Chapter 14 - the boogyman
We kicks things off when they entered/Arthur trial
The underworld portal groaned like a wound torn into the world, its edges weeping black smoke. When Arthur stepped through, the ground disappeared beneath him. No sky, no stone, no sound. Only endless dark.
He called out for Clarita, Elizabeth, Jack-nothing answered but the echo of his own voice.
Then came the whispers.
"Failure."
"Weak."
"Murderer."
Shapes gathered in the dark-his friends, the Hunters, the people of camp-all standing still, faces pale, eyes empty. Behind them, a tall faceless figure loomed, its grin carved too wide. The Boogeyman.
Arthur lifted his hand, Prism humming with desperate light.
"I won't let you touch them."
The Boogeyman laughed-a sound like children screaming inside a coffin. It lunged, its claws tearing through his people. Arthur shouted, swung the light, purifying the air, forcing the shadow back. Each time it struck, he shoved it away, screaming, sweating, holding Prism until his knuckles bled.
But then... something shifted.
The Boogeyman fell back, trembling-not in triumph, but in struggle. Its arms outstretched as if to shield Clarita. Its body warped, curling around Elizabeth as though to protect her from Arthur's light.
Arthur froze. His breath caught.
The corpses on the ground-weren't shredded by shadow. They were burned by light. His light. His hand still glowed, but it wasn't Prism anymore. It was a fire that consumed everything it touched.
He staggered back, horror seizing his face.
"No... no, that's not me... I was stopping you-"
But then he saw his reflection in the void. Not Arthur. Not the boy who fought for them. A faceless grin stretched across his features, teeth sharp, eyes hollow.
The Boogeyman hadn't been trying to kill them.
The Boogeyman had been trying to stop him.
Arthur screamed, his voice breaking into a thousand echoes. The trial had shown him the fear that lay deepest:
Not that he would fail his friends-
But that he would be the one to destroy them the words said by the boogyman was actually him scolding himself he wanted to be the candle to protect in cold and light the path out of darkness he wanted to be a protector as he stand in front he broken camp of Jupiter who is on flame
Though in other places it was Clarita trial:
Clarita stumbled into the void, her fingers pressed against her temple as the air grew heavy. She heard Arthur shouting somewhere far away, but his voice faded like a dream slipping from memory.
Instead, the darkness peeled back, showing her something far worse than monsters.
A meadow. Warm sunlight. The sound of children laughing.
Her throat closed. She knew this place. She knew those voices.
Lance and Nova.
Her own younger self, skipping barefoot across the grass.
And the little one... the friend whose name she could never say aloud without breaking.
Her hands shook. "No... don't show me this..."
The children waved at her, smiling with innocence so bright it burned her heart. For a second, she almost reached out, almost ran to them.
Then the shadow fell.
The meadow split open and from it rose a cyclops, its single eye wide and hungry. The laughter stopped. The children screamed.
Clarita tried to move-her legs wouldn't obey.
She tried to summon light-her hands sparked with nothing.
"No! Run! Run!"
She couldn't reach them. Couldn't protect them.
The cyclops's hand closed like a cage, and the children-her friends, her past, her self-were torn apart in a blur of blood and silence.
Clarita collapsed to her knees, choking on a sob. She had seen death, she had seen horror, but this... this was different. This was the truth of her fear.
Not the Boogeyman, not the Underworld.
It was the moment she had failed them the first time.
The moment she could never undo.
Her trial didn't show her a monster. It showed her memory sharpened into a blade.
And it cut deeper than anything else ever could here is the thing that's not what happened but the fear consume her the boogyman rewrite her perspective of reality making her not see what real and what not her mind telling her it's real but her heart say it's not but she trust her mind over heart anyday blinding her from the Truth
Elizabeth trial was different it was the key:
The void opened beneath Elizabeth, endless and hungry. She screamed as it swallowed her, the ground vanishing, her arms flailing in nothingness. The darkness was not just around her-it was her.
No air. No sound. No way out.
Her chest tightened, panic clawing its way up her throat. This is it. This is where I disappear. This is where I'm nothing.
The Boogeyman's presence coiled like a hand around her ankle, pulling her deeper. "No one escapes the dark, little one. Not even you."
Her tears vanished into the void. For a heartbeat, she almost believed it.
Then... a flicker. A memory.
The sound of rain tapping against iron shutters.
The musty air of a half-collapsed shelter.
Her brother's voice, laughing as he dealt battered mythology cards onto the floor.
"Elizabeth," he said, only fourteen himself, "your turn. Don't tell me the gods scare you."
She smirked faintly. "No. I just wonder if they're even real."
And then another voice-not his. Not human. A voice that spoke from nowhere, yet shook her to her bones:
"Yes, they are. And your existence is proof."
Her breath caught. That voice. That impossible moment.
The darkness around her shuddered as her memory burned brighter.
"I am proof," she whispered. Her hands stopped trembling. She reached forward, light spilling from her fingertips, her fear breaking like chains.
The Boogeyman recoiled.
Elizabeth rose, her feet finding ground where there had been none. The void still howled, but she no longer drowned in it.
"You'll not take me," she said, steady now. "Not again. I know who I am. I know why I'm here."
