Shadow Garden

Shadow Garden (シャドウガーデン) is an organization founded by Cid Kagenō also known as Shadow. Its primary goal was to eliminate the Cult of Diablos and prevent them from resurrecting the ancient demon, Diabolos.

History
The origins of Shadow Garden date back to a young boy's childhood. That boy was Cid Kagenō, determined to fulfill his dream of becoming an 'eminence in the shadows.' To accomplish this, Cid repeatedly snuck out of his home to fight against bandits within his vicinity. During one of these outings, he discovered a rotting but surprisingly alive body, heavily mutated by Demon Possession. As he was about to relieve it of its suffering, he noticed it possessed an abundance of magic power.

He performed multiple experiments on the body and accidentally restored the girl to her true self. Thinking she might be useful to his cause, he fabricated a story, convincing the elf girl that she was the descendant of one of the Three Heroes who defeated the demon Diabolos, the one responsible for cursing her bloodline with Demon Possession. He explained that a cult worshipping the demon called the Cult of Diablos has been planning to resurrect Diablos. The girl became enraged and swore loyalty to her new master, naming herself Alpha. However, Cid's fabrication was revealed to be true to every detail, unbeknownst to him.

Together, they formed the organization Shadow Garden. As time passed, the duo recruited six more girls, each possessing the same infliction as Alpha. They spent their time training and learning from their leader, studying subjects such as swordsmanship, economics, and literature. Furthermore, Cid's stories inspired them to use those concepts to expand their influence.

Seven Shadows
These members are the first seven members recruited and the only ones who had granted power directly by Shadow himself. The Seven Shadows stand in a league of their own in the Shadow Garden because of their most powerful & skilled ability, and that blessing Shadow bestow upon them are part of what makes them so special.

Also, their strength is on completely different level from the rest of other members, and the ones with the high authority to manage/lead the Shadow Garden. If any member other than those Seven Shadows who received the privilege of granted his power directly from Shadow himself, it is considered to be the highest honor for the organization.

According to Epsilon, they planned to make a Second "Seven Shadows" with their power are the same as the original first Seven Shadows. Victoria is a only known candidate.

Numbers
The Numbers refer strictly to the order in which they joined, not a ranking system. However, each set of 100 tends to be a good deal stronger than the next, so the numbers end up being a decent measure anyway.

The highest Numbers member from 8 to 24 are a direct subordinate of the "Seven Shadows" and they are given a Greek name, if they are of nearly the same level of ability and strength as their superiors. They have their own functions to fulfill as well and possess a certain amount of authority to give orders to other members.

The Numbers member are regimented, and the rest of the members up to 600 are possibly divided into soldiers and squad leaders, researchers, spies, scientists, whatever role they need for the missions.

Every member with a double and triple-digit "number name" they got from when they originally joined the organization, have a chance to climbed into the higher ranks. The requirement is that the new member who just joined recently will challenge the old members who have joined for a long time, no matter how the numerical gap and then earned the right to challenge a high-ranking "Named Numbers" member.

First Assault on the Cult
After Claire was abducted by Viscount Olba, Shadow Garden immediately mobilized to find her and launch a full assault. With Cid's help, they managed to find a secret hideout where she was kept. At night, Shadow Garden attacked the hideout, killing all of its guards. They were close to capturing Olba, intending to extract information about the Order of Diabolos before he manages to escape from their grasp. He didn't get that far as Shadow killed him. Claire was rescued and Shadow Garden returned home.

Afterward however, the seven members of Shadow Garden confronted their master and claimed that to keep up with the Cult's movements, it would be best for them to split up and expand their influence. Not knowing that the Cult actually exists, Shadow assumed that the others had simply grown tired of their "role-playing" and wanted to live their own lives, which he allowed.

Searching for a New Base
Although Shadow Garden had used the abandoned town as their base for years, in the end, nothing last forever. The Cult had sent in their forces to investigate why their carriages carrying Possessed never arrived and this led to the town being discovered. After ambushing the intruders, Alpha and the others realized that they can no longer stay and were forced to abandon the town.

Zeta was tasked in finding a new base of operations and she succeeded by revealing an ancient city once abandoned long ago, Alexandria at east of the Sacred Land Lindwurm, beyond the Abyss Woods. The Seven Shadows except Eta entered while the rest of Shadow Garden remained behind and reported back to Shadow in case they hadn't returned. Then, the Shadows encountered the Mist Dragon. They were nearly killed until Shadow appeared and brought the dragon down to submission. Impressed, the Mist Dragon formed a pact and allowed Shadow Garden to use Alexandria as their new home.

