Imperial Colosseum Incident

The Imperial Colosseum Incident was a duel between Sorcerer King Ainz Ooal Gown and Martial Lord Go Gin at the Grand Arena. While only meant to be a public spectacle, it became an incident with major political ramifications.

Background
After finally securing E-Rantel from the Re-Estize Kingdom, Ainz Ooal Gown and the Sorcerer Kingdom moved into the city to establish a strong foothold in the New World. Ainz used his supernatural abilities to benefit the citizens of E-Rantel, intending to change their perceptions about him. However, despite ruling the city with benevolence, Ainz felt something was amiss. During a stroll across the city, he came upon the Adventurer's Guild. Once inside, he saw much of the building has become empty. It was there he learned that his good intentions has left many people deprived of jobs, particularly the Adventurers. This did not sit well for Ainz who had great respect towards the Adventurers who reminded him of the treasured times he had playing YGGDRASIL with his guild members.

After a lengthy discussion with both Pluton Ainzach and Moknach, the Sorcerer King decided to rectify the matter by changing the systems of the Adventurers, from hired mercenaries that kill monsters to explorers of the unknown. Through approval from Osk he met along the way, Ainz also arranged a one-on-one gladiator duel with the Martial Lord Go Gin under certain restrictions and conditions to ensure this match is fair between two melee combatants. Ainz had already received permission beforehand to make a speech to the audience in the Grand Arena after he defeats Go Gin. It was one of Ainz's objectives to try and recruit the Martial Lord Go Gin into the Sorcerer Kingdom if the latter loses against him in their gladiator duel. Let alone that, Ainz had the other goal of advertising the Sorcerer Kingdom's newly-reformed Adventurer's Guild and reasonably persuade the audience who were watching his match with Go Gin to join him. Ainz made his intention clear of scouting out talented candidates who are worthy to become the kind of adventurers he wants under his country's banner.

It was public knowledge that the Empire have established an alliance with the Sorcerer Kingdom and help play a role in setting up the foundation for their newly-founded nation. Jircniv had planned to use that war in the Katze Plains to mount an investigation, but it had ended in a truly horrific manner, leading to a terrible tragedy which he did not foresee. He understands that there is very little to no information surrounding the capabilities of the Sorcerer King and his subordinates. If he knew what they could and could not do, his response might have changed. Jircniv admits that if only he knew more about the limits of their powers, he might not have mounted so many investigations and preparations. Meanwhile, at some point in time before the Sorcerer King set off on his quest to convince the Adventurer's Guild, Ainz was often observing and studying Jircniv from a distance using surveillance magic of how to truly become a proper ruler undetected by the latter. Viewing Jircniv as an ally and friend, Ainz made it his plan to pay a visit to the Empire, all the while expecting a prompt reception from him. By visiting the Empire and participate in the Grand Arena, Ainz also expects Jircniv to watch and cheer for him while he fights Go Gin in a gladiator duel. This was Ainz going out of his way to make sure and maintain a good relationship with a fellow ruler like Jircniv, looking to form a deep friendship with the Bloody Emperor.

Conspiracy
For Jircniv, the first problem concerned the casualties among the Imperial Army from the Massacre at Katze Plains. There were only 143 deaths; a trivial number, for a direct clash with the enemy. However, the losses at the Katze Plains had been entirely self-inflicted. In addition, 3,788 people had expressed their desire to leave the army upon their return to the Imperial Capital. In other words, over 6% of the 60,000 men of the Imperial Knight Corps had lost their courage. Also, there were thousands of people who complained of uneasiness and night terrors. According to the reports, there were at least 200 mentally unstable people as well. Because of the bad turn of events plaguing their nation, the Empire would need to spend a great deal to fill the shortfall in the number of knights. The problem lies in the fact that Jircniv doesn't know how to secure the funds for those expenditures.

