Clash I: Finale

If a Player from Yggdrasil was watching this battle, then their judgment would be simple. Their advice for the sword saint would be to immediately retreat. A PvP between high-level players wasn't simply about who did the most damage, had the most durability, or had a better stat distribution.

It was about information, tools, strategy, counters, about making your enemy move in a certain manner, about countering an enemy's strengths, about reinforcing one's weaknesses, and about running away when necessary. Sure, if it was one of those tournaments that decided the World Champion, then retreat would not be an option for most competitors. But this battle was different to both of them.

A Player could tell that Reinhard wanted to win by destroying the enemy from the front, not by stabbing it from the back. A Player could tell that for Ainz, this was not a battle to the death. Ainz's victory conditions would be fulfilled the moment his experiments were all over with.

The only way for Reinhard to achieve true victory conditions was for him to retreat. If it was a Player, then that would be their course of action. After that, they would capitalize on all the information they had gained. They would use magic items and abilities to negate time-manipulation spells and instant death magic. They would reinforce their defense against negative-type magic and skills, retrieve items that would delay teleportation and, if possible, use a tool or spell as replacement for [Dimensional lock].

The other opponent would also make their preparations based on the information they took. Thus, their next battle would depend on the foundations set by this one.

But Reinhard Van Astrea was not a Player and this was not a game.

That was why he could not be blamed for his decision. His poor decision to fight this battle, that is.

#

A threat.

When Reinhard looked at the absurd army in front of him, that was what he thought about Ainz Ooal Gown. He was not a player, thus he did not have the knowledge that those summons were just temporary.

To him, this army was a threat that needed to be destroyed even if it meant he would lose one or two lives while doing so. But does he go after the King of this army, or does he go after the army first?

He conveyed his intentions to the system known as Od Laguna. His intentions were along the lines of, 'create something that can understand foreign concepts, information, history, and knowledge,' and, 'create something that can allow me to dodge magic that cannot be dodged,' and, 'tell me the nature of these existences,' and various such lines of thoughts.

Those intentions did not get a perfect response. Well he did receive a locator-type divine protection for books of knowledge near a 100-meter area, a protection that allowed him to feel the areas with a higher concentration of mana, and one that increased the durability of shields used by him when blocking.

Reinhard sighed. He should have seen such an obvious result. Od Laguna could neither reach into another world and influence it, and nor did that system have any reason to do so.

You really are a Ruler of strange beings, huh? Those 'undead' seemed to be similar to the army used against Vollachia, but what are those other grotesque things with weird laughter? What are those small green things, that skeleton horse, that three-headed dog, and those, uh, wing-knight-warriors?

The amount of new life here caused him a bitter smile on his face. Perhaps he should have asked Subaru, who had strange knowledge from foreign lands, to accompany him.

No, I can't risk anyone's life, especially not against someone like Ainz Ooal Gown.

The battle started when the strange clock appeared behind Ainz Ooal Gown. He did not understand what that strange object was, but he knew it was dangerous. If he went into range, then something terrible would happen. He did not even need his divine protections to tell him that.

The clock started ticking down to something as the first army rushed towards him. He dealt with them efficiently. This army was a horde of strange beings; grotesque, evil, and worse than witch beasts.

However, when compared to the one who brought them here, they were extremely weak.

He used two branches for his first attack. The key was control. It wasn't something Reinhard was confident he could accomplish even with well-crafted swords. Every weapon he used his 'swordplay of the Astrea family' with was certain to shatter with the exception of the Dragon Sword.

However, as the possessor of the divine protection of the sword saint, he knew that his predecessor, Reid Astrea, had a different form of this skill. He could use his ultimate slashes without sacrificing anything in return.

That was why, pushed to this point, Reinhard Van Astrea tried to replicate it.

Mana swirled all around the two branches in his hands, concentrating and bounding, growing in power. As the demons encroached inches away from his face, he lamented his skill as the branches showed their willingness to shatter due to this strike.

Giving an apology, he used those two branches, bringing them down with a crack of his arms.

The smiting blue-white light razed the two corners of this long horde of enemies. His slash decimated the extremities of the row, and forced the rest to concentrate in a narrow column.

It was a risky play, but Reinhard allowed the nearest demons to strike at his body by purposely inhibiting his resistances. This was to activate two divine protections. One was to allow him to get stronger when bleeding, and the other allowed him to increase his durability depending on how much physical damage was done to him at a certain threshold.

After kicking them away with a slight apology, he charged forth.

The charging Reinhard was now a bundle of many divine protections, new and old.

[Divine protection of wind-reading and wind-evasion]-it allowed him to read the wind of each physical and long-range magical attack, and respond with the swiftness of the wind.

[Divine protection of the death-god]-it left wounds that would not be healed as long as the body was of living flesh and blood.

[Divine protection of blue-skies]-made him stronger under the clear skies above. [Divine protection of projectile evasion]-allowed him to evade all long-range attacks as long as the attack wasn't an instantaneous one. [Divine protection of First sight and Second sight]-it allowed him to know how to dodge attacks he had experienced for the first time and second time as long as it was physically possible for him to do so.

[Divine protection of the Sun]-buffed him up under the sun. [Divine protection of insensitivity]-cannot be affected by outside influences such as mind-manipulation, magically infused blindness and other such effects. [Divine protection of Distant vision]- could observe a specific target, regardless of distance, as long as the target was physically available and it was physically possible to do so. [Divine protection of the war-god]-master any weapon.

[Divine protection of lightning]-can't be hit by lightning.

[Divine protection of magic resistance]-immunity to curses, and immunity to debuffs from Yin magic specifically. [Divine protection of fire, wind, earth, darkness(yin) and water absorption]-can absorb and reduce up to eighty percent of those magic elements.

[Divine protection of swiftness, item mastery, unarmed mastery, illness and poison immunity]. [Divine protection of mist, cloud, and lake].

[Divine protection of initiative and accuracy]-strikes and long-range attacks will always hit regardless of the physical skills of enemies. However, they can be blocked, deflected, prevented by disappearing, teleportation, and can be negated through an attack of the same physical caliber or by a blessing that makes those attacks always miss. [Divine protection of stealth and stealth detection].

[Divine protection of flexibility]-possessor received the ability to shift their bones and muscles in any way to dodge attacks as long as the movements do not lead to lethal injuries. [Divine protection of one-man fortress]-durability and defense increases when outnumbered(speed and strength versions already acquired).

[Divine protection of critical strikes]-will always hit a critical strike as long as there is no immunity to critical strikes.

[Divine protection of stagger and stun]-unarmed strikes will stagger and stun only if the enemy does not possess immunities to those effects. [Divine protection of first strike strengthening, second-strike strengthening, and so forth].

[Divine protection of unarmed damage reduction]-the damage of barehanded strikes to the possessor will be reduced depending on the skill of strikes. [Divine protection of weapon damage reduction]-reduction depended on the quality of the weapon. [Divine protection of exhaustion nullification]. [Divine protection of thought-process acceleration]-will depend on the posessor's situation.