Princess Alexia's Kidnapping
At Midgar Royal Spellsword Academy, Cid was framed for the kidnapping of Princess Alexia Midgar. Cid calls in Shadow Garden to help him in finding her and discovers the act to be a ploy by the cult. They mobilize, uncovering, and destroying their enemies' hideouts from the Fenrir's Sect faction sect in the kingdom's capital. Alpha defeats a rampaging monster, while Shadow rescues the princess and kill Zenon Griffey from Fenrir's Sect faction by obliterating him using his ultimate attack, "I Am Atomic". After this point, the world learns the existence of Shadow Garden and the Order of Diabolos.

Midgar Academy Terrorist Attack
Gamma, Nu, and Shadow Garden were investigates a series of murderous attacks on citizens by individuals believed to be Shadow Garden. Cid and Nu went out searching for these pretenders and successfully captured one, learning from him that he was from the Order of Diabolos with their purpose to lure them and the other day they are confirming that a "Named" First Children, "The Game of Betrayal Rex" had seen in the royal capital.

Their major confrontation is when the cult took over Midgar Academy by making a the magic blocking field using the artifact, in order to frame and discredit Shadow Garden. As Gamma is the only "Seven Shadows" that currently in the capital, Shadow Garden had infiltrated the academy and are awaiting orders. When the magic blocking field have been disabled, Shadow had already slaughtered most of them along with the terrorist leader, while Nu and a squad of Shadow Garden members finished off the rest and rescues the hostage students.

After the incident, Shadow and his organization is being labelled as wanted criminal to the kingdom, due to Barnett ensuring they served as the scapegoat for the attack. Despite being branded as criminals, this does not impede Shadow Garden's mission with all its members vowing to continue their leader's resolve. Alpha tells Gamma to assemble the available Seven Shadows.

Holy Ground Infiltration
Their next operation is to infiltrate the Holy Ground, Lindwurm to find out about the truth behind the history of the Three Heroes, Demon Diabolos, and the Cult of Diablos true objective. Alpha sent a letter to Shadow to visit it. Shadow Garden's target is Archbishop Drake in order to obtain an answer, but he was killed by the cult executioner. So, they decide to wait for the Sanctuary to open.

When the Goddess Trials event is about to end, Shadow appear and called the Witch of Calamity, Aurora. After Shadow defeating Aurora and leaves suddenly, the Sanctuary door suddenly appear in the arena. Alpha and her team composed of Delta and Epsilon decide to move and capture Acting Archbishop Jack Nelson for questioning, before heading into the Holy Ground along with Beta (posing as Miss Natsume Kafka), Princess Alexia, and Princess Rose.

Alpha explain to the princess about the truth behind the Three Heroes and the Demon Possession, from which the cult want to maintain the situation under their control, even suspecting that the Cult goal isn't just reviving the demon and states they should proceed to see for themselves by exploring the Hero Olivier's memories.

After the group enough explore and arrived at the Sanctuary center, they know that the Cult's true objective is to create Tears of Diablos which grants extraordinary strength, as well as immortality with its main ingredient is Diablos cells cultivated from the demon's body and the hero's descendant's blood. Alpha then exposing Nelson true affiliation as a 11th Seat Knight of Rounds, which he confirms by stating that he is Nelson the "Avaricious" and separating them.

While Epsilon's group gathering all information they need to investigate from an archive about the Demon Possession and hypothesis by taking pictures of it, Alpha and Delta fight against Nelson copies at the Sanctuary defenses system. After getting the required information also the investigation about the Sanctuary defenses work and the power source, they decide to leave after Nelson calls Olivier. At the same time, Shadow with Aurora met Nelson and fight against all Olivier copies until Shadow also start casting his ultimate spell "I Am the All-Range Atomic" which makes Aurora surprised by the amount of magic he has, in order to destroyed all Oliviers, Nelson and everything else inside the Sanctuary.

Alpha's team saw Shadow wiped out the Sanctuary from existence, which she notes that it's the simplest and most effective solution. Epsilon reports to her that everything inside the Sanctuary has been obliterated, also reveals that Beta is working with the princess, which she may infiltrate their inner circle and confirms their theory that Aurora has another name, which the true identity is the Demon Diablos.

The news of the Holy Ground being obliterates had already spread and became known, causing the Midgar Kingdom's government placed more notoriety for the Shadow Garden organization.

