Svartalfheim, the Realm of Mist, home of the Dark Elves.
A magical carriage sped across the landscape. Dario Agger, the CEO of Roxxon Energy Corporation, greedily inhaled the air. In this world, which was no smaller than Earth, swamps and forests stretched as far as the eye could see. Various magical creatures thrived here, yet they were not immortal; birth, aging, sickness, and death still governed this realm, as they had for millions or even hundreds of millions of years.
"Does Svartalfheim have earthquakes and volcanoes?"
Amora didn't quite understand the mortal's question, but she answered the trivial detail regardless. "Svartalfheim has no volcanoes, but earthquakes still occur. The Realm of Mist is not a quiet or peaceful land. The Dark Elves once engaged in protracted wars here—against trolls, Light Elves, and dwarves. In short, there has always been war."
Good. Geological activity was present.
Agger nodded with satisfaction. Such a lush environment, coupled with long-term geological movement, was more than enough to birth vast and easily accessible oil fields beneath Svartalfheim's surface. The oil reserves here might very well surpass those of the entire Earth.
Imagine what would happen when Roxxon Energy controlled oil fields that exceeded the total reserves of Earth?
"You said before that you would convince Lord Malekith to allow us to mine the magical minerals of the worlds he has conquered within the Nine Realms—I wish to change my bargaining chip." Agger looked out at the land, a satisfied smile playing on his lips. "I want you to convince him to grant me unrestricted oil drilling rights within his kingdom."
"Oil?"
Amora arched an eyebrow, showing little interest. "Is such a thing more important than various magical metals?"
"That depends on how you look at it. For instance, we share a common enemy: Tony Stark." Seeing Amora's disinterested expression, Agger elaborated, "He is the leader of the Avengers and Thor's comrade on Earth."
Amora finally raised an eyebrow in slight surprise and signaled for Agger to continue. Agger began to explain his viewpoint: "With the further rise of energy prices in our world, along with several other messy reasons, traditional fossil fuels are gradually being phased out by new forms of energy. The most prominent of these energy upstarts is Tony Stark; he is currently pushing for the large-scale commercialization of his Arc Reactor."
"And if you have this oil, you can stop him?"
"By driving energy prices even lower? No, why would we do that?" Agger smiled thinly. "Why don't we use this as a bargaining chip to pull our government into these negotiations? Svartalfheim isn't just a place name; it's a political entity. We can tie the entire United States to our chariot. To Lord Malekith, oil may be a completely useless byproduct, but to us, that is not necessarily the case."
Next, Agger spent a considerable amount of time explaining his plan to Amora.
Indeed, according to Amora's initial intuition, Roxxon could use high-quality, cheap oil extracted from Svartalfheim to crash energy prices and wage a commercial war against Stark Industries, but that would be a thankless and difficult task. Conversely, if they could push for the establishment of diplomatic relations between the United States and Svartalfheim and bring the U.S. government into the fold, the situation would be entirely different.
A massive oil market completely under their control would allow the United States to establish its own version of OPEC, controlling international energy prices. They could even drive up global prices while giving the Americans themselves the green light.
Even if Matthew Ellis were not a member of Hydra—no, no politician could refuse such a thing. None would turn down an opportunity to revive or even strengthen the hegemony of the petrodollar. And this opportunity would allow Hydra to further, or even completely, control the entire nation.
When that time came, who would be the enemy of Tony Stark, the man who had been advocating for new clean energy and hoping to replace traditional fossil fuels?
There was only one potential flaw in the entire plan: whether Malekith would introduce other countries to act as a counterweight. However, that would still take time for a simple reason: due to the covenants of the various pantheons themselves, Malekith could not move against Atlantis. To do so would easily spark a joint war between the Nine Realms and Olympus.
Perhaps Odin, given his increasingly long periods of Odinsleep and the existence of other enemies of Asgard, would hesitate to move against Svartalfheim, but Zeus had no such qualms. And at least for now, Malekith was not strong enough to fight both of them.
Therefore, they needed a faction brave enough to go to war with Atlantis—and perhaps even gain the upper hand—to help them achieve their goal: digging up the remains of Laufey, King of the Frost Giants, to resurrect him. In the short term, only Roxxon Energy was capable of doing this.
The carriage came to a halt. They stepped out and looked toward Malekith's palace in the distance. Before becoming king and ruling all of Svartalfheim, Malekith was the leader of the Black Bile Clan. In Earth's history, this clan bore a more terrifying name because they used fearsome hounds and rode nightmare steeds to invade Northern Europe and Britain amidst storms. Thus, they were known by the locals as the Wild Hunt.
Malekith was the King of the Wild Hunt.
Under the watchful eyes of Wild Hunt hounds and knights, they ascended the palace steps, moving forward until they reached the Great Hall. In the empty, silent hall, only a cold voice drifted toward them.
"Amora the Enchantress, Loki's lackey."
Malekith, King of the Dark Elves, was not sitting upon his throne; he had already appeared before the two of them. Agger went down on one knee even faster than Amora. Only after Amora had unhurriedly knelt did Malekith let out a soft chuckle. "Speak. What message does your master bring me?"
"My master congratulates you on the conquest of all Jotunheim. Furthermore, he has a grand plan that can help you control those Frost Giants who are currently scattered and still attacking the Wild Hunt army."
Amora looked up at Malekith with a smile. "I can retrieve Laufey's body for you. With your magical prowess, you will surely be able to resurrect Laufey and turn him into your servant. At that point, you will possess the most powerful army in the Nine Realms."
Malekith ignored the details of how she would obtain Laufey's body and asked Amora a single question instead.
"And Loki? What does he want?"
"He? All he requires is revenge."
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