Regulus Corneas

Regulus Corneas (レグルス・コルニアス) was a Sin Archbishop of the Witch Cult, representing Greed. He debuted in the second interlude of Arc 3 alongside Lye Batenkaitos, where he took on Crusch and Rem's military convoy, completely decimating it alongside its passengers. Later, he appeared in Emilia's First Trial during the events of Arc 4 where he acted as one of the two antagonists alongside Pandora, and finally, Regulus played the role of one of the primary antagonists of Arc 5 where he was subsequently defeated by a joint force consisting of Reinhard van Astrea, Natsuki Subaru and Emilia. He drowned underneath the streets of the Water Gate City of Priestella.

As the strongest and one of the oldest Sin Archbishops of the Witch Cult, Regulus had an air of mystery surrounding him and was responsible for many brutal mass-slaughters and annihilations in the century prior to the beginning of the story. During the events of the 4th Arc, it was revealed he acted as the head of the radical faction inside the Witch Cult until 100 years ago.

Appearance
At a glance, anyone would consider Regulus to be an utterly unremarkable individual. His face had no notable features and he had golden eyes that sparkled when he spoke passionately but remained dull otherwise. His modestly handsome face wasn't particularly attractive or unattractive and his height and build were both average. His hair, which was neither short nor long, was naturally white despite his youthful appearance. Regulus's white skin that lacked any semblance of a tan, coupled with his white hair and predominately white clothing, made the Sin Archbishop of Greed seem as though he was the epitome of the color white. In fact, the complete devoid of color exhibited by Corneas's physical appearance gave him the impression of a sickly person who was trying to avoid color itself. Overall, in contradiction to his personality and actions, he looked like a completely ordinary man who could easily melt into a crowd in spite of his lack of color.

Regulus's clothing, much like his facial features and body shape, was neither extravagant or shabby, instead portraying an impression of averageness much like the rest of the Sin Archbishop. His primary piece of clothing was a pure-white greca-style overcoat that reached down to his ankles and had golden-edged cuffs, a set of five golden buttons running down the torso of his center front that usually ensured that the coat was closed above the hipline, and golden-highlighted edging. The inside of the coat was black and featured vertical golden stripes travelling down the entire coat. The most striking part of his coat was the opulent gold and black high-neck collar it sported that had the symbol for infinity inscribed on it, perhaps reflecting the nature of Corneas's Authority. Under his coat, Regulus wore a long-sleeved deep-blue-colored dress shirt, white trousers, and a pair of white shoes, the latter two of which were both the same shade as his hair and overcoat. Usually, only the cuffs of the dress shirt could be seen as Regulus's long overcoat tended to obscure it almost completely. Corneas had a single deep-blue teardrop-shaped earring that was the same color as his dress shirt and dangled from his right earlobe thanks to a thin gold chain attaching it.

During his wedding with Emilia in Arc 5, Regulus made his appearance in a more formal wedding suit. He was wearing a white tuxedo with a long back that went down almost to his heels, a blue and white striped shirt with a black and gold striped ribbon, white gloves and white shoes. The tuxedo's color pallet was the same as his normal suit.

Personality
Regulus was talkative, and tended to describe himself as "unselfish" despite representing greed. He would often go on and on about trivial matters in the most incoherent ways, usually leaving the other party confused and/or unable to follow his thoughts, ideals and values. Due to his extremely prideful personality however, he often forced his own selfishness on others and tried to justify it. If his opponents had said something that went against his opinions and beliefs, he would find unreasonable faults in them, gradually becoming angry while accusing them of "violating his rights", before attacking and killing them without mercy or second thought. Despite his pacifistic nature, he would not hesitate to attack, harm or kill someone as to him, the act of taking away what is his was the most abhorrent and disgusting thing a person could do. He often showed complete ignorance for other people's values and exercised extremely selfish behaviors as seen when he got unreasonably angry at Rem who had prepared to fight him despite explicitly telling her that he hates fighting, even though he slaughtered multiple convoys full of wounded people just minutes prior to Rem's battle with him and Lye Batenkaitos. On top of all that, Regulus was also very hypocritical and wouldn't hesitate to eat his own words and promises, giving further evidence of his sociopathic nature.