At this critical moment in time, he acknowledges that it was too risky to purge the nobles and seize their assets to make up the required amount. The reason for that was because of the second problem namely, the recent petitions which the Imperial Knights themselves had submitted to Jircniv. From reading the various letters sent in to him, Jircniv realized his decision of allowing the Sorcerer King to cast his strongest magic spell was met with harsh criticisms and negative feedback. The reason why the Imperial Army had tendered such a petition was because they had lost their faith in Jircniv. They laid the blame for that massacre solely on Jircniv alone as a scapegoat to shoulder responsibility for. When Jircniv learned this, he was both furious and frustrated in the extreme. These petitions, from the upper echelons of the army's command structure, expressed their desire to avoid warfare with the Sorcerer Kingdom from now on.

In the end, according to Jircniv, if he had known that such magic existed, he would never have decided to let the Sorcerer King cast it from the start. The reason why Jircniv had asked the Sorcerer King to use his strongest spell in the first place was to verify how powerful his magic really was. Originally, it should have been the other way around. "Thank you for drawing out part of the Sorcerer King's power. Now we know better than to act recklessly around him," they should have said while expressing their gratitude. However, the Imperial Army did not see things that way. It was because they felt that Jircniv was a splendid Emperor that they believed he had asked for the use of that magic, knowing full well what it did. Thus, many suspicious gazes now fell upon Jircniv. This was the first time Jircniv had been so disgusted by his own reputation. He reasons with himself that perhaps everything which had transpired until now including the negative state of the Empire was a conspiracy orchestrated by the Sorcerer King to weaken and break their nation.

According to Jircniv himself, such conspiracy have been masterfully calculated by the Sorcerer King to the point where it had even influence the Imperial Colosseum Incident to occur. It led to secret talks of negotiations to broke down between the Empire and Theocracy, failing to successfully create an alliance to combat the Sorcerer Kingdom. As a result of this turn of event happening before Jircniv, the Empire was no longer in a position of being part of an alliance with neither the Theocracy nor the Sorcerer Kingdom. Instead, his Empire was left with no other choice but seek to become a vassal state rule under the Sorcerer Kingdom and their directions moving forward. To Jircniv, this was his only card left he can play to save the Empire from total destruction by the Sorcerer Kingdom even if it means betraying the rest of humanity in the process. He acknowledge the fact that conspiracies included, there was no possible way to actually beat Ainz in a battle of wits after experiencing the undead's supposed keen intellect and foresight.

Incident
Due to Jircniv's paranoia of being secretly observe by the Sorcerer King or his minions, he orders many people to do an investigation over it, but found no observers. Despite the result and setting up anti-spying countermeasures, he could not get rid of the sense of foreboding that came from being watched by the Sorcerer King. Knowing this, he is utterly restless and antsy to the point that it was badly affecting his health and well-being mentally. Jircniv's stomach ached and strands of his fallen hair adorned his pillow every morning he woke up. As the days rolled by, he starts to show signs of going bald and having thin hair left since suffering from hair loss. He believes the culprit, the main perpetrator responsible for all of the bad things happening to him lately was none other than the Sorcerer King, Ainz Ooal Gown himself. He tries his best to take medicines and drink potions occasionally as a way to ward off stomach-pain creeping up on him from inside. He didn't ask assistance from the Temple of the Four Great Gods, afraid that by coming into contact with a group of undead haters could warrant risk of upsetting the Sorcerer King who may harm the Empire in the process.

Jircniv operate under the assumption that spies from the Sorcerer Kingdom had already infiltrated the Imperial Capital. Therefore, all policies concerning important matters for the Empire needed their own codewords to avoid exposing the secret alliance being planned against the Sorcerer King, Ainz Ooal Gown. At some point in time, Jircniv had sent undisclosed messages to emissaries from the Slane Theocracy in order to arrange a private meeting discussion with them which they accepted. Aiming to improve his chances of defeating the Sorcerer King behind close doors, one of the measures he had taken was to forge the secret alliance with the Theocracy as a basis. Not only that but seek guidance from them by finding a way to deal with the powerful undead. He thinks they might be able to find a weapon that can slay the undead in one blow. By just sharing information with them, he thought this will allow the Empire to keep persistently fighting on and not give up without surrendering to the Sorcerer Kingdom. The Empire's alliance with the Sorcerer Kingdom was only a mask served to conceal this aim from being discovered by their enemy nation. The political meeting between the two human nations was scheduled to take place in two weeks time at Arwintar, Grand Arena of the Empire.

