Magnets, heat, idk. A crystal could grow by fusing drifting material to itself. It could grow as big as a planet ober billions of years and fire lazors. Time or size don't need to fit our human perception. Then there's physics stuff we still don't know (subatomic, dark matter, including magnetism).

Does your glasses need electricity to function? Before electronics came and we started making everything need electricity do you think we were not advanced civilization because we only used mechanical power? If you had come that far and suppose had limitations like "can't use electricity coz I said so", the development would have stopped? They would have found other ways.