[Divine protection of sensation ignorance]-possessor will ignore sensations such as heat, cold, wet, pleasure, pain, and touch as long as activated. [Divine protection of emotion control]-will work mindlessly to fulfill a task while ignoring high emotions, but will lose sight of other tasks if used single-mindedly on one.

[Divine protection of naked-strengthening]-strengthens the possessor's defense and offense if they expose themselves under the presence of many. [Divine protection of ignoring shame].

[Divine protections that increase power depended on the presence of vile stenches, hard and sharp ground, polluted air, high magical condensation, repulsive sounds, etc].

The list went on and on.

Reinhard Van Astrea was currently—despite his loss of his trump card and weapons—the strongest version of himself. Yet he wasn't overjoyed that an enemy had pushed him to rely on even the most minor of divine protections. He just hoped that this version of himself could end this battle before that clock struck twelve.

# #

1-3 seconds.

Ainz observed him from atop his war horse. Having been in a direct confrontation with Reinhard, he had not gotten the chance to observe him objectively until now. As he watched him clash into the first army of leaderless demons, he audibly muttered:

"...Truly ridiculous."

Reinhard's skill was an art to behold. Having used up his branches, he charged forth with his hands as his weapons. His arms flowed with the beautiful flow of a river. His sharp hands were an accurate rain of swords. It was a forward charge and within that charge, Reinhard moved with beauty and grace.

Each of the demons were hit right before they struck. In other words, it was an accurate counterattack. Each strike was a critical blow. Because they weren't undead, they did not possess an immunity to critical blows and lethal blows which could negate Reinhard's divine protection of critical strikes.

Each of Reinhard's barehanded strikes had offensive power that was well above level fifty. No, it had to be at least above level sixty. Which meant that even if any demon there happened to possess [High tier physical nullification V] it would not be able to nullify the strikes and the damage would go through.

Of course, these low-level demons did not possess something of that level. Their long-range magic missed him with ease, their projectiles were countered in a similar manner to the functions of the [parry] ability. Their claws, wings, teeth, and tails missed Reinhard's body. No human should be physically capable of dodging attacks that came from all directions within a single-minded bull rush.

Yet Reinhard did it while pushing this demonic army back. He cracked his bones and turned the directions of all of his limbs in an eerily similar manner to a mindless puppet. He bled, but his wounds seemed to be taken on purpose. His speed was above the speed of a violent gale. It was above the speed of sound at its mightiest, and the more velocity was gained the greater his swiftness. Combined with the strength of his mana-infused body, his bull-charge could not be negated by the demons.

Even the greatest attempt at coordination from the demons still came short of cutting off Reinhard's nails.

Thus, with a barrage of preemptive strikes—all lethal one-shots—and a display of overpowering evasion skills, Reinhard decimated the entire first army of demons at the end of 2.5 seconds. Torn wings, chopped off limbs, showers of colored blood, and the disappearing bodies of demons were littered everywhere.

Ainz took a breath of relief while observing and learning as much from Reinhard's abilities. He was relieved not because of how strong Reinhard was, but because of another fact.

That fact being that Reinhard's movements were not instantaneous. There was a difference between superhuman speed and instantaneous movements. That was why Reinhard could not kill the entire army under a millisecond. Every time he moved his arms, every time he dodged a blow, and every time he killed a demon, those were all places where a minor amount of time was taken.

That truly minuscule amount of time was added over the consecutive battle. In a match where all Ainz needed was twelve seconds, even the loss of a millisecond was enough to put Reinhard at a disadvantage.

Reinhard met the second army—the army of undead led by the Doom Lord—right as 2.5 seconds had passed. This army had better coordination and levels of intelligence. Doom Lord's skill bolstered the strength of others, while the rest did the same for their leader.

Reinhard's aggression was unintentionally directed towards the guardians—the Death Knights. In addition, the Elder Liches buffed up the Doom Lord with negative energy spells that also served as its healing. The subunits led by each Elder Lich controlled the massive amounts of fodder undead throughout the battlefield. Then there were the Eyeball corpses and the Eternal death, which made a silent and stealthy approach impossible for even those with high-tier camouflage skills.

Seeing this, Reinhard took a completely different approach.

3—7 seconds

Reinhard kitted around the place. Ainz's eyes widened at a new addition in Reinhard's tactic. That tactic was the art of snatching weapons, the art of theft. He purposefully went after the low-level undead warriors, snatched their weapons, and did not kill them.

He did not have enough time to charge up a full slash, but he had enough to charge up at least a tenth of its original power. He ran around the surroundings, baiting the Death Knights and Death Warriors to stray from the main group.

Then he used his special 'swordplay of the Astrea family' slash to decimate the forces of this army. Seeing this, the army was forced to move from an defensive stance to an offensive stance. If they stayed defensive, they would be decimated.

Reinhard continued to play by snatching away weapons and using them until they had eroded away. It made Ainz click his tongue. He would have to think of a countermeasure to this in the future. What point would there be to purposefully strip him of his gear if he could artfully snatch another's?

Ainz ordered the ones whose weapons had been snatched to kill themselves. In that way, those weapons would dissipate away due to the mechanics and Reinhard would have to be careful.

At 4.8 seconds, when the majority of low-level undead, Death warriors, and a few Elder Liches had fallen, Reinhard countered Ainz's orders by simply snatching the weapons of high-level enemies with some calculated effort. In other words, he took the weapons and shields of his Death Knights.

"Tch. What a real pain. Stop the suicides. Elder Liches, only use area of effect spells, and target the weapon he takes."

At 5.5 seconds, the winged demon forces of the largest army—the third army led by the Cerberus—entered to further help the elite remaining forces of this second army.

Reinhard dealt with the Death Knights by not hitting them with his full strength in one blow. In other words, he understood that they would be able to take any hit at a certain HP and live with one HP point. To counter it, Reinhard caught them in his sword blasts, dealing only chip damage to them.

He did that with every death knight he could catch in his range, and made them weak for a final blow whenever he needed it.

The Doom Lord and Eternal Death were capable of taking Reinhard's hits and not dying immediately. The Eternal Death had enough agility to escape as long as Reinhard was distracted by someone like Jack the Ripper or the Soul eater.

Thus, the two main offensive barriers were the Doom Lord and the Eternal Death. Yet Reinhard did not confront them from the front. It would certainly take too many seconds to do so.

Hmm? What is he doing?

Ainz observed that Reinhard wasn't simply jumping around and slashing from a distance. His slashes were purposefully gouging the earth in an arching perimeter. There was a deep dugout created at the edge of the crystallized crater.

Then Reinhard started stomping. He stomped the earth, sending back the waves of enemies clashing against him, and weakened the foundations of the place where he stood.

"...Fall back and combine together to form one army."

His order came a little late.

At 6.8 seconds, Reinhard flipped the earth. Well, he did not literally flip the entire earth. He simply flipped one end of the arena over the other. If the arena was a full moon, then Reinhard had weakened half of it and had flipped it over by digging his arms and legs at the perimeter that he had gouged in the earth.

The large arena flip of crystalized ground rose high above and collapsed towards both of the two remaining armies.

The problem with having such a large amount of summons was that Ainz could not give specific orders to every single one of them and that not everyone had a decent level of intelligence.