Jircniv had chosen the Grand Arena because he had heard that it often hired priests to heal the wounded. With that in mind, he was thinking of bringing the emissaries from the Theocracy over in the guise of those priests. On the surface, he seemed to be going to the arena to watch a fight, but in truth, he was there to enter into an agreement with emissaries of the Theocracy and high-ranking priests of the Empire. Considering how overly excited and entertained people are when attending the Grand Arena to watch the gladiator battles, Jircniv presumes this would be enough to make eavesdropping very difficult, which was why he had chosen this time and this place. To prevent himself from standing out, Jircniv didn't bring along any imperial guardsmen but two of the Four Imperial Knights, Baziwood Peshmel and Nimble Arc Dale Anoch for the sake of maintaining protection at all times. He also hired the adamantite adventurer team, Silver Thread Bird not only as a security detail but also to be tasked with the main objective of seeking out and identifying any spies from the Sorcerer Kingdom.

Two weeks later, he arrived at the Grand Arena accompanied by them. Despite having set up anti-divination magic countermeasures in place, he still had the adventurer team detect any use of divination magic on that area. After checking that it was it safe and untouched from spies, he and his two knights proceeded to enter inside the VIP room while the adventurer team stands on guard outside, waiting for the Theocracy's envoys to arrive. Once the emissaries of Theocracy join them in their meeting, they begin private talks of negotiations with the Empire. Diplomatically, they also question Jircniv's motive for deciding to let the Sorcerer King use his powerful magic, his position on the matter, and how much he knew about the Sorcerer Kingdom. However, before the discussion between both sides continue any further, they were left baffled and stupefied by the presence of the Sorcerer King being announced out in the open publicly much to their ignorance. In the first place, the Empire had been keeping an eye on the Sorcerer Kingdom's movements. If the Sorcerer King had entered the Empire, that matter would have been treated as an absolute top priority arranged to reach Jircniv's ears immediately whether he was in his harem or in some other place. If such news had not reached him despite all these efforts, Jircniv concluded that the Sorcerer King must have secretly entered the country unnoticed.

At the same time, Jircniv starts supposedly realizing that maybe the Sorcerer King had already caught on to his schemes and secret plans being done by the latter's back. Seeing that the Sorcerer King is within their vicinity, the Theocracy's emissaries believed that Jircniv had betrayed them by calling Ainz Ooal Gown to the Grand Arena. Although Jircniv told them that this was a carefully laid trap employed by the Sorcerer Kingdom, the envoys refuse to think that is the case and felt the Bloody Emperor was in cahoots with Ainz. Jircniv attempts to reason with the emissaries that he had no idea the Sorcerer King would come to the Grand Arena, explaining how the undead must have employ magical domination on his servants to reveal information about their meeting. Of course, none of them believe a word he say. Jircniv wonders if everything which he had been silently planning against the Sorcerer King was in the palm of the latter's hands all along without the former noticing. Spook by the Sorcerer King's sudden arrival at the meeting, Jircniv can't help but fearfully feel that Ainz had set up a bait and waited for him to take the hook. Just he was to tell the Theocracy's envoys to leave, it was already far too late for Jircniv to act when Ainz suddenly appear in their meeting room and greeted him.

