• Adaptational Curves: In the manga, their bodies were notably more developed pre-Time Skip due to the lack of descriptions and illustrations from the light novel, unlike the anime, which shows them as young children.
• Alphabetical Theme Naming: The first members of Shadow Garden are named after Greek letters. This all started when Cid internally called Alpha "Shadowbroker Subordinate A".
  Cid: A or Alpha. Either works.
• Always Second Best: Many characters are astounded by the strength and skill shown by the Seven Shadows, so it comes as a greater shock to them that all of them pale in comparison to their supreme leader, Shadow. Something that the seven themselves are not only aware of but also emphasize whenever they clash against him in disguise, with them always falling short in combat or, at best, making him break character and take the fight a bit more seriously.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: As Shadows' earliest subordinates, the Seven Shadows are considered to be in another league when it comes to strength compared to the regular members of Shadow Garden.
• Attractive Bent-Gender: Volume 7 has Alpha, Beta, and Epsilon posing as men to take part in the Royal Succession. Several Elven nobles offer their daughters' hands in marriage to "Alfred", who, with "Epsilou", also receives many cheers from the female audience during the preliminaries.
• Awesome, but Impractical: Seven Shadows Chronicles reveals that each of them has developed their own Atomic, but each have their own flaws and share a problem surrounding magic usage, explaining why they weren't used in the main series or "Apocrypha":
  • Alpha's Atomic is certainly destructive, but using it leaves her exhausted and injured from the backlash of compressing and unleashing her magic, making her reliant on her allies to pick her up. It also doesn't discern between targets, meaning she can only use her Atomic when she's alone.
  • Delta's Atomic turns her into an energy source that empowers her allies, but leaves her drained once she runs out of magic. Furthermore, she rarely leads other squads in combat. She usually fights with the other Seven Shadows, who don't need to be empowered, or hunts alone.
  • Eta's Atomic has her transform her slime into homing projectiles against enemies, but she can't turn it off until her magic runs out. In Chapter 58, this problem led to Medi discovering Mitsugoshi's true capabilities, and Sinmara would have discovered it if it weren't for Medi covering for them for reasons unknown.
• Badass Adorable: They are all beautiful women who can easily handle themselves in combat, while also having many quirks that make them very endearing and cute. Exaggerated in the pre-Time Skip, when they were already strong enough to easily defeat the Cult's mooks and even Named Children, while still looking like adorable children.
• Badass Crew: Aside from Shadow, they are the strongest warriors of Shadow Garden. Seven Shadow Chronicles would especially show how efficient they are when working together, especially when all seven of them are present. While all of them haven't teamed up in the main series yet, Aizawa states that the story will build toward the moment all seven reunite on the battlefield one day.
• Battle Harem: All of them have been personally trained and taught by Shadow himself, whom they all love and admire. This makes them a small, powerful group devoted to helping their master and proving their worth.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: The complete reason as to why Cid has earned the Seven Shadows' loyalty and love is that the boy has made the choice in rescuing them from their accursed possessions and raised them voluntarily; since it heavily contrasts with how their own families have chosen to discard them, it leaves little wonder why the Shadows see Cid in a saintly light.
• Beta Outfit: When Shadow Garden started with just them and Shadow, the Seven Shadows all wore identical slime suits. By the time Cid became fifteen, their slime suits diverged in design to complement their own tastes.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Much like Cid and possibly because of him, each of them seems to have their own set of peculiarities:
  • Alpha seems to be the Only Sane Man among them, but she has a Complexity Addiction, which is perfect for operating a secret society of technological and philosophical wonders that seeks world domination and is a workaholic with a lack of a social life outside work, with supplementary material revealing that Cid and the other Seven Shadows have to make her get some rest.
  • Beta is an overzealous Shadow-Fangirl, to the point of writing an entire novel about him and trying to undermine Alexia for the crime of dating Cid in the past.
  • Gamma, who at first glance seems to be like a well-mannered Ojou, is hopeless at athletic pursuits to the point of regularly tripping when walking in high heels.
  • Delta is a Dumb Muscle Blood Knight, who has to be kept in check by Cid or Alpha, lest they risk her going on a rampage to satisfy her desire for fighting.
  • Epsilon spent a significant effort and time refining her slime bodysuit manipulation to give herself Fake Boobs.
  • Zeta is a Stealth Expert who doesn't often report to Alpha, much to the latter's chagrin. She ends up being a subversion since it turns out she actually has her own agenda behind Alpha's back.
  • Eta is a Mad Scientist who barely sleeps and likes to experiment on people to satisfy her scientific curiosity, with her profile in Master of Garden outright describing her as "somewhat psychopathic".
• But Now I Must Go: Played With and Played for Drama. Following Claire's rescue, the Seven Shadows informed Cid that they are leaving. While the Seven Shadows did this to expand Shadow Garden's power and not to rely on him too much, their miscommunication led Cid to believe they had grown tired of him and wanted to leave to live their own lives. It's implied that this act is why Cid has been unable to believe that the Cult of Diablos story he made up is actually real.
• Buxom Beauty Standard: All the Seven Shadows (aside from Epsilon) are rather busty, which helps to their already existing beauty. This is especially showcased in the Summer events of Master of Garden, where all seven dress up in swimsuits that don't hide their curves. All of them also have breast mousepads as merchandise based on their slime suits and swimwear.
• Can't Catch Up: All of them feel inadequate compared to their leader, Shadow, who completely eclipses them in strength and easily solves problems they struggle with. This causes some of their problems and development:
  • In Seven Shadows Chronicles, Shadow defeats the Mist Dragon, whom they struggled against, and kills Sergey, who would've escaped if he hadn't run into their leader. This, along with Olivier halting their investigation of the Sanctuary, causes them to start "The Shadow Garden Revision Plan" to increase Shadow Garden's strength and efficiency so they don't have to rely too much on their "crutch".
  • In volume 3, when Cid betrays them as John Smith, Alpha and Gamma believe he does so because they failed to live up to his expectations and he is abandoning them.
• Character Signature Song: All of them share the outro "Darling in the Night" which they take turns singing at the end of the episode.
• A Child Shall Lead Them: When Shadow Garden first started, they were all 12 to 14 years old, yet they led over a hundred members, who were several years older than them, with some of them even once being knights or instructors for the military.
• Childhood Friends: Cid and the Seven Shadows have been together since they were young.
• Child Prodigy: Every time there's a flashback to when Cid gave each of them Shadow Wisdom, it's shown that they were all Wise Beyond Their Years and capable of taking Cid's incomplete and vague explanations to recreate items like food and clothes, replicate A.K.A. plagiarize material like music and books, and even create a functioning self-sufficient money system. Cid repeatedly expresses surprise and a little concern about how easily they were able to take stuff he remembered from his past life and use it to make him an indirect One-Man Industrial Revolution.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: When it comes to their master, they quickly become jealous when a girl tries to get close to him and compete against each other to grab his attention.
• Co-Dragons: The Seven Shadows function as this to Shadow and have greater authority than the regular members of Shadow Garden, as they can issue orders to them and often direct their actions. The only exception is Delta, due to her Dumb Muscle nature.
• A Day in the Limelight: The seven of them are the focus of the anime-exclusive Hot Springs Episode due to Cid going MIA for a while under the belief they are angry at his betrayal during the Corporate Warfare arc.
• Disguised in Drag: To infiltrate the Royal Succession, Alpha, Beta, and Epsilon disguise themselves as males, since the Cult knows that Shadow Garden is primarily made of women aside from Shadow.
• Disowned Parent: Many of the Seven Shadows, sans Zeta, have incredibly bad experiences with their families just right before they were thrown out from their homes; some of them, such as Alpha, Beta, and Epsilon, have been privileged and catered to throughout their lives, which made their families' betrayal of them that much harsher. Since then, they would rather accept the names their lord and master, Shadow, has given them, and going further, being inducted into his family and taking in their surname, Kagenou. There's also a disturbing implication that if Cid had given them the order to murder their former families, they would have been ecstatic in committing the deed. In Volume 7, Sakura of the Tokiseryuno is outraged that her clansman, Alpha, would even dare to throw away her former name and status, to which Alpha can only look away in quiet disdain.
• Divergent Character Evolution: While each already had distinct personalities, Master of Garden goes further by revealing that, aside from Alpha and Gamma, they each had different weapons than the slime swords they use in the present day. This is also done to prevent the roster from being nearly completely overrun by sword users, since the only characters that don't use swords are Sherry and Aurora.
• Fallen Princess: A majority of the members belonged to high positions within their former homes, before their Demonic Possession ruined them, or the Cult of Diablos done the ruination.
• Family of Choice: Having abandoned their previous identities and former lives, the organization, in a way, became a surrogate family. And in a way, the Seven Shadows are like surrogate little sisters to Cid.
• Former Bigot: For the elven members as despite having been raised and lived at the Elven Country, which disturbing encourages discrimination, none of them exhibit any form of prejudice towards the other races. It could be one of many possibilities; none of them have any prejudice at all, them having being betrayed by their loved ones, or Cid, who is a human, being the one to rescue them and raised them like family eliminated those aspects. Whichever it might be, they went above to treat the non-elven members either like surrogate sisters or close comrades.
• Hero of Another Story: It's made clear that while the light novel mainly focuses on Cid stumbling into the plot, the Seven Shadows undergo their own missions to combat the Cult and increase Shadow Garden's power and knowledge. Seven Shadows Chronicles showcases their adventures between the Time Skip of the first volume and Cid's fake confession to Alexia.
• Hyper-Competent Sidekick:
  • Invoked; The Seven Shadows realized that, after saving Claire, they needed to separate from their master to grow and lead Shadow Garden by themselves and not solely rely on his strength, with them succeeding in growing Shadow Garden to a large-scale organization with influence over the world, hundreds of members, and a huge source of income in Mitsugoshi. However, despite their achievements and growth, this is ultimately Downplayed, since though this is not a clear-cut example, as there have been many times that Cid has been the most vital in Shadow Garden's success:
    • While the Seven Shadows are strong warriors in their own right, they are still nowhere near Shadow's strength. As shown by their inability to defeat otherworldly threats and monsters, he vaporizes with "I am Atomic". This is especially shown in "Apocrypha", as it would showcase that once Cid is out of the equation, the girls, for all of their intellect and skills, are being horrifically taken out one by one by Diablos, their army, their corrupted allies, and a mysterious mastermind if it wasn't for Alpha's "Groundhog Day" Loop. In addition, Cid has a very keen intellect when it comes to developing magical techniques, and has the competence to enact psychological warfare onto their enemies.
    • In their Corporate Warfare against the MCA, which the Cult backs. They could only counterattack the MCA's sabotage and couldn't attack themselves out of fear of exposing Mitsugoshi's connection with Shadow Garden. Cid solves this by bankrupting the MCA through his counterfeiting scheme with Yukime, while removing all connections between them by operating under a new persona, John Smith.
  • Played straight in the Elven Lands Arc, where Alpha, Beta, and Epsilon support the Tokiseiryuno clan in making its heir, Sakura, the next ruler. The trio disguises themselves as males and becomes very feared in the preliminaries thanks to their competence, with it not being much of an exaggeration to say that they are the only reason Sakura stands a chance to win.
• I Got Bigger: Especially empathized with the anime and Master of Garden is that they grew up from small, adorable children into beautiful women, with the only exception being Epsilon, who fakes her mature appearance with her slime suit.
• Improbable Age: None of them are adults, yet they are amongst the world's strongest warriors and run Shadow Garden efficiently. In particular, Beta, Gamma, Epsilon, and Eta also have well-known public personas as a genius writer, a MegaCorp president, a genius musician, and an architect, respectively. However, this is also deconstructed in volume 3, where Cid believes they are losing the war against the MCA, because from his perspective, young girls, who only got so far thanks to his knowledge, stand no chance against older, more experienced businessmen working together.
• Irony: With extra seasonings of tragedy, every step the Seven Shadows take in building up and expanding Shadow Garden as one of the most powerful organizations in the world is out of the earnest desire to be closer to their lord and savior, Cid. However, unbeknownst to them, this only further alienated him towards them, crashing any chance at all, for a multitude of reasons:
  • First and foremost is how they abruptly left Cid to expand the organization without properly explaining why. Cid thought they had a camaraderie as tight-knit childhood friends who found each other after being abandoned by their families and discarded from society^note The Seven Shadows from gaining demonic possession and losing everything, and Cid from being the subject of his horrifically neglectful parents, both pre-and post-reincarnated., especially since he essentially raised them post-possession, but this act reinforced his preconceived notion that they are done playing along and no longer need him, just like his parents. In short, the Seven Shadows' plan was doomed since the very beginning, as Cid now has no guilt in leaving them behind without their knowledge, either in character or disguise, and thinks they will be fine when he goes through his millennia-long disappearing act to become a legend, unaware that this will emotionally devastate them instead.
  • Their attempts to personally connect with Cid, while also hoping to become something more, unfortunately go absolutely nowhere due to his sheer apathy towards any kind of relationship, let alone romantic. Cid is so emotionally disconnected that he reflexively ignores and even outright dismisses any of their advances or problems, thinking they're either joking or roleplaying along, which is not helped by the Seven Shadows treating him as their god Shadow instead of their childhood friend Cid, like he has, and creating this unnecessary power dynamic that can never be overcome.
  • Zeta's renegade faction aims to revive Diabolos' parts, which involves using Claire as the host body so Cid could acquire immortality and rule over the world as its almighty god. The only problem is that Cid would highly disapprove of her plan given he (a) loathes the very idea of needing borrowed strength and shortcuts to achieve his dreams, (b) is close to attaining immortality through his magic control without Diabolos, (c) unwilling for his sister to potentially die and him taking up all her responsibilities as the Kagenou heir and (d) wants to disappear from the face of the world once he's immortal and only gave the go-ahead because he was half-listening to her "cryptic mumbo-jumbo". Had he known about the details, Cid would have shut down her plan before it even began as it's the complete antithesis to everything he stand for.
