Jae Hyuk Chae

Chae Jae Hyuk, now Regis Nex, is the main protagonist of Immortal Regis. He serves as both an antagonist and anti-hero in Cavalier of the Abyss.

Immortal Regis
Jae-Hyuk appears as a carefree, determined youth whose main goal in life is making money, he is obsessed with counting money. This is all a facade since he is troubled with trying to earn enough income to support his sickly little brother, Jae-Hoon, and pay his apartment fees. He doesn't wish to allow his brother and friends see his weariness. After being killed by Serin, he refuses to acknowledge he is no longer a normal human, and is now his master. He has a strong determination to protect the weak, and will even protect those who betrayed him out of a sense of justice. Although he refuses to accept his turn into an undead and is bitter about the whole situation, his feelings towards Serin eventually weakens these beliefs. After Jae-Hoon is kidnapped, Jae-Hyuk begins to change into the bitter figure shown in Cavalier of the Abyss.

Cavalier of the Abyss
Jae-Hyuk has become Regis Nex and has developed a cold, indifferent attitude to others. Gone is the naive teenager who was willing to overlook others faults, he places trust in no one except Depore. Nex pushes others away and is willing to strike anyone down who defies him. The reasons for his change are deeply tied to Serin and events not made clear on why she betrayed him. Nex holds little affection for his wife Iffrita or her children Ninuurta and Miya; the reasons being is his knowledge that Ninurrta may not be his son. There are small moments where he shows a softer side.

During the flashback arc of events following Immortal Regis, Jae-Hyuk is shown attacking clan members who helped with Kaladborg's awakening. He is bitter towards Serin and easily angered whenever her name is mentioned. He is tolerant in dealing with others who have no connection with her. He shows a vulnerable side whenever Jae-Hoon is mentioned, as he blames himself for his brother's possession (in the future, Jae-Hyuk (Nex) no longer possesses these tender feelings since he believes his brother is gone completely). After learning of Serin sending him blood and prostrating herself for Jae-Hoon, his feelings of love for her returned. His determination to save Jae-Hoon and Serin flashes back from his characterization shown in Immortal Regis, but he is more mature in handling these issues.

Immortal Regis
Jae-Hyuk appears as a high school student working multiple part time jobs to support himself and his sickly younger brother Jae-Hoon. He pretends at school that he lives a carefree life and is only interested in making money; they are unaware of financial situations and his parents being deceased. He doesn't wish to allow his brother and friends see his weariness. He happens to run into Serin one morning before school, but other than thinking she was pretty, they do not acknowledge one another. Jae-Hyuk returns home that night to eat dinner with Jae-Hoon in a daily routine of theirs. Jae-Hoon begins to have an attack and Jae-Hyuk chooses to rush to the hospital by the park where Serin is dueling a demon. An attack she sends at the demon accidently strikes down Jae-Hyuk as well, murdering him. Jae-Hyuk's determination not to die until he saves Jae-Hoon helps Serin's decision to make him into an undead. He reawakens to Serin and her demon servant, Caesar, arguing in his apartment. After being killed by Serin, he refuses to acknowledge he is no longer a normal human and Serin being his master, he kicks them out of his apartment and tries to go back to his everyday lifestyle. This is unable to happen as Jae-Hyuk begins to notice weird things happening after his transformation, but refuses to accept his change. When a female demon attacks him at his part-time job, it finally dawns on him how unique his life has become. He manages to knock the demon off by blinding her in one eye, he then attempts to flee. He is unable to make it very far, when his body begins to wear out due to the lack of Serin's blood. The demon tries eating him, but he is rescued by Serin. Serin demands for his acceptance as no longer being human, Jae-Hyuk proves adamant in refusing to believe. When Caesar jokingly asks if turning Jae-Hoon into an undead would help matters, Jae-Hyuk is quick to flee from them and get home to Jae-Hoon. Along the way, he is unaware that his body is trying to drain other humans to power himself up. He makes it home to find Jae-Hoon safe, but the situation turns drastic when his body begins to drain Jae-Hoon. Serin manages to pull him away in time before he accidently kills the boy. Now he realizes he has to leave the human world. He is enraged when he has to leave his brother behind to travel to Chaos, and worries for his brother's worsening conditions.