The horrendously large army of demons in the back and the remaining forces of the undead army attacked the crystalized half of the arena that was collapsing towards them. The ones who were in the middle of their attacks immediately fell victim.

Reinhard was up in the air when they started their attacks. He leapt from one winged demon to another, thrusting lethal stabs with two swords in each hand, and using their bodies as camouflage.

He did not have the chance or time to wipe them all out given their number. But that was not his full intention. Instead he leapt into the fray as the others were busy with their attacks, and swiftly took them out before they got a chance to cancel their attacks.

The half of the arena shattered upon them before the elites could grab at him.

The heavy rubble buried some, crushed others, flung some away from their groups, and covered the ranks in a veil of pure chaos.

At 7.5 seconds, Reinhard Van Astrea, hidden within the dance of glowing purplish crystal, entered the inner ranks and went straight for Ainz Ooal Gown.

He used the two swords in his hands to envelope the enemies in front with his special strike. The swords still shattered away under the power of the slash itself, but Reinhard rushed forth without stopping to snatch another weapon.

He dodged away from the strikes, weapons, and skills of the troops, and charged both of his arms, thrusting them forwards at the Cherubim Gate Keepers, who stood without damage and without doubt.

His glimmering arms weren't met by the Gatekeepers, but by the goblins. Even Ainz was quite stupefied at what happened. Two groups of ten goblins assembled themselves in a single line. Both groups were impaled, their bodies stuck around Reinhard's arms in a grotesque meat shield of pure mass.

They held onto dear life as they said:

"F-For the Master." "Anything for the Master." "Our lives are for you." "Goblin God, please let me live long enough to serve as his shield!"

They said lines that true martyrs would say, but Ainz was too dumbfounded to even care. They even slapped each other awake just to hold on as long as possible. Even Reinhard looked like his face was about to break in grief.

T-Those are trash items….you know. I-I guess it was worth it to waste that much money…..

At 8.0 seconds, the remaining groups of Goblins abandoned their weapons and leapt onto Reinhard with their bodies.

Seriously?! What are you guys doing?!

Reinhard kicked them away with brutal force. As his left leg reached the peak, the Eternal Death encroached from below and slashed at his leg. Reinhard twisted his legs at the joints, momentarily dislodging them simply to evade. Then with the cracks of his bones, he twisted that left leg back to normal and wrapped it around the Eternal Death's arms.

He lifted the monster up like that and smashed him down, creating a tiny crater within the large crater. Its HP went down, but was not decimated. Instead, in a display of true desperation, it stabbed the bare sole of Reinhard's feet and chose to tank the damage.

In that moment, Reinhard's body moved to evade the surprise attacks from behind him. He swatted his arms to the sides and swatted the barely-alive goblins off his arms. The slash of the Doom Lord's scythe was dodged at the very edge. It took a few strands of his flaming-red hair off.

Reinhard grabbed the scythe, pulled the Doom Lord close despite the negative energy swirling off of it, and aimed a sharp thrust with his bare hand. The moment his fingers were inches away from reaching the Doom Lord, Reinhard grimaced.

He knew an attack was coming. He knew the direction. He knew he could avoid it, but if he did, then he would miss the chance to deal damage to the Doom Lord. He chose to tank it.

The three heads of Cerberus bit down on his arm, yet he continued in order to thrust into the Doom Lord…or, that was what was supposed to happen. Instead, the last remaining Death Knight took the hit and died, letting the Doom Lord continue its existence.

Reinhard lifted his right arm up, the one bit by the dog, and aimed his right hand at each of the three faces. He grimaced again. This time he had to twist his body sideways, and then curl it downwards immediately.

The attack he had grimaced for was the flaming lances of the Gatekeepers who had stood silent until now. He dodged them, then bit the claws of Jack the Ripper off, and headbutted the Doom Lord, evaded and kicked the Eternal Death, jumped up and out of the area of effect's ranges, and prepared himself as the remaining members of the large army fell upon him.

The cycle of dodges, chipping strikes, and footwork continued.

At 9.3 seconds, every area was surrounded, and evasion was physically impossible. The Eyeball corpse observed each of his movements and informed the others off it. Thus, the ground below was a carpet of demons who were still alive. The air above was festered by four Cherubim Gate Keepers.

He saw it all. The white lines that were drawn at the trajectories of each attack. This was one of his biggest advantages as the possessor of the divine protection of the sword saint. And so he saw it, he saw that every spot was covered by a white line.

He took the barrage of damage, felt his strength burst forth with this damage, and took that chance to counterattack the elites.

If the majority of these elites were not immune to critical strikes, then the process might have been faster.

The Eternal Death finally fell, the Cerberus was mushed into paste, and stealing the Doom Lord's scythe, he spun around in a vortex of careful strikes. The elites of the armies, the commanders, and the thousands of members had been defeated.

There was a last huge block of meat shields, composed of the remaining survivors of each army that stood around Ainz. But those weren't the problem. The problem was the last batch of elite monsters.

The six Gatekeepers stood mostly unharmed as the clock struck 10.9. The eyeball corpse, still alive, bolstered their sensory-capabilities from his new hiding place within Ainz's divine-class robe.

Spirits had left this place due to the concentration of negative energy, so he could not rely on their healing and had to rely on his passive skills instead. His skin was gouged out in various manners, his broken bones and muscles were glued together due to his divine protections, but were certainly broken for the time being.

Yet his eyes burned bright.

—It was not enough. This simple second was not enough to deal with true tanks, made for taking damage. Ainz was on his warhorse, observing every ability and power on display.

11.1 second.

Reinhard tried to go past them. Their shields blocked the way, their sensory abilities and flight capabilities allowed them to move in synchrony, and the last remaining meat wall stood still. He did not have the time to flip the arena again.

11.4 seconds.

He fought them with his barehanded skills. Having observed the entirety of his battle, they made sure to recall their weapons whenever needed, support the ones weakened by helping them fall back, and shielded themselves from dangerous blows while taking ones that would only chip away at their health.

In return, they could not harm Reinhard, but neither were they one-shotted.

11.7 seconds.

Out of desperation, Reinhard sacrificed his entire arm. He used it like he did with his blades, fully imbuing them with enough power to instantly shatter a hundred ordinary blades.

"Protect me," Ainz gave a simple order, and the Gatekeepers, the last remaining meat shield, and the warhorse, all of them protected him against this wide ranged attack.

The light was brilliant, and the attack was the strongest one he had seen Reinhard deal yet. This slash turned the background into white and swallowed all of them. However, using this attack was a mistake born out of ignorance.

The rest of Ainz's summons—his demons and undead—were weaker to holy-class magic and fire-magic with the exception of those who had acquired immunities and resistances. Reinhard's mana slash was not a pure holy-class attribute. It did not even have a particular attribute to it.

It was simply a slash of pure mana. Yet those attacks dealt extra damage to his undead and demons in the same way that holy-class magic dealt. In other words, while not belonging to holy-class magic, it had similar properties due to its attributes.