• Lack of Imagination: Downplayed; While they are far from uncreative since they have created many plans and operations to thwart the Cult of Diablos' plans, and are shown to be creative in combat. Most, if not nearly everything they use for Shadow Garden, originates from Cid/Shadow:
  • Shadow Wisdom is what allowed Beta, Epsilon, and Gamma to excel in their public personas and is the source of ideas behind Eta's invention. Beta and Epsilon built their careers as Natsume Kafka and Shiron on the stories and music Cid told and taught them. Notably, Beta bases her other stories on the adventures of the Shadow Garden. Many of Mitsugoshi's new products are based on the descriptions Cid told Gamma, which she and Eta replicated.
  • The standard swordplay they and every other Shadow Garden member use is derived from Shadow's. While five of the Seven Shadows have other weapons they can fall back on, and Alpha can also fight hand-to-hand, it pales in comparison to Cid creating a whole new sword style, which is also unrecognizable from his normal style, for his Nazono persona.
• Lazy Alias: The apple doesn't fall far from the tree as all the Seven Shadows are somehow even worse at naming their alter egos than Cid since he at least put some forethought into making his names distinct whereas they barely tried:
  • Epsilon goes by "Shiron" as the world-famous pianist prodigy, which is the Japanese way of saying her name without the first two letters.
  • Delta and Zeta take the opposite approach with "-n" suffixes to become "Deltan" and "Zetan" while Eta just added a middle and last name as "Eta Lloyd Wright".
  • Since their Succession Crisis disguises are basically gender-bent versions of themselves, Beta and Epsilon take a page from the above example as the masculine "Betao" and "Epsilou". Alpha varies by going with the similar-sounding "Alfred" but blatantly uses Cid's own surname (Kagenou) in hers ("Kagenoniwano"), which, when translated together, means "Alpha of the Shadow Garden", being completely unsubtle about both her true identity and feelings towards Shadow.
  • The only exceptions are Beta and Gamma's civilian identities of Natsume Kafka and Luna, but even the latter is due to her taking the previous Mitsugoshi president's name.
• Let No Crisis Go to Waste: Hilariously Played for Laughs in Master of Garden's 2nd anniversary event. When Cid is afflicted with amnesia after hitting his head, Alpha quickly orders everyone to keep their mouths shut about Shadow Garden and Cid being Shadow around him to prevent any potential information leaks. The Seven Shadows later take this opportunity to try to convince Cid that he and each respective member are in a relationship.
• Lost in Translation: Their English name, "Seven Shadows", is a literal translation of "Shichikage", which works fine in Japanese since Shadow's name there is in Gratuitous English, but is more awkward when the work was translated into English, with some of them being referred to as "Shadows".
• Loving a Shadow: Whether romantically or platonically, they all seem to love their boss, whom they consider a brave leader, unaware that his "brave leader" personality is just a facade he puts on to play along with them.
• The Magnificent: The Seven Shadows have certain monikers/nicknames given to them by Cid himself. The currently known ones are:
  • Alpha the Supreme^note Revealed in Master of Garden and "Best" in the original
  • Beta the Steadfast
  • Gamma the Weak
  • Gunshot Delta or Suicide Weapon Delta^note "Tyrant" in the original and Master of Garden
  • Epsilon the Faithful or Epsilon the Precise
  • Zeta the Prodigy
  • Due to Eta's Tag Character with Epsilon being called "Faithful Logical Duet", including Epsilon's moniker. It's implied that Eta's moniker is "Eta the Logical". Until her Atomic Character reveals that it's actually "Eta the Nightmare".
• The Magnificent Seven Samurai: They are the earliest and most elite members of Shadow Garden, with each having their own specialty that they focus on:
  • Alpha: The Leader. Field commander of Shadow Garden and actual leader of the organization.
  • Beta: Knowledge Broker. Intelligence and infiltration of academic circles. Maintains organization archives. Responsible for the collection of forbidden knowledge, such as Blood Magic.
  • Gamma: The Smart Guy. Controls the organization's corporate assets. Responsible for finances, property acquisition, and logistics. De facto second-in-command after Alpha, and helps Eta with new ideas for products based on the Shadow Wisdom they gained from Cid.
  • Delta: The Big Guy. When subtlety fails, she's the wrecking ball sent to destroy everything.
  • Epsilon: The Spy Master. Human intelligence gathering, covert actions, and assassinations. Focuses on foreign political circles.
  • Zeta: Stealth Expert. Internal security and geographic exploration. Locates and confirms the existence of lost artifacts and forgotten civilizations. Operates independently from the rest of Shadow Garden.
  • Eta: The Engineer. Cryptography, research, invention, and infiltration of scientific circles. Somewhat under Gamma's supervision via budget control.
• Morality Pet: Downplayed. Cid's bloodlust has reduced a bit after he adopted and raised the Seven Shadows, though he still remained psychotic and violent. It's possible that having close friends to play out his fantasies was the key reason he softened.
• Ms. Fanservice: All of them are attractive women wearing skintight suits accentuating their figures, with much of the series' merchandise and mobile game giving them outfits further accentuating their beauty, the Evolving Credits for Season 1's ED featuring each of them in varying states of undress to show off plenty of skin and curves, and Season 2 getting an anime-original Hot Springs Episode all about showing them semi- or fully-naked.
• Never a Self-Made Woman: While all of them are very talented and skilled, none of them would be where they are now if it weren't for Cid, who not only saved their lives but also helped develop the skills they excel in. This is something they not only acknowledge but also motivate them to further improve themselves and Shadow Garden out of devotion to him.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero!: Alpha and the other Seven Shadows telling Cid they are going to leave him to help expand Shadow Garden, without realizing that Cid has unresolved trust issues from people leaving him due to them never believing in his dreams. This, paired with several instances of them excluding him from missions because they believe Cid has to deal with far more important matters and not be a burden to him, leads Cid to believe the Seven Shadows are only humoring him and don't believe the Cult of Diablos is real.
• No Badass to His Valet: Due to genuinely seeing Alpha and the other Seven Shadows as his friends, Cid is under the belief they have this relationship with him thinking Alpha would be angry at him after the Corporate Warfare arc especially since he betrayed them as John Smith and seemingly lacks the funds he was planning to use to save Mitsugoshi (unaware that they were the ones who took it due to his cipher). However, this is completely subverted since they outright worship him. His betrayal put Alpha in a big Heroic BSoD, believing he is abandoning her and Shadow Garden for being useless to him, and Gamma nearly falls too if it wasn't for Beta arriving with his decoded message.
• No-Nonsense Nemesis: As part of their plan to win the Royal Succession to install Sakura as their Puppet Queen and gain audience with the elders and Sword God. Alpha, Beta, and Epsilon discriminately eliminate everyone as quickly as possible to win the competition, with Cid noting they have absolutely no care about making enemies out of everyone, especially the Three Great Factions.
• Older Than She Looks: In the pre-Time Skip, Gamma, Epsilon, Zeta, and Eta, who were fifteen back then, looked similar in age to Alpha, Beta, and Delta, who were thirteen.
• One-Woman Army: As they are personally trained by Shadow himself, each of the Seven Shadows is extremely powerful and formidable in their own right. During the Lindwurm Sanctuary Arc, Rose notes that a nation itself will have to expend a considerable amount of resources just to subdue one of them. Despite Sakura's initial doubts and skepticism, it's made clear that just Beta and Epsilon alone were enough to win the Royal Succession, with even Beatrix needing a Divine Artifact to fend them off, with their only threat being Nazono, their master in disguise.
• Praetorian Guard: They are considered elite members of the Shadow Garden, and they serve to protect Shadow or accompany him in battle.
• Seven Deadly Sins: Upon closer examination of their personalities and habits, it is noted that each of them has a particular sin that they are subject to:
  • Alpha: Pride. As the The Ace of the Shadow Garden and Shadow's earliest subordinate, Alpha is considered the Number Two of the organization and takes great pride in her position, as she will vigorously protect it due to the closeness it provides her with Cid. Someone trying to lay claim to it will be one of the only things that will provoke her fury, as Delta discovered.
  • Beta: Lust. Due to her zealous worship and love for him, Beta has developed a great desire to be physically intimate with Cid. She is also an expert at using her beauty to manipulate others into giving her the information she is after.
  • Gamma: Greed. As the president of Mitsugoshi, she aims to expand its power and influence globally without inhibitions. This is predicated on her lack of combat skills, as she yearns to be useful to Shadow by any means necessary.
  • Delta: Gluttony. Due to her therianthrope nature, Delta has an obsessive desire to hunt and quite an insatiable appetite. In Seven Shadows Chronicles, she would even starve herself to make herself more bloodthirsty in their showdown against certain enemies, such as the Templars.
  • Epsilon: Envy. Originally proud of her intellect and skills, upon joining the Shadow Garden, she realized that her fellow Seven Shadows were superior to her in their respective fields. And despite her beautiful face, her true petite frame lacked appeal compared to others more gifted, such as Beta, leading to Epsilon resenting her. After Nazono nearly kills her in the Royal Succession, she gains a deep hatred against the swordsman for being superior to her in every way, including her specialty magic control.
  • Zeta: Wrath. Due to the Cult massacring her family and clan, Zeta has developed quite a thirst for revenge, as she revels in making her enemies pay for their sins.
  • Eta: Sloth. Eta is noted to be very lazy when it comes to things that she does not care for, as it is even shown that she had to be cartwheeled by other Garden members rather than simply walking herself.
• Secret Identity: Beta, Gamma, Epsilon, and Eta have public identities that they use to blend in with the regular world. Unlike Cid, whose secret identity is an ordinary mob, their identities serve to further Shadow Garden's influence by infiltrating certain pillars of society or subtly expanding it.
• Single-Target Sexuality: All of them harbor romantic feelings for Cid/Shadow only. If any other people try to gain their affections whilst in their public personas/guises, they'll be hit hard with ice-cold rejection/uncaring gazes, and that's merciful compared to what they would do behind closed doors, away from any potential non-cult public witness if anyone tries pushing them too much.
• The Sleepless: Cid taught them the magic method of reducing sleep, allowing them to perform night missions and their daily activities without problem. Master of Garden reveals through its Private Room that per 24 hours, Alpha only sleeps two hours, Beta sleeps six hours, and Eta sleeps five hours, discounting her daily unverified naps. The only exception appears to be Delta, who sleeps five hours at night and three hours in the day.
• Town Girls: Delta and Zeta serve as the Butch, Beta and Epsilon serve as the Femme, and Alpha, Gamma, and Eta serve as the Neither.
• True Companions: While they do quarrel with each other at times, they have shown to value each other deeply and consider each other companions for life, as well as a family of sorts.
• Undying Loyalty: Like the rest of Shadow Garden, of course, but it's taken up a notch with the Shadows specifically, since they all know Cid from childhood, and were each personally saved by him. Their devotion reaches fanatical levels, to the point where they'd be willing to take their own life if they ever came to believe Shadow doesn't need them, most if not all of them revere him as some sort of godlike figure, and Zeta in particular is willing to work in secret to actually make him a God, even if it means going against the rest of the organization.
• Variant Power Copying: In "Boughs of Shadow", they start creating their own Atomic move to follow Shadow's example, but base it on how they express the power their master has given them, leading to the copied move being different for each of them:
  • Delta's Atomic envelops the area with her magic that empowers her allies with her energy, since Shadow's Atomic always perks her up.
  • Alpha's Atomic is closer to Shadow's, although in the form of a blue Sphere of Destruction rather than a Pillar of Light like his. Hers is also more flawed and imperfect; the backlash hurts and tires her, it does not distinguish between targets, and Eta notes it isn't as destructive or powerful as the original. This is reflected in the animation; Shadow's Atomic engulfs the opponent in light that vaporizes them, while Alpha's blows them away before the Sphere of Destruction engulfs them.
  • Eta reproduces Atomic's destructive capabilities by using her slime, which all turn into homing projectiles that even she cannot control after firing.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Several rivalries or members like to quarrel with each other for various reasons, yet they are still united in their fight against the cult and care about each other's well-being:
  • Beta and Epsilon have a rivalry due to their mutual affection for their master, Shadow. Initially, the rivalry was one-sided due to Epsilon's jealousy towards Beta's assets and Beta's refusal to acknowledge it. However, it started to heat up when Epsilon underwent her own "growth spur" and incited Beta's jealousy by claiming that Cid was ogling her. Chapter 12 of Seven Shadows Chronicles shows the two characters getting along somewhat during their mission, with Cid even commenting to Epsilon, who's reporting to him, that they get along well enough to fight.
  • Gamma and Delta have a slightly strained relationship because of Delta's habit of picking on her due to her lack of combat prowess.
  • Zeta and Delta have a habit of quarreling due to their Cat/Dog Dichotomy, as Zeta likes to pick on Delta by pointing out her Dumb Muscle nature.
  • Eta especially likes to use Beta as an Unwitting Test Subject, such as tricking her into eating or drinking certain inventions with weird side effects. Yet it is clear that Eta won't go as far as to outright kill Beta for the sake of science with their fight over the rights over Akane being non-lethal to prevent the other from serious harm.
  • Despite Zeta having major disagreements and issues towards Alpha’s leadership, in the Master of Garden video game, Zeta still cares for Alpha and the rest of the seven shadows deep down.
• Voice Changeling: Just like their master, some of them can change their voice for infiltration missions. In their male disguises, Alpha, Beta, and Epsilon changed the tone in their voice so well that, aside from Cid, no one realized their true gender.
• Weapon Specialization: The Master of Garden video game reveals that each has their personal weapon(s), but they stick to using swords because it's the symbol of their organization, and also to ensure the cult won't become familiar with their fighting styles.
  • Alpha: A longsword
  • Beta: A compound bow
  • Gamma: A broadsword or huge katana.
  • Delta: A pair of metallic claws
  • Epsilon: A scythe/harp
  • Zeta: Two Chakrams
  • Eta: Slime.
• The Worf Effect: When they are struggling or defeated in combat, it usually means that Alpha is needed, Shadow is needed, or their opponent is Shadow in disguise.
• Xanatos Speed Chess: It really isn't much of an exaggeration that they need to think fast on the fly to make sure their plans work out with their master's unpredictable behavior, which they view as very calculated and precise.
• Yes-Man: The elven Seven Shadows are a downplayed example around Sakura, since while they make it clear to her that all she needs to do is become their Puppet Queen, none of them bother to correct or call her out on her Innocently Insensitve comments and Condescending Compassion, with all of them remaining silent towards her, even when Sakura rejects Alpha's current identity and deadnames her. All of which is presumably done to prevent internal strife for their plan.
• Younger than She Looks: Despite their mature appearances (except for Epsilon), none of them are adults, and their age at the beginning of the Time Skip is fifteen (Alpha, Beta, and Delta) or seventeen (Gamma, Epsilon, Zeta, and Eta).