God of War Tournament
Shadow Garden started to make plans on investigating the Oriana Kingdom, suspecting it to be the next target of the Order of Diabolos. Shadow and later Alpha search for Rose Oriana, who became a fugitive for assassinating her father. Rose was convinced to join the Shadow Garden which she agreed to.

Red Moon Incident
Beta suddenly learn from her master that a Red Moon will soon occur and decide to leads a small squad consisting of 664, 665, and 666 to infiltrate the Red Tower in Outlaw City to obtain the blood of the powerful Vampire's progenitor; Elizabeth, known as the Blood Queen for their research. When Elizabeth woke up and was about to destroy the world, Beta joined with other individuals to stop her. Only with Shadow's arrival that victory was assured.

Great Trading Company Conflict
Shadow Garden continued to grow in power through the Mitsugoshi Company, because of their innovative product and introducing banking notes to the world, which they learned about from Shadow's previous life, that would become very popular among the kingdom's citizens. However, this ended up drawing the envy of many of their competitors, especially the Great Commerce Alliance, who subsequently attempted to sabotage them by attacking their supply lines and even send their best mercenaries The Clovers to infiltrate at their Mitsugoshi Ltd's Headquarters along with Garter private army and their rear guard. Fortunately, the meager mercenaries hired by them were no match for Shadow Garden's well-trained forces and supplies kept running smoothly. Also, they are failing an attempt of The Clovers mission raid by killing all of them along with their support from behind.

Around the same time, Shadow concluded that he had lost control of his organization. Although the members remained blindly loyal to him and believed that he could easily see through his plans, they had, in fact, completely cut him out of the decision-making process. In addition, he was not receiving any share of the profits made by them. He thus planned to destroy the current Mitsugoshi Company and form a new company, one that would be completely owned by him.

Working together with Yukime the ruler of the White Tower of the Lawless City and the president of the Snow Fox Corporation under the alias "John Smith", Shadow stole the Mitsugoshi Company's entire stock of banking notes and replaced them with counterfeits. Faced with a potential financial collapse, Shadow Garden moved out to silence this "John Smith" and retrieve the stolen money, only to be shocked upon learning of his true identity. However, in his arrogance, Shadow sends his followers an encrypted message revealing the location of the money, allowing them to retrieve it and causing them to believe that this was his plan all along. Afterward, believing his followers could not possibly have decoded the message, Shadow assumed it was stolen by a rival company and subsequently beat its manager to death.

In the end, the Mitsugoshi Company not only won the Great Trading Company Conflict, but their position was now arguably more powerful than ever with the elimination of all of its competitors and Snow Fox Corporation's newfound alliance with Shadow Garden.

Oriana's "Black Rose" Civil War Wedding Incident
666 and her squad are tasked with investigating Saisho Stronghold, under the leadership of 559. They follow a group of 40 first Children led by "The Raging Gale Kouadoi" to a nearby ruins site, with Queen Reina where she retrieves the "Ring of Succession". 559 moves to engage the group to collect the ring because they feel it is the "Key", and decide to kill the queen. But, 666 saves her mother from being killed by 559's assault, to which 559 brands 666 as a traitor to Shadow Garden.

While 666 and her mother are taken to Duke Doem, 559 engages in combat and killing all 40 First Children, except Kouadoi. After running out of mana, she is saved from death at the hands of Kouadoi by Shadow himself. Upon 559 informing Shadow about the traitor in Shadow Garden's midst, Shadow moves to deal with the matter himself. However, Shadow was actually moving to interfere with the announced wedding between Rose Oriana and Duke Doem, unaware of Rose's identity as 666.

In the capital of the Oriana Kingdom, Epsilon (posing as Miss Shiron) masquerades as the genius composer and pianist, in order to infiltrate the royal castle. Upon recognizing Cid arrived at the capital, she offers to introduce him as her apprentice so he can infiltrate the castle himself. Cid takes her up on this and is led into playing a song to prove his validity as the apprentice of the famous Shiron. After playing "Moonlight Sonata" to high acclaim, Cid unknowingly steals the "Key" from Duke Doem's pocket.

Later Cid speaks with Rose, and after remaining in hiding as Duke Doem enters the room, he learns that Queen Reina is allegedly being held hostage to force Rose to comply. After mentioning to Epsilon that he would like to see the "Black Rose", unaware of its status as a weapon that annihilated an army of 100,000 Vegaltan soldiers in a single night.

