He knew why she was sighing. It is because one star is both easy and difficult to acquire.
The requirement to qualify for one star is to survive a single expedition. It is that simple. If he fails to get it during this expedition, then he won't be returning at all.
But he doubts that half of the total third division has up to one star, and he doubts that 30% of those who have one star and more will return alive from this expedition.
On the other hand, he doubts that 70% of the noobs will survive this expedition and gain one star. That's because of the inherent difficulty of staying alive on a battlefield.
While he was thinking and checking people out, he suddenly felt a tingle up his spine. His eyes snapped forward as he stared at a single point at the other side of the hall.
It seems he was the only one who felt death approaching because the rest of the soldiers were still chatting. But that chatting stopped when air suddenly froze.
People couldn't speak when the air had become water. They couldn't even breathe.
It was understandable that most of them would be confused and some of them would start to panic. Unfortunately, those who panicked and wanted to run couldn't do more than move a single step. Their body simply stopped listening to them, and they fell to the ground.
Kelvin saw this from the corner of his eye. He also saw that while people were fainting or falling impotently to the ground, the veterans didn't appear to be affected much by the presence of demigods.
There wasn't just one demigod. There were four. He couldn't see their figures clearly. They simply appeared like four black stars to him.
Even without extraordinary perception, the only thing he could make out of them was their hazy figure. They appeared to be giants but they were gray and their figures were indistinct. He couldn't even see any other colors from them apart from the gray.
It didn't matter that there were two of them. One was already enough to tip the scale far beyond their favor. 2 times a hundred percent chance of dying is still a hundred percent.
Kelvin knew this with the utmost certainty. Actually, he would know it even if he couldn't see the two beings. Just their presence was enough for his whole brain to light up with sirens and alarms.
His brain was constantly telling him that it was a bad idea to be there. It was telling him to run. There was no option for fighting for survival. The only available and feasible option was to play dead or run as fast as he could.
Many people chose to play dead. That's why they fainted. As for those who wanted to run, they couldn't run because the air had frozen. They had to use more effort to run. When their brain realized that they were too slow and they couldn't escape, it forced them to play dead too.
He didn't run, and he didn't play dead. But this decision meant he had to fight against the instincts of his body. That's why he was shivering like the other veterans and the soldiers of the first division.
He felt as if he would faint at any moment, but somehow, he was able to keep himself awake and standing. Unfortunately, this wouldn't work for long because he still couldn't breathe. Without air, he was bound to faint in the near future.
Fortunately, the pressure suffocating the air disappeared a few moments later. This allowed the soldiers to catch their breath and relax.
He too could finally breathe. But Extraordinary Perception was not doing him any favors at that point. As he had said to Wrath earlier, ignorance is truly bliss.
He could see those two ominous black stars. Their terrible light cast a shadow on the entire space. It was as if a terrible being was devouring the whole world.
Maybe if he stopped using Extraordinary Perception, he would stop seeing them. But that won't solve the problem because he already knows that they are nearby and he knows what they are.
It is like being in a room with two lions. Closing his eyes won't make the problem go away. In fact, it would only put him in more of a disadvantage.
His brain was screaming at him to play dead and hope for the best. But he didn't want to do that. He chose to rely on the fact that these predators are allies and they won't kill him if he stays still like a good soldier and doesn't anger them.
So he continued to shiver while the others recovered their stance. But no one had any interest in looking at him because there was something more interesting going on in front of the soldiers.
At first, it was the repetitive sound of someone banging a door. It was loud and encompassing. They didn't know where it was coming from except that it was echoing through the hall and through their skulls threatening to liquidate their brains.
Wrath said, "This is not good."
He could tell that much. Unlike the others who didn't know where the loud thumping sound was coming from, he could see it clearly.
The source of the sound was in front of the two demigods. Something was trapped there and was struggling against its cage. The collision between it and that cage was what was causing the loud, repetitive thumping.
He couldn't tell exactly what the thing was. It was both huge and small. Maybe it was because it was too bright to look at.
He can't determine where the light ended and where the entity itself began. It was as if a star had appeared in front of him. He had to switch off his Extraordinary Perception ability, or he would go blind.
When he switched off the ability, the light in his vision disappeared. But it was replaced by cracks spreading in the world. These cracks originated from where the star should be.