The fatal flaw was that the Gatekeepers were angels that used and resisted holy-class magic. It was negative energy that harmed them, not pure energy. That was why this attack was a waste of Reinhard's power.

He observed the Gatekeeper's health. The might of this magical blast reduced their HP like it was slowly gulping it away. Four of them were already harmed before, so they were put at the very front to absorb and take as much damage as possible.

Their shields were shattered after a little while, and the four of them survived on twenty percent HP

The remaining two took around thirty-five percent of their total HP, but resisted the rest due to their resistances and immunities to such an attribute.

The area of effect also decimated the meat shield made of the remnants of his previous army and his poor warhorse who had been summoned for no reason. The exception was the Eyeball corpse who hid underneath the protection of his divine-class robe. This set of Ainz's equipment was especially made to counter holy-class magic and to negate the effects of knockback.

Any remaining damage that came at him in this vortex of mana was mostly negated.

This entire process took too long.

11.91111 seconds.

A desperate roar came from Reinhard. It was the first time he had roared out a battle cry. True desperation was written on his handsome features. He charged in with one arm ready to explode.

The Gatekeepers pierced his unguarded and single-minded body with their fire lances, but he took the blows, tore himself off, and charge—

The clock struck twelve.

The twinge of the hand overturned the cycle of life and death. As a background of white overtook the domain of the Ruler of Death, Reinhard's arm stopped.

He stood in front of him, towered by the visage of Ainz Ooal Gown. His arms fell to his sides, his shoulders relaxed, and the stiffness of his body dissipated. It was the physique of a man who knew exactly what would happen to him.

Ainz watched him without saying a word. If this was it, then his choice to not interfere with a man's resolve was one that would be celebrated by the villains of the Guild once known as Ainz Ooal Gown.

Everything else started to turn into dust and that dust was then turned into nothing. The air died away, the crystallized ground underneath was now sand, and all creatures started to die. Eyeball corpse died first.

The Gatekeepers genuflected as their last action of loyalty and service.

Only Reinhard remained.

"...I see," he muttered.

His lips were parted, his eyes wide but not with shock. His sky-blue eyes watched him with glimmering awe. They were widened, but not out of shock or pain. It was like a kid watching the glory of powers he wished to possess himself. There was plenty of joyful and accepted envy on the face of the strongest man in this world.

In this moment, it did not matter who the villain was and who the hero was. In this moment, there was only acceptance from two people who could be considered the strongest.

"...You are…truly awesome," Reinhard's lower body shattered into dust. The destruction flowed upwards, taking away his resilient arms, and creeping up his neck. "...Truly strong…."

"-Of course," Ainz replied. He did not know whether the smiling head of Reinhard wanted him to reply, but he did so out of true respect. "After all, I am Ainz Ooal Gown. Learn this as you die: Ainz Ooal Gown knows no defeat!"

His arms were stretched to the sides, the open palms proclaiming to the heavens, and his eyes—red dots in an empty skull—shone with confidence. The eyes of Reinhard shut in peace, and Reinhard Van Astrea died.

This was the peak of the Eclipse class. It was a skill that went past any and all resistance and immunities to instant death magic. The only way to escape was to run out of its range, to kill the skill user under twelve seconds, or have high-tier resurrection items and abilities.

The world around him was a sea of sand, absent of life, and no one stood besides Ain—Momonga. No one stood besides Momonga.

This was the path that Momonga had driven upon due to his unrelenting love for his memories made with his past comrades and for the love he had for the treasures they had left behind. As an undead, he felt nothing even while gazing at this wasteland around him. As a former human….he did not know.

Momonga wasn't certain whether his actions were a betrayal of his human self. But he was certain of one thing:

As long as everyone in Nazarick—the people closest to my heart—are happy, satisfied, safe, and smiling, then the rest of the world can go to hell. I'll personally create that hell for you all.

Perhaps if he had made an attempt to open up his heart to others, then, maybe, Momonga could have been friends with Reinhard. However, Ainz was not a friend to Reinhard and he was not a friend to this meaningless world.

"Now then, let's do the finishing touches."

Ainz walked away from the place where Reinhard had died. He stood more than fifty meters away, and took out a certain ring from his inventory. Engraved on the ring were three shooting stars.

This was the most powerful ring in his inventory, but instead of being considered a fair item, this ring could only be classified as a cheat item. The Guild of Ainz Ooal Gown possessed two of these rings known as the Shooting Star. Ainz had gotten one after spending an entire year's worth of salary, and his past comrade, Yamaiko, had gotten it on the first try.

When the members had left their items with Ainz upon leaving the guild, Yamaiko's ring had also been left behind.

Such an item—gotten from a gacha machine—was a broken item that should truly not exist in any world. The deadpanned faces and the shake of heads he had gotten from his past comrades were all justified. This was a ring that could use [Super tier magic: Wish Upon a Star]-a spell that could grant any wish(limited degree)—up to three times at no XP cost and with no cast-up time. In addition, the wishes that each use could grant were much better than the ones granted when using the spell normally.

This was an item that could be classified under the pay-to-win category. It was blatant marketing from the game developers so that more people would willingly spend money for items like these.

In Yggdrasil, despite the power of this item, there were plenty of limitations in the choices available. Thus, it could not, in fact, turn everything that was impossible to possible.

However, upon coming to this new world, those limitations had changed. Ainz had not used his ring yet, but the amount of options available, the type of options, and the grand rarity of each option had increased tremendously.

[Wish Upon a Star] still showed him a limited number of choices to choose from, but all of those choices were grand and powerful.

A series of beautiful magic circles surrounded the area around his feet. Information filtered into his head regarding the type of options available at this time.

There were a few that caught his eye:

[Copy and receive the divine protection of the war-god], [Grand teleport inhabitants of this world down the Great Waterfall—limited under 500,000 individuals], [Seal a single item], [Seal a single spell], [Remove mana from an area—limited on range], [Copy and receive the divine protection of salt reasoning].

Huh?! No, wait! What the fuck is up with that last one? W-Why is that considered a rare wish?

His emotion-inhibition had to help him out for something as stupid as that. While the prospect of taking divine protections had interested him since the beginning, Ainz never found the one divine protection that he always looked for: a divine protection that could allow him to use the magic of this world.

Right now, Ainz wasn't interested in those wishes. Instead he waited for what would become available if the man he was waiting for truly came back. It was a strange strand of thought. After all, resurrection magic was another magic type that didn't really exist in this world. He had heard about something known as the 'Sacrament of the Immortal King,' but it seemed that the entire process for that was different from resurrection class magic or items.

If this was Yggdrasil, then that stand of thought was only to be expected. People like Ainz—who paid real money—had many resurrection items to cheat their way out of dying and then losing their XP because of it.

However, this wasn't Yggdrasil. Yet Ainz treated this duel between Reinhard and him as a PvP. It was a PvP between a newcomer and a veteran at the art of PvPs.

For that reason, he waited. And soon enough, with a slight delay, a voice called out:

"I…did not think you would wait here, Ainz-dono. But perhaps it is rude of me to belittle your intelligence. I apologize for making you wait for so long."