Cid then infiltrates the castle and learns that Queen Reina and Duke Doem are in cahoots, that night assuming the role of Shadow and showing rose the truth. Rose faints, and after returning her to her room, he takes the part of Cid and talks with her briefly, before vanishing and leaving her with the "Key". Cid then frets after losing a ring he swiped from Duke Doem, unaware of its true identity as the "Key".

After returning, Cid informs Epsilon that the showdown will happen at the wedding ceremony. Upon hearing this, she gathers more members of Shadow Garden, along with Beta of the "Seven Shadows". During the wedding ceremony Rose activates the "Key" by slipping it onto her finger, after that a recording of the current king's projection appears which contains the truth of what happened, including the crime conspiracy of Duke Doem and the Cult that already exists in the kingdom. When Rose assault on Doem and defeat him, Mordred reveals himself after killing both Doem and the Queen Reina, also opens the now unlocked "Black Rose", letting loose hordes of Obsidian Beasts upon the capital. Shadow Garden then make their move to suppress the outbreak, with Epsilon and Beta confronting Mordred, 9th seat of the Knights of the Round.

Mordred then summons Ragnarok, Grand Ruler of the Fourth Realm through the Black Rose, with which Shadow himself engages in combat. While Shadow fights Ragnarok, Beta and Epsilon drive Mordred back before "checking their facts" with him. Shadow then defeats Ragnarok, sending its body parts flying one after the other much to Mordred's surprise.

After which, Mordred absorbs Ragnarok's power only to be destroyed, along with the "Black Rose", by Shadow's "I Am Atomic" technique. Shadow then dives into the now collapsing Black Rose, followed soon after by Beta before it closes in its entirety. Hearing the news, Alpha immediately rush over to the Oriana Kingdom to take charge of the damage control operation by rebuilding the capital and making a decision for Rose about her own kingdom situation.

Return to Earth
Shadow and Beta exited the Black Rose and arrived in Japan on Earth, Shadow's former world. They discovered that the once great nation had been ravaged apart by magical beasts and what remained of the population had settled in small communities and would occasionally war against each other for resources.

Posing as survivors of a magical beast attack, Shadow and Beta are taken in by a group called Messiah. Shadow, under the alias of Minoru, was taken under care by Nishino Akane. But Beta, disguised as her "Natsume" persona, was to be observed and studied by Nishino Akira. Beta believed that the plan was to obtain information from two different sources, but in truth, Shadow didn't want Beta to discover that he was actually from this world.

Shadow would secretly sneak out of the base to hunt and destroy numerous nearby magical beast nests, unknowingly thwarting schemes orchestrated by a rival human faction. Meanwhile, Beta would secretly steal technology from Akira to learn more, intending to implement them into Shadow Garden's plans. Shadow and Beta would find a way to return to their world, but not before Beta kidnapped Akane and took her with them.

After arriving back in their world via a "Black Rose" phenomenon, Shadow rushed to the Midgar Academy, concerned about the ending of academy’s winter vacation. However, given the urgency of his travel, Alpha suspected that there might be something important happening at the Academy, whether related to the Cult or perhaps even Diablos. Alpha then noticed that Zeta also have arrived from her mission and joined Shadow at the Academy for a new mission and continuing the meeting about Rose Oriana situation for becoming a new monarch of Oriana Kingdom for their plans.

The Academy Disappearances
Despite successfully taking control of the Oriana Kingdom using Rose as an ally ruler, they hearing the news that the cult managed to minimize Shadow Garden's gains by creating a faux story about the new queen, namely her act of patricide and blaming her for summoning the "Black Rose" in the first place. The international defamation resulted in Oriana becoming a heretic state, thus losing allies and trade capital. Although knowing that other nations will rally against them, Shadow Garden was not deterred and continued supporting the Oriana Kingdom from the shadows while they tried to find ways to expose the cult's activities to the world. Gamma decide to shut down Mitsugoshi Company branch in Oriana and establish their base. Gamma report to Alpha about the otherworlder and technology that Beta brought at the other world and notice that Fenrir Sect decide to make a move by kidnapping student from the Academy. with Zeta preparing for move. It's also revealed that Shadow Garden has managed to save most of the possessed students from the cult for breaking the seal of the demon Diabolos's right hand in the Sanctuary at Academy. They were quite surprised that Fenrir declined faction was still able to hold out, even with the severe enough damage done from the credit crisis to leave them out both of manpower and funds, to which they thought it was Fenrir's power from the earliest Round, also knows that Zeta hasn't made a move and is observing the cult's movement.