Alpha

Other Names: "Alpha the Supreme" (Moniker), Tokiseiryuono Kikyou (Former Identity), Kagenoniwano Alfred (Royal Succession Disguise)

Debut: Volume 1 (Light Novel), Chapter 1 (Manga), Episode 1 (Anime)

Voiced by: Asami Seto (Japanese), Christina Kelly (English)^{Other Languages}Laura Blanc (French), Angelina Markiefka (German), Federica Simonelli (Italian)

A young elf who is the same age as Cid, whom he found after one of his bandit raids. He cures her possession and then tells her about the Cult of Diablos. He named her Alpha and founded Shadow Garden with her, making her the first of the Seven Shadows.

• The Ace: When Cid rescues Alpha, he notices that her overloaded state has more mana than he had at the time. Alpha is strong, intelligent, beautiful, and effectively the actual leader of Shadow Garden. Both Princess Rose and Alexia separately comment that while Shadow may be the ultimate threshold of strength, Alpha has at least reached the level of his footing. Seven Shadows Chronicles shows that even during the earliest days of Shadow Garden, when the younger Seven Shadows had a bout with the Mist Dragon, Alpha was the only one who could actually inflict damage to the dragon, whereas the rest did not cause so much as a scratch. Fittingly, her moniker is "Alpha the Supreme".
• Adaptational Modesty: In the light novel, her outfit shown in the appendix is a rather revealing dress that leaves her shoulders bare, has a slit to showcase her bare legs, and has an Impossibly Low Neckline, giving her a mature vibe. The anime instead uses her second dress from volume 3, which has an undershirt and stockings that cover more skin.
• Adopted Mannerisms: Since she and Cid founded Shadow Garden together and he taught her longer than the other Seven Shadows, she adopted some of his mannerisms when leading the organization in his stead. This includes speaking more stoically and coldly against her enemies, using one-liners, taunts, and other cliché lines, which is especially noticeable in the early days of Shadow Garden, when she was still growing into her role.
• Animals Hate Her: In Master of Garden, she mentions that animals tend to avoid her. A trait she shares with her ancestor, Olivier.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Just seeing Alpha angry makes Delta quiver in fear and stop whatever she was doing prior. In Delta's flashback, Alpha gets challenged by Delta for the position of second-in-command of Shadow Garden. It's not shown what happened, but it's obvious Alpha won since Delta loyally serves under her.
• Beautiful All Along: While this applies to all possessed, Alpha is notably unrecognizable as a living being when she was possessed until Cid's cure turns her back into a beautiful young girl.
• Berserk Button: The only thing that'll make her break away from her calm, stoic demeanor is if anyone dares to take her spot as Number Two. Delta was the first to receive Alpha's full-blown wrath.
• Big Good: Because Cid assumes the whole conflict is just a game, Alpha is closer to being a genuine Big Good than her boss.
• Black-and-White Morality: Alpha admits to Gamma that she thought Shadow Garden was the force of good and the Cult of Diablos was the force of evil. However, after listening to Shadow's Badass Boast, this inspires her to have Shadow Garden take any action, including illegal and shady ones, to accomplish their goals, even if it means having the entire world against them.
• The Chains of Commanding: She knows she leads Shadow Garden and always has to put up a strong front to reassure the others. She fell into this after the Seven Shadows began to expand the organization without Cid's help, awkwardly trying to imitate her leader's behavior. This is taken further in "Apocrypha", where she must lead and protect everyone without Shadow and only succeeds in saving everyone thanks to the time leaps.
• Childhood Friends: She is Cid's first friend following her rescue.
• Clingy Jealous Girl:
  • More noticeable in the anime and game:
    • Upon learning of Cid's romance with Alexia, Alpha greets her master, loosely dressing herself in the Midgar Academy school uniform.
    • In the Valentine event, it's implied that Alpha placed a rule in Shadow Garden that no one in the organization should get ahead in making romantic advances on Cid.
    • In the second Casino event, she explicitly went to Yukime's new casino, because she knows the therianthrope uses its opening to flirt with Cid.
  • In Episode 8 of Season 2, while discussing with Shadow Garden who should join on the hot springs date with Cid, Nu tries to elect herself, only for Alpha to throw slime daggers at her in response.
  • In volume 6 of the light novel, she jokingly tells Cid she was jealous of the attention and concern he gave to Rose.
• Complexity Addiction: Alpha formulates elaborate, long-reaching plans to defeat the Diablos Cult. The most vital of these operations never reach full maturation, because Cid stumbles into them and unknowingly "solves" the situation with a faster method. Alpha credits these victories as proof that Cid is a genius and visionary beyond compare, when in reality, Cid did something absolutely random that seemed badass to him. This spurs Alpha to formulate plans even more worthy of Cid. A great example of this was the Credit Crisis. While ingenious, the Cult seized the opportunity and secretly planned to "cash out" of the crisis before Shadow Garden was ready. However, the Cult fails because Cid cashed out before they were ready and accidentally told Shadow Garden where he had hidden the money, allowing them to save themselves. Alpha believed Cid knew the Cult was going to pull the rug first, and Cid did it before anyone else could because he's unstoppable.
• The Creon: A justified example; While she is aware that she is the one leading Shadow Garden, she always considers herself second-in-command to Shadow, who mostly acts alone, but is still responsible for Shadow Garden's success, which she knows she is unable to replicate despite her talents due to lacking his sheer strength and ingenuity.
• Dragon-in-Chief: Officially, "Kagenoiwano Alfred" is the knight of Tokiseiryuno Sakura, and thus under her employ, but she is the one truly in charge of the Mitsugoshi Faction. Sakura is a Puppet Queen who only listens to Alfred's orders, "Betao" and "Epsilou" head her command without question, and everyone's attention goes to how skilled the three disguised Shadows are.
• Face Death with Dignity: After her Heroic BSoD over Shadow being John Smith, she was initially shocked and catatonic over her defeat, but eventually decides to obey Shadow's supposed order to let Mitsugoshi fall and let Shadow Garden burn, having decided to fulfill his last wishes to the end. Thankfully, she snaps out of this after Nu tells her of the Cult's plan and Beta arrives with the decoded message.
• Fallen Princess: Volume 7 reveals that not only was she meant to be the heir of the Tokiseiryuno, a branch family of the royal family, but she also would have shouldered the nation's future until "that incident".
• Family of Choice: She considers everyone in the Shadow Garden her real family. It is telling enough that in Volume 7, she has complete disinterests in reconnecting with her clan and is only tolerating them for the sake of having Sakura be placed as a Puppet King to the Elven Country to foil the Cult's plot.
• The Gift: After Cid cured her, he was astounded by her sheer potential, outright calling her "too competent for her own good".
• Groundhog Peggy Sue: In "Apocrypha", she is the only one who remembers the previous loops whenever the Irreversible Pocket Watch has been activated. She uses her experiences from previous loops to correct her mistakes and prevent everyone's deaths, but she is also aware that she may be playing into the mastermind's hands.
• Healing Hands: She learned the method to cure the possessed and plans on teaching it to other Shadow Garden members to further its expansion, with Epsilon being the first person she taught due to her magic control.
• Hero-Worshipper: Alpha seems to hold some measure of respect for her ancestor.
• Heroic BSoD: During the Corporate Warfare arc, Gamma had to temporarily take command of Shadow Garden due to Alpha experiencing this to the point of nearly crossing the Despair Event Horizon due to Cid seemingly abandoning Shadow Garden. Fortunately, Cid's letter was deciphered by Eta, which snapped Alpha out of it and cried Tears of Joy upon reading its contents.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: Despite her talents and achievements, Alpha always feels she falls short of Shadow, whom she feels is her superior in skill, ingenuity, and intellect. This isn't helped by Shadow being the main reason Shadow Garden grew and overcame the Cult of Diablos' schemes. This stems from her confidence being absolutely shattered when the Tokiseryuno clan discarded her, their precious heir to the clan, and possibly to the throne of the Elven Country. Alpha has worked herself to blood, sweat, bone, and mind to meet expectations, in hopes that Shadow would not leave her.
• Hyper-Awareness: Cid often compliments Alpha on how sharp she is. Alpha is the only one in the Seven Shadows who notices that Cid doesn't really like alcohol when he orders a shaken, not stirred vodka martini like a certain spy.
• Innocently Insensitive: Something she still carried from her ancestry is her lack of tact. Granted, it is not as bad like that from her relative, Sakura, or her ancestor, Olivier, but the actions are quite notable.
  • Alpha is the one to have to explain to Cid about her and Seven Shadow's departure from him in order to become strong and be worthwhile lieutenants to him. Unfortunately, this incident is what led to the current issues, namely Cid having a hard time believing the Cult is real and his commitment to his plan to hide away from the world for about a century.
  • In "Requiem for Scattered Shadows - Apocrypha", her lack of tact is what drove her surrogate sisters away, sometimes resulting in them into becoming Demons. Thankfully, with the help of the "Groundhog Day" Loop, Alpha is able to rectify matters with them.
• It's All About Me: Alpha surprisingly has some shades of this, particularly when it relates to her relationship with Cid. In Episode 8 of Season 2, when pondering the supposed group date, Alpha thinks it's an attempt by her master to have her join him at the hot springs, though she later corrects the statement to include the rest of the Seven Shadows.
• It's All My Fault: In the manga, she blames herself for letting the Cult kidnap Millia again due to being too preoccupied with handling the situation at hand. This also causes her to see Cid's operation against the Thirteen Nightblades as a way for him to clean up her mess.
• It's Personal:
  • Alpha loves Shadow Garden like her family, so anyone who dares harm them would result in the instigator's brutal demise at her hands.
  • In the anime, Alpha is furious that Zenon's men had framed Cid for Alexia's disappearance, even killing some of them.
  • After believing John Smith killed Delta, Alpha confronted the man to avenge her.
• The Leader: Alpha is practically the leader of Shadow Garden since Cid doesn't do anything but indulge in his fantasies as a power in the shadows. She is highly competent, mature, determined, and charismatic. All the Seven Shadows acknowledge her as having the highest authority in the organization beneath Shadow and loyally follow her orders.
• Lonely at the Top: Based on how much she enjoyed watching Sakura being propped up as a figurehead and having little to no interest in reconnecting with her clan and peers, Alpha had faced a similar predicament as Kikyou, having little freedom for herself thanks to being restricted, and those who sought her mainly to acquire political power. It is because of these factors that she is happy being one of the Shadow Garden's leaders, as Cid granted her more freedom and liberties than her clan did.
• Long-Lost Relative: Given that they are both descendants of Olivier, it is heavily implied that she is the niece Beatrix is desperately trying to find. However, it's unclear whether Alpha is aware of Beatrix or would even care that her alleged aunt is looking for her. Volume 7 confirms that Beatrix is her aunt and reveals that she has been informed that Beatrix is looking for her but is reluctant to contact her for an indefinite time.
• Master of All: As Shadow's earliest recruit, Alpha is shown to be highly adept in many aspects, such as physical combat, magic power, leadership, etc. However, she is outmatched by her fellow Seven Shadows in the field that they specialize in.
• Meaningful Name: Alpha's original name "Kikyou" is a Japanese Bellflower that holds cultural significance in the country. The flower's ultramarine blue colour matches that of Alpha's magic as well as its depiction on insignias for high-ranking Japanese clans, most notably the Akechi clan who loyally served and then betrayed the infamous self-proclaimed demon king Oda Nobunaga, much like the Tokiseiryuno clan did to her. That said, it is also an Ironic Name as Alpha is a devoted follower of Shadow that she would rather die than ever betray him, although she did end up hurting her savior by leaving him without giving him the time to process it.
• Missing Mom: According to her aunt Beatrix, her mother is dead, but when and how she died isn't specified. Although it's implied to happen before her possession, since Sakura doesn't mention her deceased mother at all and is only angry at the status she lost from "that incident".
• A Mother to Her Men: Alpha cherishes her friends. When she learns of Delta's disappearance, she gets enraged to the point that she heads out to assassinate the person who presumably killed her on her own to ensure no more of her dear friends get hurt. She also tries to understand and quell Zeta's massive feelings of hatred to no avail.
• Ms. Exposition: During the Holy Ground arc, Alpha reveals to everyone present the origin of the Three Heroes and the Cult of Diablos' true goal.
• Ms. Fanservice: She is a golden-haired elf with a nice ample bosom and a sensual voice. Several other people note her beauty.
• Naked on Arrival: When she is restored to her elven self after initially being a rotting meat lump monster due to the possession curse, she is introduced completely nude.
• Noodle Incident: Sakura says that Alpha, back when she was Kikyou, would have become the leader of the Tokiseiryuno and shoulder the country's future if it wasn't for "that incident" happening, but the only thing Sakura said was that "Kikyou lost everything and underwent great sorrow, humiliation, and anger." However, it's implied that "that incident" is a cover-up that Sakura was told about to hide her demonic possession, since why would Alpha tell Cid she has no home to return to after being cured?
• Number Two: She was Cid's first member of Shadow Garden. She handles most operations when Cid is not around. When Cid takes over, his commands supersede Alpha.
• The Perfectionist: She strives towards perfection because she feels it's the only way she can be beside her beloved master Shadow.
• Selective Obliviousness: Alpha often ignores Zeta's massive hatred of the cult and thinks of her as family. Gamma notices that Alpha is unusually optimistic about Zeta despite signs of discontent during her report to Alpha in volume 5.
• Sexy Secretary: Alpha acts as this whenever Beta is unavailable to tend to Cid. The anime puts a bit more emphasis on the "Sexy" part as she loosely dresses in the Midgar Academy's school uniform, all the while striking suggestive poses in front of her master.
• Shoot the Dog: In "Requiem for Scattered Shadows - Apocrypha", a dying Alpha slays Lili, one of the Three Heroes whom Alpha had respect for, to force Freya to rewind time.
• Showgirl Skirt: In the light novel and manga, her slime suit includes these, albeit in the style of the coattails from Shadow's Badass Longcoat.
• Spotting the Thread: When Nu talks about the Cult's plan to make counterfeit money to start a credit collapse, the anime and manga show her realizing that the counterfeits they were dealing with came from Cid rather than the Cult.
• Step into the Blinding Fight: Alpha releases a red mist to hide inside and confuse John Smith. Once his guard is down, she strikes.
• Subordinate Excuse: She has become Married to the Job because Shadow Garden is her way of proving Undying Loyalty to Cid. It also allows her to be alone with Cid as his Number Two.
• Super Smoke: Alpha uses Elisabeth's technique after Beta brings back the samples of the Blood Queen's blood after her fight with Shadow. Cid is impressed by this feat while in his "John Smith" disguise, and so far, it has been replicated by her fellow shadow, Zeta, during her fight with Delta in Volume 5.
• That Man Is Dead: It's implied that she already had thrown away her old identity before her possession turned her into a Blob Monster, since after Cid cured her, she never told him her name and had no problem accepting "Alpha" as her new identity.
• Time Loop Fatigue: In "Apocrypha", the constant time loops and battles she goes through wear her down, which isn't helped by the deaths she sees and the responsibility she has to keep everyone safe without Shadow.
• Took a Level in Badass: With help from Eta's research into demonic possession, Alpha can freely change her sword's form, while maintaining its strength. She can also activate a red mist for camouflage. Cid took note of this and was impressed.
• Trademark Favorite Food: The anime shows Alpha having a huge fondness for burgers, which she shares with her possible relative, Beatrix.
• Trauma Conga Line: In Apocrypha, she is the only one aware of the "Groundhog Day" Loop and has to ensure that everyone lives to prevent the loop from starting again. During this, she also has to deal with the possibility that Shadow might have died after being absorbed by Diablos.
• Troubled Fetal Position: In the anime, she takes this position during her Heroic BSoD when under the belief that Shadow abandoned her.
• Unwitting Test Subject: Cid initially wanted to sell Alpha to the Church because he deemed her a lost cause until he changed his mind and experimented on her to increase his own power. Of course, if he hadn't done it, Alpha would never have returned to her original elf form and stayed a piece of rotten meat till she died.
• Wise Beyond Their Years: She is noted to be rather mature for her age, despite not being an adult yet. Sakura is especially astounded by her mature attitude despite their mere two to three year age difference. Considering that she was once the actual heir to the Tokiseiryuno, she may have been constantly tutored to better prepare her for leadership, and when she was cast out for her possession and Cid mentoring her following his rescue of her, Alpha had to mature quickly in order to survive against the cruel world.
• Workaholic: Alpha barely has time to relax, having been so busy building up Shadow Garden to be an effective force. This is further compounded by the fact that she is the only member of the Seven Shadows who isn't shown to have a civilian identity. There is even a Gaiden manga chapter and Master of Garden event, where the characters try to get her to take a break.
• You Can't Go Home Again: After Cid unintentionally found the cure for possession and restored her body, he gives her back her freedom, only for her to tell him that she no longer has a home, causing him to take her in. She would be forced to reunite with her former clan for the Royal Succession, but only Sakura is aware of her identity. While Sakura tells her that she is welcome to return and that they still care about her, Alpha's quiet disdain makes it clear that this isn't true, since it's all but flat-out stated she went through the same condemnation and abandonment as most other possessed.