Seeing the undead before him, Jircniv was certain that it is all part of Ainz's grand scheme being work against his own. In Jircniv's mind, by Ainz taking control of the secret talks with the Theocracy, the Sorcerer King would simultaneously apply pressure on both himself and the Theocracy. This way, it prevents them from allying with each other. When Jircniv was questioned by Ainz who the Theocracy's envoys are from, he sees it as a test of loyalty and his intentions. Troubled with whether to lie to Ainz in order to protect the people of the Theocracy or sell them out as a friend of the Sorcerer Kingdom, he couldn't find ways on how to answer the undead's question. In the end, the Sorcerer King decided to leave the VIP room and begin his match with Go Gin after introducing himself to the envoys. Once Ainz sets off to fight Go Gin one-on-one, the envoys express their anger at how Jircniv had set up their meeting together as a trap by the Sorcerer King to barge in. In the end, they reach the conclusion that Jircniv had gave away important information about their meeting to the Sorcerer King and betray them to save his Empire. Realizing that Jircniv's entire operation was completely compromised by the Sorcerer King from start to end, the envoys were about to leave until Jircniv stops them in their tracks.

Even though all hope was lost for Jircniv, he still convinces the Theocracy's envoys to stay behind and watch the Sorcerer King's duel with Go Gin until the very end. This was in hopes of letting them find a way to defeat the powerful undead that is Ainz. Jircniv proceeded to madly cheer for Go Gin in beating up and finishing off the Sorcerer King badly enough to prove that an undead like Ainz isn't as invincible in melee as he was with magic. Unfortunately, Ainz won and Go Gin lost, leaving him to question what the undead's weaknesses are suppose to be. Although he highly doubts assassination could work on Ainz, he decided to investigate further what the underlying cause for why Ainz was unhurt from the Martial Lord's physical attacks through having his subordinates and the Adventurer's Guild of the Empire analyze Go Gin's weapon. Despite being disappointed at the result of the duel, Jircniv conveys his thanks to Ainz for putting up an exciting match against Go Gin and congratulated the Sorcerer King for emerging victorious. Jircniv also requested Ainz Ooal Gown that the Empire seeks to become a vassal state led by the Sorcerer Kingdom, to which the latter accepted. Jircniv vows to Ainz that he will swiftly document and sent in a copy of the vassalage petition along with a draft of the Empire’s future status and treatment to his residence in the Sorcerer Kingdom when it is completed.

Battle
Before Ainz sets off to fight the Martial Lord Go Gin, he had asked Fluder Paradyne for his assistance in enchanting his weapons that will be used for the gladiator duel. In addition to that, he even made sure to learned everything about all of the Martial Lord's magic items from him as preparations. After that was taken care of, he heads to the Grand Arena while equipped with a set of low-tier equipment such as Clementine's stilettos and Prototype Staff. He and Go Gin offers an introduction to each other respectively, promising to have one another's life as their own to do whatever they want with if either emerge victorious. With that out of the way, Ainz and Go Gin maintain a ten meter distance away from each other and began the duel raising both their weapons. Ainz even openly stated the name of his species he belongs to being an Overlord as a way to gauge Go Gin of how much knowledge it knew about the undead and make the latter become wary of him.

After the battle commences, Go Gin immediately swoops in and close the distance between them without hesitation. Go Gin quickly swings his gigantic club down on Ainz, to which the latter dodge by the skin of his teeth. The club slammed into the ground, releasing a thunderous impact that even produced an echo. The smoke and dust it produced gusted up like an explosion. Worried about any follow-up strikes, Ainz fell back several paces. After the dust cleared, the shadow of the Martial Lord, club in hand, appeared from within it. The Martial Lord then pointed that giant club of his towards Ainz, implying that the latter would be intercepted if he came close enough and pursued if he backed off. It was a stance well-suited to pinning down one’s opponents. It was a defensive stance that made full use of his weapon’s length, practically turning it into a shield.

