Regulus Corneas

Regulus Corneas (レグルス・コルニアス) was a Sin Archbishop of the Witch Cult, representing Greed until he was defeated by Reinhard van Astrea, Natsuki Subaru and Emilia. He was one of the primary antagonists during the fifth arc of Re:Zero.

As the strongest and among 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 throughout the decades following the downfall of the Witch of Envy. He acted as the head of the radical faction inside the Witch Cult; polar opposite to Petelgeuse who acted as the head of the moderate faction.

Appearance
Regulus was a young man of medium height, with a not too thin yet not too muscular build and with naturally white hair that was neither too long nor too short nor was it arranged in any specific way; he was described as looking like a completely normal man, one you would easily lose and forget about in a busy street crowded with people. He was relatively handsome however, his face did not bear any notable features, with an exception of his gold eyes which did not have any particular shine to them, except for when he started rambling about the things he deemed important. There was a single blue teardrop-shaped earring hanging from his right ear. He was usually seen wearing a white suit which went down to his ankles and perfectly matched his hair, underneath which, he wore a long-sleeved blue shirt that matched the color of his earring, of which only the scuffs were visible. The suit itself was white on the outside and black on the inside, with the suit's ten buttons, edging, cuffs and minor details on the inside and outside being gold in color. Matching his hair and his suit, the trousers and shoes worn by him were also white. Perhaps the most striking detail of his suit was the opulent high-neck collar, which had an intricate, black and gold design, with the most noticeable feature of it being a large gold collar clip resembling the infinity sign, possibly being a reference to his Authority. The suit was described as either extravagant nor shabby, maintaining the image of normalcy that he was trying to project. All in all, he was described as an epitome of colour white.

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 at 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 payed attention to him and/or bothered him. Despite that, he was perhaps the most easy-going and "human" Sin Archbishop, repeatedly being 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 worse and prompted him to take actions 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 but rather grew childish, naive and arrogant; 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 and his kingdom 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 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 in some cases even showed sociopathic traits. 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 rather self-loathing and paranoid personality which completely dulled his perception of the world around him. He buried his self-loathing deep inside of him, and masked it with his hate towards the world and people that shaped him into the man he was. 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. But that still did not bring him true happiness he so yearned for. He spent the next couple of decades 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 200 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 and took in the Witch Factor of Greed, and subsequently killed his entire family, then 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.

He was also a Sin Archbishop of the Witch Cult 100 years in the past and participated in the attack of the elven village in Elior Forest along with Pandora, presumably 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 Jealous Witch). 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): Regulus could stop the time of himself or anything he was wearing, touching, or even his breath, which in turn stopped any interference from outside world and only allowed his interference outwards. While this ability was active, Regulus could not receive any sort of damage, no matter the power or destruction of the attack, as seen when he took on Crusch's One Blow One Hundred Felled sword technique that was able to penetrate even the Hakugei's sturdy hide, or when he took a direct hit from "The Swordplay of the Astrea Family" performed by Reinhard, which blew up almost the entirety of the church in which they were located, and came out unscathed.Regulus_Corneas_neutralising_Crusch_Karsten's_attack.gif atmosphere released from the Stillness of an Object's Time could cause shock waves which destroyed everything its path no matter the sturdiness. On top of all that, the ability allowed Regulus to travel at extremely high speeds and jump over multistory buildings with ease. Stillness of an Object's Time sadly had a downside in a form of heart failure if Regulus stopped the time for himself for more than 5 seconds, though it has been stated he could last a couple of seconds more but the excruciating pain that hit him after the 5 second mark prevented him from pushing his luck. To compensate for this deadly flaw, Regulus luckily had a second ability called Lion's Heart.
 * Small objects imbued with Stillness of an Object's Time create devastating and destructive attacks. Regulus stops the time of pebbles, gravel or dirt and throws them at an enemy. These objects will 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 is also able to bombard a whole street with water droplets, destroying everything in its path. The objects will keep traveling as long as their time is stopped. They can potentially travel through the whole world and come out on the other side.
 * Apart from pebbles, dirt, gravel and other objects, he can also create an invisible wall of death by stopping time of his breath or stopping time of the air produced by his hand's movement, effectively creating an invisible blade of air that will cut everything in its path. His kicks are powerful enough to collapse entire buildings.
 * Lion's Heart (獅子の心臓 Shishi no Shinzō) or Small King (小さな王 Chīsana Ō): Regulus merges his heart with one of the people of his kingdom, or in other words any woman that he has confirmed to be his wife. With this, the Regulus can use the effects of Stillness of an Object's Time as long as he wishes to. As it is only a pseudo heart, even if the merge is destroyed the only aftereffect is that he bears the burden again. Not much else is known about it but in order to work properly, Regulus must feel "their love". If that condition is not fulfilled, Lion's Heart will stop working and Regulus will once again bear the burden of the Stillness of an Object's Time, until he's reunited with his beloved wives.

Trivia

 * 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".
 * His namesake is a reference to the star Regulus, which is the brightest star in the Leo constellation.
 * Regulus was mentioned to be a young man 100 years ago.
 * 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.
 * His first wife was the only wife he ever made a grave for.

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Regulus Corneas