From the very first moment, Aoko saw Messmer, she noticed something—this eldest son of Marika did not possess Marika's blessing.
Or rather, Messmer's blessing was limited solely to his single remaining eye, and that eye, rather than bestowing a blessing, seemed more like a seal—one that suppressed the innate powers he was born with: the forces of serpent and fire.
Aoko did not reveal the fact that the Blessed King Morgott had the features of a horned one. The main reason for this was her twisted sense of humor, as well as maintaining the coherence of the story. After all, no matter how skilled an Outer Lands sorcerer was in prophecy and stargazing, it would be nearly impossible for them to know the details of Morgott, the hidden son, from the very beginning—just as she had also chosen not to mention Morgott's younger brother, Mohg.
The mere thought of Messmer leading his troops back home to defend the king, only to find the so-called Blessed King Morgott standing atop the royal city, his horns prominently displayed, sent shivers of excitement through Aoko. She was dying to see what would happen when the two of them clashed.
As divine beings from the outside world, Aoko and her sister were even more detested in the Lands Between than the Tarnished. Many things were difficult for them to accomplish directly. However, if they were to join Messmer's army as Glintstone Sorcerers, allies of Caria, and receive official recognition, it would save them a great deal of time and trouble.
Before arriving in the Shadow Lands, Aoko had always been puzzled as to why Marika and the Golden Order discriminated so strongly against the horned ones, going so far as to call them omens. However, after visiting Bonny Village and the Bonny Prison, she immediately understood.
The actions of the horned ones were utterly abominable—enough to provoke the wrath of the heavens.
Aoko speculated that Marika's decision to send Messmer and his army to wage what was essentially a genocidal war against the horned ones was likely rooted in deep-seated hatred. As a member of the Rare Kind race, Marika may have had a blood feud with the horned ones. This was evident from the way the horned ones treated that golden-haired girl.
Alternatively, Marika herself might even be a descendant of a once-exterminated race—if that were true, it would explain her deep-seated hatred toward the horned ones.
Currently, Aoko wielded the Scarlet Staff, which, combined with the research notes left behind by Priest Ymir, allowed her to open large-scale teleportation gates similar to wormholes, temporarily linking the Shadow Lands and the Lands Between. This facilitated movement between the two realms.
However, this did not mean she could break the veil and restore the Shadow Lands to the Lands Between. That veil was created by Queen Marika through the power of the Shadow Erdtree. As long as the Shadow Erdtree remained unburned, the Shadow Lands would never return.
After careful deliberation, Messmer decided to regroup the scattered expeditionary forces in the Shadow Lands. Some would remain to guard the fortress, while the rest would march under his command to suppress the rebellion and defend the throne in the Lands Between.
He had no trust in the so-called Blessed King. As the eldest son, he knew he had a younger brother named Godwyn, but had never heard of anyone named Morgott. He needed to see for himself whether the man wielding the Elden Ring's core was truly reliable.
As for Caria and its queen, Rennala, along with her three offspring—Messmer had no particular thoughts about the young princess Ranni. However, he held no goodwill toward Rykard, who had been devoured by the great serpent, nor toward the ambitious Radahn. That said, he had no immediate plans to wage war against them.
Messmer's top priority was ensuring the safety of his mother, Queen Marika. From Aoko, he had learned that there was still a Two Fingers entity residing within the Erdtree.
To return to the Lands Between and defend the throne, the militarily experienced Messmer's first course of action was reconnaissance. He assembled a team of former royal agents from Leyndell, currently stationed in Ensis Castle, and dispatched them to the Lands Between to gather intelligence.
Another reason for this mission was to verify Aoko's ability to open teleportation channels using the Scarlet Staff.
From Ymir's research, Aoko had learned not only how to open teleportation channels by combining Primeval Darkness with the Scarlet Staff's authority, but also how to maintain remote communication with the Lands Between using detection magic. By utilizing mage towers scattered across the Lands Between, real-time communication could be achieved.
A few days later, the dispatched agents sent back intelligence from the Lands Between. Their findings were entirely consistent with the information provided by the Aozaki sisters, proving the sisters' reliability and sincerity in cooperation. Thus, Messmer resolved to launch the royal expedition.
However, before setting out for the Lands Between, one crucial task remained: eliminating the remaining threats in the Shadow Lands.
Among these lingering threats, the most formidable was the last bastion of the horned ones still entrenched in Tower Hamlet.
"In reality, the Tower Hamlet consists of two parts," Messmer explained to the Aozaki sisters while standing over a sand table. "The Divine Tower of Enir-Ilim has already been sealed by the Rune of Rejection. The remaining portion of the Tower Hamlet is what we need to completely purge."
This was the second time Aoko had heard the term Divine Tower. The first time had been a fleeting mention in the memories of the Fingers' Mother, where she learned that it was the place where Marika ascended to godhood. At the very top of this Divine Tower, there supposedly existed a Divine Gate.
However, Aoko had no interest in such matters. Since Messmer wanted to purge the Tower Hamlet and exterminate the remaining horned ones before heading to the Lands Between, she and Touko had no reason not to help.
The reason Messmer had not wiped out these survivors earlier was that, midway through the war, he had suddenly learned that Marika had permanently sealed the Shadow Lands, and he, along with his forces, had become trapped.
This realization left Messmer disheartened, and he immediately withdrew to the fortress to go into a state of resignation. But now, having regained knowledge of the events unfolding in the Lands Between, he was determined to complete his unfinished mission.
Thus, the Aozaki sisters joined Messmer's newly mobilized army. They were integrated into Caria's mage battalion, which was under the command of Princess Rellana.
The operation to purge the Tower Hamlet was a complete success. Aoko and Touko had no psychological or moral qualms about slaughtering the horned ones. Alongside Messmer's forces, they thoroughly eradicated every last one of them from the streets and alleys of Tower Hamlet.
Among their adversaries were some formidable foes—curse blade warriors with prominent horns and divine beast warriors wielding Furnace abilities.
However, against the overwhelming firepower of the Aozaki sisters and the might of the Carian knights, they stood no chance. They were swiftly defeated and annihilated.
One noteworthy event during the purge was the discovery of an elderly horned priestess by the Carian forces. This old woman had an extremely foul mouth, cursing Marika as a "golden-haired whore" and calling Messmer a "blasphemous bastard."
Since she appeared to be a high-ranking priestess among the horned ones, Rellana decided to bring her before Messmer for judgment.
To Aoko's surprise, Messmer seemed to recognize the old woman's identity. He paid no heed to her vile insults and instead chose to imprison her deep within the dungeons of the Shadow Keep.