Not only Sanemi, Obanai, and Muichirou, but the other Hashira also had awakened the Demon Slayer Mark.
Shinobu's Mark was located above her collarbone, with patterns resembling an azure butterfly.
Mitsuri's Mark was on her left neck, with patterns resembling two mirroring hearts with wings.
Gyoumei's Mark was on both of his arms, with patterns resembling gray-black fissures.
Tengen's Mark was on his shoulder, with patterns resembling golden musical notes.
Even the always-alone Giyuu awakened his Mark on his left cheek, with patterns resembling streams of water.
As for Kyoujurou, his Mark was just like Riezel's, located on his forehead, with patterns resembling deep red flames.
At this moment, all the Hashira had successfully awakened the Demon Slayer Mark and felt ecstatic as they tested their newfound power.
"Amazing, it really makes you stronger..."
Among the nine Hashira, her strength had always been the weakest, even compared to most members of the Demon Slayer Corps.
No choice.
She was petite, standing at only 151 CM tall and weighing a mere 37 KG. At just eighteen, she was one of the youngest Hashira in the Demon Slayer Corps, second only to Muichirou.
Moreover, being a girl and lacking the special body constitution of someone like Mitsuri, Shinobu still lacked decent physical strength despite mastering a breathing style.
Because of this, among the nine Hashira, Shinobu's physical strength was the weakest, so weak that she couldn't even cut a demon's neck with her Nichirin Sword.
However, to compensate for her lack of strength, she created Insect Breathing, which featured rapid thrusting and movement techniques.
With Insect Breathing, she could unleash astonishingly fast movements and thrusts powerful enough to pierce through rocks. Coupled with her lethal poison, she could kill demons effortlessly.
Now, Shinobu was surprised to find that with the Demon Slayer Mark, her strength had greatly increased. She believed she should be able to behead demons with her physical strength alone.
"Hahh, this feeling is... fascinating..."
Obanai, who ranked second weakest in strength among the nine Hashira, muttered in admiration.
"I feel super flamboyant now! As expected of me, the God of Festivals!"
Tengen struck a pose, looking narcissistic.
"Umm... Isn't it a bit concerning for a girl to have such powerful strength?"
Mitsuri, feeling like she could effortlessly lift a life-sized boulder above her head, suddenly began to worry about her own girly power.
"Umu! Not bad!"
Kyoujurou cheered loudly as he felt his strength.
Watching the Hashira feel the Demon Slayer Mark's power, Riezel nodded in approval.
"Now that you've all succeeded, I suppose I can get rid of mine."
Riezel spoke calmly, touching his forehead with his finger, where a subtle red light was pulsating.
Under a small crimson vortex on his finger, the Demon Slayer Mark on his forehead soon vanished. It first turned into scattered broken patterns, then gradually disappeared, like chalk marks being erased from a blackboard, vanishing without a trace.
"..."
As the Hashira watched this scene, they were dumbfounded.
After all, the ability they had all desperately sought was so easily given up by Riezel, leaving them with complex feelings.
However, at the same time, they also felt relieved.
"Looks like it can really be removed..." Shinobu breathed a sigh of relief.
"That's for the best." Gyoumei said tearfully and emotionally. "There's no need for a youngster like him to sacrifice his precious life for our long-held wishes."
In his view, Riezel being able to get rid of the Demon Slayer Mark was definitely a good thing.
If later they defeated Muzan and the people here could still survive, they could simply ask Riezel to help remove their Demon Slayer Marks to avoid dying before the age of twenty-five.
Especially Gyoumei himself, if it weren't for Riezel's ability to remove the Demon Slayer Mark, he might have died very soon. After all, he was already twenty-seven years old, well past twenty-five. If he hadn't known that Riezel could remove the Demon Slayer Mark, he wouldn't have dared to awaken it now.
At this moment, Riezel spoke again.
"Now that you've all successfully awakened the Mark, why not also awaken the Bright Red Nichirin Sword? It's the easiest of the three abilities to trigger. By using strong grip strength or letting your weapons collide, you can raise the temperature of your sword, turning it into the Bright Red Nichirin Sword. Give it a try."
Truthfully, the awakening method of the Bright Red Nichirin Sword also made Riezel feel full of loopholes.
By using strong grip strength or allowing the Nichirin Sword to collide with another Nichirin Sword, the temperature of the sword would rise, transforming it into a Bright Red Nichirin Sword? If this method were true, why had the Bright Red Nichirin Sword never appeared over the years?
Was the grip strength of the Demon Slayers, especially the Hashira, not strong enough? Or had their weapons never collided with each other?
It was all nonsense!
In any case, Riezel had tried before, using grip strength strong enough to crush ordinary Nichirin Sword, yet the Bright Red Nichirin Sword still didn't appear. As for weapon collision, he didn't even know how many times he had collided with others, yet it still didn't appear.
