EXPERIMENT

The sea breeze blew softly against his face as the salty sea mist hung above the broken black rocks. A white cocoon which pulsated softly from time to time, lay in a fairly giant crater while Athos sat on top of one of the few spires of rock that survived Scylla's impact.

It had been around five minutes after the emergence of the white cocoon and Scylla showed no sign of bursting out of it, at least so far. His dad had mentioned that Athos' own metamorphosis occurred within a black cocoon formed from some kind of black mist. It was quite far removed from what Scylla was going through. It hadn't taken long for him to complete his Psuedo-God transformation but Scylla's, for all he knew, might take weeks or even months.

"Well, I hope that Hecate can wait", Athos shrugged to himself, and turned his attention to the arcs of black lightning that danced on his outstretched palm.

The last time he tried injecting physics into his combat was when he spun Scylla as if he were in the Olympic hammer throw and it was safe to say that it didn't go all that well. He had indeed proved that some modicum of physics could be used to guide his powers but he had no idea to what degree. Would it fall flat on its face? Or would comic-book pseudo-science take over?

"Only one way to find out...", Athos chuckled to himself before sinking deep in thought.

What did his power - Electrokinesis, entail? In simple terms, it was the generation and manipulation of electricity or electrons. He could think of so, so many applications off the top of his head but he eventually decided on the one he had already tried.

It was proven in the early 1800s that a moving current produces a magnetic field and the Amperes Law, in extremely crude terms, stated that the greater the moving current, the stronger the magnetic field.

These two facts were drilled into a poor student's brain once they opened the chapter on electromagnetism and it was these Laws that Athos had tried to apply.

He had tried to emulate a moving current by spinning a charged Scylla around which partially worked. The current did induce a magnetic field, but it was pathetically weak which meant that it followed the first Law but did not follow the Amperes Law as the strength of the magnetic field was not proportional to the strength of the current. After all, he had poured enough electricity into Scylla to power New York City for an hour. He could've done more, but that would've killed Scylla.

'So, Amperes Law doesn't work with magic electricity? The current was moving.....', Athos thought, stroking his chin. 'Wait moving?'

"I'm such an idiot!", he suddenly exclaimed, smacking his own head using an armoured palm.

Spinning Scylla didn't make the current move; it simply made Scylla move. The fact that a magnetic field even formed in the first place had to be due to the sheer amount of electricity he poured into it.

"Wow. My idiocy has reached new limits", he sighed to himself before closing his eyes and focusing.

A line of black lightning rose up from his palm. It seemed extremely chaotic and unpredictable but he forced it to listen to him. He made it travel in a circular path, akin to the Ouroboros symbol. The circle was small enough to hover above his palm and he made it spin faster and faster.

CRACKLE!

With a tiny crackle, as loud as a snap of a finger, familiar black sparks formed numerous perpendicular circular and oval shapes that greatly resembled an electromagnetic field. It was as big as his arm and was far more stable than his first attempt. However, Athos didn't jump for joy just yet - creating electromagnetic fields was impressive, but that was only if they were of any use.

The reason why he wished to harness the ability behind electromagnetic fields was due to the numerous options it opened up. If he had sufficient control and the Laws of Physics worked as they were supposed to, he could use it to form a watered-down version or even stronger version of telekinesis, form force fields, become a living railgun, and so on and so forth.

A substitute for the magic he had longed for.

He could feel the electromagnetic field - a kind of connection akin to his lightning. Like another limb but a hard-to-control one.

He supplied even more electricity to the black spinning hoop of lightning and the black sparks became fainter, almost invisible. His brows furrowed but almost immediately raised in surprise when he felt the connection become stronger. The electromagnetic field even greatly expanded, stretching to about a two-meter radius around his body.

"Time to test out whether this works", Athos mumbled and pointed at a piece of rock that was an arm's reach away from him. A tiny flash of black light disappeared into the rock, charging it. He knew this was a completely unpractical way of using his powers, but he had to figure out whether it worked in the first place.

He willed the charged stone to move, and the electromagnetic field moved in the same way he breathed - almost akin to instinct. It didn't locomote as it was big enough to cover the stone but it was manipulated in such a way that allowed the stone, the charged particle, to move.

In a fraction of a second, the stone shot into the air and landed on Athos' palm whose face sprouted into a large grin.

'Fuck Magic Systems', he thought.

***

Meanwhile, within the white cocoon at the island's centre, Scylla was undergoing tremendous changes.

Both mentally and physically, but as the silver, red and purple blood intertwined and stabilised in her body, her mind was fragmented. She felt submerged in some kind of thick soup, some kind of murky darkness that extended out into infinity.

Scenes from the past played again and again as though she was in a broken video. Time passed, and most scenes faded into the background, sinking into the darkness. All except one.

That cursed day.

***

The gentle sound of a single drop of water hitting the ground echoed for what seemed the millionth time as she relived it again.

She watched through her own eyes as she walked through a large cave made from thick, black rock. The ceiling would've been undiscernible if it weren't for the small pillars of white light that penetrated the darkness via tiny holes, making the walk to her bath look as though she were walking to the gateway to Elysium.

Within a few minutes, the cave greatly hollowed out, revealing a gigantic room lit by the soft blue light emitted by large crystals that grew seemingly everywhere in it.

Her shoulders and face visibly relaxed, revealing a smile that would any man swoon. She made her way to the centre of the cavern, stepping over and around the crystals, toward the small pool at the very middle.

It was crystal clear and one could easily see the bottom that was made from the very same blue crystal. The whole cavern exuded a serenity that she could never get enough off. One could spend an entire day just sitting peacefully in this atmosphere, which meant that she was lucky that she was the only one who knew about this place as she could have it all to herself.

Well, on second thought, there was another who knew where this place was.

The undisturbed waters of the pool shimmered and rippled as a vaguely serpentine creature seemed to form out of nothing. It was small, but the oddest thing about it was its rather bovine front half.

"Hey there, Ophi!", Scylla chuckled.