Chapter 35 Mountain gods

****Third-person P.O.V.

"Come on, That show just revolves around a few nut heads talking about conspiracy theories with a little bit of graphics and history included." Jane shivered.

"Anyways, back to the topic. What about the popular polycystic faiths like the Greek pantheon and others?" Jane asked.

"I mostly researched the major faith of our times so I didn't dwell on those sadly. Why not you explain those to me?" Karl replied while shaking his head.

"Sure, Okay so before talking about those we must understand how most religions and faith come to be what they are now because it will be important while understanding polycystic faiths." Karl nodded to her when she said that.

"I'm sure you know that religion first started as worshiping of nature itself. People tend to worship mountains and figures of animals and plants before any particular concept of God came to be." Jane reminded Karl.

"There are many proofs of this in both written text and by looking at old paintings and sculptures. When Moses came down from the mountain, he found his people worshiping statues of bulls and other animals which could be those nature gods."

"Meanwhile in Islam, the first teaching of Allah is and I quote, " I am the one true God and Muhammed is my prophet". Most followers of Islam understand it as Allah guiding his people on to the true path to himself but it could also be interpreted that at that time there were other gods that people used to worship (nature gods like the spirit of the mountain) and he denied their existence to his people."

"Christianity obviously came from Judaism so they didn't have any encounters with crudely defined nature gods. Meanwhile, eastern faiths have also records of these nature gods."

"Hinduism said to be originated in the Indus valley civilization and if you see the artifacts of that lost civilization you will find many statues of people worshiping animals like deer and wild cows. Taoism didn't have any encounters with such figures since it was created much later on, the same applies to Buddhism and Jainism."

"Both Western and Eastern religions had similarity in this but the same could not be said for polycystic religion like the Greek pantheon or the Egyptian pantheon."

"These religions could almost be said to be in the middle phase of converting from Nature worshiping to deities worshiping. Every God in these faiths has been assigned a physical representation. Hades represents death, Zeus represents thunder, and so on. Some of the gods have lateral bodies assigned like Apollo has the sun."

"Another big difference between these faiths and modern major faiths is the description of gods themselves. The behaviors of these gods and goddesses seemed almost human-like. They have family feuds, crimes such as rape, murder, and so on."

"While the God of Abrahamic faiths is a benevolent and kind God while also capable of destruction, Zeus in no way or form appears to be benevolent. Abrahamic God is described as so perfect that a human would be filled with guilt for all the bad things he does in comparison. Meanwhile, I don't anyone will feel guilty while in the company of Zeus because he does seem to have powers like a god would have but the behavior is not god-like."

"I don't think we would find any success if we focus on researching tales from major religions because they all likely already have been influenced by time and their follower's demands." Jane opened a small dairy and showed it to Karl.

"In comparison, Myths from polycystic religions may have some form of truth in them because they don't appear to be perfect." There were a lot of writings in the dairy about myths of heroic stories that took place in these religions such as the tale of Hercules and others.

"My father used to say that when you look at historical contents, the perfect story may not be true since it likely is fabricated by people of that time while a crude story might also be not true but it could have some traces of truth," Jane said.

"These legends of demi-Gods entering little realms to complete certain tasks might have some truth in them. They might not be demi-gods, nor they might be completing those tasks given by God but those realms could have existed that some human stumbled upon while wandering." Jane guessed.

"Could these portals be gaps in space-time connecting to some unknown place? What if these gaps once again open or they could be opened by some means?"

"That's a lot of guessing on your part." Kar-el smiled wryly.

"I know but the possibility still is present," Jane argued.

"There are a lot of things that could be true if you follow your logic. How can you be sure that this one is true?" Kar-el presented logic into the conversation.

"I did some tests by myself around various places and I found traces of energies that were present at the time of big bang. I know there is not much hope in this theory and that's why I'm not completely convinced myself. I'm also conducting proper scientific tests too meanwhile and most of my focus is on that, this is just a side quest." Jane sighed before getting up.

"I think I could accept sharing my research with you as long as you are fine working with me after this discussion. I will be leaving in two days for my visit to Canada if you wanna be part of the team then inform me tomorrow." She said goodbye before excusing herself.