"Don't mind it. More than that, here," Ainz reached out into his inventory and chucked a set of wonderfully intricate clothes at the person who had appeared.

Reinhard Van Astrea stood there with his body intact. To be precise, his body was clean, free from damage, dirt, exertion, and every scar had been replaced with untarnished smooth skin. It was a revival—an intact resurrection. Ainz made a mental note of the delay between his death and his revival.

This revival confirmed a way for Ainz to categorize Reinhard.

"You're a World Enemy, huh."

"Hm? I do not know what that term means. In fact, such strange terminology reminds me of someone else entirely. How strange."

Ainz had decided to classify Reinhard as a World Enemy—the strongest bosses in Yggdrasil. It had respawned once already, but Ainz did not know if it could do it again or not. Unfortunately, Ainz did not possess the tools to find out.

"How many times can you revive?" He asked him directly.

"...Hm," Reinhard thought about it, but then tilted his head with a wink and replied, "I will keep that information to myself. There is already a huge information discrepancy, so I hope you understand."

"No matter. So then, what do you plan to do next, sword saint?"

Reinhard finished up dressing, and calmly replied:

"I intend to continue this fight," his eyes were fixed on the magic circles around Ainz's feet, and he was prepared to charge in if he sensed danger.

"I see."

He turned his attention and observed the new three choices that had appeared. All three were regarding his opponent. While two of them were powerful and outrageous in their own ways, it was the third one that made Ainz's non-existent heart beat with passion.

A small giggle escaped his mouth. This third option might not be worth sacrificing one of his free wishes for, but, upon intricate consideration, Ainz knew exactly what he was going to use it for. If the wish worked and his plan worked, then it was truly devious.

If it worked, then the seeds for victory would settle, and the chains of defeat would restrain Reinhard for years to come.

A gratuitous laughter came and settled inside him.

"Now it's time to end this," he muttered.

"It is, Ainz-dono. I will continue to fight no matter what you do."

"Is that so? Well there will be no need for that anymore."

Reinhard titled his head as Ainz raised a finger up to the sky. There was no danger, no threat, and no sense of anything happening. Yet despite his divine protections showing the safety of this spell underneath Ainz Ooal Gown, Reinhard thought otherwise. Especially because they were mechanical in nature that the divine protections did not understand the human perception derived from emotions instead of proof.

Reinhard charged in at his fastest speed. He could not match instantaneous teleportation, but he could go much faster than even Cecilus. With that startling speed, he should have no reason to stop.

Yet he did. He stopped the moment he heard those words leave Ainz's mouth.

…..

Ainz, after saying his final sentence to Reinhard, said his wish inside his head and planned to say his wish out loud. In truth, there was no reason to say it out loud. That was the same case with spells from Yggdrasil. The incantations were not necessary.

But not only did he incant them out of habit, he also did it to give false information to his enemy, making them believe that an incantation was necessary.

While saying the wish out loud wasn't necessary for practical effect, this case was different. To achieve the optimal result, he had to say out the exact calculated words.

He suppressed his urge to laugh at the sheer absurdity of it, and said:

"Wish Upon a Star: Make it so that—"

…..

Reinhard Van Astrea froze. His legs were frozen like glaciers. A shower of pressure descended upon him. The weight wasn't real, it was a figment of his imagination. There was still no danger, and not a single scratch had been made on him.

Yet the words spoken held a weight to them.

A bluff. It's…a…bluff. A bluff! Impossible. Something like that! It's just a bluff.

For one of the first times in his life, Reinhard was irritated, confused, lost, unsure, and driven with emotions that he hadn't felt in a very long time. What Ainz had said was an impossibility. Such a power should not exist in this world. If it did, then what was he—blessed by the world—supposed to even do against it? What was his value if such a ridiculous reality could be constructed with a few words?

That was why it had to be a bluff. As he started moving again, laughter descended upon the world.

"Ha ha ha ha!"

Ainz was laughing with pure joy. The rumbling of each sound shook his vision. A repulsive aura—caused by [Despair Aura]-rose around him as he laughed.

He held his skull and laughed. He leaned forwards and laughed. He stretched backwards and laughed. It was the laugh of a Devil that had descended. It was the laugh of a true monster.

After all, the impossibility that Ainz had spoken out loud was:

"Wish Upon a Star: Make it so that the individual named Reinhard Van Astrea cannot harm me."

There were no lies in that statement.

# #

"Impossible," Reinhard muttered.

The laughter of Ainz peaked up and down. It subsided, and then it came back; a cycle of constant laughter. Such a laughter wasn't mocking, he understood.

Something like this isn't possible. It's impossible. Immunity against a single target. Even divine protections and spells can't do something like that. It's the domain of a….monster.

Perhaps he should be glad that he had found a monster. All his life, he had been seen as such by many people, after all. However, Reinhard could not begin to compare himself in monstrosity to Ainz Ooal Gown. They stood at a different plane of existence when it came to that.

"Ah, it worked," Ainz spoke, settling his laughter. "I had certainty that it would. Sorry for laughing for so long. Anyway, now with that done, this battle is over."

"..H-Huh?" There were no lies in that statement.

"There is no way for you to continue this fight anymore. The means for it are gone. This battle has ended. May I say more?"

There were no lies in those red dots that flared till the sides of his skull.

"A lie!" He found himself stating it before even thinking through it. "It's a bluff! It has to be a bluff. Such power is impossible."

"Is it now?" The Overlord stretched out his arms. "Do you really think I can't make the impossible possible? Do you think such a result is impossible for me to attain? If so, then you really are as naive as you act, hero. But no matter. Come and test it out yourself."

The invitation boomed from that vortex of black.

Reinhard stomped the sand below him, raising it up into the air. He had to rely mostly on physical strength this time around. Ainz's foreign ability—the one that had killed everything in a 100 meter area—and the presence of his undead monstrosities that had filled the air with negative energy had all led to a heavy decline in the concentration of mana in the air.

His choice was to either wait for it to recover, to change locations, or to utilize even the tiny specks of mana that remained. He chose the last option. Instead of fueling his strength, he fueled his speed. If this was a bluff, then there was a chance that Ainz had run out of mana—out of MP. For that reason, he could not allow him to escape.

The moment he completed his dash to Ainz, he stomped his right leg forwards, stretched his left leg backwards, and hit a right jab with all of his weight, even letting out an uncharacteristic roar with his blow.

The strike met the robe. It connected to the robe. Damage was dealt. His fist hadn't recoiled away, or anything of that sort. He let out a sigh of relief, and struck another blow towards Ainz's robe.

It was quite sturdy, and Reinhard did not have the time or resources to further boost his power. Even then, damage was being dealt to Ainz and—

"Ah, my bad."

"Huh?"

Ainz's eyes looked down on him.

"I forgot. You can't harm me, but of course you can harm what I wear. Here, let me take it off for you."

Every item and piece of clothing that Ainz was wearing disappeared away in a mist of colorful magic. There stood a bare skeleton, his bones porcelain white, and his structure sturdy and large.

He outstretched his shoulders like an over imposing bear. His wide jawline seemed to shake in laughter.

"How about this? Not many people have seen this simple appearance in all its glory. So be honored and have at it."

