Under the intense pain, a sheen of sweat involuntarily beaded across Algrim's forehead as he struggled to keep himself still.
Once the Stone of Curses had been completely forced into his body, Algrim endured the excruciating pain radiating from his abdomen and looked up at Malekith with a resolute expression.
"I will destroy their defenses and help you forge a new universe!"
Malekith turned and accepted a savage mask with long horns and fangs from a Dark Elf soldier. He personally placed it over Algrim's head, concealing the Dark Elves' distinctive pointed ears.
With that, the large-framed Algrim looked more like a barbaric bandit, and no one would connect him with the Dark Elves.
Then, bearing the crucial mission of sabotaging Asgard's defenses, Algrim took a small fighter from the warship and secretly entered Vanaheim, where the battle had just ended. He blended in with the prisoners of war who were about to be sent to Asgard for imprisonment.
Just as Odin had said, with only the remaining Dark Elf warship and fewer than a hundred Dark Elf soldiers, it was simply impossible for them to launch a frontal assault, enter Asgard, and seize the Aether.
Asgard's defenses were not so easily breached.
They would most likely be completely wiped out by Asgard before they even got close to the Aether.
Even with the Dark Elves' strongest force, the Berserkers, it would still be difficult for them to break into the heavily guarded Golden Palace.
But even the strongest fortress could be easily destroyed from within.
Thus, Malekith, with nothing left to lose, planned to have Algrim infiltrate the Golden Palace and sabotage Asgard's defenses from the inside.
The plan proceeded smoothly. Disguised as a captured bandit, Algrim was escorted with the other prisoners through the Bifrost to Asgard and