Two full hours passed in intense discussion and careful planning.
When the meeting finally concluded, Mira stood up from her seat and quietly left the conference room.
The weight of pure exhaustion pressed down heavily on her shoulders. But despite the tiredness, her expression remained carefully composed, professional. Not a crack in the mask.
The bustling underground corridors filled with busy personnel no longer even registered in her mind. She barely saw them. Just kept walking forward on autopilot.
She ignored the polite greetings of her subordinates as she passed, walked straight through the security checkpoints without slowing, and finally emerged into the surface parking area where her car was waiting.
As soon as the door closed behind her, sealing out all the noise and chaos of the world outside, she finally allowed herself to lean back against the leather seat.
And released a long, utterly weary sigh.
God, she was tired.
The vehicle began gliding smoothly into the night, its driver maintaining professional silence up front.
From inside her coat pocket, Mira carefully retrieved a small, sleek communication device—its design far too advanced and sophisticated for anything publicly known or commercially available. The materials alone looked like they belonged in a sci-fi movie.
With a practiced, familiar motion, she pressed a nearly invisible switch on its side.
The device emitted a very faint blue glow before she smoothly clipped it behind her right ear, where it sat almost invisibly against her skin.
For a moment, there was only silence.
Just the quiet hum of the car engine and the distant sounds of Delhi traffic outside.
Then, a calm male voice answered on the other end.
"Mira."
Just her name. Nothing more.
"Mr. Elric," she said immediately, her tone shifting to something more professional, more focused. "Everything has been carried out according to your exact instructions. We're preparing to open formal negotiations with our contacts in China. The plan to pressure the U.S. government while simultaneously expanding foreign influence in the region is already in motion."
She paused briefly, then added: "The meeting went perfectly. Everyone's on board."
"Good work, Mira," Elric replied simply, his voice warm. "You've done well."
"No need to mention it, boss," she said with a faint smile that nobody could see. "It's what you pay me for."
Then her voice hesitated—just slightly.
"But… when will I actually get to see you again?"
It had been months now since their last face-to-face meeting.
For a brief moment, there was only silence on the line.
No immediate answer.
Then—
"Soon," Elric said simply.
And the connection cut.
Just like that.
Mira stared out the tinted window at the passing city lights—the endless stream of vehicles, the lit-up buildings, the organized chaos of nighttime Delhi—for several long seconds before slowly removing the earpiece.
The disappointment on her face was subtle.
But unmistakable.
Far away from Delhi's underground machinations, inside one of Elric's secluded cabin hideouts—this one located deep in the forests of Sokovia—the distinctly playful voice of his AI assistant suddenly echoed through the room.
"Boss…" Aline said, her tone dripping with obvious sarcasm, "it seems your personal charm is not quite as useless a power as you repeatedly claimed it was."
Elric let out a dry, slightly embarrassed chuckle from where he sat reviewing data on multiple holographic screens.
"It seems so," he admitted reluctantly.
After fully acquiring and integrating Ishiki Otsutsuki's power, his personal charm and natural charisma had inexplicably increased by a significant margin. At first, honestly, he hadn't taken it seriously at all. Hadn't even really noticed.
Power alone was more than enough to bend people's wills, after all.
Strength commanded respect. Fear. Obedience.
But now, looking at the results…
It seemed that charm played its own surprisingly effective role in manipulation.
Temptation through pure power definitely worked—you couldn't argue with results. But emotional leverage, personal loyalty, genuine attachment? Those were just as effective in the long run. Sometimes even more so.
That was precisely why he had deliberately chosen female representatives for several key positions in his network.
Not because of any particular prejudice or preference.
Simply because the statistics showed they were more susceptible to this particular type of influence.
Calculation.
Nothing more.
This entire operation with the Hulk, with India, with the political maneuvering—all of it was merely a single fragment of a much, much larger plan.
A plan that stretched years into the future.
With this incident, he hoped that Bruce Banner's resentment and hatred toward the U.S. government would deepen significantly—become so deep, so ingrained, that the very idea of working for them again would never even cross his mind.
Let alone joining something like the Avengers.
At the same time, he was actively exploiting the entire situation to strengthen his own foundation. His carefully selected representatives like Mira would gain substantial influence, political authority, and access to massive resources—making all his future steps far, far easier to execute.
And even if there were minor obstacles or complications along the way…
The plan had already been overwhelmingly successful.
It had even achieved something beyond his original expectations.
Elric looked up at one of his screens, where footage played on loop—the viral video of his battle with the Hulk, already spreading across the internet despite attempts to contain it.