He was extremely prideful and viewed himself as a "divine being" or "the most satisfying existence in the world", which greatly hindered his assessment of people, no matter if they were his enemies or allies, to the point he would make light of the Sword Saint, mocking him and calling him "a moniker of some guy who knows of nothing but swinging a sword". He often pointed out his dislike for needlessly involving himself with others and vice versa, stating he would be perfectly happy if people never paid attention to him and/or bothered him. Despite that, he has been shown to have conversed with people without initiating a conflict with the opposite party, until he got his "rights violated", which instantly changed his mood for the worse and prompted him to take action against them. His hot-tempered personality often resulted in unneeded fights, however due to his overwhelmingly powerful Authority of Greed, he always came out victorious and unharmed, even against ridiculously strong opponents such as the Vollachian War God Kurgan. Due to his long life as a Sin Archbishop without ever getting his life seriously threatened, he never matured; he disclosed his secret to Subaru, who in turn was able to connect all the dots and unravel his formidable Authority, allowing Reinhard to deal the finishing blow. In his final moments, Regulus revealed how he hated being looked down upon or laughed at, going even as far as saying he became a Sin Archbishop just so he could protect himself from such people; whoever offended him or his wives would end up getting killed, no matter their acquaintanceship with him. Regulus never realized his "sins", not even in the moments before his demise. His view on the world was corrupt and distorted from the very beginning until the bitter end. His final cries were full of hatred, wishing for the whole of humanity to disappear forever.

Having been born with a corrupt and distorted mindset, Regulus did not perceive kindness, love and affection in the same way as a normal person would have; he lacked empathy and was impulsive, narcissistic and sociopathic. He took everything as a personal assault and critic, never developed a "human side", which in turn made him feel like everyone was against him, pitying and loathing his very existence. With time, Regulus himself developed a paranoid personality which completely dulled his perception of the world around him. After receiving the Witch Factor of Greed, Regulus gained an extreme form of escapism; he slaughtered everyone who pitied him, destroyed everything that bothered him and protected only the things he deemed important and necessary for his ideal and dream life. With that, Regulus was given an opportunity to be able to escape the dull, depressing and detested world he was brought into and create a new world with himself at the top and surrounded by his subjects/wives; his cherished kingdom. He spent the following century trying to fulfill his Greed, which he never achieved, trying to justify to himself that he was not greedy, until his bitter and watery end.

History
More than 100 years ago, Regulus used to live with his family. His father was an alcoholic but tried to be a good father, his mother complained about bad earnings but apologized for it occasionally, and his two brothers who were sometimes mean to him but gave him their share of their meal if he accidentally spilled his. At some point in the past, Regulus got hold of and took in the Witch Factor of Greed, and subsequently killed his entire family, then his village and then everyone in the surrounding cities. He broke his childhood love's mind, slaughtered her family and forced her to marry him, thus making her become his first of many wives.

In the following years, Regulus became the Sin Archbishop of Greed, joining the Witch Cult where he became the leader of the radical faction. Familiarizing himself with the doctrine of the Cult and its members, Regulus met Petelgeuse Romanee-Conti, the leader of the now-forgotten moderate faction. It's safe to assume the two didn't harbor a friendly relationship although they occasionally cooperated along with the other Sin Archbishops. Just like other high ranking members of the Cult took care of their own eccentric goals, Regulus spent his free time in search of beautiful women he'd forcefully marry and spend his days with, before eventually watching them die, be it from natural or unnatural causes.

