Zeta

Zeta (ゼータ) (Ζήτα), formerly known as Lilim (リリム) is the sixth member of Shadow Garden, being one of the original "Seven Shadows", as well as a descendant of the "Beastkin Hero" Lili. She is in charge of exploration, intel gathering, and espionage and, disagreeing with Alpha's leadership, leads a secret sub-faction within the organization.

Appearance
Zeta is a female Beastkin from the Golden Panther clan, having blonde hair, large cat ears, purple eyes, and a long tail. She wears the customary slime bodysuit with a large cape settled over her left shoulder. A styled jacket embraces her arms and upper torso but opens under the sternum, where an area exposing her cleavage presents itself. Her jacket has a short frontal length that ends around her ribs section, while the back continues to the length of her calves, with puffy fur accents at the collar and waistline. She also has an asymmetrical legging, with a solid gold ring circling her right femur while having three parallel circling details on her left femur. In the light novel, her suit has frilled pant cuffs just before her heels. In the anime, her leggings don't have frills but rather the standard uniform boots.

While exploring the world, Zeta dresses appropriately for the location she finds herself in. For a jungle when investigating a pyramid, she wore standard khaki shorts and a jacket with exploratory boots. Another instance was her in a snowy tundra amid penguins, she wore heavy winter attire.

Personality
Despite being a Beastkin, who is mostly known for being wild brutes, Zeta is smart and level-headed. She's shown to be a loner, usually doing her missions on her own and only cooperating on a team if the situation demands it.

From the anime's depiction of her, Zeta appears to be a tomboy who likes fighting, similar to her fellow Beastkin Delta, yet she seems to have a greater degree of self-control compared to the "loose cannon".

Compared to the rest of the Seven Shadows, Zeta's hatred towards the Cult of Diabolos is far more intense leading her to be more extreme in her actions. She can be so determined to achieve her mission that she would allow mass casualties to occur. Like her fellow Beastkin, she also dislikes undergarments as she finds that they restrict her movement and thus does not wear them.

Background
Zeta was originally known by the name of Lilim and had a loving family with her father, mother, and little brother. She was the daughter of the leader of the Golden Panther tribe, who was the tallest among the Beastkin tribes and was far away from the Midgar Kingdom. Her father had been covertly investigating the "Demon Possession" since he feared that Lilim contracted it, having speculated and becoming suspicious of the beliefs of the church. Since she was little, Lilim had great intelligence and a taste for reading freely, having spent all her time investing in her focused subject.

At the same time, being the chief's daughter, she was allowed freedom from marital commitments with other Beastkin tribes. When Lilim turned twelve years old, she began showing symptoms of the Curse until they became visible and unbearable. When she told her parents, her father chose to hide the disease instead of killing her, and both would undertake a trip to the Midgar kingdom in search of a cure, according to an elf that she read about in a book. If he confirmed a cure, he would return to take Lilim as her father believed that there was someone in Midgar capable of curing the curse she had. Lilim did not believe it at all in the beginning and she was ready to be killed before her curse worsened, but she tearfully chose to trust her father and wait a month for him to return.

A month later, Lilim is still locked up in her house while she waited for her father, but those of her tribe found out through a priest of the church, really a member of the cult, that their boss had a possessed daughter of hers locked up in her house. They tied him up and killed him, but before her father tried to tell the "truth" of the Three Heroes and demon Diablos story, no one believed him, so her father ordered his wife bring Lilim and her brother to take care of themselves and to reach the kingdom of Midgar since there was "someone" there he believed could cure her of her Curse. Lilim fled in tears from her native tribe together with her mother, before being apprehended with her brother when she saw her father engaged against the priest and the branch family leader.

During her journey to the kingdom of Midgar, Lilim separated from her mother, who entrusted her with the care of her little brother. Regarding her curse, she was found by the village priest before her who showed her the severed head of her parents. When the priest introduces himself as Petos, Lilim finally confesses that she is possessed in an attempt to save her little brother, but in the end, Petos ends up killing him in front of her and tells her that his job will turn him into Rounds before showing her all the severed heads of the Golden Panther tribe, including the head of the branch family. Lilim is enraged and strikes Petos, but he makes her unconscious also ordering his men to arrest the girl and take her to the laboratory of Valliora, while he prepares the preparations to be part of the faction.

When Lilim wakes up, she is furious that her entire family and tribe were killed and she loudly pleads for someone to save her and give her power. Fittingly, she was rescued by Shadow under the company of Alpha who was a little behind him, Shadow gave Lilim his power and cured her curse, while he finished off her captors. Lilim realized that everything her parents said was true, to which Shadow is surprised (since he didn't expect the invention to spread without knowing it was true) and tells him that the priest and the people who capture her were not from the Holy Church. Those men were actually from the Cult of Diabolos and they hid the truth about the Three Heroes and the story of the demon curse in the darkness of history because they wanted to bury the truth about the hero lineage that was an obstacle to them by naming the demonic curse as a "Demon Possession", also tells Lilim that they tried to revive the demon Diabolos and that they need the blood of the possessed, that is, of the girls descended from the Three Heroes. Lilim then joined Shadow Garden and under Alpha's explanations, she was given the new name that is Zeta, becoming the sixth member of the "Seven Shadows" under her master, Shadow.

