"I shall have to have a painting commissioned of this moment," came the voice of Assassin from a blood-soaked shadow. "The devil pagan standing monstrous and bloody above the martyred angel. The madness of the past arising to consume a Christian present, a mother devouring her son - haha -" there was a moment of reluctance, a moment of struggle, but in the end a failure to prevent a wicked laugh from burbling out.

Cardinal Richelieu stepped from the shadows. Luxurious in his Cardinal's bloody red, surrounded by a cordon of crimson-tabarded traitors and killers.

"Oh, it really has been remarkable to watch this little war play out," said the Cardinal. "A true battle of the one-eyed men. Bohemond saw the power in the Church, but thought it lay in relics. Julian saw through the power of the relics and thought it meant that the Church itself was false. The pagan saw the power of fear and terror, imagined it to be a mere sword."

The Cardinal ascended the stairs towards the throne, shielded by his men, and reached out to caress the shivering face of Aeglesia. He couldn't quite keep the smirk off his face, despite another struggle.

"Fear and hope," he said, "are both merely half of the equation. Alone, useless. But together," he turned, rubbing his fingers, "[i]together [/i]-! Fear panics the masses, and hope tells them where to run! You have built this terror of a castle, but -"

He slouch-fell into the throne and gripped the sides with both hands. Immediately as he did so the castle shook. The ground heaved, windows shattered and great gusts of smoke erupted into the air. The scorching, burning focus of intense red laser energy ripped through its outer battlements, obliterating entire spires and ramparts.

*

Katherine Isabella Fluffybiscuits stared up at the Shrine Giant. Its lights burned red against the blue, boiling together like sirens. Its arm had been heaved up, away from the dragon Opalis and towards the distant castle, tearing a rent through the landscape as it cut. Its other arm reached up, trying to pull the cannon back down, but it resisted - the mecha caught in a struggle between two masters.

*

"- all you have done is drive everyone else into my arms," said the Cardinal, putting his feet up on the throne's arm rests. "One of the great laws of balance, the same as did for Spain. The more terrifying you are the greater the coalition that forms against you."