The trial did not vanish, but the fear no longer ruled her. She had faced it-and passed
Eles where jack trial started:
The mist closed in, thicker than smoke, suffocating Jack's lungs. Then came the sound-screams, steel snapping, the sickening crash of something breaking.
"No," Jack muttered, his hands trembling. "Not this."
The scene unfolded before him: the accident. The moment that stripped everything away. He saw the flames, the broken faces, the aftermath that had left him standing alone-branded guilty, cast out, exiled.
"I didn't do that!" Jack shouted, stumbling back as the vision burned brighter. "I didn't! It wasn't my fault!"
But the Boogeyman's laughter curled around him like chains.
"Didn't you? Watch again."
The accident replayed. The same shouts. The same destruction. The same faces turning on him.
Jack dropped to his knees, clutching his head. "Stop! It wasn't me... it wasn't me..."
Again.
And again.
The flames swallowed him each time, until even his own voice sounded hollow.
"I didn't do that," he whispered, rocking back and forth. "I didn't..."
The Boogeyman leaned close, unseen but everywhere.
"Then why do you fear it so much? Why does the guilt choke you? Because deep down, Jack... you're not sure anymore."
The words shattered something in him. His denial cracked under the weight of memory. He wanted to scream again-but no sound came out.
The trial did not end. It looped. A cycle of accusation. A prison of his own fear.
And Jack could only clutch the truth he refused to accept, trapped inside the nightmare of what he had lost.
But Elizabeth was the key
Summer in the forest:
The void quieted for a heartbeat. Elizabeth's chest heaved, her palms glowing faintly with the light she'd summoned to survive her trial.
The Boogeyman hovered before her, tall, unnerving, its red grin twisted wide in the darkness. Its presence pressed against her mind like icy fingers.
"I... I've faced you," Elizabeth said, her voice steady despite the shadows curling around her. "I've seen my fear, and I didn't let it consume me."
The Boogeyman tilted its head, silent but undeniably aware.
"Now," she continued, her hands clenching, "you will release them. All of them. Arthur, Jack, Clarita-they've faced their trials too. They've earned this. You have no power over them anymore."
For a moment, the void seemed to shiver. The Boogeyman's grin did not fade, but it recoiled slightly, as if acknowledging her words.
"You're free to leave this fear behind," Elizabeth whispered. "But you won't take anyone else from us. Do you understand?"
The shadows shifted. The golden glow from the Prism marks on Arthur and Clarita pulsed faintly, resonating through the void.
Then, slowly, the Boogeyman stepped back, folding its darkness into itself. Its presence receded-not defeated, not tamed, but contained.
Elizabeth exhaled, feeling the air of the void lighten around her. "Go," she commanded, "and don't come back."
Moments later, Arthur, Clarita, and Jack emerged from their own trials, each gasping, trembling-but alive. The Prism marks on their hands glimmered, a silent testament to the courage that had carried them through.
Elizabeth's shoulders sagged with relief, but she met each of their eyes with a quiet pride. They had survived. Together.
And for now, the Boogeyman would retreat into legend, waiting for the next trial, the next fear-but not today why they face that? The boogyman challenge the people who came to the underworld alive to see if they deserve to be in land of the dead their win wasn't live long though as....
The forest's shadows thinned as the group stepped out, the air heavy with residual fear. Prism marks still glimmered faintly on their hands, a reminder of the trials they had endured.
"Finally... some open air," Elizabeth muttered, scanning the horizon.
A low rumble shook the ground beneath them. From the darkness, a towering figure emerged-a dark Goliath, muscles coiled like black iron, eyes like molten coal. Its presence radiated power, malice, and an ancient hunger.
Elizabeth arched an eyebrow. "How are you considered a Goliath? You're not even bigger than Abyss."
Arthur groaned, rubbing his forehead. "Why does everything need to be about him?"
The dark Goliath chuckled, a sound like stone grinding on stone. "Did you fool the Boogeyman?" it boomed. "Impossible. He digs into your fear... as I do."
The creature drew a deep breath. Souls-ethereal and screaming-shot toward it, writhing as they were consumed into its massive chest. With each one absorbed, its size swelled, shadow and smoke coiling around its form.
Before the group could react, the Goliath exhaled, releasing a dark, choking smoke. The world spun, the air thick and suffocating, and one by one, they collapsed, unconscious.
But somewhere far in the camp half-born two people discussing pov:
Angila tilted her head at Leo, a wry smile playing on her lips. "You're speaking highly... remember when Abyss dragged you across the strawberry field from the ear?"
Leo smirked, hands in his pockets. "I remember. Damn well. He did it for my own good, though. My first day, I'd just received my title, and I went challenging the Dark Goliath."
He chuckled, shaking his head. "I regret it... but he was nothing compared to the real Goliath. The real Goliath? That's Abyss. No kidding. If I fought the Dark Goliath now, I'd make a fool of him."
Angila raised an eyebrow, clearly amused by his confidence and pride but to him he's not only confidence he's sure now he is stronger he can embarrass the heck of him.
(Hi their everyone iraling is here don't worry I don't care about how my story got no views why? I have a passion and I will keep make peak chapter till it gets recognized I don't want to be a Percy Jackson wannabe copy I want to be my own modern mythology making my own demigodveres series and maybe superheroes I had passion for making superhero stories as a kid)