Reinhard's fists burned with hesitance. The deep spiral of despair continued. As if to stab it in the back, he yelled and launched a fist.

The fist connected. For a millisecond, nothing happened.

The fist recoiled. His wrist twisted, the recoil ripped through the outer skin of his arm in a single-minded spiral, and the shock of his own force struck his elbow and shoulder.

He yelled in refusal of such a reality, and used his right arm. The same result played over the constitution of each arm.

"Impossible! Not possible! A lie! A bluff!"

Each punch did not work. He opened up his fist and launched an open thrust with his fingers pointed out. Each finger splintered away.

He kept shouting that it was a lie, a hallucination, an illusionary spell. This reality was just that frightening.

The amount of strength he put into each blow was easily reflected back at him. He did not even notice how his strength had continuously pushed Ainz back. The arena of sand had completely changed, his arms were bloody and broken, and Ainz was yawning.

"Isn't that enough now? You understand what has happened, right?"

"….It's impossible," he said as he let go of his relentless striking. At this rate, they would hit a border village.

He wasn't supposed to feel exhaustion, yet he felt a wave of it fall down on his head.

"Even if you keep on saying that, the truth is the truth. The faster you accept it the better it is for you. Or, is it that you want me to," he paused and brought his skull closer, "dump the entire population of your Capital down the flush that you call the Great Waterfall."

There was no lie in that statement.

"M-monster," he finally said it out loud. True terror came to him at that casual suggestion.

Was it possible? Definitely. Could he save that many people? Could he?

An illogical fallacy entered his brain. Doubts about his own ability broke his self-esteem. Regardless of his ability, he no longer believed he could protect anything.

"You finally understood."

Ainz's cold words chilled his heart. This was a nightmare. The upper echelon of the Kingdom had been right. Reinhard had been wrong. He was naive and dumb to consider this person a human at heart. Just like how his Grandfather had called him a monster, Reinhard thought of this creature as a true monster.

"Aaaaah!"

Reinhard immediately swept the earth right under Ainz's feet, gouging it away. He covered that space with his feet, and thrusted Ainz into the air.

"Oh? Giving me flight without using a flight spell? How greedy."

He did not pay those taunts anything in response. He knew he looked embarrassing, his actions futile. But he had to do them to retain his sanity.

"Monster!" That word, used by his Grandfather, had come back to him.

Wilhelm Astrea was right. Reinhard was an anomaly in this world. His abilities were meant to counter almost anything that this world had. Even those tricky sin archbishops would be pestered by him.

So it was his duty to stand as the monster that hunted other monsters. He had come to this place to do so. Yet here was Ainz Ooal Gown, unaffected from his attacks. Not only had he lost the Dragon Sword Reid, he had also been killed once, had given away all of his information to the enemy, and had possibly incited retaliation in the form of war by harming the leader of another nation.

He was supposed to slay the monster and speak nothing of it. The Kingdom had planned to play it all under the rug—pretending like they did not know anything—and use Reinhard for their purposes.

Yet he had utterly failed. He had failed in the most miserable of manners.

Another yawn graced his ears. He had been punching Ainz into the atmosphere despite the fact that the recoil had compressed his arms into a grotesque mass of broken bones and flesh.

They had reached beyond the clouds, and headed off towards the moon. This was the last bit of retaliation he could come up with. If he had the intelligence or the craftiness of someone like his dear friend, Subaru, then he might have been able to think of some way to even beat the invincible just like Subaru could.

But this was all that Reinhard could come up with. If the Ruler of Death could not be defeated, then he would have to take him to someplace else entirely. They started to break through the atmosphere, and were slowly greeted by the sight of stars becoming visible.

At the least he would try to get to the moon. But then—

"[Greater Teleportation]."

Ainz disappeared and took all of Reinhard's efforts with him. He suppressed the frustration written on his face, and fell downwards, hoping that Ainz was still there on the battlefield.

His wish was granted. Ainz was back where he had been before Reinhard's efforts to send him into outer space. He stretched his leg upwards, and readied a heel kick while bringing his weight down.

His aim, this time, was to bury Ainz into the earth. He heard two sounds before his leg connected onto Ainz's shoulder.

The first was—

"[Perfect warrior]."

And the second was the sound of two sticks being snapped in half.

He would stop himself in most situations, but this was a situation based on desperation. His heel kick struck Ainz's shoulders, and buried his feet into the earth—that did not happen. His heel struck a hard metallic object. The structure and texture belonged to a craftsmanship of the highest class.

The amount of damage he dealt to that object barely got through; his pure physical strike did not leave a dent. In the moment his heel touched the armor, his divine protections activated.

The trajectory of two physical attacks unveiled the best position to dodge. He complied without thinking and bounced back, creating distance.

In the place where his leg had been were two daggers slashing through empty space. In this moment, there were a few absurd anomalies that had been brought into existence.

The first was the presence of those daggers. Those daggers were unlike anything he had ever seen before. He believed his Dragon Sword was still far higher in capability, but he would not be surprised if those two daggers were considered the number two and number three spot in terms of weapons. Such was their intricate and powerful appeal.

The second was the presence of a physical attack. Ainz was a magic caster. He did not engage in physical attacks. So why had such a physical attack happened? A person like him could dodge that attack without a problem. A person like Cecilus and those of his caliber could do the same. But that attack wasn't of the level that anyone below the upper echelon of warriors could dodge it with ease.

In other words, it was the attack of a warrior. It wasn't the attack of a magician.

What's going on? What's going on? What is this? Impossible.

The third anomaly was the sudden appearance of a beautiful set of pure-white armor. A red cape floated at the back, and only the helmet was removed to unveil the white skull underneath.

"Ainz Ooal Gown?"

"Hm? You ask a strange question, Reinhard. Who else could it be but me? Ha ha ha."

"Impossible. No way! You are not a warrior! You cannot be a warrior!"

"Oh? Do you really think so?"

"Grrgh!"

At his question, Reinhard could not help but question himself. After all, this monster had already made the impossible possible. Then, with that being the case, it was also possible that he could become a warrior. It was absurd. It was a reality that should not exist.

From that point onwards, all Reinhard heard was the snapping of sticks, and with that sound, his perception of Ainz continued to change and evolve.

A master-class black suit of armor with gold embroidery and two greatswords. A katana stronger than the ones possessed by Cecilus. A strange looking ax. Different suits of armor suited for different purposes. A bow that could only be blocked by magical power. Necklaces, rings, gauntlet, boots, and helms that brought forth tremendous power.

Reinhard counted at least 41 supreme weapons. He saw 41 transformations. In his mind, Ainz was no longer just a skeleton-shaped Overlord. He was a monster that could transform himself into other monsters. It was a shapeshifting nightmare that had descended upon this world.

To Reinhard, Ainz was now the strongest magician that could wipe out nations with one spell, summon armies, use absurd magic, and deceive any opponent. He was also a monster that could turn anything impossible into reality. In addition, he could become a warrior of any shape and form that he desired to do so.

Such was the terror of Ainz Ooal Gown. By the time Ainz returned to his caster robes, Reinhard had already given up on fighting.