Roughly 100 years before the events of the main story, Regulus participated in the attack of the elven village in Elior Forest along with Pandora, cooperating with her to collect the elf Fortuna as his 79th wife. With the pair revealing their malicious intentions, Petelgeuse, who was helping the elves in the forest, ordered Fortuna to run with her niece Emilia. He had a one-sided battle with Petelgeuse Romanee-Conti who just took in the Witch Factors of Sloth, cutting both of his hands off in a relatively short time. Just before he was about to deal the finishing blow by smashing Petelgeuse's head open, Fortuna interrupted him, which greatly angered him. When Pandora calmly asked him to spare Petelgeuse's life, he lashed back at her and threw dirt at her, killing her instantly. Soon after, Pandora used her Authority of Vainglory to erase her death and proceeded to teleport Regulus back to his mansion, reverting the damage he has done to Petelgeuse and Elior Forest.

Fifteen years before Subaru's arrival, Regulus single-handedly took down a heavily fortified Vollachian city of Garkla, housing thousands of soldiers and the Vollachian hero Kurgan. Rumour has it that at the time, a Meteor supposedly belonging to one of the six Witches was located in the city itself (it is confirmed the Meteor did not belong to the Witch of Envy). It is not known if the Meteor was actually present or if it was only an excuse to drive the Witch Cult to take action.

Abilities
Authority of Greed (強欲の権能 Gōyoku no Ken'nō): Regulus was able to use the Authority of Greed until his Witch Factors were taken by Natsuki Subaru following his death.


 * Stillness of an Object's Time (物体の時間の静止 Buttai no Jikan no Seishi): Stillness of an Object's Time was Regulus' purely offensive ability, named by Subaru. Regulus could stop the time of anything he was wearing, touching, or even his breath, which in turn stopped the object's interference from the outside world and only allowed its interference outwards. The atmosphere released from the Stillness of an Object's Time could cause shock waves which destroyed everything in its path no matter the sturdiness. Small objects imbued with Stillness of an Object's Time created devastating and destructive attacks. Regulus stopped the time of pebbles, gravel or dirt and threw them at an enemy. These objects would travel through anything and anyone, resulting in the object or a person's destruction, as seen when he managed to hit Subaru's left leg and rip Pandora into pieces with a direct hit. He used such attacks to bombard a whole street with water droplets, destroying everything in its path, leveling huge multi-story buildings as if they were made out of sand. The objects kept traveling as long as their time was stopped meaning they could potentially travel through the whole world and come out on the other side, considering the shape of the new planet. Apart from pebbles, dirt, gravel and other objects, Regulus could also create invisible walls of death by stopping time of his breath, which would make it almost impossible to approach him without randomly turning into a shredded corpse, or stopping time of the air produced by his hand's movement, effectively creating an invisible blade of air that split the earth and sky and cut everything in its path without fail. His kicks were powerful enough to collapse entire buildings. As mentioned above, shock waves produced by him acted as bombs, utterly destroying everything that got caught up in its blast, rendering people and animals into nothing more than an unrecognizable bloody pile of bones and flesh. Furthermore, Regulus could also use Stillness of an Object's Time on himself, making it so whatever touched him was immediately disintegrated, as seen when Reinhard threw a spear at him and the shaft vanished on impact–his body literally rejected anything it collided with . When in this state, Regulus was untouchable, as noted by Reinhard . Stopping time of a person wasn't limited solely to his body, though, as he could be seen using it in two separate occasions–once when he stopped Emilia's time and saved her from Sirius' fires and once when he lunged Reinhard to the Moon.


