The Boogie Man

The Boogie Man is an antagonist in the Crusaders of the Constellations novels, who appears as one of Ranald's opponents in the later part of the novel. He is the ruler of the Nightmare Realm and its monsters and spirits.

## Description

He appears as a humanoid in black wrapped in a black cloak and wearing a horned mask. No one knows what's under the mask, so it's speculated that the Boogie Man's face is so horrific and ugly that one would be cursed with perpetual nightmares if he looks at it. That is, until Ranald fights him in the chapter 'The Boogie Man's Secret'. Turns out, due to the spirit of Ra's human Dimensional Mate, the original Ranald possessing him, the Boogie Man's face became similar to that of the human possessed by his Dreamland Dimensional Mate. Perhaps after Ra freed him from his human Dimensional Mate's spirit, his face may have returned to normal.

## Character History

For centuries, he has opposed generations of Dreamland Beast, one of them being Golden Heart and her family. They have never seen him in his physical form since he is wise enough to hide himself from them. One day, he was doing his usual things, hunting children and sending his nightmare monsters to catch them. Little did he know that the ghost of Ra's Earth Dimensional Mate was watching him, having realized that he was able to do to the Boogie-man what Ra can do when he first hatched in his Earth Dimensional Mate's dead body on Earth. So he waited until he had the strength to take over the Boogieman's body and when he did after a long time of cultivation, he was able to have his powers thanks to his strong will of revenge or as he called his revenge a dream to fulfil.

Once possessed by the ghost of the Earth Dimensional Mate of his nemesis Ra, the Boogieman perhaps lost his individual will. Back then when he was still in the Nightmare Realm in the Boogie-man's body, he then was about to haunt a child's dreams, when he realized that he can put his possessing powers to good use on the Boogie man's minions, and for a reason: He's prepared to get Ranald (possessed by Ra), and he even ordered his own minions to forget the children and get Ranald. But as for Ranald (or Ra), he thought those evil spirits are after the children but they're after Ranald, so no matter what power he uses he's still not close enough to kill him, and it frustrated him to no end.

That's when he went on a journey to meet the Devourer of Worlds, and make a deal with him: If he works for him he'll do anything to wipe out the world that turned against him and made Ranald suffer, dying from a broken heart and that he'll never be surrounded by the people he loved again. He recruited for the Devourer of Worlds Malvor, Bia and the other villains through entering their dreams and making deals with them, even teaching Malvor magic, including summoning nightmare monsters and spirits . He told the crime lord to steal an artefact that is a potential weapon of mass destruction  After Ranald's mission with his mentor Chiron, the Boogie Man spoke via telepathy to Ranald (or Ra), telling him he knew about the disappearance of his Earth Dimensional Mate's human spirit. He menacingly told Ranald that when he's done with all this stuff about learning kung fu from twelve people, he'll get back to his dimension to find his missing Dimensional Mate, and admitted that he taught Malvor to summon Nightmare Monsters. After Ra's mission with Aqua, both the Boogie Man and Malvor watched the Devourer's obsidian mirror in the serpent's base, seeing memories Ranald had from his childhood while on Earth until the winged messenger bottle from King Athos arrived. The serpent wanted the Boogie Man to deal with Ra/Ranald personally. He explained repressed memories to Malvor, saying Ranald's memories of being bullied by those with super-powers in his youth have been consciously suppressed by himself, and are the reason why he sometimes, well, will attempt to prove that he can fight them without his alternate form, which has powers, by learning martial arts under twelve guides. This may have given Malvor the idea to discourage Ranald when he completed a mission with his last guide, Ichiguen, thought the Devourer of World advised the Boogie Man to use the truth to frighten him into submission and despair.