"...What do you want?" He asked with a dead breath of air. "You want me to become your subordinate, isn't it?"

He did not want to betray Felt-sama. But if he could ensure that every one of his loved ones were alive, then the best choice was to bow his head. If he did that, then maybe he could incite rebellion from the inside. Maybe he could learn everything there was to learn and find the weakness of Ainz Ooal Gown.

For that, Reinhard slowly lowered his head, but he was stopped by Ainz's hand.

Those red dots were cold as they observed him.

"Please don't do something as shameless as lowering your head after losing the battle, Reinhard Van Astrea."

"-! You! Why?! What more do you want?! What else will satisfy you?!"

"For now this battle is over. I will not accept your surrender so easily. But do not worry. I have my own plans for you. For now, Reinhard, run back to the dogs of the Kingdom and tell them everything that you have seen here. Ah, do tell them to not do something as foolish as giving up their heads or giving up your head after sending an assassin to another Nation. I would looovee to have a good relationship going into the future. A relationship where a knight isn't sent out to fight me every time would be preferable."

"Do you plan to…destroy the Kingdom?"

"No, no. One big Nation is already being destroyed, so I wouldn't want to add another to the list. Also, Sword Saint, I'll be contacting you later."

There was nothing more that could be said. Reinhard no longer believed that he could beat Ainz. Thus, as the climax for this battle, he put together his last bits of dignity, gave an apologetic bow for having invaded another Nation, and made his way back without having accomplished his goal.

All he hoped was that at least one person would believe his report.

# #

"Phew. That was close."

Ainz let out a breath that he had been holding in for quite some time. His final gamble of showing Reinhard his warrior-mode was truly a gamble made to support his earlier gamble. If he had fought Reinhard like that, then he would have been surely overwhelmed.

In the worst case, his control over the perception of Reinhard would have been broken, the weapons of his past comrades would have been stolen, and he would have bitten off more than he could chew.

Yet, thankfully, everything worked out perfectly. His MP was gone, he had used a lot of the cash items he carried with him, and his skills were used up. In that state, even if he relied on [Perfect warrior] Ainz would have been defeated. Thus, it was risky to use his last bit of MP for [Perfect warrior] instead of [Greater teleportation].

That was perhaps the most risky play he had done throughout this battle.

A [Gate] appeared behind him. The others must have confirmed Reinhard's departure.

"It was a good battle, Reinhard. Our last battle, that is."

He stepped into the portal and was greeted by the Throne right in front of him.

"I am back," he gave a lazy greeting, but got nothing back in response. For a second he wondered if something drastic had happened. But the moment he turned around, he was greeted by a breathtaking sight.

Every denizen of Nazarick–barring the 8th Floor—was in front of him. They knelt beneath the throne, faces bright, and eyes streaming tears. Everyone was crying. Sebas was crying, and even the Evil Lords of Demiurge were shedding tears.

Ehhhh?!

"Ainz-sama," Albedo called out at the very head of the group. She smiled through her tears, and said, "Welcome home. Thank you for coming back safely to us."

"Ainz-sama returned like he had said he would," Sebas added with a nod of respect.

"T-That was so awesome!" Mare said.

"Indeed! To think Ainz-sama faced such a ridiculous person like that, and overwhelmed him to that degree." Aura said.

"Ainz-sama was so wonderful," Shalltear said. "Especially that part where he stripped. This humble servant will never forget that n-naked body~!"

"To think such a warrior exists," Cocytus said. "As expected of the Supreme One. Even the strongest warrior falls short."

"Ah, Fath—Ainz-sama's fighting visage will never be forgotten," Pandora's Actor said with a salute. "I will memorize Ainz-sama's tactics with all my heart."

"Ainz-sama's plans were concrete. In particular, Ainz-sama, your bluff with that wish was quite spectacular. You truly used it to its full potential," Demiurge smiled as he said.

"..Hm."

He already had an inkling that people like Albedo, Demiurge, and Pandora's Actor would have figured out his true plan.

The others, however, titled their heads in confusion.

"A bluff," Shalltear said. "Eh? But that wasn't a bluff, right? Didn't Ainz-sama gain immunity against that human?"

"T-That's right," Mare said. "T-That was a b-bluff?"

Demiurge shook his head from side to side.

"It would seem I have to explain. However, that explanation would have to come later, and will only be reserved for those Guardians who are equipped with World Items and those who possess immunity to mind-control. Considering our opponent's capabilities, countermeasures need to be taken, you see. Those who do not possess countermeasures will be given magic items, but, as a precaution, the information regarding Ainz-sama's secret bluff will be kept securely."

He was right. This was a vital piece of information that could not be leaked outside of Nazarick. It especially could not meet the ears of Reinhard himself. After all, what Ainz had done was a once-in-a-lifetime bluff.

There were three wishes that had become available upon Reinhard's resurrection. The first one was to teleport Reinhard to a place beyond the Great Waterfall. However, Ainz disregarded that as the specifics of that place were as unknown as Reinhard's ability to make it back from there.

The second was to steal the Divine protection of Judgement. That was perhaps the most delicious option on the list. The ability to know the opponent's divine protections would greatly help Nazarick.

However, the moment Ainz had seen the final wish, his plan had changed completely. It was a true bluff, one meant to achieve Ainz's victory conditions. For the bluff, he had to speak the wish out loud in a particular manner.

After all, the true wish was:

[Wish Upon a Star: Make it so that the individual named Reinhard Van Astrea cannot harm me momentarily]. It was a wish based on a timer that depended upon the opponent's strength. When it came to Reinhard, all it gave Ainz was temporary immunity for a measly thirty minutes.

That was why his play of using [Perfect Warrior] had been such a huge gamble at the end. If Reinhard decided to wait around for more than thirty minutes, then this temporary immunity would end and the fight would resume, leaving Ainz with only the option to escape through the Ring of Ainz Ooal Gown or through support from Nazarick. It would have been a complete failure and a waste of a wish if that had happened.

In addition, if the opponent possessed a World Item or an item of similar level, then the entire wish could be bypassed by simply using that to strike. Thankfully, Ainz's setup of stealing Reinhard's weapon had been the correct choice.

With this, his bluff depended on changing the perception of Reinhard. He needed the sword saint to see him as an unbeatable monster. Victory conditions could not be achieved by overwhelming Reinhard through brute force. It could only be achieved through changing the board of this game entirely.

Of course, from now on Ainz will simply have to avoid all direct encounters with Reinhard, and wait until his aging eventually kills him off.

Demiurge continued to speak, leaving behind the details of the bluff in a vague manner:

"With this, the report that the Sword Saint will give has been heavily altered and tarnished. It makes it easy to predict the reactions of the Kingdom. There surely will be some clever people who will doubt the report of the Sword Saint, but the general public, nobles, soldiers, knights, and traders from other places? Fu fu fu. Ainz-sama's work has allowed us to achieve the most optimal of situations. Isn't that right, Ainz-sama?"

