Losing a Subject was...unpleasant compared to even losing scores of Units. When a fragment was destroyed it was losing a tiny piece of oneself, a dance move forgotten, a laughter undone, and a bit of a perspective removed forever.
The death of a subject was much worse since it carried with it so much weight. Like losing a fish on the line as compared to just losing the bait or the hook. An entire world was now gone with the fragment that connected it to the Swarm.
But while it was painful Mar did not let the pain overtake them, perspective was important and Henry had never been all that promising as a candidate to be their champion. This Mariam woman on the other hand showed a lot more promise.
Watching their fight had been very educational and reaffirmed a lot of their personal beliefs. She had used subtlety, cunning, and patience to best a physically superior opponent. Trickery interwoven with honesty and paired with ruthless determination had lead to Henry being killed. Mar valued such qualities and the woman had given up when captured. Which in turn led to her accepting the infection, so it would only take a few hours compared to the longer process involved in creating a Fungal Zombie.
Mar didn't exactly understand why consent was needed to make a Subject in the case of humans. Even coerced consent worked but unlike Ysandra, who might have become a Subject due to her unique nature rather than anything on the part of Mar, some kind of consent was needed to integrate them into the Swarm without destroying their individuality.
The immune system still fought the infestation but even so the process was magically...easier and less intensive than with full conversions. Mar would be gracious enough to spend time adapting her body once she was finished, they had learned from Henry and could probably make something far better with the practice they had gotten.
However, that would have to wait as Mar had to adapt the Juggernaut further to serve as the mouthpiece for whenever the surrender would be negotiated. Mar still hadn't gotten the voice right and it needed to be suitable impressive before the third day came.
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Baron Heraclius looked over the maps, notes, and other documents in his improvised war room and sighed. It wasn't a simple sigh of weariness or frustration, it was the final sigh one came with when playing a game of King's Table and saw that the game was over.
The final death knell for the defenders had not been the dead fields or the steadily growing numbers of poisoned people. No it was the note that had been delivered to Heraclius 10 minutes ago explaining that a mob had broken through and seized all of the cleansed food and water at one of the rationing stations that Heraclius had established.
Desperate townsfolk were gorging on the morsels that was supposed to aid in maintaining the town. More people would have died in the fighting that had sporadically broken out throughout the night and now with dawn on the horizon, Baron Heraclius made his decision and rose up to execute his final duty to his subject.
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Mar had been busily labouring on improving the Juggernaut Spider over the course of the night, the newly installed voice system was the primary focus as it needed to be tweaked. Especially because Mar had discovered it would be impossible for them to speak "directly" through the Unit. Their ability to directly control Units were too limited for that to be possible, and the sole fragment piloting the spider did not have the mental capacity to fluently translate the wishes of the Swarm into conversation.
At best that would be a rather halting and simple affair, the only work around that Mar had found was programming in preset "voice lines" into the fragment that could be triggered with a command. The fragment could only store six such lines at a time, but there were no limit to the length of the preset lines. Mar was, therefore, confident that they should be able to conduct the negotiations with the human representative whenever they came.
Now they only had to wait.
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Baron Heraclius stepped out through the western gate of Hor and made his way down the slight slope towards where the main throng of beasts were gathered. By his side he had his Confanonier carrying a white flag. He had his doubt that a monster such as the Thrall-King could understand the intricacies of modern negotiating, but him underestimating the enemy was what had led to this loss in the first place.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
He left the Standard Bearer at the edge of the divine barrier, Heraclius would make the rest of the journey alone. If this gambit failed then only he would be lost and the defenders could either rally and sally out to face the foe, or come up with some other strategy to surrender to the beast.
Each step took him closer to the growing horde of puppets and monsters gathered outside of Hor. A sight that couldn't not invoke a primal fear in any ordinary man who saw it, he was walking alone into an army of monsters that would kill him...or worse trap him as a puppet or make an example of him like they did with the first runner.
Thankfully, he did not have to finish the walk over to them. He was walking with his back straight and his head held proudly, but deep down he didn't know if he could have gone all the way to them. Out from the horde the most imposing monster of them all appeared. It was an enormous spider that seemed to have been coated in steel at some point in its life. Loud clicks followed its steps towards him and an ominous crimson glow radiated out from its cluster of eyes.
If stories about this meeting would ever be told then they would say that the two met at the exact middle spot between their two armies. In reality the Spider walked so quickly that it ended up being three fourths of the way instead. But the effect was close enough to the despairing millitia members watching the two parties.
"Can you understand me?"
"Yes."
Heraclius didn't know what he had expected but the voice that greeted him from the spider was somehow worse than what he had imagined. It was a layered thing rather than a singular voice, that seemed to fluctuate between man and woman with an ominous genderless voice faintly repeating its words almost immediately after they were first spoken.
Effectively it sounded akin to some kind of dark choir whispering from an abyss somewhere, a call that would inspire brave men to run home to their mothers and inspire the weak willed to kneel down and beg for mercy.
"What is it you want from us?"
"You."
"We both know that my town is lost, but if we don't get some explanations or assurances we will have no choice but to make it a costly final stand."
"Unconditional Surrender."
"No, we will not just surrender without knowing what you have planned for us you monster!"
"Surrender means all of you are spared, no person will be killed or made into one of them. Your sick will be cured and your town will be saved from starvation. No other option lies before you, step out into the street within one hour and breathe in the spores that will fall. If you fail to do so then the forces at my command will tear your town apart and then you will have no choice."
Heraclius was rendered speechless as the spider went from being taciturn to suddenly being incredibly long winded in explaining its desires. Incredulity filled his voice and mannerisms as he replied after a few moments of stunned silence.
"Willingly poison ourselves? Are you ma-, well look who I am asking I am trying to parley with a spider. At any rate..."
Heraclius stopped himself and took time to think, if the monster had wished to kill them all then all it would have to do would be waiting for them die of starvation and thirst. No, all it had done seemd to have been to preserve lives while making sure that the siege was short.
"At any rate, do we have any gurantees for clemency if we...do as you demand?"
"Yes."
"I am going to need more than that if I am going to make the people listen to me."
"Food, safety, mercy, equality, power. These are all promises I make for those who surrender willingly. But do not mistake what I am doing here human, I am not asking you to join my servants...I'm telling you."
The spider then turned abruptly and left Heraclius stunned in its wake before he started to shout after it.
"IS THAT ALL YOU HAVE TO SAY? WE NEED MORE! We-"
He stopped as the monster did not even seem to twitch or give any kind of indication that it had even heard him. Heraclius turned to look at his Confanonier and then back to the retreating beast and he sighed defeatedly again. This was not going to be easy.