Upon arriving in Chaos, Jae-Hyuk is given a test to determine which school he will attend. When he is sucked into another dimension by the test master- three doors appear offering different secret desires of his:one offers gold, one offers a normal high school lifestyle, and the last is his little brother ( he begins choosing this option when he remembers how he almost killed Jae-Hoon through energy drain). Jae-Hyuk refuses all three doors since nothing matters except getting stronger to make certain he can return to his little brother without harming him in the future. Jae-Hyuk is returned to Serin and Caesar, where the test master reveals the another option not told upfront was not choosing any of the other options. Since Jae-Hyuk choose to not give into his desires, the test master reveals he was accepted into Urvis, the same school Serin attends. The two demons are shocked upon learning this. He is then tested on his magical abilities, once again the two demons are dumbfounded with how weak Jae-Hyuk is (who doesn't understand the zenion magic abilities capability system)- his magical abilities are 5 zenion- which Caesar notes is around the same level as a cockroach.

Now that he has completed the required testing, Jae-Hyuk and company are permitted to enter the Urvis territory. Once again, Jae-Hyuk gets into trouble, within moments of his arrival the school guardians begin attacking him since they believe he is not a true Urvis student-secretly, a demon called Bi-Hyung wanted to test Jae-Hyuk and took control over the guardians. Serin rescues him and reprimands him on getting stronger since she won't always be around to save him. Her words aggravate him, and he is made to feel further awkward when the other Urvis students gawk and refuse to approach him. When Serin is called off to meet with the Demon Clan Head, he has to find his teacher on his own without anybody offering help. After strenous searching, he happens to bump into a flower demon that leads him to a tied up Seon Yu. After helping the entangled demon, he offers to help Jae-Hyuk find classes- his kindness proves to be a trick.

Seon Yu lures Jae-Hyuk outside of Urvis, where they are ambushed by Owen, a demon stealing zenion in hopes to grow stronger. Despite Seon Yu's betrayal, Jae-Hyuk cannot stand idly by and watch him get beaten by Owen. The two begin to duel with Owen having the upper hand. Suddenly Jae-Hyuk's arm grows demonic in appearance with an ability called Dark Claw. Jae-Hyuk nearly kills Owen, but is stopped by Mistress Infinity before landing the final blow. While Infinity and Owen argue about her taking Owen as a student, the dark claw begins to 'recoil'- a side effect of drawing on too much dark matter at once, without healing right away it kills the wielder. Infinity refuses to heal the boy since Owen and Seon Yu caused the recoiling to happen. Seon Yu proves too weak in healing, that Infinity has to step in and save the boy. After seeing the woman's awesome abilities, all three beg to become her students. She tells them she'll accept them after they prove themselves in a test-they have to find a book called "Caladborg's Inheritance."

The three are whisked away into a gigantic library with living, attacking books. After arrival, Jae-Hyuk is attacked by a small, parasitic book. While trying to throw the parasitic book off him, Owen rushes by. Jae-Hyuk finally notices the gigantic, monsterous books and takes off after him. The two are not strong enough to fend off the books and need Seon Yu for more manpower. After locating Seon Yu, they come up with a plan to turn the monsterous book's lighting powers back towards itself by water magic attacks. After several attempts they prove successful, and are taken back into Urvis. Unfortunately, they bring back the wrong book to Infinity's chagrin, while they are being scolded the parasitc book pops out of Jae-Hyuk's shirt. Infinity congratulates him upon grabbing the book "Caladborg's Inheritance," and accepts them as her students. While the three are celebrating, Serin shows up. He believes she is there to congratulate him; and is shocked when she rips out his heart. From the removal of his heart, he starts to die, but once again his determination to live saves him, his remaining energy is pushed into attacking Serin to drain her blood. While gorging down her blood, Infinity yanks him off and tells him Serin only attacked in warning from the clan heads who wish him dead for being a human undead; but since he is her student he is safe for now. Jae-Hyuk is disgusted with Serin's actions, and calls her a bloodbank, he then tells her to disappear.