Beta

Other Names: "Beta the Steadfast" (Moniker), Natsume Kafka (Civilian Name), Betao (Royal Succession Disguise)

Debut: Volume 1 (Light Novel), Chapter 2 (Manga), Episode 1 (Anime)

Voiced by: Inori Minase (Japanese), Annie Wild (English)^{Other Languages}Emilie Marié (French), Anne Ewelina (German), Laura Cherubelli (Italian)

The second of the Seven Shadows. An elf who is the same age as Cid and Alpha. Beta has made it her life goal to write "The Chronicles of Master Shadow". Being a talented author, she uses her connections as Natsume Kafka to gather information for Shadow Garden.

• Adaptational Skimpiness: In the light novel and manga, she simply wears her civilian attire as "Natsume", which only includes a Cleavage Window, while in the anime, she wears a dress with an Impossibly Low Neckline.
• Ambiguous Situation: In the Hot Springs Episode, Beta is used by Eta as part of an experiment to verify a legend, with said legend requiring the tears of an elven princess. Beta claims she is of elven royalty and even familiar with elven relics such as Mordred's Cool Sword. Between this and that, her tears awaken a slumbering dragon sealed within the hot springs, which implies she is of royal descent. Volume 7 reveals that the royal family and its branches are huge, bringing the possibility that Beta is part of one of those branch families. It's also revealed that Alpha is a Fallen Princess, with her and Beta being acquainted before their possession, and Beta somewhat recognizes Lalanoa, a royal discriminated for her dark hair.
• Badass Bookworm: Beta's hobby is reading books and stories. When initially inducted into Shadow Garden, she felt remorse for killing others, causing Cid to regale her with the stories from his old life. Not only did the method help ease, if not fully remove, the guilt Beta feels over killing, but it also helped make her the extremely loyal subordinate she is today. She is also a Femme Fatale Spy armed with about a hundred ways to kill an opponent. In Master of Garden, she also uses books as an alternative weapon in her civilian outfit as "Natsume Kafka," as well as in other costumes.
• Bad "Bad Acting": Natsume was supposed to be scared when Shadow Garden held her hostage in the Goddess of War Trial, but it looks like she's enjoying it a bit too much, which Alexia isn't convinced in the slightest. She eventually manages to get the voice down, but has to work on her poker face to match the panic in her tone. This is subverted in the manga, where her acting is more believable to accommodate other jokes.
• Bespectacled Cutie: She puts on a pair of glasses in her Natsume Kafka guise, and whenever she writes, not only because they are prescription but also to accentuate her attractiveness. She wore them more often when she was younger, before correcting her stigmatism later on.
• Big-Breast Pride: She is quite proud of her large chest, especially since it surpasses Alexia's. If Epsilon's jealousy is any indication, Beta has the largest among the Seven Shadows.
• Big Eater: While not to the extent of Delta, Beta often takes larger portions or eats more compared to others, especially if sweets are involved.
• Birds of a Feather: Despite Beta coming from a different background, personality, and so on, she shares a lot of traits with Alexia and Rose due to all three wanting to bring peace and justice to their world, and all three care about/love Cid. Beta willingly acknowledges this after the fight between the latter two.
• Blood Magic: By the end of the Red Moon arc, Beta gains the ability to manipulate blood much like the Blood Queen.
• Bodyguard Babes: The sole reason she befriended Rose and Alexia is to protect the two princesses from the Cult of Diablos.
• Bow and Sword in Accord: Master of Garden reveals Beta specializes in archery and wields a longbow as a nod to her heritage of being an elf alongside the standard-issued slime sword. In the Royal Succession Preliminaries, she would find an artifact bow to use for her "Betao" guise.
• Butt-Monkey: She is usually the one at the receiving end of Eta's experiments, with her being given a drug that caused her to strip, being knocked unconscious by Eta so she can experiment on Akane, and the anime even has Eta force Beta to cry to see if the legends of the hot springs are true.
• Buxom Beauty Standard: While none of the other Seven Shadows (except for Epsilon) lose out in the chest department, Beta's size is especially pronounced, with her having the biggest pair that don't appear to stop growing any time soon. For her disguise as Natsume, she wears a push-up bra, further enhancing her already enormous chest size to unattainable levels. It proves helpful for interrogating men and annoying rivals like Alexia.
• Camera Fiend: In volume 4, after they got transported in Japan, Beta has fallen in love with the digital camera and has always brought it to document Shadow and laments that it couldn't survive the return trip through the portal.
• Childhood Friends: Downplayed if not subverted; Beta was already acquainted with Alpha before they met Cid. However, the two of them were never close and were acquaintances at best. It is only after they both have contracted possession and joined Shadow Garden, where their relationship grew from acquaintances, to genuine friends.
• Clark Kenting: Beta masquerades as Natsume Kafka, a famous author who writes popular stories based on the stories Cid told her about, such as Red Riding Hood and Romeo and Juliet.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: Beta severely dislikes Alexia for dating Cid for a while. She always makes attempts to ridicule the princess whenever they pair up and even removes her from her chronicle, placing herself as the Damsel in Distress her beloved master saves.
• D-Cup Distress: In Master of Garden, she notes some problems with her huge chest, such as shoulder pain, being afraid that her breasts spill out, and in the capture the flag game, she ends up having a bad start due to it compressing her heart. She unintentionally angers Epsilon whenever she asks for advice on how she deals with these problems. She would lament her huge chest in the light novel, when her male "Betao" disguise forces her to press her breasts against her body to hide them, with her feeling much discomfort and questioning why Epsilon doesn't appear that hindered, despite apparently compressing her entire body.
• Dramatic Irony: During the Japan arc, she issues death threats to Fallen Angel of Rebellion in an online forum due to the latter insulting the Black Knight. Unknowingly, both Black Knight and Fallen Angel of Rebellion are Cid, who decides to Troll Beta after deducing her to be Silver Haired Elf Babe.
• Elective Mute: She believes Cid ordered her to be mute to spy on the humans of Earth. She quickly becomes a Cute Mute because everyone finds her childish fascination and curiosity adorable. However, she steals everything she finds interesting, and no one realizes she is the culprit.
• Femme Fatale Spy: She's beautiful and looks so delicate that no one in the world could ever see her as dangerous, making her a great infiltration expert to get vital intel. Only Alexia sees that she's shady.
• Friendly Sniper: She is a highly adept sniper with her bow and is merciless against her enemies and onlookers. However, she is still friendly with her Shadow Garden allies and is, at worst, too professional with newcomers. In the Royal Succession Preliminaries, she became the kill-leader, having eliminated eighteen opponents with her bow, with the announcer noting that Betao has a 100% accuracy in sniping.
• Gaining the Will to Kill: Beta used to have trouble sleeping after killing and was only able to do so since Shadow would often tell bedtime fairy tales to her. This led her to become very devoted to her master and even willing to walk the path of evil so long as it was for him.
• Gonk: Downplayed; Contrasting her natural beauty, her male disguise as "Betao" has her appear as a plain middle-aged man with a long pointy face, and unlike "Alfred" and "Epsilou", her guise does not have any female fans.
• Heroic Seductress: She isn't shy about using her beauty to manipulate her targets and give her the information she is after.
• I Have Boobs, You Must Obey!: Gets the necessary information about Aurora out of Nelson by flaunting her cleavage in his face.
• I Should Write a Book About This: Throughout the series, Beta is writing a book based on Shadow's adventures. It's called The Chronicles of Master Shadow. While she doesn't intend to release it publicly since Shadow Garden's activities need to be kept a secret, it is read by other Shadow Garden members to give them an idea of who Shadow is and what he is capable of.
• It's All About Me: Beta has shades of this. She willingly kidnapped Akane Nishino just so that she can learn more about Earth.
• Jack of All Stats: Beta was stated to have reasonable proficiency in every field but doesn't excel in any of them, unlike her fellow Shadows. Hence, her title is "Beta The Steadfast".
• Knowledge Broker: Due to her identity as a famous writer, she has managed to gather a large number of influential contacts, which allows her access to information not readily accessible to the public or even a princess such as Alexia.
• Lazy Alias: During the Japan Arc, Cid easily deduces her online identity "Silver Haired Elf Babe" because it consists of her features.
• Meaningful Name: Her civilian identity shares the first and last names of Natsume Sōseki and Franz Kafka, respectively, both famous and influential novelists like herself.
• Ms. Fanservice: She is a beautiful elf with a huge bust. Out of all the beauties that comprise Shadow Garden, Beta gets the most focus.
  • Between her and Alexia, Beta/Natsume gets the most applause from the people of Midgar due to her sheer sex appeal.
  • On Earth, she discovered and wore a BDSM outfit and a school swimsuit and decided to keep them to seduce Cid.
• Mystical White Hair: She has short silver hair.
• Omniglot: Beta is easily able to pick up languages, mastering Japanese (More or less) in just a couple of days.
• Proud Beauty: She knows she is a knockout and has no problem making use of her looks to wring information out of targets.
• Proper Tights with a Skirt: In her guise as Natsume Kafka, Beta wears a high-waisted mid-thigh skirt with black tights.
• Relative-ly Flimsy Excuse: When she and Shadow are on Earth, they pretend to be siblings.
• Secret-Keeper: In the Japan arc, it's heavily implied that Beta either knows or suspects Cid is originally from Japan. While she does divulge the events of the arc to the rest of Shadow Garden, she keeps mum about her own findings.
• Sexy Secretary: She is the one tasked with reporting to her beloved Shadow, loving every minute of it.
• Shy Blue-Haired Girl: During the early days of Shadow Garden, she was initially terrified of her master until, over time, she grew past that and revered him as a God-like being.
• Stalker Shrine: In her room, Beta has a wall covered with sketches of Shadow and his analects.
• Sweet Tooth: Auxiliary media shows she has a fondness for sweets.
• Trick Arrow: In the Royal Succession, she found some artifact arrows, which explode on impact, to use along the magic bow she obtained. Two were used in a futile attempt to eliminate Nazono, who remains in the competition.
• Victoria's Secret Compartment: Beta hides her memo pad within her cleavage.
• Violently Protective Girlfriend: In Japan, she was promptly banned in an online forum due to giving death threats towards username Fallen Angel Of Rebellion for insulting the Black Knight, who was actually Cid, who decided to troll Beta after instantly knowing it's her due to her username Silver Haired Elf.
• Writer's Block: Since her writing career was launched through stories she plagiarized and the missions the Seven Shadows undergo, Beta struggles more when she has to write something original.
• You No Take Candle: Despite being in Japan for a while, her mastery of the language is noted to be rather broken and rough unlike Eta, who completely mastered the language despite only using snippets Cid gave her.

Gamma

Other Names: "Gamma the Weak" (Moniker), Luna (Civilian Name)

Debut: Volume 1 (Light Novel), Chapter 7 (Manga), Episode 1 (Anime)

Voiced by: Suzuko Mimori (Japanese), Elissa Cuellar (English)^{Other Languages}Sabrina Marchese (French), Tatjana Pokorny (German), Elisa Giorgio (Italian)

The third member of the Seven Shadows. An elf managing the internal affairs in Shadow Garden. In public, she is known as Luna, the president of Mitsugoshi, Ltd., which acts as a merchant front for Shadow Garden and sells commodities based on the stories Cid shared with her.

