Pebble's body stopped making a sizzling noise and within a couple seconds, the red steam stopped too. He didn't have control over his body, but he was no longer moving. He simply stood in the middle of a pool of gore. He was able to overhear the band above him.
"Thank you! Thank you! We are 'Sacrifice the People' and we'd like to thank you all for coming out and supporting Pebble today! Also, thank you for being a part of our music video as we used today's events to record content for our upcoming release! You can find that release today on Godify, the album's called, 'Can't Bleed a rock' and I'm sure we can all guess who inspired it!"
The crowd erupted into another thunderous roar, but Pebble felt immune to its allure by now. He still couldn't move any part of his body and was simply waiting for something to change.
Then it did. The walls of the theater started to descend into the floor. Pebble could now get a good view of the audience and was dumbfounded. The stands were grand and they were packed. There must have been thousands of patrons watching what he just did.
The female voice returned to his head, sounding calm and robotic again.
Pebble began shaking his head in disapproval as he finally started to regain control of his body. His knees felt weak and he almost collapsed, but stopped himself from falling into the gross goblin stew that he was stepping in. His head slowly slanted down and he looked at his bloody hands.
'Are these my hands?' He questioned in his head. 'Am I capable of doing these deeds? Am I even Alain anymore?' His body had a small spasm and a moment of jarring pain at the thought of his old identity. 'What am I?'
His system responded with the same familiar female voice.
'What the sh*t? You talk? Hello?' Pebble thought inwardly, trying to get some sort of response from the system, but it never came.
'Ms. Voice in my head, lady. What if I don't want to be a weapon? I didn't want to kill a whole family of goblins. I didn't want to kill a couple of Popo birds. Hell, I didn't really want to kill anything! I just wanted to play a game, man!' Pebble tried to plead his case and rationalize his desires to his own mind, but the response was eerie.
'What does that mean? Am I fated to become a monster?' Pebble felt furious and terrified simultaneously.
<...>
'Gee, one sec, I couldn't hear you. Let me get some of these goblin guts out of my ear so you can repeat that, one sec.' Pebbled leaned to the side and started smacking his head until some fluid fell out of his ear. 'Much better! Now, what were you saying?'
'Wait, no! Come back!' Pebble pleaded but the voice didn't return.
'Hello?'
'I'm sorry, I don't want you to go. I just don't know what to think right now.'
'I don't want to be alone, I won't be a dick, I swear.' Pebble begged.
'Hello?' Pebble felt a wave of emotions well in his mind as he remembered how he used to argue with his mom when he was younger. He remembered her trying to console him after he was spiraling from his college application getting denied. He remembered lashing out, and finally, he remembered her getting in that damn car. A tear came out of his eye.
"F*ck, I'm a mess." He said out loud and wiped his eyes with his forearm.
"That you are my boy!" Glurt appeared and he had plastic bags around his feet as he waddled through the gore. "Oh damn, are you crying? Hah, must be the thrill of victory!" He approached Pebble and put a hand on his shoulder. "Come, come!"
A bright light enveloped Pebble's vision and the next moment he was in a room overlooking the arena. In the room with him was the walking mountain, Reeki and Glurt.
"HELLO! YOU DID GOOD! I'M PROUD!" Reeki's smile looked like a mountain was cut in half, revealing an entrance to a cave that was his mouth, and his teeth looked like sharp stalagmites.
"Gee thanks, Reeki." Pebble ran his fingers through his own hair due to his nerves, but he decided to speak up again, "Hey do you know how much longer I'll be here? I'm kind of ready to get back to my friends now."
"Hang in there little guy, we're almost done! Just have to get some proper introductions done before we send you off!" Glurt responded as he waved his arm and a floating bathtub sized ball of water appeared above Pebble. It descended on top of him and it was warm. Somehow Pebble was still able to breathe. Glurt then brought out a bottle of Old Spice body wash and shot it into the ball of water.
After a quick spin cycle, the water dispersed into mist and Glurt handed Pebble a towel. As soon as Pebble started drying off, he was completely dry. All of the moisture on this body was immediately absorbed into the towel. Glurt nodded at the bin in the corner and Pebble tossed the towel.
Glurt summoned a long table and beckoned for Pebble to sit down at one end. Pebble walked over and took the seat while doing his best to suppress his thoughts.
The table had enough room for five or six people to sit on the long sides and just one person at each head. Glurt took the seat closest to Pebble and gave him a thumbs up. Reeki chose to stand and wait, Pebble noticed that Reeki's mountains had tiny wildlife on it. It was fascinating.
They sat in silence for a moment before Pebble cleared his throat, "Sooo, what's going on here?" He asked.
Right at that moment, the door to the room swung open and way too many people poured in. Bright flashes began to disorient Pebble as camera shutters could be heard by the dozens. Nicely dressed men and women were setting up individual kits all over the room.
"Whoa, what is this, a press junket?" Pebble shielded his eyes from the bright flashes and Glurt laughed. Reekie came closer and started kneeling next to Pebble and flexed.
"NOT EXACTLY, BUT MAKE SURE YOU LOOK GOOD. LADIES LIKE IT WHEN YOU LOOK GOOD!" Reeki continued to posture for the cameras. Pebble stared blankly as he couldn't process the situation.
"THAT WORKS TOO, THE LADIES LIKE A GOOD SMOLDER!" Reeki nodded and his trees waved in their own wind.
