Chapter 42: The scythe that cuts concepts

***Kar-el P.O.V.

We finally entered the underground cave, which was a Vibranium mine given that as soon as we entered it, my eyes were captivated by the walls that make up the cave.

It was a beautiful sight to behold. The walls were glowing with a purple hue illuminating the whole cavity.

"Still don't want some Vibranium?" T'chaka asked in a joking tone while I admired the sight.

"I am certainly interested in the prospect, but not today. I would be happy to have some if you gifted me some Vibranium in the future." I didn't realize this now, but these words meant a lot to T'chaka.

In his lifetime, not once has he seen someone that denied vibranium after seeing it.

We took the elevator to the underground research facility, where I finally saw it.

It was a scythe covered with moving mathematical runes floating in a tube like an instrument.

My eyes automatically turned into windows through which you could gleam life equation. I raised my hand towards the scythe, which instantly reacted to my gesture.

It turned astral and floated towards my hand. Once in my hand, the mathematical runes on it became alive and slowly got absorbed in me, leaving only the scythe in my hands.

Once the runes became a part of the life equation inside my body, I finally understood what the rune meant.

(To my idiotic believer) My eyes twitched a bit before I tried to ignore it altogether. Thankfully, even if the message itself was weird, it fulfilled its purpose.

Since the message was directly from x=+-, the rules and regulations of the universe do not apply to it. I absorbed it and made it a part of my life equation, freeing me from almost all the rules and regulations of this universe.

I cannot be manipulated by Kang the conquerer now because he does not possess a means to manipulate something directly related to x:+-.

*Cough* *cough*

I realized that I completely ignored everyone besides me after my eyes fell on the scythe.

"Sorry about that. I was trying to familiarise myself with it." I nodded at T'chaka for reminding me of their presence.

"If you don't mind, can I ask you some questions?" He walked outside the window into the vibranium walls as he asked me that.

"You can ask freely, although I might not reply to some of them." I followed his gaze.

"Our scientists spend quite some time trying to understand that thing. Can you tell me what it is?" T'chaka pointed at the scythe in my hands.

"It is a gift. a gift from the god I believe in." I slowly raised the scythe in front of my eyes. It felt like I was lifting a feather instead. I am still not sure how to use the weapon and for what?

Kryptonians don't need a weapon to win a fight most of the time if not every. It seems unnecessary.

"From god, huh?" He mulled a bit over that.

"What were those runes in its body that you absorbed?"

"An encrypted message for me by my god." it's funny how the message seemed more useful than the weapon itself.

"What about the scythe itself? What is it made up of?" One of the scientists listening to us asked excitedly. T'chaka glanced at me with narrowed eyes and lowered his neck.

"Nth metal." I still replied.

"It must be quite rare. When we found the scythe, it was, embedded in a completely sliced Vibranium." T'chaka casually told me as we moved to exit the facility.

That surprised me a bit. While the Nth metal was one of the strongest metals in the DC-Universe, it would still be quite a feat to slice a whole vibranium mountain. If I had made the weapon myself, I don't think it could archive something like that.

'It appears the weapon is more than what meets the eye.' I thought as I glanced at the scythe.

"It is. As per my information, this is the only piece of Nth metal in the known universe." I finally replied to his question as we entered the elevator once again. It was a bit hard to insert the scythe inside the elevator. It would be hard to carry this around without breaking the surroundings.

***Next day, El enterprise headquarters, New York City.

"Excuse me." Kar-el walked up to reception and addressed the lady sitting behind the desk. She was working on her computer and looked lost in her work.

She glanced at me once before requesting a minute. I politely nodded.

"Yes, sir." She fixed her documents before addressing me.

"Can you please inform miss Serena that Karl is requesting a meeting?" She nodded once before looking into a document.

"Yes, do you have any earlier appointment with Miss Serena because I can't find your name on the list?" She raised her head from the paper and glanced at me. I could feel her judging my social standing, but I didn't detect malice.

"No, miss. I don't have any earlier appointments. You just need to inform her of my presence." Her smile became a bit forced at that, but she quickly recovered.

"Sir, I'm sorry, sadly I can't do that. Miss Serena is in a meeting with major shareholders right now. I don't think it would be appropriate to disturb her. I might even lose my job if I did it at an inappropriate time." She politely rejected before continuing," How about this? You can wait in the waiting room until the meeting is over. I will inform her of your presence as soon as this meeting ends." She walked in front of me and motioned me to follow her to the adjacent waiting room.

I nodded and started to follow her. Just then, the phone on her desk started ringing.

She excused herself before picking up the phone.

"Hello, you are talking to the reception of El enterprise. May I know your reason for calling us?"