He hadn't actually planned to reveal himself to the world yet.
That had been an unintended consequence.
But as he watched the footage replay for the dozenth time, Elric simply sighed and shrugged.
"If it happened, it happened," he muttered to himself. "Might as well just go with the flow and adjust accordingly."
"Aline," he said more seriously, his tone shifting to business, "control the narrative around this footage very carefully. Don't let anyone—governments, media corporations, conspiracy theorists, nobody—manipulate the story to fit their own agendas. This is extremely important for our future plans."
"Understood completely, boss," Aline replied efficiently. "Already working on it."
After a brief pause where he checked some additional data, Elric asked casually, "Did you manage to find Ivanov's exact location yet?"
Ivan Vanko.
"No, sir," Aline admitted, sounding slightly frustrated—which was rare for an AI. "I haven't been able to pinpoint his precise position yet. But I'm ninety-nine percent certain about the general area where he's operating. I've already sent the coordinates to Irin and instructed her to begin searching there immediately."
"How long?" Elric asked.
"It won't take very long," she assured him. "A few days at most. Maybe a week if he's being particularly careful."
"Tell her to hurry up," Elric said firmly. "We need him eliminated before she reveals arc reactor technology to the Russian government. You know exactly how troublesome it would be if Ivan Vanko suddenly shows up after Irin publicly unveils the technology."
Create unnecessary variables.
After dealing with the Hulk situation, Tony Stark was naturally the next major target on his list.
But more importantly than just Tony himself, the world desperately needed a proper distraction right now—something massive and attention-grabbing enough that absolutely no one would pay any real attention to Sokovia for at least two full years.
Maybe even longer if he was lucky.
Enough time to build a proper force. Establish real infrastructure. Create something that couldn't be easily dismantled.
And Elric already had the perfect tool for creating that distraction.
The Arc Reactor.
At this current moment, only Tony Stark possessed that particular technology. He'd invented it, perfected it, miniaturized it. It was his.
Governments around the world definitely wanted it—desperately, in some cases—but not quite desperately enough to act completely recklessly. They were still being cautious, still trying diplomatic channels, still hoping Tony would just hand it over voluntarily.
That delicate balance would change instantly the moment another country came even remotely close to replicating the technology independently.
The second that happened? All bets were off.
Irin, had no problem handing it over to the Russian government in exchange for power and position.
It honestly wasn't hard to imagine what the U.S. government would do next.
No matter how much personal influence and political leverage Tony Stark currently had—and he had quite a lot—they would move aggressively to seize the technology. Probably try to seize him too, if they could manage it.
And given Tony's current personality.
Yeah. It wouldn't be pleasant for anyone involved.
At the same time, this whole situation would give Irin absolutely immense power and leverage within Russia's political and military structure. If she played her cards right, essentially limitless authority and resources would be hers for the taking.
Which was precisely why—
"Eliminating Ivan Vanko is definitely the best option for us right now," Elric muttered, thinking out loud. "Clean up that loose end before it becomes a problem."
After all, the man was basically destined to become a villain in the future anyway.
Might as well get ahead of it.
Aline's voice suddenly interrupted his thoughts with obvious amusement.
"Boss, your hot chocolate is getting cold while you monologue," she said mockingly. "You can finalize your villainous world-domination plans after you finish your drink. It's the good Belgian stuff, don't waste it."
Elric frowned, genuinely offended.
"What do you mean villainous?" he protested. "Everything I'm doing is clearly for the betterment of mankind as a whole. I'm preventing disasters, saving lives, creating stability. I'm basically a proper superhero here."
"Please, please stop with the grand delusions," Aline replied, her tone absolutely dripping with sarcasm now. "You're literally sitting alone in a dark room right now, surrounded by screens, planning and manipulating the fate of the entire world without anyone's knowledge or consent."
She paused for effect.
"Boss, you are the textbook definition of a supervillain. Like, if someone looked up 'supervillain' in the dictionary, your photo would be right there."
"…Fuck."
Elric rubbed his temples, feeling a headache coming on.
Had he really become one?
When exactly had that happened?
Before he could dwell too deeply on this uncomfortable existential revelation, a familiar voice suddenly called from outside the room.
"Boss, it's time!"
Pietro's voice, energetic as always.
Elric looked up from his screens, momentarily confused, then his expression cleared as he remembered.
"Oh, right," he said, standing up and stretching. "Today's the day."
He'd almost forgotten.
Today, he had finally decided to teach the twins—Pietro and Wanda—about chakra.
Time to see if they had any talent for it.
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