First Assault on the Cult
During the case of when her lord Cid's sister, Claire Kagenou, was abducted by Viscount Grease of the Order of Diabolos, Zeta participated in the assault on the hidden secret base where Claire was kidnapped. Alongside her lord and the others of the Seven Shadows, they managed to rescue Claire after they eliminated all guards and the leader of the branch base, also hiding their involvement.

The Academy Disappearances
With students going missing from Midgar Academy, Shadow Garden investigated and deduced the Fenrir sect was responsible, using them for dark machinations of releasing process of a demon Diabolos right arm which kept on the Sanctuary at the Academy and being protected by the Beastkin Hero, Lili. Zeta joined in the battle to eliminate the sect and after their victory, continued her hidden objective. Seeking to make an immortal of her master, Shadow, Zeta merged the Diabolos limb with Claire, learning she was the host of Aurora.

Powers & Abilities
Zeta is the fourth-strongest member of Shadow Garden, with only Delta, Alpha, and Shadow being higher. Amongst the Seven Shadows, Cid notes that Zeta is the most talented person with the capacity to even surpass Alpha in terms of ability.

Physical Prowess
It is speculated that Zeta possesses less strength compared to the "berserker" Delta, but in turn has more self-control. She specializes in reconnaissance and tracking between the "Seven Shadows" and the other Beastkin.

Stealth Expert
As Zeta is in charge of covert operations, she usually acts alone by exploring the world and gathering intelligence by conducting reconnaissance activities because of her specialties in stealth and infiltration.

Magic
Zeta is very proficient In using magic often said to be good at everything she does. During her fight with Delta in later volumes of the light novel, she was able to produce multiple black swords from the darkness. A technique said by Cid to be equal to the Blood Queen, even Cid complimented her magic mastering.

Battle Aura
Due to how talented Zeta is, she can exude an aura so strong that she brought a Named Child down to its knees without even lifting a finger.

Cid Kagenou / Shadow
After Cid restored her to her true self, Zeta saw him as living proof that she and her father were right that there was someone that can cure Demonic Possession thus she swore absolute loyalty to him. Like the rest of Shadow Garden, Zeta loves Cid and always takes the chance to spend as much time as she can to stay with him. She also likes to mark Cid's belongings with her scent and snuggle beside him.

Zeta desired to awaken the demon Diabolos to obtain eternal life for Cid, ensuring that he would be the one to rule over the world and avoid another rise of the Cult of Diabolos. She believed gaining immortality was Cid's true goal but his kindness was what stopped him.

Alpha
Zeta disapproves of Alpha's leadership, believing that her kindness would impede their goal of defeating the Cult of Diabolos. As a result, she mostly does her own thing without regularly reporting to the latter, much to Alpha's annoyance. She is even willing to go behind her back by creating her branch within Shadow Garden loyal solely to her.

Despite all of this, Zeta is aware of Alpha's immense power and thus does not even try to challenge her directly (as Delta once did), feigning obedience whilst secretly pursuing her own goals.

Delta
Delta and Zeta do not get along well and constantly bicker with each other. This seems to mostly stem from their animal instincts, as Zeta is a Cat Beastkin and Delta is a Beastkin Wolf, causing them to refer to each other by the mocking names of "Molly Cat" and "Doggie" respectively.

Nina
A member of Zeta's secret faction. After Claire began displaying symptoms of having become Diabolos' host, Zeta had Nina infiltrate Midgar Royal Spellsword Academy to watch her.

Claire Kagenō
When Claire began displaying symptoms of having become Diabolos' host, Zeta sent Nina to infiltrate the Midgar Royal Spellsword Academy to watch her. Upon confirming her suspicions, Zeta forcefully had Claire absorb Diabolos' severed arm, intending to use her to harvest Tears of Diabolos to make Shadow immortal.

Trivia

 * Zeta's design was revealed first in the anime since she has not yet had a major role in any story arc.
 * , unlike the other shadows, who want to support Shadow while staying by his side, Zeta looks out for his well-being even if it means spending most of her time away from her master.
 * The game "The Eminence in Shadow: Master of Garden" reveals more of her character and her relations within the group, as well her role. She was responsible for the Investigation of the Cult Hideout, while also searching for a new main base for Shadow Garden.
 * Due to being absent most of the time, it is still unclear if Zeta is aware that both Alpha and Epsilon are now capable of healing the possession. However, in the game "The Eminence in Shadow: Master of Garden" at Young Alpha Character Stories, Zeta notice that Alpha can cure the possession.
 * , Unlike the other Shadows, the hatred that Zeta feels for the Cult of Diablos is so great that she is willing to sacrifice anyone to achieve the destruction of the cult.
 * As Zeta does not wear undergarments because it's uncomfortable for the Beastkin, which is a bit ironic, since Delta does use them, although of the simple type.