He nodded, took a seat on the Throne, and proclaimed:

"Listen, all of Nazarick. The first battle has ended. All in all, we can consider it to be our complete victory. But the work is not done. In order to make sure that the Kingdom will not use the only fang that they have, we have to move soon. In fact, it should be considered a response to the blatant invasion of our lands."

The ones who understood laughed along with him. A just reason for invasion had been found after all.

"Prepare immediately. Once those preparations are constructed, let us invite Reinhard Van Astrea to a one-man raid of the Great Tomb of Nazarick. Teach them that Ainz Ooal Gown knows no defeat!"

"Hail Ainz Ooal Gown." "Hail Ainz Ooal Gown." "Hail Ainz Ooal Gown."

The chant continued to sing the poems of victory.

Clash I: The End.

A.N: With this, the first clash has come to an. I thank all of you for reading this work. There are a few things I would like to say:

This isn't some, 'the one and only Ainz vs Reinhard that you'll ever need,' or some absolute and 100 percent accurate path that their battle would take. This is nothing but the speculative fanfiction work of an author who is a fan of both series. I primarily write for the re:zero fandom, so this is pretty much the first time I have written anything Overlord related.

I am the type of writer who writes what I want to write instead of waiting for other people to write the type of stuff I want to read.

At the end of the day, this is the interpretation of just one author, and I don't believe in absolutes when it comes to versus battles like these. The reason for that is the grand lack of overall information.

I won't go into detail about job classes and racial classes in Yggdrasil. A youtube vid or wiki search can explain all of that. The fact is that we don't have total information regarding the Overlord group. For many of these characters, we don't even come close to knowing every class that they have, every level that they have in that class, every skill and ability and spell that it gives them access too, and every prerequisite needed for attaining each class. The rarity of each class and the amount of power each level in every class gives are also fairly unknown in several instances.

Take Cocytus, for example. That dude is a Sword Saint. Yup, he's a sword saint with 10 levels in it, which is most likely the max level for the class of sword saint. We don't know what the prereq for attaining that class is, but it's easy to see that it's most likely a rare class and the reason for his divine sword techniques as well. But what exactly does each level do?

Does one start seeing the trajectory of attacks at level 1, or is at level 5, or 10? Does one start to master any weapon they touch at level 1, 5, or 10? What about always-critical hits, spacing-mastery, martial arts mastery, and other stuff? How much offensive power does each level add?

It gets even more confusing when you compare that sword saint from Yggdrasil to the sword saint from other verses such as re:zero. Then there's the fact that Cocytus has never shown his full strength in the cannon material. I doubt that his fight with Brain had him use anything above 5 levels worth of power in sword saint.

And that's just 10 levels. We have five for Asura and Niflheim knights. But that makes up for 20 job class levels. Cocytus has 70. That is a huge gap in information. What many people do is that they completely ignore that entire iceberg worth of power, thinking it's irrelevant to versus discussions. But the fact is that it can't be ignored. That huge hidden part of the iceberg changes the game entirely. The problem is that because of a lack of information, we can only speculate in different ways, which–in my opinion—is both fun and frustrating.

Shalltear and Ainz are the two whose kits are well known, but even then, there is just so much hidden about their power levels to come to an 'absolute' conclusion. Hell, let's just wonder how many pay-to-win items Ainz has and the entire playing field changes when you consider that. If he's been spending money for at least 10-12 years, then, well, we can't even comprehend how much this guy has brought.

Reinhard's trump cards are well known. But his base stats—as seen throughout the main story, side stories, and if-stories—are still far from what should be his true strength. While he has had great showings of power, he has also had terrible showings.

For example, in Arc 1, when Elsa came out from the rubble with a surprise attack on Emilia, Reinhard did not do anything about it. If his true strength is really as powerful as it should be, then, theoretically, he should have been able to cover that distance and chop up Elsa in many pieces before she could even retaliate. What did Rein do? He did this– "Ooooh nooooo, Suuuubaaaarruuuu."

I am exaggerating, but he pretty much did the dramatic slow motion, 'I-am-so-surprised,' or, 'I can't go full power because of narrative reason,' stuff. There are a couple of reasons I can think of as to why Reinhard did not go full power and just take care of that situation:

This was early in the story, so the Author had not figured out Reinhard's true limits and physical parameters. And for the sake of the narrative, Subaru had to save Emilia and get himself slashed. If Reinhard took care of that problem, things would have flown in a different structure.

He was surprised. He was sooooo suuurprised that even his DP's went, "Naaah. We're super surprised out here. Let's just do nothing, okay?"

If he goes full power, he has to abandon control for some reason, and that would cause such an explosion in his speed that everyone is going to be blown to smithereens. (BS like that, pretty much.)

He's holding back because like he always seems to. Even when a candidate is in danger, he just needs to hold back due to his character.

My personal theory is option 1. But speaking of option 4, there is another piece of evidence that we do have.

In Pride if, when Reinhard faced the person who had taken everything from him, he was easily distracted by Elsa. And this wasn't just a distraction, but a distraction long enough for Subaru to escape, hitch a ride, talk to his waifu for a bit, get killed by his waifu, and win. Even when being lenient, that's at least a minute worth of time.

Now, when comparing Elsa to Reinhard, Elsa is probably not even half his power level. She's maybe a level 50 due to her regenerative abilities. Now you're telling me that a level 50 is able to buy entire minutes worth of time against a level 100? Was Reinhard fighting her with the tip of his nails or something? In that position, with everything lost, why would he be holding back?

Just look at his feats in the non-cannon games. Reinhard should be capable of chopping up Elsa, feeding her to the fire, and then taking out Subaru. He should be able to do it within 20 seconds on full power. There are a couple of reasons why I don't think he did so:

Early in the series, so Author hasn't fully defined his power level yet. Plus, Subaru needed to escape for the sake of the narrative to work, so it would not work if Reinhard went all out.

He took care of Elsa, and then he went to rescue people while on the way to hunt Subaru.

He's holding back. Even in such a situation, he keeps on holding back. (If that logic is true, then I wouldn't be surprised if Reinhard lost to a goblin because he kept on holding back)

Elsa, someone who's maybe a level 50, is indeed able to buy minutes worth of time even at full-power Reinhard. Elsa being able to buy that much time is an absolute.

While I think option 1 is the correct one, I would not be surprised if it's option 2 instead. However, in the case that it is option 4, well, I guess even a level 70 Doom Lord is enough to buy twelve seconds for Ainz.

Anyways, I could go on and on about the different gaps or lack of proper information, but this A.N is already too long. The main point is that because of all of those above-mentioned reasons, I disagree with those who say that there is an absolute outcome to these types of versus battles. Even this fic and others are far from absolute.

The only ones who can decide an absolute outcome between Ainz vs Reinhard are the creators of those respective series. And no, what Tappei had said regarding the matter pertained to victory conditions, not a 1v1 death fight. Killing someone is different from attaining the proper victory conditions in various situations. I agree with Tappei's input on this matter. Reinhard cannot attain the needed victory conditions against Ainz.

Either way, this clash between Rein vs Ainz has now come to an end. I thank all of you for reading it. There will be more battles(not going to spoil what) but that's going to happen whenever I feel like writing it.

Until then, take care, all of you.