In the original work, Tanjirou managed to use the flames created by his younger sister's Blood Demon Art to raise the temperature of his blade, thus awakening the Bright Red Nichirin Sword. However, even though Riezel's blade temperature was already high enough to melt steel easily, the Bright Red Nichirin Sword still didn't appear on his sword.
It could be seen that the Bright Red Nichirin Sword and Demon Slayer Mark were of the same nature, both requiring other conditions to be awakened.
For the Demon Slayer Mark, it seemed that the first person to awaken it must be a user of Sun Breathing, and through resonance, the Marks of others could awaken.
As for the Bright Red Nichirin Sword, it seemed that the user needed to awaken the Demon Slayer Mark first, only then could the Bright Red Nichirin Sword be awakened.
In the original work, those who later used the Bright Red Nichirin Sword could only do so after awakening the Demon Slayer Mark, through strong grip strength and weapon collision.
Before awakening the Demon Slayer Mark, even Gyoumei, who had the strongest strength among the nine Hashira and could shake the surroundings with just a flick of his weapon, still didn't awaken the Bright Red Nichirin Sword after countless battles.
While Obanai, who was said to be the second weakest among the nine Hashira in terms of physical strength, could actually awaken the Bright Red Nichirin Sword through grip strength after awakening the Demon Slayer Mark.
Clearly, this was totally absurd.
Taking this into account, Riezel made another speculation—the Bright Red Nichirin Sword could be more easily awakened after awakening the Demon Slayer Mark.
Now, since all the Hashira had successfully awakened the Demon Slayer Mark, it shouldn't be too difficult for them to awaken the Bright Red Nichirin Sword next.
Sure enough, with Riezel's reminder, some of the Hashira apply a strong grip to their Nichirin Swords, while others increase the blade's temperature through weapon collisions, and eventually, they all successfully awaken the Bright Red Nichirin Sword.
"Is this the Bright Red Nichirin Sword?"
Some of the Hashira look at their swords in awe.
At this moment, regardless of how bizarre their shapes were, their sword's blades had all turned bright red.
"Incredible!" Kyoujurou exclaimed. "Truly, we've been missing out. We had no idea such ability was hidden within us."
Upon hearing this, all the Hashira nodded in agreement.
Whether it was the Demon Slayer Mark or the Bright Red Nichirin Sword, they were actually very close to them. As long as they grasped the conditions, they could possess these abilities.
It was just that these so-called conditions were frustratingly unattainable. If Riezel hadn't deduced the hidden conditions, just relying on the methods mentioned in the original work, trying to awaken these two abilities would be nothing but wishful thinking.
"We still got that Transparent World thingy left, right?"
Sanemi asked Riezel with a spirited tone.
"Teach it to us together! Let's get it all done in one go!"
Upon hearing his words, the other Hashira nodded repeatedly.
Evidently, they had become somewhat overconfident.
Originally, when Riezel mentioned the Demon Slayer Mark, the Bright Red Nichirin Sword, and the Transparent World, they thought it would be difficult to awaken all these three powerful abilities before the final battle.
As a result, many Hashira hadn't considered acquiring all three abilities before the final battle. Instead, they aimed to awaken at least one.
However, just a few hours later, both the Demon Slayer Mark and the Bright Red Nichirin Sword had unexpectedly awakened and been acquired by them in succession.
This obviously filled them with confidence, believing they would definitely possess all three abilities before the final battle began. By then, the Upper Ranks wouldn't be towering walls blocking their way anymore.
Riezel naturally sensed their expectations and swelling confidence, so he decided to dampen their spirits a bit first.
"Listen, the Transparent World isn't like the Demon Slayer Mark or the Bright Red Nichirin Sword—there are no shortcuts here." Riezel said calmly. "Upper Three Akaza is an unmatched martial artist who's been around for at least a century, and he still never managed to awaken it. Don't think you can just wake it up easily this time."
As soon as he finished speaking, Riezel slowly drew his sword.
"You... Wh-What are you doing?"
Mitsuri asked in fear, taking a step back, while the other Hashira instantly became alert.
Riezel, however, smiled.
"You know, the Transparent World is something that can only be reached by giving it your all and enduring pain."
Upon hearing his words, a bad feeling arose in the hearts of every Hashira.
In the next moment, this bad feeling came true.
"I'll be your opponent this time. Come at me together."
Riezel's body emitted a heat intense enough to scorch the air.
"Don't worry, I'll use the flat side of the blade. I won't kill you or break your swords. But to get you to awaken the Transparent World, don't expect me to go easy on you, so be mentally prepared."
Surprisingly, his calm words made even some of the toughest Hashira among the nine involuntarily gulp.
Before long, flames erupted in the forest, marking the beginning of this hellish special training session.