Electricity and Magnetism

The night was quiet.

Lilith blew out the candle in the room, slipped back beneath the soft covers, untied her bathrobe, and gazed expectantly at the bathroom door.

Dim yellow light seeped through the gap beneath the door, and a black shadow swayed. Lilith's heart swayed along with it.

She had not seen the man she loved for a full two months!

There was a saying: one day apart felt like three autumns. But Lilith felt even that could not describe how much she missed him. Her longing was like an endless sea, soaking into every cell of her body.

Yes, every single cell spoke of Lilith's yearning and desire!

After an agonizing wait, the bathroom door finally opened. Billowing steam surged into the room, accompanied by the flickering of faint arcs. The man inside wrapped himself in a bath towel, its belt hanging loose and revealing muscle lines that looked sculpted from stone.

Lilith's sparkling eyes followed his figure, her face brimming with anticipation. Her breathing unconsciously deepened, and her cheeks flushed red like the setting sun.

"Lord Annus... I'm ready!"

Lilith closed her eyes, waiting for her master's favor.

But second after second passed, and the covers still lay heavily over Lilith's body. She could not help opening her eyes, only to see Annus facing the partition door, his back completely motionless.

"Lord Annus...?"

Lilith called softly, but Annus did not react. She immediately became alert.

Her gaze followed Annus's line of sight to the partition door. Observation Haki silently spread outward, and moments later, Lilith's expression changed sharply. Torrential fury surged from her alluring eyes, carrying a viciousness fierce enough to burn someone alive!

How dare they interrupt my good time...

Lilith had never imagined that someone would dare sneak into her room! Most importantly, they had done so during this sacred moment when she and Lord Annus were about to share intimacy!

"Lord Annus, please leave this to me!"

Lilith volunteered in a low voice, her teeth grinding with hatred. She had already decided how to tear this unforgivable bastard to pieces, but Annus merely waved a hand. He casually picked up a coin from the nearby cabinet and held it between his index and middle fingers.

At the same time, the partition door opened soundlessly. Lilith narrowed her eyes, trying to make out the intruder's appearance, but she saw only moonlight spilling through the window crack onto the floor. There was no one before the partition door.

But if that was the case, how had the door opened? Lilith realized something was wrong.

The next second, lightning flashed, interrupting her thoughts. Annus lightly flicked the coin between his fingers, golden current flowing along a specific path...

Then the coin shot forth like a cannonball!

That was not a metaphor, but a literal description! The ordinary coin burst past the speed of sound the instant it left Annus's fingertips! Golden current trailed behind it like a meteor, and the air was torn apart by the coin in that instant, spraying blood!

A heavy object suddenly crashed to the floor in front of the seemingly empty partition door. Dark crimson blood spread across the floor as transparency slowly faded, exposing a corpse wearing a black mask. The coin had precisely pierced its heart, then spun several times across the floor, carving bloody streaks before finally falling still.

A few seconds later, a ghostly figure appeared before the partition door, half-kneeling like a ninja as the Black Wing behind him slowly folded shut.

"Lord Annus! My deepest apologies! This was my negligence! I allowed such lowly scum to disturb your pleasant dreams!" Diumil said reproachfully.

He offered no excuses for himself. A mistake was a mistake. The intruders had merely been a group of thieves who did not even know Haki, yet their leader had entered Lord Annus's domain without Diumil noticing at all!

"It's fine. Clean up the corpse. You were already cautious enough. It seems this fellow was an ability user capable of turning invisible..."

Annus tossed the second coin he had prepared to throw, then placed it back on the cabinet.

"You're tired too. Get some rest early."

"Yes!" Diumil lowered his head, pulled the partition door closed, and dragged away the corpse. He quickly returned and cleaned the floor.

"Wow! Lord Annus, what was that move just now? How come I've never seen it before?"

"There are even more impressive moves. Want to try them?"

"Please experiment to your heart's content! Lilith will take all of them tonight!!"

"You temptress..."

Gradually, invigorating sounds came from behind the partition door, as though flesh were violently colliding.

The move that defeated the thieves' leader was called the "Railgun."

Electricity and magnetism were inseparable. Since he could generate electricity, he should theoretically be able to generate magnetism as well.

After mastering the Rumble-Rumble Fruit's power to the realm of "Awakening," Annus had consciously continued to explore its potential in this regard.

He simply had not yet developed a killing move comparable to or surpassing "Heaven's Judgment" and "Ragnarok."

But Annus still had many electromagnetism-related techniques.

A circular magnetic field formed around every charged conductor. The greater the current, the stronger the magnetic field. That was a basic principle.

Current was like a river, while the magnetic field was the "force-field vortex" produced around that river. If the current formed a circle, those "vortices" would overlap, creating a magnetic field similar to that of a bar magnet.

Even without a conductor, as long as a changing electric field existed in space—such as the violent movement of charge within thunderclouds—it would generate a magnetic field around itself.

Like light and shadow, when one moved, the other moved with it. There was no need for contact; all that was needed was "change."

For Annus, it had been an accidental discovery.

While using Lightning Metallurgy to smelt gold, he noticed that the surrounding iron sand was drawn toward the gold.

At first, he thought it was caused by airflow from the high temperature. But when he cut off the current, the iron sand fell; when he turned it back on, the iron sand was attracted again.

He realized it was not a coincidence, but another power brought by lightning.

Later, he began experimenting deliberately. When he released current toward a pile of iron sand on the ground, he found that the iron sand formed orderly radial or circular patterns around his outstretched fingers.

For the first time, this allowed him to "see" invisible magnetic field lines.

At that moment, he finally understood. "Electricity" was his body, while "magnetism" was his shadow.

Wherever there was electricity, there would inevitably be magnetism.

Not long afterward, Annus succeeded in indirectly controlling magnetic force through his control of lightning.

The "Railgun" was a technique developed at that time. Its principle was to construct a circular magnetic field in the palm, send a powerful current through it, and use the magnetic field to accelerate a conductor to extreme speed in an instant.

The "Railgun" possessed considerable power. Killing an unknown petty thief was far from its upper limit.

Or rather, that had been the lower limit of power Annus had deliberately controlled.

By his estimate, a full-power "Railgun" would have no trouble piercing a warship.

However, although Annus could manipulate magnetism by manipulating electricity, his control over magnetic force was still neither deep nor powerful enough. At present, it could not compare with a Devil Fruit ability user who truly controlled magnetism.

But Annus believed that as he continued to explore electromagnetic force, he would one day ascend the throne of magnetism just as he had ascended to godhood in the domain of lightning.

After all, electricity and magnetism were inseparable.

Early the next morning, Lilith, who had been wrapped around Annus like a snake, was awakened when he pulled himself free from the warm, tight embrace.

"Thank you for the meal, Lord Annus!"

Lilith gave a mischievous smile, licked her lips, and rubbed against him.

As a result, Annus fought beneath the covers for a while longer. It was nearly midday by the time he got dressed and closed the partition door.

Lilith did not leave the room, instead choosing to clean up the battlefield inside. For this battle, she had specifically entrusted Shanks and Shamrock to Alice's care.

As a mother, Alice understood better than Lilith how to care for infants.

The corpse and bloodstains before the partition door had already been cleaned up by Diumil, though a faint smell of blood still lingered in the air. Annus left the shipyard, ate the simple breakfast prepared for him and Lilith by members of the Angel Legion, then found Diumil assigning tasks by the shipyard's waterway.

"Have you identified those people from last night?"