After acceptance as a student, Infinity already begins sending him on strength-building missions. One of these is trying to steal a telo egg that is guarded by other chicklets with paralysis abilities. He is bitten by one and falls down into a swamp, while complaining about the birds, he takes notice of a gold ring floating in the swamp. Out of greedy habits, he jumps to the opportunity at grabbing the ring, right as he touches the ring swamp creatures begin to attack him. Shao Shao, another one of Infinity's students, happens to be floating by and Jae-Hyuk begs for her help. She does-on the condition that he has to help her out in the future.

After delivering to Infinity the Telo Egg, Shao Shao makes Jae-Hyuk pay up on his offer by asking him to help her travel through a maze. Jae-Hyuk agrees after she mentions how this maze will help him gain zenion; she fails to mention its an illegal maze with monsters roaming around. The two arrive in the illegal maze and Shao Shao cuts Jae-Hyuk to make him bleed. After wounding him, she flees to avoid the monsters searching from where the blood is coming from. While searching for Shao Shao, a monster called "Manticore" attacks him, he is almost killed by the monster but manages to use his dark claw at the last minute. While rejoicing, he gets sucked into another part of the maze by a young girl. She nonverbally tells him to follow her, after he takes notice to her striking resemblances to Serin. They arrive to a seal, where the girl tells him to break the sealing stone located above the seal. Approaching the stone, the evil undead from the past Noche, appears and demands to know who this boy is before disappearing. The stone is broken and after Noche's disappearance, the little girl begins to regain her power. She reveals herself to be the magic stone, Depore, and begins to explain she appeared because he chose to become her wielder. Since Depore has reawakened, monsters sent by Bi-Hyung appear as he attempts to claim her as his own. Shao Shao also is nearby hoping to sneak attack Jae-Hyuk. Jae-Hyuk is horrified by the large number of monsters, and knows he isn't strong enough to handle these many at once. Depore fuses herself with him, and he draws on her strength to go on a killing spree, every monster is decimated within seconds from Depore's possession. Bi-Hyung takes the opportunity to use his fragment of Depore's stone to draw her back to him. Bi-Hyung and Depore are shocked when Jae-Hyuk physically grabs Depore and pleads for her to lend him her powers. Depore is amused by his request and kisses him, which seals their bond. The two have a short moment of victory before the school's Enforcers squad comes to arrest them for entering an illegal maze.

Jae-Hyuk, Shao Shao, and Serin (who came to the maze hoping to rescue Jae-Hyuk) are imprisoned. Vision Sophia, leader of the Enforcers, discovers Jae-Hyuk's bond with Depore and tries to manipulate him into handing the stone over with the promise no harm will befall him if he does such. Sophia is unaware of Depore's mind-reading abilities, and Depore reveals Sophia as lying through her teeth about not harming the undead.

Jae-Hyuk refuses her offer and is sent to the Tower of Soul-wrenching agony to duel through the levels and gatekeepers so he can claim full ownership of Depore, if he fails the stone is stripped from him. Jae-Hyuk travels through the first level and is bombarded by monsters seeking out Depore. Mahou's Latique and Ren save him from a high-level monster, with the promise they only spared him for a future battle. He begins realizing nobody is to trust as enemy after enemy from different clans try to steal Depore. When he runs into Owen, he is immediately suspicious of his new found friend. However, Owen proves loyal and tells Jae-Hyuk he doesn't harm his vassals and would rather play a hero (Jae-Hyuk is distrubed by his confidence). When Vegas and his goons attack the boys, the students are quick to form an alliance and manage to ward off most of the attacks. Depore does have to step in finally as a fatal blast almost kills Jae-Hyuk and Owen. While trying to get away the two are tricked into using a fake portal created by Vegas, but a man called Brass saves them.

