everyone's heads."
Messmer's pupils contracted as he stared at the staff in Aoko's hand—one fashioned from two intertwined Fingers. In an instant, countless thoughts raced through his mind, but ultimately, he remained still, waiting for Aoko to continue her explanation.
Aoko then recounted how she and her sister had studied magic under the Grand Priest Ymir, gradually uncovering the twisted roots of the Lands Between. She revealed the truth behind the Fingers' Mother, Metyr, and how they had ultimately defeated her.
"It all began when the Nox wounded the Fingers' Mother, the true ruler of the Lands Between," Aoko said. "After their Eternal City was cast into the depths, the Nox descendants who remained on the surface became the ancestors of the Carian royal family."
Rellana was not surprised by the revelation that her Carian ancestors came from the Nox. The Royal Academy of Raya Lucaria had records of this. However, the fact that the Nox had created the Fingerslayer Blade—a weapon capable of killing gods—and had used it to wound the Fingers' Mother was something Aoko had not mentioned before, so Rellana was visibly astonished.
"So, Queen Marika is most likely trapped inside the Erdtree right now," Aoko continued. "She waits for Godfrey, the leader of the Tarnished, to restore the Elden Ring with a new Order—one that brings unshackled order to the Lands Between."
"But neither my father nor my mother knew about the existence of the Fingers' Mother," Messmer stated, staring intently at Aoko. "And all these demigods and Tarnished are still being guided by their respective Two Fingers."
"From the remembrance we obtained after defeating the Fingers' Mother, we learned that only three Fingers remain in the Lands Between," Aoko explained, raising three fingers. "Of these, the Frenzied Flame's Three Fingers are sealed deep beneath Leyndell. The Two Fingers that guide Tarnished in the Roundtable Hold are likely inside the Erdtree. And the last Two Fingers are hidden deep beneath the Manus Celes Cathedral."
"Now that the Fingers' Mother is missing or dead, I have reason to believe that these Two Fingers—once remotely controlled by her—are in a state of panic," Aoko said. "So I doubt they can continue guiding the Tarnished and demigods."
Messmer paced back and forth in the room, repeatedly assessing the credibility of Aoko's information and contemplating how he, as Marika's most loyal son and general, should fulfill his duty.
"Then what is your goal?" Messmer suddenly stopped and asked. "As divine beings carrying an external Order, what is your true purpose in coming to the Lands Between?"
"As we informed you through Lady Rellana," Aoko patiently explained in her usual unhurried tone, "our world is in trouble. We need the seeds of the Erdtree to halt the decline of our own world's source, and we also seek to learn new magical knowledge. However, we have no interest in the Elden Ring or the Greater Will—after all, who would want a supreme overlord suddenly imposed upon them?"
"…Then, have you found a way to break the seal of the Shadow Lands and enter the Lands Between?" Messmer asked, staring into Aoko and her sister's eyes, confirming that they were not lying.
"Ah, fortunately, we have succeeded," Aoko smiled as she looked at the Scarlet Staff in her hand. "From the remembrance of the Fingers' Mother, we uncovered the original spatial coordinates of the Lands Between. Using teleportation magic, we can bypass the barrier and enter this realm."
PS: Read atleast 124 advanced chapters at patreon.com/AbsoluteCode