Cult of Diablos

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## Cult of Diablos

* Manga
* Anime

## General Information

### **Affiliates**

Holy Church of Divine Teachings
Templars (loosely rival associate)
Major Corporate Alliance (Formerly)
Thirteen Night Swords

## Debut

### Anime

Episode 2

**Cult of Diablos** (ディアボロス教団（きょうだん）, *Diaborosu Kyōdan*?) is an ancient, secretive, and power-hungry organization that serves as the primary antagonists of **The Eminence in Shadow**. Considered a little-known myth at best by the public, their existence is carefully concealed as they covertly operated throughout the world to manipulate global affairs under their regime from the shadows, seeking to maintain the society under their control while using demonic power that came from the essence of Diablos to gain immortality so that their perpetual rule will be
eternal. The Cult has been controlled with absolute authority by the **"Knights of Rounds"** under the command of twelve members of the highest executive leadership collectively as the head of the ruling body holding supreme power who effectively leads and governs the organization from time to time.

Throughout their entire history, the Cult of Diablos held dominion over nations as they have extended their members to reach of many high-ranking positions across the world and manipulated history behind the scenes, having long distorted the truth about the Three Heroes and renamed the "Curse of Diablos" into Demon Possession. Ever since the organization's foundation, The Cult with their obsessive ambition seeks to ultimately resurrect the demon Diablos to gain further power in developing the qualities of the Tears of Diablos which are used to grant its leaders immortality and strength for continuing their reign, as well as abducting and experimenting on descendants of the Heroes to further improve their research knowledge.

During the long passage of time, the Cult of Diablos had managed to maintain its secrecy and operate without opposition for many years. Aside from the Templars, they successfully eliminated any potential threats that arose in order to ensuring their dominance. However, their unchallenged reign came to an end with the emergence of a new opposition known as Shadow Garden which are the most mysterious organization who boldly exposed the Cult's existence to the world and directly opposed them. Shadow Garden relentlessly destroyed the Cult's operations, causing significant losses and overwhelming the Cult with a leadership void in the Rounds.

Knowing the extent of the damage they had suffered, the Cult found themselves in an unstable position. In an attempt to regain control, they decided to utilize their public connections by framing Shadow Garden for their own crimes. Realizing the gravity of the threat posed by Shadow Garden, the Cult concluded that they could no longer underestimate their adversaries. Consequently, they chose to put an end to their internal conflicts and unite their forces. After centuries of factional divisions, the Cult aimed to focus their efforts on destroying Shadow Garden, acknowledging the immense danger they posed.

## Overview

Little is known about the organization other than controlling the world by resurrect the Demon Diablos and continuously using its powers in order to maintain the Cult's rule. They have mostly focused on their research to create a **drug** from Diablos Cells that can grant tremendous strength and immortality but have not been able to perfect it because it still has very strong side effects.

The Cult of Diablos has tricked the world into condemning the descendants of heroes who develop symptoms they call Demon Possession and are turned the "possessed" over to the Church where the Cult later uses them as *ingredients* for their experiments in perfecting the Tears of Diablos, as well as eliminating all threats so there will be no obstructions that can disrupt their work.

After the appearance of a hidden organization called Shadow Garden which suddenly learned their existence, they embarked on a quest to thwart their plans by destroying the Cult's operations, especially their main mission in the process of refining the Tears of Diablos and opposing their domination over the world by exposing their crimes. As a result, the Cult received immeasurable heavy losses and considered Shadow Garden as their greatest adversary.

## History

Long ago, a sinister Cult had gathered orphaned children from three races - Elf, Therianthrope, and Human - with the intention of subjecting them to horrific experiments. These innocent children were implanted with "Diablos Cells," extracted from the blood of the demon Diablos. Most of the children ended up dying, except for three girls, one from each race, who displayed compatibility with the cells. The Cult furtherly continued their twisted experiments on these three girls, augmenting their abilities and equipping them to become formidable weapons. The Cult's ultimate plan was to send them as adults to battle the Demon Diablos and obtain more of its potent cells. Strangely, among the kidnapped children was Aurora, whose transformation into the demon Diablos remains a mystery.

Years later, the Cult dispatched these three children, now known as the Three Heroes, to exterminate the demon Diablos. They succeeded in defeating the demon and sealed its dismembered body within the Sanctuary from various location around the world. However, the victory came at a cost, as the Demon Diablos cursed the heroes by bestowing upon them the "Curse of Diablos" so that they and their descendants would be possessed with rotten bodies.