• Adaptational Badass: In the light novel and manga, her slashes were simply strong due to being empowered by tons of mana; the anime shows they can also cause explosions.
• Adaptational Modesty: The casual dress she wears is much more revealing in the light novel, in which it also exposes her sides, while in the anime, it only exposes her back.
• Attack! Attack! Attack!: Basically, what her swordplay amounts to is just rapidly and violently jabbing/slashing the air at full power in hopes that it would eventually hit her target. Shadow had even encouraged Gamma to do so, as teaching her actual fighting skills is a total lost cause.
• Badass Bookworm: Zig-zagged. Although she is the weakest among the Seven Shadows, she does have tons of mana, speed, and strength, yet she lacks any fighting skills to make use of them. However, she possesses great intelligence, as evidenced by her ability to recognize an opponent's fighting style and, more importantly, her ability to make Mitsugoshi a powerhouse, despite vague information from Cid about his previous world, which impressed Cid himself.
• Battle Cry: "SWISH! SWISH! SWISH!"
• Beware the Silly Ones: Her clumsiness makes her just as much a hazard in a fight as a liability, with everyone in the Garden knowing they need to look out for their own safety when fighting alongside her. Foes too dumbfounded by her behavior end up with undignified deaths, having let their guard down from her behavior.
• Brains and Brawn: Amongst the Seven Shadows, she's the Brains to Delta's Brawn.
• Can't Hold His Liquor: The Kage-Jitsu anime short reveals that Gamma gets drunk very easily. Even eating a few alcohol-laced chocolates is enough to make her dizzy.
• The Chains of Commanding: She is temporarily forced to lead Shadow Garden after Alpha's Heroic BSoD over Shadow, seemingly abandoning them. She quickly became exhausted and overworked from dealing with the credit crisis and nearly fell into despair over Shadow's betrayal.
• Chessmaster Sidekick: Gamma is the smartest of the Seven Shadows, but one of the reasons why she respects Cid so much is that she believes he's an even greater Chessmaster than her.
• Confusion Fu: Gamma's fighting style is the most unpredictable, as it isn't so much fighting as it is rapidly swinging her sword around in who knows what direction before unexpectedly tripping over and somehow delivering the finishing yet humiliating blow.
• The Consigliere: Gamma is responsible for the financial and logistical side of Shadow Garden. Alpha coordinates with her to execute the organization's long-term plans and bounce ideas. Whenever Alpha has doubts about where Shadow Garden is heading, Gamma is the one who reassures her that they are treading the right path.
• Cute Clumsy Girl: Gamma is a beautiful girl, but she has a habit of tripping over her own feet when wearing high heels. In fact, due to her clumsy nature, she is declared the weakest of the Seven Shadows.
• The Dreaded: She is feared by her allies, who dread fighting or training with her since her clumsiness, combined with her strength, makes her an unpredictable hazard they need to watch out for.
• Driven to Suicide: Subverted, In her introductory chapters in the light novel, she mentions ending it all due to the feeling of helplessness as she's clumsier than even their newest recruit (Delta at that time) until Cid intervened and introduced a new path for her.
• Embarrassing Nickname: Her nickname is Gamma the Weak since she is by far the worst combatant of the Seven Shadows.
• Flanderization: The frequency at which she trips and falls over from wearing high heels increases in the manga, even tripping while standing still.
• Giftedly Bad: She is so clumsy and uncoordinated that she can't fight normally, despite how much she trains and learns about fighting.
• Hard Work Hardly Works: She tries improving her martial arts skills, but after multiple attempts, she realizes that she isn't suited for fighting, with even Shadow having given up on teaching her how to fight aside from using brute force. This is why she mostly runs Mitsugoshi or plans operations.
• High Heel Hurt: Gamma wears high heels all the time to present herself as an upper-class, elegant, affluential Ojou. The issue is that she is, by nature, a terribly clumsy person and constantly trips all the time, resulting in ruining her image right away with her many Face Plants and bleeding nose, but also unintentionally catching her opponents off-guard when her now-flying sword impales them.
• High Hopes, Zero Talent: She wishes to one day become a genuine Lady of War able to fight alongside Shadow, but her clumsiness and lack of talent for fighting make her an unpredictable combatant whose tactics don't go further than infusing her attacks with a lot of magic.
• Honest Corporate Executive: Downplayed; Gamma runs the popular Mitsugoshi, Ltd., which is a front for Shadow Garden and does not engage in Business Rival Sabotage, unlike her competitors, and only retaliates. However, she does engage in some shady yet legal practices, such as her loan services, and, as Cid notes, her lack of restraint in expanding makes her business predatory.
• I Meant to Do That: Since she is utterly incapable of hitting an opponent on purpose, she tries to spin the situation by stating that her opponent is skilled enough to dodge her attacks. When she accidentally kills her opponent, usually by tripping, she pretends it was intentional, even if no one is left alive to witness it.
• The Klutz: Gamma is extremely clumsy, making her the physically least adept fighter of the Seven Shadows. For instance, she is prone to falling to the floor to the point that it's a Running Gag because she's not used to wearing high heels.
• Legacy Character: Gamma's civilian name wasn't originally hers, as it belongs to a long line of Lunas of Luna. LTD. The previous president was so impressed by her entrepreneurship and business acumen that she allowed her to take over the company and its lands, which would later become Mitsugoshi, free of charge, on the condition that she adopt the name as her public persona.
• Lethal Joke Character: Gamma may have a severe skill issue and everything else when it comes to fighting, but still packs an immense punch in raw power alone. If only she could not trip everywhere and cause explosions and collateral damage to the surrounding area by accident (Rather than on purpose like Shadow) every single time she battles.
• Lethal Klutz: While she tends to fall over her own feet and has horrible accuracy, she also has Super-Strength, durability, and magic on par with her fellow Seven Shadows, making her a hazard everyone has to look out for unless they want to become a stain on her sword.
• The Load: Due to her lack of fighting skills amongst the Seven Shadows, she felt like a liability towards the organization and even considered offing herself. Thankfully, her master, Shadow, showed her a new path in business, where she excelled, allowing her to found Mitsugoshi to fund Shadow Garden's operations. In "Apocrypha", she was corrupted due to feeling she was this in the past, since without Mitsugoshi, she can't contribute much to the group due to her lack of fighting abilities.
• Loan Shark: A rare heroic example; The Mitsugoshi Installment Payments lets the customer borrow millions of zeni without issue, so long as their family has property or belongings she can repossess if they are unable to pay the high interest fees, which is also the minimum monthly payment her bank gives them, putting them in eternal debt unless they raise it themselves.
• Meaningful Name: Her civilian identity "Luna" translates to "Moon" in Spanish, which can be seen properly during nighttime when Shadow Garden operates in the shadows. It can also refer to her company, Mitsugoshi, which acts as the Shadow Garden's front, hiding in plain sight, just like the moon.
• Morally Bankrupt Banker: Inverted; She is amongst the heroes opposing the Cult of Diablos. However, some of her business practices at Mitsugoshi Bank are somewhat immoral and stem from Cid's advice. Credit creation allows her to gain more gold, even with less than the total value of credit in circulation, and the loan service lets young nobles borrow easily at high interest or risk having their family's property repossessed.
• Ms. Fanservice: Her first official appearance has her wearing a Little Black Dress attached to a checker that exposes her chest and back. The mobile game takes it a step further with a dress that not only provides similar exposure to said dress, but also shows off the sides and bottoms of her massive breasts in the same Cleavage Window. Not to mention a shorter skirt.
• Naked on Arrival: If the flashback of her seeing Cid/Shadow's purple light for the first time is any indication, she was also restored to her elven self in the nude, like Alpha was.
• Non-Idle Rich: Gamma is the head of the Mitsugoshi Group, responsible for securing the funds for the Shadow Garden. She is Crimefighting with Cash and uses her position to help Cid with whatever he needs.
• Number Two: Whenever Alpha is unavailable to command Shadow Garden, she takes control of the organization until Alpha is ready to resume her duties again.
• Out of Focus:
  • Since her clumsiness makes her unsuitable for missions and most of her work is behind-the-scenes support, she has the least focus amongst the Seven Shadows. It's even worth noting that the Corporate Warfare arc was more about Alpha than her, despite her being Mitsugoshi's president.
  • In Master of Garden, she has fewer events with her as the main focus than the other Seven Shadows, usually acting as the Quest Giver instead. As of the 3.5 Year Anniversary, she only has seven outfits, while her fellow Shadows have at least nine, and she is also the only one who isn't part of a Tag Character, with Eta tagging with Epsilon instead.
• Phrase Catcher: Often receives the response "Your nose is bleeding." whenever she trips and falls face-first hard on the ground in the anime.
• Powerful, but Incompetent: She actually isn't that far off in power from the other Seven Shadows, and it's often implied that she even has greater strength and magic than them, but her clumsiness and inability to fight make her ill-suited for stealth missions and covert combat.
• Power Stereotype Flip: More like weapon stereotype flip, but Gamma, the smart girl who's almost hopeless at fighting, swings around a BFS in Master of Shadow. Ridiculous as it is, it does fit with her compensating for her debilitating clumsiness by just channelling her absurd magic power into each blow.
• Quest Giver: In Master of Garden, she gives out missions to the other Seven Shadows or Shadow Garden members, kickstarting the event. This ranges from investigation to testing new products that their consumers, and especially Cid, would enjoy.
• Running Gag: She has a quirk of tripping over her high heels because she ain't graceful. This hindrance becomes deadly in combat when combined with her charging and haphazardly swinging her sword around at full speed.
• Saying Sound Effects Out Loud: Cid encouraged her to shout "Swish!" (Manga) or "Fwoosh!" (Light novel) with every sword swing as a Battle Cry and be more intimidating for her otherwise silly but still deadly swordsmanship.
• The Smart Guy: She has a good sense for business thanks to her own talents and Cid's teachings, which allow her to run a high-class business corporation. Outside of that, she also acts as Shadow Garden's strategist, making mission plans.
• Spectacular Spinning: The best way she can accurately hit her opponents is by spinning her sword in a high-speed circle that cleaves everything it hits. This works well for attacking huge crowds, but the aftermath is very messy.
• Super-Toughness: She has an insane magic defense, with most attacks leaving her mostly physically unharmed. For example, First Leaf strikes her with his sword, but all he gets out of her is a comical "Ow!" while his blade is dented from the impact.
• The Team Benefactor: Her role as Mitsugoshi's president leaves her in charge of gathering funds for Shadow Garden to continue its operations.
• Team Killer: Averted for now, but everyone in Shadow Garden is fully aware that with her Super-Strength, heavy weapons, and clumsiness, she is more than capable of killing anyone by sheer accident.
• Throwing Your Sword Always Works: Despite her poor aim when wielding a sword, her sword somehow ends up always impaling her opponent when she accidentally throws it while tripping over her own feet.
• Uncle Pennybags: Her role within Shadow Garden is managing their budget, which causes her to start Mitsugoshi Ltd. to finance Shadow Garden's activities.
• Undignified Death: Dying at her hands is not only painful but extremely humiliating to her rival combatants, given her utter lack of skill and fighting finesse that heavily contrasts her immense strength. First Leaf of the notorious Clover assassins finds himself bested by her amateur technique of flailing her sword around willy-nilly at high speeds while yelling: "Swish! Swish! Swish!" He is then finished off when she trips as usual, and the sword accidentally impales his head.
• Unskilled, but Strong: Despite having an enormous amount of mana and high levels of durability and strength, she lacks any kind of fighting skills to make use of them, which is why she is called the weakest among the Seven Shadows. Her assailants were even surprised that someone with as much power as she lacked the skill to properly use it.

Delta

Other Names: "Gunshot Delta"/"Suicide Weapon Delta" (Moniker, Light novel), "Delta the Tyrant" (Moniker, Game), Deltan (Civilian Name), Sara, (Former Identity)

Debut: Volume 1 (Light Novel), Chapter 5 (Manga), Episode 1 (Anime)

Voiced by: Fairouz Ai (Japanese), Raven Troup (English)^{Other Languages}Charlotte Hervieux (French), Lara Schmidt (German), Katia Sorrentino (Italian)

A canine therianthrope, Delta is the fourth member of the Seven Shadows and the same age as Cid. Once hailed as a prodigy of her tribe, she was driven out when she was 12 after she began suffering from demonic possession. When she saw Shadow, she immediately submitted to him, who subsequently healed her.