 * Lion's Heart (獅子の心臓 Shishi no Shinzō): Lion's Heart–his purely defensive ability–allowed Regulus to freeze his heart's time, stopping his heartbeat and granting himself a temporary state of invincibility . While this power was active, Regulus was completely cut off from the world's flow of time, literally becoming a walking anomaly. He did not have to eat, drink or even breathe and his body did not age, nor did it perform even the most basic of human body functions. He could even ignore whichever physical law he wished, traveling at inhuman speeds, ignoring gravity and scaling multi-story buildings by just lightly pushing himself off the ground. According to Reinhard, he did not possess a heartbeat and had a corpse-like body temperature. Lion's Heart acted as his ultimate defensive ability as it allowed him to simply ignore any and every form of damage dealt to his body, be it sword or magical attacks that could level entire buildings, collisions with dragon carriages that would rip a normal person apart, falling down for hundreds of meters launched towards the ground with extreme speeds, and being frozen deep underwater. He was even capable of brushing off Reinhard's The Swordplay of Astrea Family and Crusch's One Blow, One Hundred Felled sword attacks, as if they were just light gusts of wind, despite both attacks being shown to have been capable of vaporising people and cutting cleanly through the Hakugei's thick hide. However, this ability did have a downside to it, in form of a time limit. Whenever Regulus used this ability for more than five seconds at a time, he began to experience almost unbearably excruciating pain, which prompted him to quickly deactivate it. If he would continue with the usage of it, without taking pauses, Regulus would die from heart failure. He had noted that he could, in theory, push the limit to around ten seconds, but the pain was too intense . Luckily, however, Regulus was capable of handing Lion's Heart over to one of the subjects from his kingdom, or in other words, any woman he had confirmed to be his wife . By doing this, all side effects of Lion's Heart would be removed and Regulus was able to freely use it for as much as he wanted to, without the need to take breaks after a certain amount of time. His wives did not bear any side effects of the ability, and were not even aware of bearing their beloved husband's heart –his pseudo-heart was nigh undetectable by a normal person, including Regulus himself. Even if it was destroyed, he didn't take any form of damage whatsoever;the only after effect would be that he bore the burden of Lion's Heart once again. The maximum distance between his wives and Regulus that would still allow Lion's Heart to work while having it stored inside one of his wives is unknown, however, the author once stated that they'd have to be close enough for Regulus to feel their love close by.

Trivia

 * Regulus, like every other Sin Archbishop (with the exception of Stride Vollachia ), received his namesake from a celestial body. "Regulus" is the name of the brightest star in the Leo constellation which is also one of the brightest stars in the night sky. The traditional name for the star in Latin was Rēgulus, which translates to "prince" or "little king." in India it was known as Maghā ("the Mighty"), in Sogdiana it was known as Magh ("the Great"), and in Persia it was known as Miyan ("the Centre").
 * As of a hundred years ago, Regulus had 78 wives, and as of Arc 5 he is mentioned to have had 291 wives in total. However, according to Sylphy, 238 of those wives were killed, leaving only 53 alive.
 * Regulus originally intended to make Fortuna his 79th wife, but due to the unfortunate events that took place, he was unable to do so. 100 years later, he encountered Emilia, setting his mind on marrying her, making her serve as Fortuna's substitution.
 * In the Web Novel version of arc 4, Regulus is seen wearing black and grey clothes.
 * Regulus, from Latin, means "Little King".
 * To this day, he is the only person that managed to kill Reinhard.
 * Regulus is the strongest Sin Archbishop of the Witch Cult.
 * If every Witch of Sin (excluding Satella) and Sin Archbishop were to fight against each other, Regulus would be the sole survivor.
 * In the author's character strength ranking in June 2014, Regulus was ranked as the 3rd strongest character in the series, though the list may have changed since then.
 * The author had stated that due to his overwhelmingly powerful Authority which renders any attack against him useless, if Subaru wasn't present during the Crusade against Greed in Arc 5, Reinhard would not have been able to deal a decisive blow, likely being forced to back off and admit defeat.
 * Coupled with the Witch of Envy, he's one of the few characters who'd give the Sword Saint the most trouble as they're nigh unkillable.
 * Regulus owns a mansion, however its location is unknown. In Ayamatsu IF Natsuki Subaru and Elsa Granhiert burn his mansion to the ground in order to get rid of his Authority and kill him.
 * Despite him being the strongest Sin Archbishop of the Witch Cult, and killing Reinhard, he never managed to kill Subaru.
 * According to the author, Regulus' Authority of Greed is the strongest combat ability in Re:Zero.
 * Regulus hinted at the idea of being perfectly happy with marrying Crusch Karsten, back in Arc 3 interludes.
 * Regulus is stated to be the least fitting candidate for being a king.
 * His first wife was the only wife he ever made a grave for.
 * According to Petelgeuse, Regulus received his Witch Factor of Greed from a similar black box.

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