Go Gin holds no intention of letting his guard down around Ainz, refusing to let himself be mockingly provoke by the latter's words. Even though the rules keep the Sorcerer King from using magic, Go Gin acknowledge the fact that since Ainz could dodge his strike, he cannot afford to have the combatant standing before him unharmed be taken lightly. Considering Go Gin won't cast aside his defensive stance, Ainz proceeded to go offense and attack the Martial Lord. Ainz savagely swung his staff at the tip of the club. As the club forcefully struck the ground, Go Gin can't help but moan in pain by the powerful blow despite blocking it with his weapon. The impact transmitted into the Martial Lord's hands and numbed them for a moment.

Seeing this chance, in an instant, Ainz charged into the Martial Lord’s attack range and sent a mental command to his staff to activate its power. As a result, a layer of fire came billowing out from the staff that surrounded it. Although the flames did not constitute an attack in themselves, Ainz sensed the Martial Lord's attention shifting from himself to the staff. Ainz touched the Martial Lord's armor with his empty left hand, using [Negative Energy Touch] on a living being like him. Ainz simply infuses negative energy on Go Gin in a way that his body become harm by its power temporarily. In that moment, the Martial Lord shuddered like he had been electrocuted, making him swing his club without thinking. Ainz failed to dodge, and the sounds of cracking came from his body as he was smashed into the distance. Since Ainz had disabled his High-Tier Physical Immunity and he was weak to bludgeoning attacks, that strike dealt a lot of damage to him. Ainz's body flew several meters, no, over 10 meters through the air, like a ball struck by a bat. Then, he hit the ground, tumbling head over heels several times.

Though he had taken damage, Ainz no longer felt pain, and he peered at the Martial Lord from where he was on the ground. Noticed that Go Gin's movements were now extremely sluggish, who is unable to press a follow-up attack, it gave Ainz sufficient time to gracefully rose to his feet and return to his battle stance. Due to Go Gin's racial ability as a Troll to regenerate, he was able to recover from the [Negative Energy Touch]. According to Ainz, what Go Gin couldn't heal was the loss of the Martial Lord's strength and dexterity due to [Negative Energy Touch]'s physical ability damage affecting him. Nonetheless, Ainz explained what he had did to Go Gin with a mix of truths and lies mixed into it altogether to deceive the Martial Lord. Ainz made the same gesture he used when touching the Martial Lord, opening and closing his fingers through his explanation to convince the Troll into believing. One of such lies Ainz naturally told Go Gin was how the more he touch him, the lower his stats will become over time, until the latter finally ends up like a caterpillar.

Once he left an impression in the Martial Lord's mind of what an Overlord is, Ainz believes this would make Go Gin realized that his powers are mysterious and unfathomable. Ainz had mentioned that he was an Overlord of the highest order and whatnot to further reinforce that Martial Lord's sense of unease. Go Gin had never once fought an undead as powerful as Ainz before, hence his lack of knowledge concerning Overlord. The most important thing was that Ainz had given an unnecessary explanation to the Martial Lord. That too was to confuse him with false information. With that deception underway by him, Ainz calmly studied the Martial Lord, who did not seem to be recovering from his ability penalties. This was to see if the Martial Lord was trying to bluff with his actions. The Sorcerer King told Go Gin that the ability penalties inflicted on him will not heal with time as Ainz plans to shave away his physical stats bit by bit until he can deliver the final blow on the Martial Lord with his staff.

With all that deception said, Ainz stepped forward, and the Martial Lord slowly took his battle stance once more. Ainz moved his left hand, the one which was not holding his staff. The Martial Lord shifted in response, showing his apparent wariness of [Negative Energy Touch] after hearing and experiencing everything Ainz had said until now which he believed to be true. As Ainz got closer, the Martial Lord backed away from him. Ainz plunged his staff into the ground and withdrew two of the four stilettos sheathed at his waist. Ainz positions himself in a similar running stance like Clementine which he made his own in imitation. After that was prepared, he shot out like a loosed arrow, toward the Martial Lord Go Gin. The distance was cut very short between them after Ainz sprint into action. Even in the brief opening before his opponent’s attack, the Martial Lord's club swept across at him. Go Gin's blow was slowed down because his strength had been sapped away by ability penalties caused by [Negative Energy Touch]. Before Go Gin could land his strike, Ainz activated his ability, and the Martial Lord’s movements halted for a moment.

