Chapter 269: Breakthrough to A-rank!

The Demon Hunters continued fighting while ignoring the exhaustion slowly accumulating within them.

They might not have recognized it, but it had become apparent through their frequent mistakes over the past few nights.

What they needed was rest.

But there were still five hours left.

Over time, these Demon Hunters might be too late to understand that their bodies needed rest, until their bodies demanded the consequences of their actions.

Max fully understood it.

Despite how much he and his Radiant Knights bolstered the morale of the Demon Hunters, he understood that there was a massive difference between him and his Radiant Knights and the Demon Hunters.

Even Seraphina was beginning to show signs of fatigue over the course of the war.

When Max saw even a Demon Hunter being slain after falling to his knees from exhaustion, his heart ached.

He glanced at the peak Greater Demon and closed his eyes.

He commanded every single Radiant Knight through his Conclave Link.

"Kill."

Sensing the desire of their Master, especially when they perceived the enormous amount of mana being sent to them from him, they did not hesitate to go all out and annihilate the Greater Demons in front of them, allowing the Demon Hunters to take a momentary breath.

The Radiant Knights continued their assault.

Max could feel the enormous amount of mana flowing through his Conclave Link.

Then, something inside him changed.

His mana core suddenly trembled.

Max opened his eyes.

A powerful pressure began to spread from his body.

It was not simply mana.

It was his Authority.

The Authority that had always been contained within his body began to surge outward, spreading across the battlefield.

The radiant mana surrounding him became denser.

Brighter.

More refined.

Max’s body remained completely still as his mana core continued to transform.

The boundary that had confined his power at B-rank was slowly broken apart.

His Authority expanded with it.

The Radiant Knights immediately felt the change.

Every single one of them stopped for a moment.

Their bodies became enveloped in radiant mana.

The contracts connecting them to Max became stronger.

The connection was no longer simply allowing Max to issue commands.

His Authority was flowing through the contracts themselves.

It strengthened their bodies.

It reinforced their mana cores.

It suppressed the corruption that had accumulated from prolonged combat.

The Radiant Knights stood once again.

Their exhaustion had not completely disappeared.

But the pressure weighing down their bodies had been reduced.

Max slowly raised his head and gazed at the Greater Demons.

His eyes shone with a deeper radiance, instilling fear in them.

Max’s breakthrough continued.

His Authority spread farther.

It passed through every Radiant Knight connected to him before continuing outward.

The battlefield around Max became covered in a faint radiant field.

The effect was different from his previous Radiant Resonance Field.

Before, the field connected his knights and allowed them to operate as a unified force.

Now, his Authority itself had become part of that connection.

The Radiant Knights could feel one another more clearly.

Their movements became more synchronized.

Their mana circulated more efficiently.

Their formations stabilized naturally.

Even without Max issuing another command, the Radiant Knights began adjusting their positions according to the battlefield.

Max noticed it.

He could sense all of them.

Helena.

Darius.

Hector.

Damien.

Sebastian.

Jeremiah.

Every Radiant Knight.

The connection between them had grown deeper.

At the same time, the knowledge of his newly acquired abilities naturally appeared within his mind.

He understood them instinctively.

High Summoning Mastery.

His Authority could now reinforce the Radiant Knights on a much greater scale.

Conclave Mana Network.

The mana circulating through his Conclave could now be distributed across his knights with far greater efficiency.

Radiant Resonance Domain.

His previous Resonance Field had evolved into something capable of affecting a much larger battlefield.

Authority Reinforcement Aura.

His Authority could directly reinforce the Radiant Knights and protect them from hostile Authority and corruption.

These abilities did not feel foreign to him.

They felt like natural extensions of what he had already possessed.

Max slowly clenched his fist.

The radiant mana surrounding him intensified.

His breakthrough was reaching its final stage.

Then...

The pressure suddenly disappeared.

The battlefield became silent for a brief moment.

Max stood in the center of it.

His breathing was calm.

His mana core had stabilized.

His Authority had settled.

He had crossed the boundary of B-rank.

He had finally ascended to...

A-rank.

However, through the breakthrough, Max only perceived that the most significant change at the moment was in his passive skills.

His active skills would take time to adjust, as his Authority at the moment was being utilized for his passive skills.

Hence, the number of Radiant Knights connected to him remained unchanged.

There were still only one hundred and one.

But those one hundred and one Radiant Knights were no longer the same as before.

Their Master had changed.

And through the Radiant Contract Authority, that change had reached them as well.

Max looked toward the remaining Greater Demons.

He smirked.

He could now feel the battlefield differently.

Every Radiant Knight.

Every movement.

Every flow of mana.

Every formation.

Everything was connected.

Max raised his hand.

The Radiant Knights immediately turned toward the remaining demons.

His voice remained calm.

"Continue."

The Radiant Knights moved.

And the battlefield erupted once again.

Meanwhile, Seraphina and the others were stunned.

The area that Max and his Radiant Knights covered grew exponentially.

To the point that a Radiant Skirmisher suddenly appeared in front of the Demon Hunters who were already beyond exhausted and single-handedly annihilated the demons on the frontline.

Although there were demons coming from the Southern Border toward them, at the very least, with the Radiant Skirmisher’s continuous actions, they were allowed to drop their butts to the ground and rest for a while.

In fact, they even had time to change positions and watch as the Radiant Skirmisher single-handedly dealt with the demons within the surrounding five-hundred-meter radius.

Even when a demon decided to ignore him and target the resting Demon Hunters instead, an arrow would shoot straight toward its vulnerable parts and kill it, causing it to fall in front of the Demon Hunters, whose expressions were difficult to read.

A similar situation occurred throughout the battlefield until the three-kilometer radius with Max at the center was covered by his Radiant Knights...