To sustain their power, the Cult devised a method of cultivating "Diablos cells" from the remains of the defeated demon. They harvested the Demon's life energy after taking its blood and flesh to create an imperfect but potent drug called "Tears of Diablos", granting incredible strength and immortality. Nonetheless, the drug had its drawbacks, requiring an annual dose to maintain the effects and limited to only twelve drops a year that can be produced, each of which is taken by the twelve members of the **Knights of Rounds** that constitute the Cult's leadership. Determined to overcome these limitations, the Cult currently trying to develop a perfect drug without side effects and still rectify these flaws by various means, resorting to heinous measures such as reviving Diablos and conducting prolonged experiments on the descendants of the Three Heroes to studying their blood for years.

For this task, the Cult using their far-reaching influence on clandestinely infiltrated many high-ranking positions of influence in various domains, including royalty, nobility, politics, military, economics, education, even religions throughout history to position themselves in the highest echelons of power. Operating as a deep state, they have manipulated historical records and even renaming the "Curse of Diablos" to "Demon Possession". This deceitful act caused the descendants of the heroes who once revered for sealing Diablos to be persecuted and abandoned, making them easier to capture for research purposes. They go to great lengths to erase all traces of the truth about the Three Heroes, spreading disinformation to further cloud their history. Those who stumble upon the truth are ruthlessly eliminated or, in rare cases, forced into becoming members of the Cult. Even the Holy Church of Divine Teachings religion is not immune to their influence, as some of its upper echelons are members of the Cult, while the rest of the Church and its believers remain innocent and oblivious.

Despite being a powerful organization that have a long dark history for thousands of years without being noticed by the public, the Cult is not a monolith; rather, its members have all sorts of opportunities to advance their own ambitions for attaining the higher positions. The highest-ranking individuals known as the "Knights of Rounds" who hold the most powerful positions within the organization even forming their own factions, with each member leading their group and naturally naming it after themselves. Some of these factions have been engaged in internal power struggles against each other that have persisted for centuries, further complicating the Cult's structure and dynamics to which they had not worked together for hundreds of years.

It is worth noting that despite their title, the Cult of Diablos does not actually worship Diablos and merely desire its power and are thus not truly a Cult, though Zenon does refer to it as a religion. Visions of the past within the Sanctuary, best shown in the anime adaptation, depict them (at least at the time of Diablos) to be more akin to evil scientists and researchers than a religion. While in the present day, they largely resemble as a secret society or conspiracy, although they have never stopped their experiments.

## Organization Strength and Influence

The Cult of Diablos is depicted as a paramount organization in the world of Eminence in Shadow. They possess unparalleled power and advanced technology that surpasses that of all countries in the world. The Cult's influence is tremendous which extends to all government-affiliated positions and organizations; be it bureaucratic, civil, or religious. They have the ability to manipulate governments, and if necessary, they can brand any country as the world's enemy and incite to all neighboring nations to destroy it.

In addition, the Cult operates with utmost secrecy, as they often cover their tracks by eradicating any evidence that could link back to their organization existence and eliminating individuals who may pose a threat to their hidden agendas. This includes members who have become liabilities or possess knowledge that could expose their inner workings. According to the Head Librarian when he warned Alexia Midgar that the Cult would not hesitate to harm the families and friends of their targets to protect their secrets and maintain their existence.

While the true extent of the Cult's strength in the world is unknown, they are undoubtedly considered the mightiest military power in the world of Eminence in Shadow. Despite their belief in possessing enormous manpower and reputation, they are not invincible, as proven by the conflict with Shadow Garden and their allies, who ultimately managed to completely overwhelm the Cult's abilities. Though the Cult suffered numerous losses, they remain confident in their organization's stability due to the widespread influence they wield throughout the world.

## Membership

The Cult of Diablos is an organization that has grown its roots all over the entire world that existed from ancient times at least since the demon Diablos' rise and has manipulated the Three Heroes into killing Diablos so that they could take the demon' remains as the material for their research foundation, by extracting the power of Diablos to gain immortality for themselves and use its demonic power along with their influence to dominate the world, willing to commit atrocities to achieve it. The Cultists are shown as power-hungry, self-serving, and ruthless, caring little to nothing on the lives they trample and end in pursuit of their self-interests.

The vast majority of the Cult, however, is comprised of the "Children of Diablos" that are divided into two categories; namely those who are born and raised as members within the organization or join into become the organization members. A handful of their agents have been shown to have once been decent people but have been long broken by the Cult into joining their ranks, with the Cult having attempted to extend 'invitations' or set 'established traps' to lure in occasional would-be heroic individuals. Anyone who accepts an invitation to join, the Cult will give them a warm welcome and those who decline will be given a choice; either forced recruitment or elimination.