Along King Athos and his class's journey to the Dark Side of the Universe, Ranald heard the Boogie-man's voice: "I will be waiting...Golden Griffin Warrior," as he entered the Dimensional Shuttle . In he and his classmate's encounter with the Devourer of Worlds and battle, when Ranald refused to give up his golden locket to the Void Serpent, the Devourer of Worlds called the Boogie Man to his side and told him to fight Ra for his as he would go to Earth to eat its humans. The Boogie Man agreed to, and used his powers to deflect Mayari's arrows. .

Before his battle with Ra occupying his Earth Dimensional Mate's body, he created an energy barrier, the Field of Nightmares, just for them. Ichiguen noted that he and Ranald/Ra are equal in power and strength, and sensed a connection between them. The Boogie Man would teleport away from Ranald while Baby Little heals the human, transferring some energy from Heaven into him. After many dark fights later, Ranald/Ra shouted at him regarding what he did with his Earth Dimensional Mate, only for the Boogie Man to say that he and Ra had something in common, being left out by those better off than them. He then removed his mask, shocking everyone by revealing that he as Ranald's spirit was possessing the Boogie Man to get revenge on Ra, a beast, for getting the love of his Earth parents, the orphans they cared for looking up to him while he's nothing but an invisible ghost with no feelings as all he did was to watch and let his other self take all the credit. He explained what he did to take revenge on Ra, including serving the Devourer of Worlds.

The Boogieman then subjected Ranald to Your Worst Nightmare, a special move that traps the victim into an illusion of the user's bad memories and fears. Ranald saw his Earth Dimensional Mate's memories but from his perspective, up until he saw an alternate future in which the Devourer of Worlds destroying cities, and ate all worlds, including Earth, the planets of the Solar System, Dreamland, Aether World, and his friend's worlds, Ra in his Earth body being corrupted into killing his friends, and all people and beings with powers, and lots of things too horrible to talk about. This caused Ra to feel anger, and empowered by heavenly energy, to punch the Boogie Man in the gut with his schoolbag, causing him to fall and the spirit of Ra's Earth Dimensional Mate Ranald to leave his body.

Once free from possession, the Boogie Man thanks Ra and guessed he had help from Heaven. But he also told Ranald that he may have saved him but he's still the Boogieman. Even so, he'll never forget what Ranald did for him and though they may be going back as enemies, Ranald will always be always ready for him. He reasons that if the Earth is destroyed and eaten by the Devourer of Worlds, there will be no children to scare. And it would be boring for his world. So he gave Ranald and his classmates his best wishes in defeating the Devourer of Worlds and teleported back to the Nightmare Realm.

## Personality

He hungers for positive feelings such as joys, hopes and dreams, and since children have a lot of these, he and his servants hunt for any child who strays from the watch of the Dream Defenders, and when they find one, spirit them away there to drain their hopes and dreams away from them to fuel their home realm. He can be quite persistent when on the hunt for the dreams and hopes of children.

Despite being the Mayor of the Nightmare Realm, he has some good points, such as thanking Ra from freeing him from his Earth Dimensional Mate's possession and wishing him and his classmates the best in defeating the Devourer of Worlds. He has his own rules too: For instance, he forbids his monsters and spirits from killing a Dreamland Beast or child. Any Nightmare Monster and spirit that disobeys him would be dumped to Dreamland to be killed by the Dream Defenders.

## Powers

### Offensive

* Your Worst Nightmare: Traps the victim into an illusion of the user's bad memories and fears.

### Defensive

* Field of Nightmares: Creates an energy barrier that separates user and duelist from wider surroundings.
* Fearsome Mien: Emits a aura of fear that scares away people and projectiles

### Passive

* Dream Walker: Travels dreams of targets.
## References

1. ↑ https://tapas.io/episode/1555203
2. ↑ https://tapas.io/episode/1553755
3. ↑ https://tapas.io/episode/1555203
4. ↑ https://tapas.io/episode/1590331
5. ↑ https://tapas.io/episode/1592134
6. ↑ https://tapas.io/episode/1593025
7. ↑ https://tapas.io/episode/1593038
8. ↑ https://tapas.io/episode/1593038