• Adaptational Skimpiness: In the anime, her slime suit is reduced to a string that barely covers her privates during the battle in the Holy Sanctuary and when meeting Cid to go bandit hunting, she wears what's best described as a nightgown instead of normal clothing like in the light novel or manga.
• Affectionate Nickname: Shadow is known only to her as "Boss Man," in contrast to the more formal "Lord Shadow," like the rest of Shadow Garden.
• Amazonian Beauty: She has a toned figure and, just like all other Shadows, is considered to be very attractive. Her outfits leave her midriff bare just to show off her abs.
• Bare Midriffs Are Feminine: Inverted. Her bodysuit has an opening for her well-toned abs, but she's the least feminine of the Seven Shadows.
• The Berserker: Delta is nicknamed "Suicide Weapon", "Gunshot", or "The Tyrant" because once she starts getting into a fight, it's hard to stop her. She doesn't have the patience to follow complicated plans and just charges in without overthinking.
• Beware the Silly Ones: She easily comes across as the most silly amongst the Seven Shadows due to her childish personality and animal behavior, but when on the battlefield or hunting, she is a fierce warrior and hunter with great instincts. It's also worth noting that while Alexia saw Delta in action at the Sanctuary, she was unable to figure out that the therianthrope girl Cid interacted with at the White mansion is the same person as her.
• BFS: During a battle high, Delta can unleash ridiculous amounts of mana to manifest the Iron Slab, a huge broadsword made up of almost her entire slime bodysuit and expanded to the point it eclipses the entire battlefield. She uses the flat end as a warhammer to smash hundreds of enemies to death all at once, such as Nelson's Clone Army.
• The Big Guy: Delta's only duty is to fight. All Alpha or Shadow needs to tell her is who she is supposed to kill.
• Blood Knight: She revels in fighting, much to her enemies' chagrin. In fact, Delta was raised to be The Social Darwinist. The canine therianthropes are proud fighters who loathe weakness and believe that Might Makes Right. Delta immediately submitted to Shadow because she saw the clear power difference between him and her. She later also obediently follows Alpha's commands after Alpha beats her.
• Brains and Brawn: Amongst the Seven Shadows, she's the Brawn towards Gamma's Brain.
• Bully Hunter: Subverted, in Master of Garden, she states that she saw some bullies picking on the weak. So she beat up the bullies for picking on the weak... and then went after the victims for being weak.
• Cannot Keep a Secret: Due to Delta's Dumb Muscle nature, she couldn't be trusted to keep secrets hidden. It's precisely for this reason that Cid sent her to hunt Juggernaut to keep her busy, even commenting that its Nothing Personal for him, due to this fact.
• Cassandra Truth: Because of her Too Dumb to Fool traits, Delta is arguably the only person in the world who has seen Cid's true personality. She often repeats things he's said to her word for word, but because those statements are nonsensical or outlandish, everyone else believes Delta is misquoting Cid.
• Chainmail Bikini: This happens during the anime adaptation of the Holy Ground arc, where Delta had to transform her slime bodysuit into bikini armor in order to control her magic.
• Chase Stops at Water: In volume 5, Zeta threw her chase off by leaving her alone at the sea.
• The Chief's Daughter: It's later revealed that Delta was the child of the chieftain of her tribe. She could have been made the next chieftain due to being the strongest amongst her siblings, but her tribe was patriarchal and did not allow a female member to become the leader.
• Clifftop Caterwauling: She tends to howl after scaling tall places like the top of a tower or a mountain (the latter of which opens the second season premiere).
• Cool Big Sis: She acts as one to Pi, another canine therianthrope, who is even dumber and ditzier than her. She encourages the younger pessimistic therianthropic to improve herself and gives her advice for her safety.
• Cute Monster Girl: Her ears and tail are clear signs that she is a therianthrope, but she is otherwise a very attractive girl with a voluptuous figure.
• Dark and Troubled Past: She has one of the sadder backstories amongst the Seven Shadows, even before suffering from Demonic Possession. In her childhood, when she was Sara, she had to take care of her ill mother, had to hide her strength and hunt alone, while being bullied by her two full-blooded brothers. All for the sake of staying with her mother until the end.
• The Dog Bites Back: Once her mother succumbs to her illness and her brothers continue insulting their deceased mother, Sara immediately kills them without remorse while throwing their words back at them.
• The Dreaded: After killing her two full-blooded brothers with ease, she became feared by her tribe for her strength.
• Dub Name Change: The light novel English translation changed her moniker from "Tyrant" to "Gunshot".
• Dumbass Has a Point: When the other Seven Shadows are down over their inability to defeat Olivier in the Sanctuary and their reliance on Shadow, Delta, despite her own fear for the Sanctuary's defense system, points out that they just need to get stronger. While Zeta, Gamma, and Beta objected to her simplicity, saying that their problem isn't that simple. Only for Alpha to realize that Delta is right, since that is really what they need to do, leading to the creation of "The Shadow Garden Revision Plan" to strengthen the organization.
• Dumb Muscle: She is nearly the perfect superhuman, being the strongest when it comes to sheer physical strength, but her sole flaw is that she is not that smart.
• Everyone Has Standards: While she is a Big Eater who doesn't have an issue eating raw meat. Even she doesn't want to eat Malak meat due to its repugnant smell, unknowingly saving herself from turning into a Draconic Humanoid. She also calls out Pi for trying to eat food off the floor without knowing if it's clean and getting herself distracted during the hunt.
• Expressive Ears: Delta's dog ears do this whenever she senses Cid.
• Force and Finesse: The Force to Zeta’s Finesse
• Four Is Death: She is the fourth member recruited to Shadow Garden and the most violent when it comes to fighting style and hunting down enemies, never leaving anyone alive in their pursuit.
• Genki Girl: Bloodthirstiness aside, Delta is surprisingly cheerful and energetic.
• The Gift: Despite appearing skinny and malnourished, she was able to hunt and kill boars at the age of three, with her strength only growing with age. If she hadn't contracted possession, she would have surpassed and defeated her father before even becoming a teenager.
• Given Name Reveal: The first of the Seven Shadows to have their previous name revealed as her brother, The Third Leaf, refers to her as "Sara" when pleading for his life. She, of course, rejects the name and proceeds to slash his throat out.
• The Glomp: She loves to hug Cid whenever she sees him, much to his annoyance.
• Harem Seeker: Not for herself, but for her master, Shadow, whom she wants to become pack leader and create a harem with many wives and lots of children.
• Hidden Depths: Master of Garden shows many aspects of her personality that go unexplored and reveal she is more than just a Dumb Muscle:
  • Some events and dialogue reveal that one of Delta's hobbies, unrelated to fighting, is drawing. While her drawings are not shown, it is implied that she is a skilled artist. While her comment that the paintings from professional artists look like her drawings may seem hard to swallow, others did actually mistake her doodles for paintings from famous artists, since when one of them got mixed in with them, no one aside from Epsilon realized that it was from her.
  • Despite her Might Makes Right mentality, Lambda, after spending a day with her trying to find the strengths of the other Shadows, notes that she does believe that the weak can become strong if they want to, which most likely comes from her backstory as a young girl who grew in strength by hunting alone.
  • She is well-versed in therianthrope traditions, as shown by her knowledge of the Great Ize-athlon.
  • Interestingly, instead of being a powerful and destructive attack, her Atomic induces Super-Empowering to her allies, representing how Shadow's Atomic gives her energy and that her's shall do the same by strengthening her pack.
• I Fight for the Strongest Side!: Delta was raised under her tribe's belief that the strongest shall rule all, while the weak must be swiftly dealt with, which persists to this day. This mindset is why Delta unhesitatingly submits to Cid and Alpha: the former's powerful Battle Aura upon their first encounter immediately made her surrender and devote her life to his cause, and the latter bested her in combat so one-sidedly that she never questions her leadership again. During the Corporate Warfare arc, she proposes to Cid about usurping her former tribe’s chieftain and father so she can bear his children in the thousands, which he unsurprisingly declines.
• Innocent Fanservice Girl: She has trouble being naked or morphing her slime suit into a string bikini that only barely covers her essentials. However, this is done to show off her wild feral side rather than flaunt her assets.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: When she first met Shadow, she immediately realized there was no way for her to beat him, causing her to surrender and become his follower immediately.
• Let's Get Dangerous!: Delta is mostly subdued with regards to Shadow Garden, but when totally pissed or in a particularly frenzied mood, she'll bust out her Iron Slab and unleash massive amounts of power worthy of her title as "The Tyrant" to crush everything in sight. In volume 5, Zeta knew how screwed she is when Delta is in this mode after severely wounding her using the Blood Queen's technique and proceeds to bail the first chance she gets despite their rivalry. Cid also mentioned that if Delta had carried out the attack, it would have decimated the entire school dormitories and everyone in it off the face of the world.
• Lightning Bruiser: She is a canine humanoid possessing superhuman strength and senses, and has the speed to match them.
• Lineage Comes from the Father: A rather sad example since, despite loving her gentle and intelligent mother much more, she ultimately resembles her loathed father more due to both being powerful warriors and hunters. This is even more signified in the manga, where her full-blooded brothers share their mother's hair, unlike Delta.
• Little Bit Beastly: Delta is a therianthrope, specifically a canine type, and has several canine features, such as her ears, fangs, and tail.
• Made of Iron: During a private solo rematch against the Mist Dragon in the Shadow Chronicles, he unleashes his poison breath on her, which is known for eliminating even powerful individuals, and all it does is make her pass out in exhaustion.
• Malaproper: She tends to mispronounce certain words, such as misnaming the Templars as "Tempura", a food Cid told her about, and calling the Juggernaut "Jugga". The former was used in a Mondegreen Gag, causing the others to believe that Cid already knew about the Templars beforehand.
• Massive Numbered Siblings: Delta reveals to Cid that she has hundreds of brothers due to the twenty or so concubines her father mass-mated with.
• Might Makes Right: She respects strength and power above all else, with most of her affection for Cid coming from her awe at his overwhelming power, and she tends to look down on those she considers weak.
• Missing Steps Plan: She admits to Cid that her plan for world domination does not go further than him having 10,000 children to make the pack bigger.
• Morality Pet: Before her mother died, she always took care of her ill mother and endured tons of abuse from her siblings. Once her mother succumbs to her illness, she immediately kills her two full-blooded brothers.
• Ms. Fanservice: The anime especially ups the amount of fanservice she gives by giving her several scenes with her nearly naked, along with several scenes with Cid/Shadow focusing on her curves while cuddling her master.
• The Nose Knows: Delta is quick to comment that Cid smells like a cat or fox soon after he has seen Zeta or Yukime, and equally as prompt to replace their scent with her own. This aspect is also how, unfortunately for John Smith (Shadow's latest in-disguise cover), that Delta is immediately able to discern his true identity, despite John bathing thoroughly as well as adding loads of cologne to help offset that, sadly to no avail from Delta's scarily-superior sense of smell.
• Now That's Using Your Teeth!: Using her canines, Delta takes a bite out of the greatsword that a Nelson clone tries to use against her in Volume 2.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Under the orders of Cid and to keep her away from Alpha for a while, he sends her to Lawless City to assassinate Juggernaut, the ruler of Black Tower. Because she came back unharmed, it is clear that she succeeded. Funnily Kagejitsu shows she was able to easily behead her target, while the anime only shows the crumbled remains of the Black Tower on fire with her howling on top of it.
• OOC Is Serious Business: Shadow Garden believed her to be killed by John Smith, because she never disobeyed Alpha before or abandoned a mission given to her.
• Percussive Therapy: Discussed. The reason why Cid usually lets Delta do her own thing is that when the latter is stressed, she either vents it off by beating someone (Usually Gamma) or destroys the local environment, like the forest or a vegetable farm.
• Plucky Comic Relief: Her low intelligence and childish behavior make her the most comedic amongst the Seven Shadows outside combat, with the others needing to keep her behavior in check.
• Prehensile Tail: In the anime, she kills her brother by impaling him with her tail coated by slime.
• Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated: Upon discovering John Smith's true identity too early, Cid assigns her a "secret confidential mission" to hunt down Juggernaut the Tyrant in Lawless City and take her time in doing so. However, her sudden disappearance causes Shadow Garden to assume the worst that John Smith killed her which was not helped in the slightest by finding strands of her tail hair forcibly yanked out^note Cid had accidentally pulled on Delta's tail to stop her from telling the others and tossed the loose hair away and Cid's sinisterly vague answers on her whereabouts^note "[Delta] just went to a better place, that's all" and "Delta has gone to a faraway place" meant as in literally, not heaven.
• Running on All Fours: She tends to run this way when travelling long distances or hunting. It also allows her to switch to a Primal Stance in combat quickly.
• Sacrificial Lion: She is killed in chapter 5 of "Apocrypha", and Alpha is sent back in time after her death, showcasing that the mastermind won't always be returning them to a point to prevent it.
• Scarily Competent Tracker: Her senses and hunting abilities allow her to track any target, even from a very long distance.
• Secret-Keeper: Under orders from Shadow, Delta keeps his involvement in the Corporate Warfare confidential from Shadow Garden.
• Shameless Fanservice Girl: She does not care if her clothes get destroyed, and sometimes lounges around naked or scantily clad.
• Sibling Murder:
  • Thinks of nothing when killing her own half-brother (Although she had to be reminded by him that he is her brother in the first place because of Massive Numbered Siblings), but didn't do so out of malice, as he was simply part of the assassins she was hunting. Not to mention their lack of a genuine bond in the first place, which also doesn't give her much reason to spare him.
  • Speaking of malice, she would later recall in her flashback of violently murdering her two full-blooded brothers in cold blood for abusing her and their Delicate and Sickly mother, with the last straw being talking ill of the latter's death. This made her feared among the tribe because it made everyone realize her strength, with only her old man able to defeat her in combat.
• Simple-Minded Wisdom: Her simple-minded and direct nature allows her to give her own opinion on what to do, which, in chapter 45 of Seven Shadows Chronicles, helps Beta and Eta advance in their work after they hit a roadblock.
• Slasher Smile: She sports this whenever she's on the hunt.
• The Starscream: She wishes to defeat Alpha one day to become the Number Two of Shadow Garden. However, since she is a Dumb Muscle, she tries to take on Alpha, who isn't amused by her attempts.
• Strength Equals Worthiness:
  • This is why Delta follows Shadow. She sensed that he was the most powerful being she had encountered, causing her to immediately submit to him after sensing his power. However, as "Apocrypha" shows, her loyalty to him is genuine and exceeds her belief in strength. Her demon transformation was caused by her inability to believe that Shadow isn't the strongest.
  • It is also why she obeys Alpha, as Delta challenged her for the position of second-in-command, and it is implied that she lost to her.
• Super-Persistent Predator: Due to Delta's characteristics, once she's ordered to "hunt" by either Cid or Alpha, only a select few can even throw her off, like those two and Zeta.
• Super-Senses: Delta's instincts are among the most developed among the Seven Shadows. She has keen eyesight and hearing, and her sense of smell allows her to track down and identify people easily, even when they are in disguise, such as in Volume 3, when she instantly realizes that "John Smith" is actually her master.
• Take Over the World: Similar to Zeta, she also wants Shadow to take over the world, but unlike her, she also wants Alpha's approval for her plan, which is for Cid to have 10,000 children.
• Third-Person Person: Delta refers to herself in the third person, showcasing her child-like personality.
• Tranquil Fury: She wags her tail in a certain way when she is angry, even if she doesn't show it on her face. In Volume 3, she meets one of her brothers who works for the enemy. The knowledge of meeting one of the people who forced her into exile, working with the enemy, and begging her to be spared by offering her to be made the enemy's concubine, leads to Delta being fed up with this and wasting no time to behead her older brother.
• Unskilled, but Strong: She's extremely strong, but too feral to effectively use her strength. Cid even mentions she could become more powerful than Alpha if she would learn not to go berserk all the time.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Additional information reveals that Delta was once a sweet girl looking after her sick mother. Unfortunately, she suffered nothing but abuse from her father and siblings, and after her mother died, she radically changed into the Blood Knight we know today.
• Verbal Tic: Sometimes says "Oh-woof!" to begin her sentences in the light novel.
• White Sheep: Delta was this to her clan, as she would never harm the weak until personal tragedies molded her into a bloodthirsty wild beast. Thankfully, having been adopted by Shadow Garden allowed her to regain some of it.
• Willfully Weak: Until her mother's death, back when she was Sara, she hid her strength and hunting talent so she could stay with her mother till the end.
• Yank the Dog's Chain: A tragic case. After being ignored by her family for her whole life, she finally got their recognition after displaying her newfound strength and hunting skills. Then she got possessed, and her family cast her out of the pack.

Epsilon

Other Names: "Epsilon the Faithful"/Epsilon the Precise" (Moniker), Shiron (Civilian Name), Epsilou (Royal Succession Disguise)

Debut: Volume 1 (Light Novel), Chapter 15 (Manga), Episode 1 (Anime)

Voiced by: Hisako Kanemoto (Japanese), Ellen Evans (English)^{Other Languages} Marine André (French), Andrea Wick (German), Giulia Bersani (Italian)

The fifth member of the Seven Shadows. Epsilon was born into an elven noble house until she showed signs of demonic possession and was driven out, at which point she was found by Cid, who saved her.

