Even if they were to hurt themselves, do something wrong, or make a mistake, Toren could not affect anything in that dimension. He could not interact with the children to somehow comfort them or help them, and tell them that it will all end soon.
Among the ordinary days that felt like torture for him, there had been a moment when the boy named Eric had passed through Toren and suddenly stopped to look back.
Toren was surprised to see the boy's stare reflecting back to him silently, but with looming noises.
Eric slowly stepped back to where he had felt the strange feeling and attempted deciphering the encounter.
"C-Can you see me?" Toren asked him, stuttering and hesitating.
However, Eric did not answer.
The boy only looked around and shrugged the glitch in reality like it had been such an ordinary thing.
Toren's fluster died down as he gazed at Eric walking away from him.
He thought that the boy might have had the ability to peer through other dimensions as well like how Professor Ross can, but is currently at a premature stage. The aptitude itself might be weaker among the boy's other aptitudes.
Toren had observed too that something about Eric had become special along the thread of destinies. The children as guinea pigs were subjected to engage in a game divided by group to determine who would be chosen to receive the 'process.'
But for the children, it was called 'ordeal.'
They seemed to have failed to grasp the degree of the consequences, so the first game looked so fun and friendly.
However, when they have been jammed through to the process for the illegal experiment, it turned to become a living hell for all of them. And games, they have slowly processed, became the source of pressure and pain.
The brutal aftermath traumatized the children to their core. It was a whole pang of shock against their nerves that pushed most of them over the edge. And Toren knew who was breaking down and who was holding up well.
Those who have pretended to be okay were mostly the ones who have cried the hardest at their solace.
And those who have been seemingly pressured turned out to be fine in their private spaces.
The boy named Eric, however, was different.
He was neither in the category of those who were living in the pretentious lifestyle nor of those who were wearing their hearts on their sleeves.
Eric was a strange, dull kid.
Coen did not notice him in the first few years, but Toren did. Clearly.
The trauma made the children quite dirty. Some spiraled down to escapisms of sexual activities and some had attempted suicide, but all in vain.
They were being observed from above as their behaviors and implications on them were being written down.
The idea that they will always be beneath that stressful environment seemed to have gotten into them. Girls are often perceived as more complicated and more emotional than their counterpart, but this group of children did not have such idea going around them.
The girls were quite open about their emotions and valued them fine, but their hearts were more made of steel than the boys who feigned about their strengths.
At first, they were empathizing with each other, supporting one another, and secretly looking out for each other.
But as weeks and months went by, they began to clash and argue and fight until a cutthroat competition had settled in unconsciously.
It was a mental bloodbath for them.
On the other hand, Eric would swiftly keep himself in the shadows, observing things in his own ways. He had this different aura in him that sometimes made Toren feel like he was never a child.