"Ohh, okay, mm-hmm. Okay, ma'am." She put the phone down and glanced at me.

"Sir, you can wait for miss Serena in her office. Are you aware of where it is?". I shook my head and she quickly told me where the office was.

After that, we parted ways.

*** Unknown P.O.V.

"We are getting offers from the military to work on weapons constantly, but you keep rejecting them. You are making us shareholders lose profits." One of the major shareholders argued.

"Heh, we are one of the top three companies in terms of earning profits for the last 3years, and you are telling me that I am making you lose profits?" Miss Serena coldly smiled in return.

"That is true none here doubt your capabilities in leading this enterprise. We are just saying that we could also garner some browny points from the military if we accept their demands." Another of the shareholders tried to calm the rising tension.

"What do you want me to do then?" Miss Serena gracefully turned toward the whole group while crossing her arms and leaning on her chair.

They all glanced at each other until one of them spoke," We want you to allow the opening of the research & development group entirely focused on weapons. You can decide the budget yourself but at least open one. It doesn't matter if they can't give good results."

"Just by opening one, we can keep the army happy for a few years." Many nodded their heads.

"Don't be naive. Which idiot proposed this idea to you all?" Miss Serena smirked mockingly.

"Miss Serena, please control your language. You are talking to people that have invested billions in this company. We have the right to propose ideas." One of the few female shareholders sternly warned her.

Miss Serena shook her head," I know who I am talking to, Madam Bellamy. That's why I am being frank with you all. You are one of the best when it's about investing in the market, but that doesn't mean you also would be great at running the business itself."

"Do not believe in whoever told you about this idea. It would only bring problems for our company."

"Can you please elaborate?" Madam Bellamy asked.

"Of course, what do you think the military likes the most?"

"What?" Madam asked.

"Results. The military always looks for results instead of how much resources you have invested in the project." Serena coldly glanced outside the window.

"Do you think they would be happy after realizing they got nothing good after investing in our company? At the moment, we are neutral, but if that happens, our standing in front of them would only go down. That's the first reason why we should not do it."

"There are others?" Another shareholder asked in surprise.

"Of course there are. It would sully our brand image, as we are hailed as the company that doesn't invest in war. While it is true that after 9/11 public was okay with weapon companies, times have changed. They loathe war and the destruction it brings."

"If a company like us, which from the start focused on pioneering ways in medical and energy, suddenly starts making weapons, it will hurt our brand image."

"We don't want that, do we?" Serena smiled at the group.

"And?" Madam Bellamy hesitantly asked.

"And~ one of the basic rules of business is to study the environment before entering a new industry. Do you think a small R&D group can compete against the likes of stark industries and hammer industries? It is impossible to compete against them unless I become part of that R&D group."

"There is no point in entering the weapon industry if we can't grab a foothold there. I think these reasons should be sufficient." Miss Serena glanced at their faces as she said that. Some were still dissatisfied since their idea got rejected.

"Let's not kid ourselves, shall we? I am the biggest shareholder by a long margin after my husband died. I raised this company to what it is now with my blood and sweat. I would be the last person to wish for the bad performance of this company." Miss Serena coldly remarked.

"You indeed have the largest share of the company, but after you made the company from private to public. You were bound to lose some privilege." The person at the start mockingly laughed.

"I didn't know you were delusional, Mr. Joseph. Do you think I don't know what you were doing behind my back? I must certainly applaud you for choosing such a high target. Sadly, your target is me."

"Whenever someone thinks of El enterprise, the person, the face that comes to their mind is me? I am El enterprise, and El enterprise is me. Keep dreaming that one day you will be able to kick me out of this company."

"Moving on." I quickly moved forward and passed her the documents I was holding.

"We will be introducing a new product in the market soon. As you all know, our company mostly focus on energy and medical sector. We have been providing cleaner energy to day to day lives of people." I started the projector and operated it to show the presentation while she spoke.

"This new product will lower our cost to almost minimal. Producing cleaner energy is easy and cost-efficient as we do not need to pay for raw materials. The biggest problem was storing and distributing it. That is where our expenses, most of them came from, but not anymore."

"I have been studying plants recently and have succeeded in artificially creating the process by which it converts electrons into pyruvate. I have already patented the device."

"In a few months, we would have a battery in every major electricity generation facility owned by our company. Later we could make smaller versions of the batteries to be used by the public in their houses."

"I am sure our stocks in the share market are about to rise once again once we launched it. Now I will leave and give you all some space to discuss among yourselves." Miss Serena motioned me to follow her as she left the room. I quickly collected important documents before pursuing her.

(Edited By: AzuraD)