• 24-Hour Armor: Epsilon wears her slime bodysuit the entire time to give herself the perfect body shape.
• A-Cup Angst: Epsilon is very conscious about her looks since it doesn't help her seduce her beloved Shadow. It's revealed that she and all female members of her bloodline possess slender but flat bodies. But she uses her slime suit to give herself much larger Fake Boobs, and acts like she has Big-Breast Pride. For insult to injury, Master of Garden shows that her alleged ancestor, Perte, is naturally buxom. In every event starring her, you can expect one scene of her expressing envy of the other focus character's natural assets. She even lampshades in the fifth summer event that all other Seven Shadows (and Victoria) are naturally busty, while she is artificial.
• Adaptational Badass: In the web novel, Epsilon is nearly defeated by Mordred, one of the Knights of Rounds who lead the Cult of Diablos. In the light novel, Epsilon goes toe-to-toe with Mordred, with only token assistance from Beta.
• Adaptational Modesty: In the light novel and manga, Epsilon wears a revealing dress that shows off some "skin" or slime, in her case, along with translucent parts. The anime instead has a simpler red dress that fully covers her body, but still shows off her "curves".
• Advertised Extra: While she is far from a minor character, she does get some promotion in certain volumes such as her character introduction being included in volume 3 despite only being mentioned in the passing and being featured on the cover of volume 5 for the sake of showcasing Shadow with the rest of the Seven Shadows despite not having any appearance or even being mentioned in the volume itself.
• Always Someone Better: Both played straight and Played for Laughs. She is beaten in martial arts thanks to Delta, beaten in intellect thanks to Gamma, and as for charms, Beta beats her by a long shot due to many, many factors. On top of that, she can't even be a Jack of All Trades since Alpha beats her as a Master of All.
• Berserk Button: Any word that reminds her of her small chest or Fake Boobs easily makes her angry, even if it didn't insinuate anything against her. The list includes words such as "small", "flat", "fake", and/or other similar words.
• Better to Die than Be Killed: At one point in the web novel, Epsilon prepares to kill herself rather than let the Cult of Diablos get any information out of her. Thankfully, her master saves her.
• Berserk Button: Don't figure out that her figure is fake. At the minimum, she will release murderous intent; if it is anyone outside the Shadow Garden, she will subject them to He Knows Too Much.
• Break the Haughty:
  • Downplayed. Epsilon took pride in her beauty, intelligence, and battle prowess before she was cast out of her house. The demonic possession robbed her of everything, so when she was healed and accepted by Cid, she fell in love with him and wanted to serve him. However, after she joined Shadow Garden, she was forced to admit that she was not better than any of the other Seven Shadows at anything. She still has pride, but she respects the order of command and the people who outclass her.
  • Against Nazono, she didn't think of him as much of a threat, and she would easily defeat him and Lalanoa with Beta's help. Nazono not only easily overpowers her and Beta, but she was only spared due to his Game-Breaking Injury flaring up. Realizing that he outclasses her in everything, she tries to kill him there and there, only to be stopped by Lalanoa, whom she dismisses as a threat, but is forced to retreat with Beta after Lalanoa's artifact activates. Only surviving the encounter through luck, her pride is broken, and she is fuming in rage, swearing to kill Nazono in Shadow's name.
• Death by Looking Up: How she makes her proper debut in episode 10 by launching a magic attack on a Third Child upon Cid's cue that vertically and graphically tri-sects the child.
• Determinator: In the web novel, despite receiving a massive wound, she still manages to elude the cult members chasing her and finally reaches a place to hide until Cid comes to back her up.
• Elegant Classical Musician: She's a former noble who works as an elegant pianist using songs her master told her about. Master of Garden takes this further by showcasing that she is skilled in a large number of instruments, with the one she is most associated with being the violin, since she cannot fight with a huge piano.
• Envy-Based Mimicry: Epsilon manipulates her slime suit to fake a mature body, which she based on researching the movements of the voluptuous Beta, whom she envies for her natural assets.
• Fake Boobs: Deconstructed; She mainly uses her slime suit to create artificial, large breasts. However, she actually has to put a ton of effort and research into making them appear as natural as possible. It's also made clear that she has no idea of the D-Cup Distress Beta suffers from and cannot help Gamma develop products for women with similar huge racks, which makes it harder for her to keep up the charade and only lash out in anger when they ask her opinion about it, to their confusion.
• The Fashionista: She is well-versed in fashion and clothing, which, along with her affinity with music, led to her creating "Shiron". She also designs costumes and uniforms for the other Seven Shadows to wear, such as for the manga-exclusive cooking competition.
• Impossible Hourglass Figure: Justified. She's using her slime bodysuit to give herself the perfect figure.
• Jerkass to One: She is generally a nice and caring person, but she is only rude and provocative towards Beta out of envy of her natural assets. In Seven Shadows Chronicles, Beta lampshades how Epsilon is more snippy against her than the others.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Despite coming off as snobbish and rude, especially to Beta, Epsilon truly believes in her organization's cause and cares a lot for her subordinates. At one point in the Web Novel, she genuinely sympathizes with Millia due to their shared circumstances as victims of Demonic Possession, to the point she is willing to beg her beloved Shadow to spare the girl (when it seems like he will Mercy Kill her) so that she can be given another chance in life. Master of Garden especially showcases her caring side by showcasing her as the caretaker of Eta and Olivier and being amongst the few willing to save Victoria despite her past as a Templar.
• Large Ham: Whenever she starts praising her master. As Cid puts it, she's the kind of person who exaggerates.
• The Magnificent: Her nickname is "The Precise" for her delicate and refined control of magic.
• Master of None: Epsilon originally had pride in her mastery of various skills, such as combat and intellect. However, after joining Shadow Garden, she discovered that her skills placed her second from the bottom, as her fellow Seven Shadows are considered monsters in their areas of expertise. This is eventually subverted when she gains mastery over her magical precision, becoming the most skilled at magical technique aside from Shadow.
• Master of One Magic: She is an expert on magic control, earning the title The Precise. The fact that she has maintained her Impossible Hourglass Figure disguise for years shows the level of skill she possesses. Her primary use of her magic is a slicing attack, which she sends straight at opponents, usually decapitating them.
• Morality Pet: In "Apocrypha", she becomes one to Olivier with Lili due to them actively taking care of her Brilliant, but Lazy swordswoman. This also makes the version of Demon Olivier weaker than the one Alpha faced since Olivier couldn't exert her full strength against them, with the two succeeding in bringing her back to her senses.
• Ms. Fanservice: Epsilon's beauty and physique make even models jealous. The physique part is later subverted: Epsilon actually uses her slime Suit to alter her rear to be shapely, tighten her stomach, increase her height, and create large fake breasts to look like a mature woman.
• Musical Assassin: Master of Garden has her use her music in conjunction with magic.
• My Suit Is Also Super: While all slime suits are this by default, Epsilon takes this further thanks to her personal experimentations and refined magic control. Thanks to her thick slime padding over her body, she has incredibly high physical defense. This is what saves her from Venom's sneak attack, and in the web novel, Mordred's.
• Near-Death Experience: She was nearly decapitated by Nazono if it wasn't for his Game-Breaking Injury acting up, with Beta especially noting this.
• Pride: This is a trait that she still retains from her noble heritage despite no longer being part of it. Whenever Cid compliments her, it can get to her head so much that she becomes unbearable to even her comrades in Shadow Garden.
• Relative-ly Flimsy Excuse: In the web novel, Epsilon's cover story when joining the Black Rose is that she (now he) is Cid's younger brother who wants to be alongside him.
• Revenge: Subverted; While she thought about getting revenge on those who had forsaken her after contracting demonic possession, she ultimately foregoes revenge due to finding Shadow Garden's cause more important.
• Riches to Rags: Epsilon was once an elven noble with everything handed to her on a silver platter, and she took pride in her heritage. That is, until she is discovered to have demonic possession and is cast out and hunted down like an animal. By the time she reaches her mutation stage, Epsilon's mind is filled with revenge and a desire to get even with everyone who has betrayed her. However, after Shadow saves her, she ultimately chooses to forgo revenge, deciding that Shadow Garden is her new family and thus more important than revenge.
• The Rival: Epsilon sees Beta as a rival for her master's affections and tries to compete with her. But the latter couldn't care less until Epsilon sports "breasts" that surpass even hers.
• Scarf of Asskicking: With her slime suit, she makes a large purple scarf and is a strong and elegant fighter. Seven Shadows Chronicles shows that she first made it in a Sanctuary, where she was forced to improvise to hide her Fake Boobs, and it stuck after the other Shadows complimented her ingenuity.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After Eta's anti-magic field nullifies everyone's slime suits, she leaves immediately to prevent anyone from discovering her secret.
• Shameless Fanservice Girl: Amongst the Seven Shadows, she is the one who doesn't hesitate to flaunt her "assets".
• Sinister Scythe: Her choice of weapon in Master of Garden. She can also use her slime to add strings to the blade and pole, turning it into a makeshift harp. In the Royal Succession Preliminaries, she would find an artifact scythe to use for her "Epsilou" guise.
• Supreme Chef: She is the best cook amongst the Seven Shadows, with her skill being so great that in the Valentine's Day event of Master of Garden, Beta needed to use high-class ingredients to stand a chance against her.
• Sure, Let's Go with That: In the web novel, when Cid finds her without her voluptuous slime suit and her hair shortened, he asks if she's in disguise. She goes along with this since she has no idea that Cid already knows about her Fake Boobs.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: If you want to know, Epsilon is totally feeling pressure on her body, especially her chest, in her male "Epsilou" disguise for the Royal Succession, and thus is totally undergoing the same D-Cup Distress Beta undergoes.
• Sweet Polly Oliver:
  • During the Oriana Civil War arc of the web novel, Epsilon uses her slime suit to mask herself as a young boy. Her cover story is that she is Cid's younger brother who wants to join the Vow of Black Rose.
  • In the light novel, she would disguise herself as a short effeminate male named "Epsilou" for the Royal Succession to her dismay.
• Sword Beam: Magic in this world needs to be channelled through a medium; otherwise, it will become uncontrollable and eventually scatter once separated from your body. Thus, it was soon considered a feat thought impossible until Epsilon disproved it so easily by expelling her mana wholesale into powerful energy waves, rendering Mordred's invisible sword artifact completely obsolete.
• Team Mom: She is the most caring and maternal of the Seven Shadows, which is shown through how she takes care of Delta and Eta. In "Apocrypha", she also takes care of the similar slovenly Olivier, who eventually defrosts around Epsilon and actively seeks her out in her morning routine.
• Through His Stomach: While she first joined Cid, Epsilon cooked a rabbit for him. She was ecstatic that he found it delicious, and Master of Garden expanded on this by giving her a lot of lines related to cooking for Cid.
• Traumatic Haircut: In the web novel, Mordred cut her hair in his assassination attempt on her, which she barely survived.
• The Worf Effect: In the web novel, Epsilon is the first of the Seven Shadows to be seriously wounded in battle, in order to establish the threat level of Mordred, one of the Knights of the Rounds, which spearhead the Cult of Diablos. Although this also has to do with him performing a sneak attack on her leaving her too injured to continue fighting.

Zeta

Other Names: "Zeta the Prodigy" (Moniker), Zetan (Civilian Name), Lilim (Former Identity)

Debut: Volume 5 (Light Novel), Chapter 55 (Manga), Episode 1 (Anime)

Voiced by: Ayaka Asai (Japanese), Dominique Meyer (English)^{Other Languages} Sybille de Montigny (French), Cindy Kepke (German), Deborah Morese (Italian)

The sixth member of the Seven Shadows. A feline therianthrope who is in charge of stealth and travels through the world alone to gather intel.

• The Ace: Cid notes that she, alongside Alpha, is the most perfect being in the Shadow Garden with their talent.
• Acting Unnatural: In Seven Shadows Chronicles, she tries to gain intel on the Templars by infiltrating a Church event, but ends up attracting the attention of the Templars and the personal interest of Saint Victoria. When asking Cid for advice on integrating herself better, she quickly realizes she did the opposite of what he told her and that she was discovered due to her outward disinterest and disgust towards the Church, making it clear she does not want to be there.
• Adaptation Expansion: She makes more physical appearances in the anime, unlike the light novel, in which her first appearance came in the fifth volume.
• Adaptational Early Appearance: One of the most literal cases, her character design was first revealed for the anime, unlike the Web Novel, in which she made no appearances, and the Light Novel, in which she debuted in Volume 5.
• Aloof Ally: She tries to keep her distance from the other Seven Shadows and prefers to be by herself, but she does care about them.
• And Then What?: Zeta fears that after the complete collapse of the Cult, Shadow Garden will have no purpose anymore and disband. Hence, she forms a faction behind Alpha's back to resurrect Diablos to make Shadow immortal and the god of the new world.
• Ascended Extra: In the original web novel, she was an Unknown Character, despite being one of the Seven Shadows, never being mentioned even once. Her debut in the light novel quickly made her just as important to the story as Alpha, since they are both directly related to one of the Three Heroes, whom they resemble, and she created a Renegade Splinter Faction for her own goals.
• 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.
• Big Sister Instinct: On the day that Zeta's tribe was wiped out, Lilim tried to protect her little brother from Petos, only for him to kill her brother right in front of her.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: Cid notes that Zeta is the most talented person with the capacity to surpass even Alpha in terms of ability, which is why his moniker for her is "Zeta the Prodigy", but she quickly becomes bored after learning a skill, which prevents her from fully mastering them.
• Broken Pedestal: Zeta used to look up to the Three Heroes, especially her ancestor, Lili, the one she and her tribe revered. She was proud of being Lili's descendant and hated that the Lakshmi Tribe used her name to promote their "beast god". However, that changed when she discovered that the Three Heroes were Unwitting Pawns to the Cult of Diablos, making them just as culpable for her suffering. By the present day, Zeta's plans to make Shadow a god involve having the Three Heroes be defaced from the world. In "Apocrypha", her dislike of her ancestor's softness and idealism is one of the triggers to her demon transformation. However, this is deconstructed, as it's made clear that while she isn't wrong about Lili's flaws, she holds her ancestor to unreasonable standards. Alpha notes that Lili's idealism can also be seen as a positive, as it shows her will to maintain her ideals despite the dire times she lives in. Her comrades also consider it important enough to protect, which Zeta can't refute.
• Cat Girl: Due to hailing from the golden panther clan, Zeta is a cat-like Therianthrope, which leads her to butt heads with Delta, a dog Therianthrope.
• Chekhov M.I.A.: It turns out her lack of appearances until Volume 5 wasn't just due to intel gathering and/or being sent on missions, but also creating a Renegade Splinter Faction for her own personal agenda separate from Alpha's.
• The Chief's Daughter: Her father was the head of the golden panther clan, and unlike Delta's father, he did not try to kill Zeta upon finding out she suffers from Demonic Possession.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Her past is even worse than the other Shadow Garden members, despite or rather because her parents did not disown her and fully loved her no matter what, who were then killed one by one by the cult once they found out about her ancestry and demonic possession. The ordeal left her with a far greater hatred against the cult than any of the other members of Shadow Garden.
• Death by Origin Story: She became Zeta after her father, mother, and younger brother were all murdered by the Cult of Diablos.
• Deceased Parents Are the Best: Unlike other members of Shadow Garden. Her parents did not abandon her upon finding out about her Demonic Possession; her father, instead, desperately tried to find a cure, which ended with him discovering the cult and someone in Midgar capable of fighting against them. However, her parents ultimately died desperately protecting her.
• Devious Daggers: Master of Garden gives her knives and daggers as alternative weapons, befitting her sly and ruthless personality.
• Died in Your Arms Tonight: When Petos managed to corner her, she begged him to at least spare her brother, only for him to behead the baby held in her hands without any hesitation.
• Doomed Hometown: The Cult destroyed her home village as part of their Family Extermination.
• The Dreaded: Unlike the others, Zeta has made quite a name for herself. The Cult of Diablos is wary and has known her in comparison to the other Shadow Garden members, and Aurora herself warned Claire against her.
• Force and Finesse: The Finesse to Delta’s Force.
• Freudian Excuse: Her willingness to do anything for her goal stems from her experience of witnessing her family and clan being murdered right before her eyes by the Cult of Diablos. Alpha attempts to extinguish the sparks of hatred in Zeta's mind, but is met with scorn by the latter, indicating that Zeta is unwilling to confront her past healthily and positively.
• The Gift: Cid states that Zeta has even greater potential than Alpha and can learn new techniques with ease. The only thing holding her back is her easily bored nature.
• Given Name Reveal: In the same volume she debuted in, her original name was revealed as "Lilim" when Zeta reminisces about the time Shadow saved her.
• Godhood Seeker: An interesting case where Zeta isn't interested in godhood herself, but wants to make Shadow a god, believing humanity will be better off under Shadow's guidance. Zeta also believes Shadow is at least interested in the possibility of immortality, but is too kind actually to seek it out. Unbeknownst to her, Cid is very interested in the prospect of living forever and even devised a spell that would increase his lifespan by at least 600 years, though he's disappointed all he gets is an extra six centuries.
• Going Commando: The Kage-Jitsu short reveals that Zeta doesn't wear undergarments, as Therianthropes tend not to do so, which is clearly highlighted by her Navel-Deep Neckline.
• He Who Fights Monsters: To destroy an evil cult ruling the world, Zeta forms a cult to rule the world. Furthermore, like them, she desires to resurrect Diablos, even willing to sacrifice Claire to achieve it.
• Honest Advisor: In the organization's early days, Zeta was the one most willing to point out Alpha's flaws as a leader, which helped her grow in the role.
• Identical Granddaughter: Like Alpha, who resembles Olivier, Zeta heavily resembles the therianthrope Hero Lili, who guards Diablos' arm in the school sanctuary.
• Instant Expert: As Cid and Zeta's father notes, Zeta would always nail anything she's been taught, despite it being her first time doing it. It's for this reason that Cid gives her the moniker of The Prodigy though he often laments her fickle tendencies, which prevents her from being Master of All.
• Irony: The main reason she wants Shadow to attain immortality is so he can reign over the world as a god. However, Cid plans to use immortality to disappear for centuries until the world forgets about him, only to return to showcase his powers once more after he's known as only a myth.
• It's All My Fault: She blamed herself for the death of her family due to her Demonic Possession.
• It's Personal: Amongst the Seven Shadows, she has the most personal beef against the Cult since they were directly responsible for the death of her family to capture her as a test subject.
• Jack of All Trades: Cid notes that Zeta is practically good at everything if not for her Brilliant, but Lazy tendencies, which prevent her from becoming a Master of All like Alpha.
• Jerkass Has a Point: In "Apocrypha", she derides her ancestor Lili for being a childish Wide-Eyed Idealist. While initially only Zeta outwardly showed her disdain and put too many demands on her ancestor for not being who she wanted to be, she was proven right that it's a detriment when, in chapter 6, not only does a village exploit Lili's kindness, but her passiveness is one of the reasons why the chapter ended on a Downer Ending.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Despite having been shown to tease Delta a lot and her being overly critical towards Alpha's idealized goals, Zeta cherishes the Seven Shadows as the most important things in her life. It is heavily implied that her goal to make Cid into a God is as much to ensure the safety of her surrogate sisters as it is to prevent another Cult from rising again. In "Requiem for Scattered Shadows - Apocrypha", seeing Eta's dead body drove her into becoming a Demon.
• Last of Her Kind: She is the last of the Golden Panther Tribe after Petos massacred everyone, including her little brother, just for her and the desire to be promoted into the Rounds.
• Multi-Melee Master: Like her master Shadow, she's adept at handling every type of weapon, but she gets bored and discards them easily. Cid laments the fact that she could've mastered them if not for that flaw.
• Navel-Deep Neckline: Her uniform contains one, thus giving a diamond view of her ample chest. Master of Garden explains that it is an attempt to seduce Cid.
• No Place for Me There: After achieving the goal of obtaining eternal life for Shadow, she is fully prepared for him to likely take her life in retaliation for the lengths she would have to go.
• Overzealous Underling: She created a splinter faction to make Shadow the immortal god of the world and is willing to seriously endanger Claire to resurrect Diablos, fully accepting that her master may kill her for it.
• The Power of Hate: Her raison d'être in Shadow Garden, due to the murder of her entire family at the Cult's hands, which Alpha tries to quell to no avail.
• Razor Wind: Zeta, during one of their talks with Nina in the Sanctuary, uses this against the latter for the crime of not adding -sama on Cid's sister Claire.
• Renegade Splinter Faction: Volume 5 shows that she created one between herself, Victoria, and Nina (who is not a member of Shadow Garden) so she can perform tasks behind the organization's back. While they still want to defeat the cult, they want to take over the world and make Shadow its god after he attains immortality.
• Rings of Death: Zeta's favorite specialized weapon are the chakrams, which casually execute members in the Fenrir's faction during one of their talks with Nina in the school sanctuary.
• Slowly Slipping Into Evil: Seven Shadow Chronicles reveals that Zeta wasn't always plotting behind the backs of the other Seven Shadows, especially Alpha, with the series showing how she slowly began creating her Renegade Splinter Faction. Notable events that shape her include: the sheer extent of the Church's corruption and depravity, the Three Heroes being the Cult's Unwitting Pawns, discovering Lili's spirit in the Academy's Sanctuary, the therianthrope hero, Lakshmi, was not only a part of the Cult, but also fed possessed to Saurva, and the giant Shadow statue in Alexandria planting the idea of making her lord an actual god. By the time she found and saved Nina, she went behind the backs of the other Shadows and, despite her own reluctance, started making Nina her hidden agent within the academy.
• Sole Survivor: She is the only survivor of her clan due to the cult killing all her family members to capture her and all the other clan members to prevent information leakage.
• Stealth Expert: Cid notes that if Zeta is serious, no one could chase and catch her. She leads exploration, intelligence gathering, and espionage for the Shadow Garden. In Volume 4, Alpha is usually exasperated at her for not even reporting to the former often when she hears the news of Zeta accompanying Cid back to Midgar, and in Volume 5, she manages to throw off an angry Delta, much to Cid's amazement.
• Super-Deformed: In the manga, the dark and brooding Zeta often turns into a chibi white cat when she acts like one around her "master" Cid.
• Super Smoke: Zeta, like Alpha, is capable of turning into mist using the Blood Queen's technique and is shown to great effect against Delta. Cid even compliments her for it.
• Take Over the World: In the game Master of Garden, she asks Cid what his dream is, only for her to constantly make it clear she wants it to be world domination, even when she's younger. While Played for Laughs back then, it is elaborated upon in Volume 5, which reveals that she truly wants Shadow Garden to rule the world with Shadow as its new god once he attains immortality to ensure that humanity won't make the same mistakes again.
• Talented, but Trained: Ever since her childhood, Lilim has been an extremely talented individual, and even her father, who was the clan's chieftain, admits that she can easily surpass his level. Cid, after taking her in and anointing her as Zeta, is in awe and sometimes envious of her talents, though he laments Zeta's fickle tendencies. Zeta is one of the top fighters amongst the Seven Shadows.
• Unknown Character: In the web novel, she is never shown nor even mentioned, despite her importance as one of the Seven Shadows.
• The Unfettered: She will do everything in her power to achieve her goals.
• Unseen No More: While it is always stated there are Seven Shadows, Zeta was never mentioned until Light Novel Volume 4 before making her full debut in Volume 5.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: As Lilim, she was a sweet and kind girl who deeply cared about her family to the point that she was willing to let them kill her once she was afflicted with Demonic Possession. Their deaths at the hands of the cult are what drive her to exterminate them and make Shadow the god of the new world she envisions.
• Virtue Is Weakness: The reason she creates a Shadow Garden splinter group with Nina and Victoria is that she believes Alpha's kindness will spell doom for Shadow Garden, on top of the organization possibly disbanding after the Cult is defeated. This is also her line of thinking on what holds Shadow back from being immortal and ruling the world.
• Walking Spoiler: It's hard to talk about Zeta without her personal beef with the cult and the fact that she has gone rogue and secretly made a Renegade Splinter Faction.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Unlike other members of Shadow Garden, Zeta is willing to make even more morally ambiguous actions than they are. Her end goal is the resurrection of Diablos so that Shadow will attain immortality and become the god of the world, ensuring it will not be led astray again by another evil cult.
• Yank the Dog's Chain: After a harsh journey and both her parents sacrificing themselves, Lilith was able to reach the ocean. However, she was immediately captured by Petos, who murdered her little brother and showed the heads of her family and clan members to sink her into despair.
• You Killed My Father: She hates the Cult of Diablos for the murder of her entire family.
• Zero-Approval Gambit: Zeta, during one of their talks with Cid, is willing to bear the world's hatred for Shadow.