Ainz closed the gap between them and thrust his stiletto, aiming for the shoulder. That full-power strike, boosted by his running speed, burst out like an arrow. As Ainz launched one of his two weapons, he had the stiletto pierced through the Martial Lord's armor and hide, penetrating the Martial Lord's body from within. In response to the incoming blow by Ainz, the Martial Lord Go Gin greatly increases his defense to soften the strike by activating two Martial Arts' skills, [Reinforce Hide] and [Greater Reinforce Hide] simultaneously. After the Martial Lord use these skills, Ainz felt the tip of his stiletto was forcefully pushed back by something that was released from within Go Gin's body. Ainz’s full-strength as an all-out physical attack hit only inflicted a tiny amount, a scratch's worth of damage which could easily be healed up by Go Gin's racial ability within seconds. With Ainz's strike finished, Go Gin took the initiative to try and return the attack back at the Sorcerer King by swinging his club at a high speed.

However, before the Martial Lord could even successfully do that, Ainz released the spell, channeling the [Fireball] which Fluder had cast into the stiletto weapon into the place where he had stabbed the Martial Lord, thus burning his body from within. Ainz thought of plunging his other stiletto into the opposite shoulder, but he was not strong enough, and the armor deflected it. As he thought of targeting a chink in his armor, Ainz sensed movement from the Martial Lord and dashed to the side without looking. A gale wind blew from behind him due to the air pressure being created forth by failing to land his club on Ainz. After fleeing for about 10 meters, Ainz turned back.

Aftermath
The Sorcerer King had struck a magnificent blow at the moment when the meeting between the Empire and the Theocracy was most effective. It was one which would utterly cripple the Empire if they do not make a choice to side with the Sorcerer Kingdom in the long term. To Jircniv, this tells him that the Empire will have to betray humanity in order to ensure his Empire survive and thrive for the future to come. The envoys of the Theocracy began seeing Jircniv in a negative light, the Bloody Emperor who was seduced by the power of evil according to them. Considering that the Temple of the Four Great Gods' priests of the Empire dislike him, the relationship between them grew even worst than before. In a way, because of how negotiations were badly handled by Jircniv, it led to the fallout in the Empire's increasingly deteriorating relationship with the Theocracy and Temple of the Four Great Gods to spiral out of his control as they come to accept the idea that he welcomes supporting the undead's rule.

Now that others thought he had betrayed humanity to work with the undead, there is nothing Jircniv could offer them to show trust. He came to the acceptance that it will be nigh impossible to solve the distrust problem they harbor towards the Empire even with time. More so, Jircniv's proposal of forging an alliance with the Theocracy is out of the question as it is no longer something seemingly possible for him to accomplish. Although the Empire no longer have any friendly ties with the Theocracy or the Temple, this sets precedence for Jircniv to go on and build friendship with the Sorcerer Kingdom while maintaining everlasting servitude to them. Jircniv reasons that this decision was for the purpose of not only preserving the life of the Empire intact, but to gain protection under the Sorcerer Kingdom by enemies and former allies alike who are at odds against them.

Later on, Jircniv had the scribes spread the news to the surrounding countries that the Empire chose to become a vassal state to the Sorcerer Kingdom as they have no choice in the matter. He intends to get the news out to the surrounding countries as quickly as possible and let it spread worldwide, so that the Sorcerer Kingdom has no other choice but to acknowledge their vassal status. In the meantime, Jircniv will also focus his attention on settling internal disputes within the Empire over his decision. While so, Jircniv seeks to solidify his rule over the Empire using the backings of the Sorcerer Kingdom to support him in his endeavor. Upon learning the news of the Empire choosing to work under the Sorcerer Kingdom as a vassal state, the adamantite adventurer team Silver Thread Bird relocate their base to Karnassus City-State Alliance.