A woman in a beautiful red dress approached the table with a smile. She has pale white skin and her hair was black and tied in a bun, but left a couple strands out which hung down on either side of her face. She had red lipstick and black mascara on with a tiny beauty mark on her cheek.
"Hi, I'm reporter Lilly Cartoph and I'm here with Realm 13 News Network." She delicately brought her hand to her face and brushed one of her strands of hair behind her ear. "Would you honor me with a brief interview before your signing ceremony?"
Pebble blinked. Lilly was very pretty and she was his type, "Uh, yes. Yeah, I guess I can do that if that's okay with you." He made sure to play it cool, which means he dropped his voice down an octave.
Lilly smiled as she noticed Pebble was struggling and waved her crew over. "Awesome! It will be fast. Is this your first time?"
"Uh…" Pebble stumbled over his thoughts, he caught himself staring and he hoped she didn't notice.
"First time being interviewed, Mr. Pebble?" Lilly clarified with a smile.
"Oh, yes." Pebble nodded.
Glurt stood up and made a shooing gesture at Lilly and her crew, "Nope, no time right now, you'll have to wait until the next event! Begone, quickly now before the Throne Holder comes!" He looked back at Pebble, "Sorry little guy, you can f*ck up your life with the ladies later. Right now, you don't know it yet, but these pictures are going to be historic. Stay focused and be ready to make history!" His smile was big and sincere.
"Uh, okay then." Pebble scratched his head. 'I'm starting to lose the plot here.' he thought, but Glurt clearly noticed and shook his head.
"Do you think a normal freshly summoned Hero would be able to do what you did in that arena? Like it or not, you've been blessed with talent and that talent will be utilized. I don't have the details for you yet, but history will be written with your pen." Glurt's eyes looked serious and Pebble started to hear the words he was saying.
"So I am a weapon?" He questioned.
Glurt rolled his eyes, "Ugh, human emotions. Yes, you're a weapon, but you're also, well, you. We aren't monsters, we will let you make your own decision and choose your own path. However, we will occasionally dictate some of your time and attention depending on your proximity to tasks that we need to complete." He looked down on the arena through the glass wall until he saw a big man wearing a bright red shirt.
"For example! You see that guy?" Glurt pointed at the red shirt guy and Pebble nodded. "That's my brother, Kurt. He's a f*cking assh*le. If you ever find yourself in Kurt's territory, I might have a task or two for you." he smiled as he imagined Pebble crushing Kurt's windpipe like he did to that little goblin.
"All you'd have to do is divert your attention to that task, handle it, and you're done! You can go back to whatever goal or objective you set on your own in between these tasks." Glurt eyed Pebble to gauge his response.
"Do these tasks include murder?" Pebble questioned.
"Well, maybe sometimes, but not necessarily always." Glurt rubbed his chin.
"Great." Pebble deflated.
The doors finally opened and Artia walked in first, she took the open seat on Pebble's right and smiled at him as she sat down. Behind her, another beautiful woman with blonde hair and a blue dress entered the room. She politely waved at the camera men and reporters and took her seat next to Artia.
Two men wearing black hooded cloaks entered next. The hoods were up and Pebble wasn't able to make out their facial features. They sat down opposite of each other next to the open seat at the other head of the table.
Pebble leaned to Glurt and whispered, "Who are these people?" Everyone at the table could hear his words, but he was trying his best to be polite.
"This is the lovely Winter Lady." Glurt gestured to the blonde woman in the blue dress and she nodded at Pebble with the introduction. "To her right are two benefactors who wish to remain anonymous for now, but they are thrilled to be working with you. You'll get to meet them at another time."
The Winter Lady spoke up, "Hello Pebble, Whereas the Winter Lady is a nickname of sorts, I do have an actual name and that name is Sabrina." She smirked at Glurt and extended her hand to Pebble.
Pebble looked at the hand in front of him, it was positioned in a manner that would suggest that she wanted him to kiss it. He panicked and shook it awkwardly, 'Am I going to fall for every woman I meet here, get it together you moron!' He thought to himself before remembering the people around him could read minds. Sabrina smiled wide and returned her hand to her lap.
Another woman entered the room and she made Pebble instantly forget about every other Lady that Pebble has met so far. She had black hair and gold eyes that demanded his attention. She walked with an alluring sway. Her breasts were… Glurt elbowed him hard and began the introduction.
"Down boy! This is another benefactor who's extremely eager to work with you. May I introduce you to Aphrodite." Glurt's words shocked Pebble and he ended up choking on his own saliva for a moment.
"WHO?!" Pebble shouted.
Glurt looked confused, "Huh, I really thought you might have known about this one."
"No, we definitely have tales of an Aphrodite on Earth." Pebble said quickly.
Aphrodite seemed tickled by Pebble's reaction to her, "Hello Pebble, I'm quite flattered to have drawn the eye of a man such as yourself!" She giggled.
Pebble face palmed with both hands as she took her seat and the Throne Holder walked in. The reporters immediately started taking pictures of him.
"Who the hell let in all these reporters?" The Throne Holder asked.
Glurt raised his hand, "You asked me what I bring to the table, and this is a part of it. I'm going to help you spread the legend of Pebble far and wide. It will help with your plans in the future, trust me." He stated.
"Okay, fine. Come here kid, let me get a good look at you." Said the Throne Holder.
Pebble got up and accepted a firm handshake from the god. Lights flashed again as the cameras got the first glimpse of what was sure to be a truly historic partnership.