Once she was gone, Kar-el muttered to himself," There is no way that I can deny your offer after the lengths I have to go to make it seem that it was Erik's idea to invite me in. I wasn't able to learn much about the vast space during my time on krypton because I had other things to worry about first. I can't lose the advantage of working with someone as talented as you in your field when I have the chance because that would be the key to learning more about the star map of this universe." He stayed in his seat for a few minutes enjoying the silence before leaving as well.

***Serena P.O.V.

"Here is the report about the shareholders of Nova L.t.d. that you requested, Ma'am." My Secretary passed me the files related to my latest target.

I nodded with a forced smile before she excused herself.

"How many have you found out till now?" I asked to no one in my soundproof office.

"Around 18 employees in various departments have been identified to be hidden agents from more than one secret agency." My new personal A.I. assistant replied.

"How much more time before you can identify all the moles in my corporate garden, Orphina?" I asked as I took a seat.

"The results will be sent to you in 2 to 3 days, my lady. What further instructions do you have for me?" She asked. I didn't make her as advanced as I am since there was no need for that and it would only invite trouble. It would not be wrong to say that she is just a super-smart computer with talking abilities and a little bit of thinking capacity.

"Just keep an eye on them and let them be," I replied patiently to her while scrolling the documents in my hands.

Kar-el was right when he said that it is enjoyable to not be able to do things just by snapping a finger. Being powerless to a certain amount is kinda enjoyable. Living as a human does seem like a luxury if you view it like that.

I could read the entire library if I so desire in an Instant but sometimes taking things slowly feels enjoyable as well.

"If I'm not bothering you by asking, could you please explain to me why you choose inaction when you have already Identified human viruses in your corporate system? Isn't it the best option to eliminate them as quickly as possible?" Orphina wondered.

"Every action has its opposite reaction. Let's say that we get rid of these moles. We might be free of them for a certain time but it will also alert their masters about our capabilities which will lead to them increasing our danger value in their list. They would be warier of us than now which we do not want." I turn to look outside the window before continuing," Plus, some of these moles are from the government too. We don't want them to be wary of us for now. It would be counterproductive."

"There was a saying in Kryptonian art of war. Always be wary of your opponents and think that you might have missed something about your surroundings. Always keep checking your surroundings to make sure that you are not kept in the dark about certain things."

"Once you found about those hidden things, do not act on them unless necessary. Now you have the advantage. Your enemy thinks that you are under the dark, that he has already scored a point against you but in reality, it is him who was kept in the dark because you won the information war against him."

"Manipulate your enemy into thinking that he is at an advantage while manipulating things from behind without his knowledge. "

"Understood," Orphina replied.

"Make sure that they do not participate in our core project somehow. Let them think that they are getting information from us without our knowledge. Just give them little bits of information about projects irrelevant to the bigger picture from time to time to maintain the bubble of their delusion." Serena ordered while smirking.

"There is another thing that I must inform you about, my lady." Orphina continued once Serena finished speaking.

"What is it?" Serena sighed.

"Because of recent trends due to our products in the market, Natural energy resources like gas and petroleum have been losing their value at a steady pace. Russian oligarchs and princes from the middle east and the dictator of Venezuela are not much happy about that since most of their wealth comes from the oil and gas trade." Orphina explained.

"Hmm, anything else?"

"Yes, some people in here are also not much happy about that."

"Okay, what is the status of our micro drones?" Serena asked as she thought of a solution.

"Already completed. We can deploy them in the shapes of tiny inserts as well as birds. Capable of turning invisible and providing surveillance as well as killing targets by assassination. Since we used kyptonian tech while making them, they are also capable of turning into fluids or dispersing as air particles when needed by breaking apart into tiny nanoparticles." Orphina presented the digital file to Serena.

"Good. Put surveillance on these people for now and observe their behavior with our drones. If the oligarchs or princes think of taking actions against us, eliminate them in silence. As for the people in this country, if they try to do anything against us just release evidence against the crimes they have committed in the dark to the public. Democracy is really helpful if you know how to use it to your advantage." Serena got up and left after saying that.