Months 20-96.
While continuing Law comprehension and automatic body tempering, Runar began advancing through Satellite Orbit stages.
Each stage required creating a new synchronized orbital group of 101 qi spheres. With his enhanced comprehension and perfect qi control, each stage took approximately one week of focused effort.
Month 24: Satellite Orbit Stage 2 - Second synchronized group complete
Month 28: Stage 3 complete
Month 32: Stage 4 complete
Month 36: Stage 5 complete
The pattern continued steadily. Each new synchronized group increased his cultivation speed and qi density. The harmonics between groups created resonance cascades that accelerated the refinement process.
By Month 48 (Day 14 outside—end of second week), he'd reached Stage 6, with 606 spheres in perfect synchronization.
His cultivation speed had increased to ×1,200,000—quadruple his initial Satellite Orbit rate.
Month 60: Stage 8 complete - 808 synchronized spheres
Month 72: Stage 10 complete - 1,010 synchronized spheres
Month 84: Stage 12 complete - 1,212 synchronized spheres
Month 96: Stage 14 complete - 1,414 synchronized spheres
The progression was steady, methodical, perfect. Each stage solidified his foundation further, making the next stage slightly easier as the existing groups' resonance patterns helped stabilize new additions.
Celestia had broken through to Satellite Orbit by Month 52, and her combat ability was growing exponentially. Runar realized they needed to push each other harder—real combat pressure that would forge them into true warriors.
"Full power," Runar said on the first day of Month 100. "No suppression. No holding back. We fight like we're trying to kill each other."
Celestia's eyes gleamed. "Finally."
They chose the largest arena in the Pocket Universe—a space the size of a small stellar system, reinforced by the dimension's walls to handle their attacks.
The battle began.
Initial Exchange:
Celestia's Heaven Piercer spear thrust forward, wreathed in perfect Ice-Void-Space-Time-Water Law Fusion. The attack wasn't just physical—it froze conceptual space, severed dimensional boundaries, and created temporal distortions simultaneously.
Runar drew his Void Severance Katana, the blade materializing from his spiritual sea in a flash of void-black and purple-white energy.
Spatial Severance.
The katana cut through Celestia's fusion attack like it was tissue paper, the blade's Primordial-grade authority simply negating her Law-level technique.
But Celestia had expected that. Her attack was a feint.
Frozen Eternity - Full Power.
Space froze. Time stopped. Void crystallized. Water solidified at the molecular level. Ice compressed reality itself into stasis.
A sphere of absolute stillness expanded from Celestia's position, engulfing everything within ten thousand kilometers.
Runar found himself trapped—frozen in space-time stasis that even his Law comprehension couldn't immediately break.
Impressive. She's gotten much stronger.
He activated a portion of his Law fusion—2 Laws flowing together through the Universal Fusion Algorithm.
The fusion energy shattered Celestia's Frozen Eternity like glass, space-time resuming normal flow.
"My turn," Runar said.
Escalation:
He swung his katana in a wide arc. Not a single slash, but fifty simultaneous dimensional cuts layered on top of each other.
The attack carved through space like a hot knife through butter. Reality itself split along the blade's path—not superficial cuts but fundamental severances that exposed the void between dimensions.
Celestia activated Phantom Step, teleporting through her own frozen space to dodge. But Runar's Void Severance Katana had the Spatial Switch ability.
Switch.
The blade instantly swapped positions with one of its phantom projections—appearing directly behind Celestia mid-dodge.
She barely blocked with her spear, the impact sending shockwaves that rippled across the arena. Mountains in the background shattered. Oceans vaporized. The artificial sky cracked like broken glass.
"You're cheating with that katana!" Celestia complained, grinning fiercely.
"You're cheating with that physique!" Runar shot back.
"You also have yours" Celestia shot back.
They clashed again, and the arena began breaking down.
Cosmic-Level Destruction:
Their battle ascended to heights that would have destroyed normal cultivation worlds.
Celestia's Ice Law pushed beyond normal limits, creating absolute zero zones that stopped atomic movement completely. Water Law manipulated the fundamental bonds between molecules. Space Law bent reality into impossible geometries.
Runar's fusion of 2 Laws created attacks that had no name, no classification—just overwhelming authority that rewrote local reality according to his will.
When his katana clashed against her spear, space itself shattered. Not metaphorically—actual space, the dimensional fabric that separated different locations, broke like brittle crystal.
Through the cracks, they could see other dimensions: The River of Time flowing nearby, its current trembling from their battle's shockwaves. Parallel pocket dimensions, their walls vibrating in resonance. The void between realities, pure emptiness that existed outside all existence.
"We're breaking the Pocket Universe!" Celestia shouted, laughing despite the danger.
"The walls will hold!" Runar called back, though he was less certain than he sounded.
Void Annihilation Slash.
His katana had been passively absorbing spatial energy for months. Now he released a very very tiny bit of it in a single devastating attack.
The slash cut through space, time, and three adjacent dimensions simultaneously. The attack created a wound in reality itself—a gash that bled pure void energy and would take hours to heal.
Celestia countered with her ultimate technique: Frozen Eternity: Absolute Zero Domain.
Her five mastered Laws fused into a single overwhelming authority. Within a hundred-thousand-kilometer sphere, the very concepts of "movement," "change," and "time" ceased to exist. Everything froze—not just physically, but conceptually.
Even Runar's void slash was frozen mid-flight. (Remember Runar was holding back immensely.)
The two techniques clashed at the conceptual level, neither able to overcome the other.
For ten seconds, they pushed against each other with everything they had.
Then both techniques collapsed simultaneously, the conflicting authorities canceling each other out.
The arena was devastated. What had been a small stellar system was now a field of shattered space, broken time streams, and dimensional debris.
"...We should probably stop," Celestia said, breathing hard.
"Agreed," Runar panted, dismissing his katana. "Before we actually break something important."
They floated in the wreckage, looking at the destruction they'd caused.
"We're getting stronger," Celestia observed.
"Terrifyingly so," Runar agreed. "In the real world, this level of battle would destroy a solar system.
"Then it's good we have this place to practice."
They returned to the training complex, letting the Pocket Universe's automatic repair functions fix the damage.