Brass is quick to demand Jae-Hyuk if he is really Depore's owner. Owen wakes up during Brass's inquisition and assumes the man is an enemy and attempts to protect his friend. His brash decision annoys Brass who turns Owen into an old man; Jae-Hyuk steps in to demand for Owen to be reverted. His anger causes the Dark Claw ability to appear. Brass is shocked with the ability- his thoughts reveal that Dark Claw is a power only "Negative" energy wielders can use. Seeing potential in the undead, Brass makes an offer to teach Jae-Hyuk how to use the skill after learning from the boys they are Infinity's students- who is an old acquitance of his. The man asks what is Jae-Hyuk's goal and is rather perplexed when Jae-Hyuk shows no intention of seeking higher power since he still wishes to return home; Brass comments this is wasted potential and why doesn't the boy try earning enough power to become the Regis (this hints to Jae-Hyuk's future in Cavalier of the Abyss). Brass lays down the facts- everything Jae-Hyuk has learned within the short time at Urvis was useless since his energy is a 'minus' power, while the other students are 'plus' power-users. After Depore taunts his limited power control, Jae-Hyuk accepts Brass's offer. One of Brass's first trials is forcing Jae-Hyuk to fight a powerful summoning to force the teenager to be pushed to the brink of death to awaken his full potential. After being beaten near senseless, his anger on being useless and too weak to protect himself, cause the boy to finally draw out his hidden powers. Right as he lands a final blow to Brass's summoning, across floors-Serin lands the finishing blow on Sophia's Golem, Rukreitus. Their power surges cause a rift in the tower's dimension zones; after realizing who is on the other side of the portal they are relieved to see one another still alive. Right as Jae-Hyuk begins to move towards Serin, a jealous Depore latches onto the undead and causes his dark powers to strike at Serin. A devastating blow hits the demon, and Jae-Hyuk is shown screaming. Right as he begins to scream, the demon stone, Caladborg, is awakened by Mahadevi.

Jae-Hyuk is stopped from reopening the rift by Depore and Brass; while he argues with them to release him he feels a stabbing pain hit his body. He is quick to realize what he is feeling is Serin's pain caused by a sword strike; his desperation to save her increases. Brass asks if Jae-Hyuk truly needs Serin or his desire to save her is simply because he is an undead feeling an obligation to rescue his master. His reply is that he will also die when she does; Depore dismisses his claim immediately and claims that the undead king Noche proved in the past to survive without his master's blood. Jae-Hyuk is stuck in a dilemna: save Serin or allow her to die? He begins to recall all their moments together, the first few memories involve moments that Serin angered him- he slowly asks himself why should he save her. The last memory shows Serin, after turning him into an undead, caressing him and telling him everything is going to be okay. Seeing that final memory his decision is then made, she is someone important to him and he desires for her to be rescued, much to the chargin of Depore. The magic stone begins screaming that she alone should be the only one allowed in his heart, or why else did he form a bond with her.

Depore's outburst shocks him, but he is quick to reassure her that she also holds a place in his heart, but Serin is also someone important to him. His answer appeases her, but she refuses to let him off the hook easily; she makes him play a game of "catch," leading him across dimensions until he runs into Bi-Hyung-who stills holds Depore's shard in his arm- outside the Tower. The two men begin arguing over why they are both there, but are stopped by the appearance of a calm Noche telling Depore he will save her. Jae-Hyuk questions what's going on when Depore reveals this Noche was a past memory of what Noche desired. Depore gives them both a challenge- whoever possesses the greater desire is who will make her final decision as wielder. She uses magic to make the men's shadows take on the shape of whatever is their secret desire. Bi-Hyung's transforms into a child seeking revenge for the murder of his father. Jae-Hyuk deliberates, but his shadow has already formed into the shape of Serin, the woman he wishes to rescue. The shadow is unable to finish completion because he finally realizes Depore is simply a lonely entity who has always been used for her master's wishes without any thoughts to her personal feelings. He willingly gives up Depore's powers since he feels it would be a betrayal to her trust to still use her to save Serin after he promises that Depore would be more important in his heart, which is untrue. Depore is satisfied with his answer and chooses him since he isn't making a decision based on loneliness or anger.