Meanwhile, Zeta's Branch infiltrated Midgar Academy to claim the right arm of Diabolos while eliminating the remainder of the Fenrir Sect, who also sought to claim the limb by resurrecting it by using four students with matching magic for the releasing process. The Fenrir Sect was defeated after Shadow and Zeta's group killed several members, as well as Fenrir, the eponymous leader. After discovering that Claire Kagenō was Aurora's host, Zeta forced the girl to absorb the limb into her, part of her secret agenda to immortalize Shadow.

Equipment and Artifacts
Thanks to the initial inventions of their Lord, Shadow, the 7 shadows were able to develop all sorts of tools, outfits, and things recreated from Shadow's ideas and memories (mostly thanks to Eta), not just improving maps and tracking. But also, to further assist them in their reporting and data collection about worship, among other things, these things are:


 * Slime Suit: Revolutionary apparel invention created by Cid Kagenō/Shadow with nigh limitless utility. Refined by Cid and the Seven Shadows since Shadow Garden's founding, the upgraded version of the suit is now used by everyone, from the Seven Shadows to all subordinates in the Numbers.
 * Slime weapons: The shapeshifting ability of the bodysuit extended and hardened into weaponry for close-range, distant, and melee combat. These weapons are as finite as the mass of the slime bodysuit.
 * Locator of Possess: An Artifact created by Eta, allowing Shadow Garden to locate the possessed girls all over the world.
 * The Rolapoid: An artifact created by Eta, based on Cid's 'Shadow Wisdom', that is a reverse engineered instant camera with self-developing film.
 * Homing Pigeons: Pigeons trained to find a recipient anywhere to deliver a message, a common form of communication in the world.

Known Members
The organization was initially established with seven members and has now grown to have over 600 members.

Leader & Founder

 * Shadow

Seven Shadows
The Seven Shadows are the original seven members of Shadow Garden. Due to being directly trained by their leader Shadow himself, they are each master within their respective fields: be it in combat, espionage, science, or economics. The power of the "Seven Shadows" far exceeds the rest of the other members, to the point that they rival the most powerful members of the cult and the strongest warriors in the world.


 * Alpha (Second-in-Command)
 * Beta (Provides support to all other shadows in their labors)
 * Gamma (Finance and Administration)
 * Delta (Main fighting force)
 * Epsilon (Espionage and Infiltration)
 * Zeta (Exploration and Reconnaissance)
 * Eta (Research and Development)

Numbers
The Numbers of Shadow Garden. They are those that go after the 7 Shadows of Shadow Garden, whose enumeration starts from 8 to the last, i.e. the last reaches more than No° 600.


 * Lambda (No. 11)
 * Nu (No. 13)
 * Kai (No. 22)
 * Omega (No. 24)
 * 89
 * 559 (Victoria)
 * 664
 * 665
 * 666 (Rose Oriana)
 * One Numbers member that used to be a former "Named" First Children

Zeta's Branch
A sub-branch of Shadow Garden secretly founded and operated solely by Zeta to revive Diabolos and grant Shadow the power of immortality.
 * Nina

Allies

 * Yukime

Trivia

 * Only 9 people, of more than 600 in the Shadow Garden, have received their power directly from Cid, these being are the 7 original Shadows, Victoria and Rose Oriana.
 * Apart from a few exceptions, the Numbers, as the name suggests, are each given and called upon by their number.
 * The orders given by Cid are considered absolute, so they have priority even if they contradict the orders of the 7 Shadows.
 * In terms of power, Alpha is the most powerful only behind Cid and above Delta.
 * Delta usually bites all Shadow Garden members that are weaker than her, so only the other 6 Shadows and the highest ranking Number members can deal with her directly.
 * The 7 shadows are extremely hostile against anyone who threatens or hurts Cid, to the point that they will not hesitate to slaughter the individual or group that poses a threat to their master.
 * Only Alpha and Epsilon can cure the people who had the demon possession beside Cid.
 * Until now, according to the light novel, the web novel and the manga, all the members, including Shadow, wear a mask to cover their identity, although on a few occasions they have taken it off in front of their enemies or acquaintances when they want to. But in the anime, none of the Shadow Garden members wear the mask, only wearing a black hooded cloak, which generates a small controversy with the fans of this work. Since the idea is that, no one from the civil public and the enemy must know their secret identities.