Eta

Other Names: Eta Lloyd Wright (Civilian Name)

Debut: Volume 5 (Light Novel), Chapter 62 (Manga), Episode 1 (Anime)

Voiced by: Reina Kondo (Japanese), Genevieve Simmons (English)^{Other Languages}Eileen Fuhrmann (German)

The seventh member of the Seven Shadows. An elf in charge of research and tech development, she helps create most of the unique equipment that Shadow Garden uses.

• Adaptation Expansion: She makes more physical appearances in the anime, unlike the light novel, where her first appearance came in the fifth volume.
• Adaptational Early Appearance: One of the most literal cases, her character design was first revealed for the anime, unlike the Web Novel, in which she was only mentioned in the Oriana arc, and the Light Novel, in which she debuted in Volume 5.
• Anti-Magic: Eta can create a magic zone that prevents her opponents from using magic. However, Alpha counters it by wrapping herself up in aluminum foil.
• Awesome, but Impractical: Some of her inventions/artifacts count under this. While they work and do what they are meant to do, some can only be used once, only work under certain circumstances, require a lot of set-up, are very expensive to produce and/or maintain, or a combination of those flaws.
• Badass Bookworm: Unlike Gamma, who is knowledgeable in business but lacks fighting skills, Eta does have skills in fighting despite spending most of her time in her lab, as shown by her mastery of slime weapons, which allows her to morph them into many weapons to attack with. Not to mention the potency of her inventions if she were to unleash them.
• Beware the Silly Ones: While Eta is usually a lazy sleepyhead, who talks slowly, she still is one of the Seven Shadows and amongst the strongest members of Shadow Garden, especially if she were to use her inventions. The fact that Beta called in help from Nu, Lambda, Chi, Omega, and Epsilon to get her to free Akane, which failed due to them not expecting her Anti-Magic disruption barrier, truly showcases how feared she is within the organization.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: She spends 10 hours a day asleep and spends only a few hours at work, with the implication that she spends the rest of it lazing around, yet she is in charge of research and tech development while making many breakthroughs.
• Crazy-Prepared: In the Mitsugoshi Hot Springs Lands, she installed a system to stop peeping toms, which can be activated with a button.
• The Dreaded: She is feared even by her own Shadow Garden comrades due to her desire to experiment on them or other individuals who happen to be unfortunate enough to end up in her care.
• Energy Absorption: She invented a shield that can absorb magic power, which is highly effective and revolutionary since shields are rarely used due to their magic conductivity being twice as consuming as swords.
• For Science!: She is very interested in discovering and studying new things. This is why she loves hearing Shadow talk about "Shadow Knowledge" and in Master of Garden has stated that she kept taking notes when afflicted with Demonic Possession until the condition worsened.
• Gadgeteer Genius: She is shown to be Shadow Garden's primary researcher and scientist, as she is shown to be very capable of coming up with whatever invention that Gamma requests of her. She is shown to be able to create, repair, and even improve ancient artifacts.
• Genius Slob: She is the most intelligent member of Shadow Garden, yet her research room is a huge mess, which even she has trouble navigating.
• He Who Must Not Be Seen: Until Volume 5, in the light novels, Eta was only mentioned a few times by Shadow Garden aside from a brief part from her perspective. Like Zeta, the anime subverts this and shows her working alongside the other Shadows and participating in the raid to free Cid's sister.
• Hidden Buxom: While she doesn't conceal her breasts, and her slime suit is still form-fitting, Epsilon notes they are less noticeable due to Eta's tendency to slouch rather than stand up straight.
• Hot Scientist: Like the rest of the Seven Shadows, her slime suit is very form-fitting, and she is Shadow Garden's head researcher.
• Laborious Laziness: In Master of Garden, she spends four days without sleep to build a magic tool that finds and picks her research tools so she doesn't have to do that herself. It becomes a "Shaggy Dog" Story afterwards once she realizes she can just extend her reach with slime to pick them up.
• Lazy Alias: Her civilian name is simply Eta with a middle and last name added.
• Long-Range Fighter: She mostly fights from a distance, manipulating slime as projectile weapons or traps.
• Love Potion: In Volume 5, Eta made some happy pills and let Beta drink them due to the latter being depressed about the failure of her Japan trip when her loot got damaged on their way back. It ended in Beta tearing her clothes and wailing, much to Alpha's chagrin, that she cuts Eta's research budget due to reasons of human experimentation.
• Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: While shields are rarely used because they consume twice as much mana as swords, she was able to invent a shield capable of absorbing magic attacks, which includes swords imbued with magic, thus bypassing said flaw.
• Mad Scientist: Played for Laughs, The members of Shadow Garden are usually afraid of her when it comes to researching, both Master of Garden and Volume 5's profile calling her somewhat psychopathic. In Volume 3, Beta is hesitant to give her the Blood Queen's samples lest she wants to become Eta's lab rat, while in Volume 4, Alpha gives Beta the task of taking care of Akane Nishino instead of Eta out of fear of her being given free rein. This is taken more seriously in Volume 6 when she tries to use Akane as research material and is willing to remove her vocal cords and drain her brain to make things easier.
• Manipulative Bitch: For her experiments, she isn't below manipulating others, her favorite tactic being exploiting their devotion and admiration towards Shadow. As shown when she tricks Gamma in fighting a Malak by herself through the appeal of becoming a Dragon Slayer like Shadow, or when she tricks Victoria in undergoing experiments by saying that it's for Shadow's sake.
• Meaningful Name: Her civilian identity "Eta Lloyd Wright" is a direct reference to the world-renowned American architect Frank Lloyd Wright.
• Money Fetish: The main reason she works for Alpha is for the sake of increasing her personal research funds, which gets cut a lot due to Alpha's disapproval of her amoral actions.
• Morph Weapon: She makes the most use of the slime weapon's malleability, using it to transform it into swords, shields, spears, and lances to counterattack.
• Never My Fault: When trying to use her new Brain Sucker No. 23 on Akane, she states that if the machine fails, all the blame will go to... Sherry, because she based it on Sherry's research on the relation between magic and the brain.
• Not Brainwashed: Unlike other characters, who have undergone demon transformation, she agreed with her other half, which is why she still remembers her actions as a demon and control over it even without outside help.
• Obviously Fake Signature: Downplayed; When trying to take Akane as her test subject, she makes a document that looks like it was written by Alpha, which states that Eta is allowed to experiment on Akane alone. However, Beta quickly notices that the document is forged, as while the handwriting is perfect, she also observes that it is written slowly and lacks the vigor Alpha usually exhibits when writing. This is played more straight in the Denser and Wackier manga, where the forged document is written sloppily and has a drawing of a chibi Alpha giving a peace sign.
• Oddly Small Organization: She is the only member of the research and development section of Shadow Garden, since Alpha is unwilling to give her staff and no one wants to join, because they know they will become subjects for her experiments.
• Omnidisciplinary Scientist: She is the primary researcher of the demon, Diablos, creating new magical techniques based on the information collected and also easily able to decode Cid's message using five different languages.
• Omniglot: Due to learning from Cid that all languages of sapient beings have similar rules, Eta was able to use this knowledge to decipher his message (which uses five different languages from Earth) earlier than planned and even managed to master the basics of Japanese. This allows her to have a proper conversation with Akane, who notes that unlike Beta, who only could speak broken Japanese despite going to Japan herself, Eta has a much better mastery of it.
• Playboy Bunny: In the Hot Springs Episode, she transforms her slime suit into this to use as a swimsuit.
• Powers Do the Fighting: Befitting her lazy nature, she fights by standing still and letting her slime and inventions do the rest. Examples include morphing her slime into weapons to throw, manipulating the ground by erecting spikes, or causing a collapse.
• The Quiet One: Eta rarely speaks, even in the anime adaptation. When she does talk more often, like in the Kage-jitsu anime shorts or Master of Garden, she tends to speak slowly in a halting, Terse Talker manner.
• Shameless Fanservice Girl: When trying to pick a swimsuit to transform her slime into, Alpha tells her that she cannot use anything too provocative, which prevents Eta from making her slime see-through or turning it into a sling bikini. She does, however, settle for a Playboy Bunny suit. In "Truth Seekers", she even states that she does not mind being naked.
• Shockingly Expensive Bill: Many of her inventions result in such a bill for Alpha and Gamma, ranging from the millions to billions, much to their chagrin.
• Shorter Means Smarter: She is the shortest amongst the Seven Shadows and is quite often described as short or petite. She is also responsible for research at Shadow Garden, where she has achieved numerous breakthroughs.
• Sleepyhead: Eta has a habit of dozing off while working or even during important meetings. She even has a habit of Sleepwalking around the Shadow Garden's base and hitting walls, thus forcing the other members to retrieve her.
• Squishy Wizard: She is completely reliant on using slime as her weapon, with her being a sitting duck when unable to use it.
• The Stoic: Unless with Cid or concerning his Shadow Wisdom, Eta doesn't show much emotion to the point of bordering on The Comically Serious in the Kage-jitsu anime shorts.
• Tampering with Food and Drink: As her research notes in Volume 5 reveal, she tried to knock Cid/Shadow out with an elixir strong enough to knock out dragons so she could research his brain, but his immunity to poison only causes him to note the bitter taste.
• Token Evil Teammate: Unlike the other Seven Shadows, she cares more about her research than taking down the Cult and has admitted she stays with Shadow Garden, because of the funds they give her, and the other reason being the wisdom Shadow gives to her.
• Unkempt Beauty: As Epsilon lampshades, Eta still looks healthy and has great skin despite her sloppy lifestyle inside her mess of a laboratory.
• Unseen No More: After only being mentioned a few times throughout the volumes, Eta finally makes a physical appearance in volume 5.
• Verbal Tic: Very fond of saying "V", along with using double "V" hand gestures whenever she strongly approves of something.
• Virtue Is Weakness: A trait she also shares with Zeta. In her research log in Volume 5, Eta comments on Shadow being too kind to deal with the corrupt politicians and the rotten knight corps in the Midgar Kingdom, that if she's given a choice, she would level and destroy everything from the ground up because it's too bothersome to deal with.
• Wrench Wench: Eta usually likes to carry around an overly-large (being the size of a child) wrench at times, even when sleep walking, often with her bumping into a wall.◊