The two combined powers to come to the rescue of Serin, still inside the tower during the time, who is nearly killed by Ren's attacks as Caladborg. After her rescue the group is taken by Brass to another location to heal injuries and deliberate how to destroy Caladborg. The group (consisting of Jae-Hyuk, Serin, Owen, Shao Shao, Brass, Infinity, Hekalroth, and the two magic stones Depore and Semek) believes Caladborg is wishing to turn Jae-Hyuk into the host since he is the only one in Chaos who was originally human; Caladborg is attracted to human qualities. The group wishes to use him as bait to destroy Caladborg during the soul transfer; he is reluctant since he wishes to return home to Jae-Hoon and has no real loyalties to Chaos. Hekalroth dislikes this answer and is quick to to use his magical powers to tie the boy up. The unjust treatment angers him, in his anger he easily dispels the attack and claims he will be the decider on whether he will help the others. The adults inform him that without his help, Earth is also in danger since Caladborg wants to control both worlds. His decision is finalized after this information is gathered, he will help to attack Caladborg to keep Jae-Hoon safe. He prepares to leave and tells Serin to protect his heart.

He doesn't have to head far, Ren locates them and reappears to finish her goal of destroying Serin. Jae-Hyuk and Serin launch an attack on Ren; right as Ren thinks she has won by avoiding Semek's shot, Jae-Hyuk uses her distraction to stab her in the neck with Depore. He believes victory is theirs, but as Ren's carcass disappears he is horrified to find Jae-Hoon appear. Jae-Hyuk and company were wrong in their assumptions; Caladborg wanted Jae-Hoon as its host, since the child was still human.

The undead is confused to as why his brother is in Chaos, when he realizes Serin is the only one who has the capability to travel between worlds. Without a second thought, he attempts suffocating her and demanding to know why she brought Jae-Hoon over or wasn't his pain alone enough to satisfy her. (He is unaware Serin's reason for bringing Jae-Hoon over was to provide him with treatment as a means of atonement for causing Jae-Hyuk's death and transformation into an undead.) Just as Serin is about to die, Jae-Hoon calls out to him for help. Jae-Hyuk is relieved that Jae-Hoon still seems to be alive in that body; before he can reach the boy Nirvana appears and is quick to get the boy away from Jae-Hyuk.

Nirvana opens a door leading to Earth where she explains the two will stay as Caladborg gathers strength. She tells Jae-Hyuk the child will not survive the overall process and Jae-Hyuk gathers all his negative powers to stop her. He recreates his outfit, through negative energy (also seen in Cavalier of the Abyss) and his strength increases as his desperation grows to stop her from leaving with Jae-Hoon. Nirvana revives Rukreitus to stop Jae-Hyuk long enough for her to enter the door. He easily destroys the Golem with his newly awakened powers, but Nirvana, with Jae-Hoon, has already sealed the door.

At the manhwa's conclusion, Jae-Hyuk breaks down sobbing and declares he will save Jae-Hoon no matter the consequences, while the rest of the party watches on in sadness. A final message says the rebirth of Caladborg is the beginning of a long war and the start of a new adventure- that continues into Cavalier of the Abyss.

Powers and Abilities
Undead: As an undead, Jae Hyuk has the ability to regenerate his body as long as his heart is not destroyed.

Negative powers- Dark Claw: his arm takes on a demonic appearance and can easily rip open an opponent's flesh.

He can also use Negative powers to form warrior garments to help shield him in battle.

Diffor Magnasetia: Jae Hyuk obtained Diffor's power in the Forbidden Maze.