Zeta

Zeta (ゼータ) (Ζήτα), formerly known as Lilim (リリム), is the sixth member of Shadow Garden and one of the original "Seven Shadows", as well as a descendant of the Legendary "Beastkin Hero" Lili. She is the head of exploration and espionage, but often goes about her own searches to relay intelligence to Alpha and Gamma for subsequent missions. She also leads her own secret sub-faction, which she founded due to disagreeing with Alpha's leadership, aiming to immortalize her master.

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 in the light novel, while her anime design omits the cape thus far. A stylized jacket embraces her arms and upper torso and 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.

In the anime, while riding a fishing boat out to sea, Zeta can be seen wearing a cute sailor girl outfit similar to a schoolgirl uniform. However, this look is more personal fashion than a location requirement.

Personality
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". 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.

Compared to the rest of the Seven Shadows, the hatred that Zeta feels for the Cult of Diablos is so great and far more intense that she is willing to sacrifice anyone to achieve the destruction of the cult, leading her to be more extreme in her actions. So much so that 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 she 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.

Building Her Own Factions
At some point, Zeta forms a faction behind Alpha's back because she fears that after the complete collapse of the Cult, Shadow Garden would have no purpose anymore and disband. This faction served with the goal of resurrecting Diablos to make Shadow immortal and the god of the new world. The only member of her own faction is Victoria and Nina, whose in keeping eye on Claire by entering the Midgar Academy.

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 Diablos 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 Diablos right arm with Claire, learning she was the host of Aurora.

Powers & Abilities
Zeta is the third-strongest member of Shadow Garden, suprassed only by Alpha and Shadow. Cid has noted her to be the "most talented" amongst the "Seven Shadows", with the potential to surpass even Alpha in the future.

Intelligence
It is Zeta's most distinctive trait, she is capable of manipulating and hiding information in order to achieve her aims. Zeta has also shown to be quite calculating, always looking for the most optimal way to achieve her goals, this has led her to be Shadow Garden's head of intelligence, which gives her an incredible amount of autonomy.

Zeta is also aware of her limitations, despite disagreeing with Alpha's leadership, Zeta never seeks to directly confront her. Unlike Delta, Zeta is aware that a fight with Alpha would be extremely difficult to win, and that there are more efficient ways to achieve her objectives.

Physical Prowess
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. However, Zeta is able to take on and hold a fight without any problem, even with the members of the round table.

Innate Weapon Mastery
Zeta has a natural "Gift" of being able to perfectly master any weapon she holds that can serve her purpose, be it swords, scythes, spears, and other things, maybe even firearms. But, because Zeta has adept at handling every type of weapon when learns to use them very quickly, she gets bored after using them until she discards them easily and intends to look for other new weapons that she can try. Cid laments on the fact that she could've mastered them if not for that flaw.

But if the situation requires it (when she is doing her duties as a member of Shadow Garden, when fighting in hard combat), she uses the same weapons that she used to finish the fight quickly. This is certain cases surprised Lord Shadow when he was training her, without telling her, since he had to practice very hard and extremely during all his life and after reincarnating, he did not meet someone with this kind of talent to dominate and other things, weapons.

Within the game of "The Eminence Of Shadows", Zeta since she was little, wields 2 blades in the shape of crescent discs which look like a combination of weapons; Chakram, and the Blades; "Deer horn knives.

Swordsmanship
Having an innate talent to handle any weapon she wields, if she didn't have the habit of discarding them shortly after using them, her Swordsmanship level would be at the same level of Alpha at least, who is the second in command of all of them, also the other members of the 7 shadows and in Shadow garden in general.

Stealth Expert
As Zeta is in charge of covert operations, she usually acts alone by exploring the world and gathering intelligence by conducting reconnaissance and investigation 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 and black mist. 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.

Quick Flash Subtle
Zeta can use her magic to move quickly against her enemies very quickly. This ability was taught to her by her master, Shadow, just like the other original members of Shadow Garden. Unlike her partner and rival, Delta who moves when she goes hunting her prey in a wild way for the most part, Zeta likes to be subtle and silent to take her enemies by surprise when they are very strong, as any wild cat would do when camouflaging with the environment to get closer to its prey.

Weakness
Cid notes that Zeta is extremely talented and practically exceptional at everything. Her only weakness is her fickle tendencies, such as her getting bored of learning a skill that she doesn't even practice them to the point of mastery. This is what prevents her from becoming a "Master of All" like Alpha.

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, being unknown to Zeta the fact that Cid is developing magic that allows him to live for at least 600 years by himself and without the need to resort to any of the cult's gadgets.

After achieving the goal of obtaining eternal life for Shadow, she wishes for him and the Shadow Garden to discard her.

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.

Other than that, Zeta has no problem with Alpha, and they usually get along well.

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.

Victoria
A member of Zeta's secret faction, operating within Shadow Garden's Numbers. Being the first number to be granted power by Shadow himself since the original Seven Shadows, Zeta recruited Victoria following her joining as No. 559 as both share a desire to serve their lord and seek to immortalize him.

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 Seven 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. (It is not yet clear if the events or information that the game provides about the characters can be considered canonical)
 * 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.
 * Zeta as such, is the 3 strongest in Shadow Garden, at the Fencing level. Only being surpassed by Alpha and her lord, Shadow.