The following contains spoilers for Episode 10 of Overlord IV, "The Last King," now streaming on Crunchyroll.
The war between the Sorcerer Kingdom and the Kingdom of Re-Estize has commenced. Among the casualties is Zanac, Prince and soon-to-be King of Re-Estize; however, there is no time for Ainz to contemplate the surreality of his opponent's demise as far more threatening apponents have arrived: one in red armour, the other clad in pure white.
Albedo and Ainz are engaged by what appears to be two adventurers who have taken it upon themselves to kill the enemy's king before too many casualties are incurred; however, the humans continue to fail to realize something fundamental: all is within the calculations of Ainz Ooal Gown* (his highly competent underlings). This episode throws some curveballs, and brings out yet another showing of this season's brand of awkward humour.
The Fall of Re-Estize
The episode begins with the view of King Ramposa III, the de jure King of the Kingdom of Re-Estize in his chambers. One of his attendants arrives to tell him of the dire developments on the battlefield; including the loss of all contact with the army and the fact that Prince Zanac has seemingly disappeared. Ramposa's age and wisdom seem to work very quickly in the conversation, with the king chastising his foolish second son for dying before his father just like the eldest, Barbro, did. The king relieves all who work in the castle from their positions and thinks that they'll have a good chance of escape if they do so while it's still dark out. Despite his attendant's protests, Ramposa III has decided that he will remain in the castle as the last king of the Kingdom of Re-Estize.
Elsewhere, those affiliated with Hilma Cygnaeus (and therefore, with the Sorcerer Kingdom) are transported somewhere safe by Shalltear. Hilma has a new recruit, Cocco Doll, who has no conception of the kind of dealings Hilma has been doing. Cocco Doll does mention the fact that Hilma and her cohort have completely changed personalities from the last time they were associated. It becomes something of a "baptism by fire" unfortunately, as Shalltear has plans for Cocco Doll that will definitely be terrifying – Kyuhukou's Room.
Who Goes There?!
On the battlefield, Ainz and Albedo prepare themselves, but something seems off. Ainz seems to only make use of four or five spells in rotation, not to mention the fact that both he and Albedo are caught off-guard by the Adamantium-level adventurer in red from last time. Ainz sends Albedo to engage the threat, and they take to the skies.
The fight is very lacklustre as the adventurer only seems to want to lead Albedo to a second location, rather than actually engage; however, it's later shown that the adventurers have no delusions about the state of affairs – they can't win. While Albedo engages the red one, revealed to be the leader of the Red Drop adventurer faction, Azuth Aindra, and the white one swiftly engages Ainz in combat, using a pair of what appears to be sentient blades and highly adept swordsmanship and magic. During the fight, Ainz takes care to note the various skills used by the samurai warrior in white, but he also has to be careful in this one because it would appear that Ainz is being overwhelmed in a fight.
Both Ainz and Albedo put up a good fight against their aggressors; however, the strangeness felt with Ainz in the beginning of the episode is heightened when, during his fight against the white-clad warrior Riku Aganeia, Ainz finds himself incapable of holding him off well enough to fight back. Ainz even comes to realize that the one he is currently fighting is merely being remotely controlled as spells like Grasp Heart fail to be effective.
Despite being overwhelmed, Ainz still gives Riku a run for his money, but certain aspects of Riku's bout with Ainz fail to make sense, especially when the Sorcerer King fails to break through the barrier Riku set up, but Albedo could smash through it by force of will to defend her master. After fending off Riku, he and Azuth escape together to reconvene in the woods nearby, where they share information about their opponents. Both admit that they have no chance of winning, with Riku being even more sure of the fact that Azuth could never hope to injure Ainz in a fight. From the outside looking in, Ainz did not seem to be himself, which is later confirmed as Ainz, watching from his throne in Nazarick, commends Pandora's Actor and Albedo for a reconnaissance job well done.
Players and NPCs
The strange brand of Overlord humour also made its way into the pacing, but since this was merely a mock contestation as far as Ainz is concerned, perhaps things will improve in magnitude and degree in the coming episodes as the season draws to a close.
The best part of the episode came towards the end, during Riku and Azuth's meeting after the action, where Aganeia is revealed to be a wise dragon who has caught wind of the evil that is brewing in Yggdrassil due to a certain kind of entity known to him as a "Puh-Layer". This conversation reveals that there are certain factions out there in Yggdrassil that have come to understand the existence of Players as a threat, yet they do not yet have all the information they need.
Great Actor
While the acting skills of Pandora's Actor and Albedo are to be praised in this episode, it wasn't always a seamless performance. Sometimes Albedo would forget and speak to "Ainz" very casually, almost disrespectfully, but she'd soon remember that there's an act to be maintained, not to mention the fact that "Ainz" talked about his intention to fulfill his role. Now that Ainz has gotten a chance to measure the strength of the enemy (and the enemy now has a false understanding of his own strength), Ainz can truly begin to plot a way forward after the war, setting his sights on getting Riku Aganeia to submit to him and become one of his underlings. The episode was interesting but also left a strange sensation as the high stakes from the previous episode and the way the previous episode was darker overall makes this one's pacing and development pale in comparison.