Most of them are in key positions that are respected by the rest of the world, allowing the Cult to carry out their criminal activities without suspicion which they have been doing this for hundreds of years, most especially in killing the descendants of the Three Heroes. Even the Cult will eliminate any outside individual who has even the slightest idea about any of their activities that ties with the Cult as a rule.

Cult of Diablos is ruled in council by the **Knights of Rounds** who are twelve extremely powerful members who wield the true leadership at the highest hierarchical level in the organization's authority as executive heads. The Cult has "Named Children" who are the organization's best elite assets, either coming from the First and perhaps even the Second from the Children of Diablos, which is the main force that respectively divided into three subdivisions, with the First and Second themselves being high ranking subordinate to the Cult consisting of most powerful soldiers, while the Third are just brainwashed people who are meant to be killed, whether or not they accomplished their missions.

#### Children of Diablos

The **Children of Diablos** (ディアボロス・チルドレン, *Diaborosu Chirudoren*?) are begin as orphans with no relatives or young citizens from poorer commoner families who possess high aptitude for magic affinity, even the smallest amount that are kidnapped by the Cult from their homes and brings them to the special facilities to be subjectively raised under the organization's eye, which is a general call term for those belonging to the Cult.

These children will proceed to undergo a brutal regimen of harsh training, educated with cruel brainwashing programs, and repeated administration of drugs for enhancement that kills most of them in order to become the members of the Cult of Diablos with their combat abilities that have far surpasses any normal knight.

It's said that fewer than 10 percent of them manage to "graduate" (survive) this process. Subsequently these graduates are organized into rankings of Third, Second, and First.

**Third Children:** they are those some unfortunate souls at the 10 percent who managed to survive the perilous process but are deemed worthless and labeled as *failures* among the graduates as they unable to withstand on the Cult's treatment. These individuals are considered nothing more than disposable pawns by the Cult, as their minds state have become too corrupted to the point where they were cannot speak properly and unable to divulge any classified information under interrogation. Despite mentally broken, these individuals possess fighting prowess that more powerful compared to the average knight. Thus, the Cult makes use of its failures for their sinister purposes without any risk of intel leaking.

**Second Children:** They are those whose minds are mentally stable and retained their sanity, and also possess substantial immense strength but are less powerful than the First Children.

**First Children:** They are the strongest among the Children of Diablos and are said to be considered some of the most powerful warriors alive, possessing very significant power by the world's standards. As such, they are relatively few and quite limited in number compared to the Second and Third Children.

It appears that the First and Second Children are allowed to appear in public but have to limit their powers and use of red pills, as they mostly holding the organization's upper ranks in officers and leaders position within the Cult's chain of command.

Among the Children of Diablos, those who have provided exceptional contributions to the Cult after showing their promise from their effort are granted a name by given two titles on the referred **Named** and their distinct feature characteristic. Most of the *"Named Children"* are First, but there are some Second who are being given named, although, if possible, it is not unheard of as they are rare.

Especially in general, the rank of the organization is very special for those who receive the Named title since it is said that the position is already closest enough to entering the "Twelve Knights of Rounds". If any member is able to fulfill the requirements well, they will have the opportunity to be elected to fill in or replace a previous 'Seat' holder from the available twelve positions and make up the Cult's leadership.

Additionally, people who also join as members after accepting the Cult's "offer" are determined in which category of Children of Diablos will be selected based on their respective capabilities. In fact, people with high magical power among the aristocratic families who have been in secret connection with the Cult for generations are also serving as Children.

#### Knights of Rounds

The **Knights of Rounds** (ナイツ・オブ・ラウンズ, *Naitsu obu Raunzu*?) are the leadership echelon, consisting of the twelve strongest chosen members who support the establishment within the organization in charge of determining the Cult's policies and governing its central operations through the **"Round Table Committee"** (円卓（えんたく） 会議（かいぎ）, *Entaku Kaigi*?), who serves as the supreme executive head of the Cult of Diablos thanks to their supposedly unrivaled immense power which exceeds that of any other member and holds the highest-ranking authority as the organization's top brass councilors. Gaining a Seat position among them could bring an unbelievable amount of influence, prestige, and wealth. Furthermore, there are those Named Children who have climbed into the ranks of the Knights of Rounds because being *"Named"* is almost considered a requirement as a gateway for a position in the Rounds.

Each member of the *Knights of Rounds* will take 1 drop of the Tears of Diablos annually to maintain their demonic strength and immortality. Only twelve drops a year can be produced, which is incidentally the number of Seats within the Knights of Rounds. Any member who wants to obtain the exclusive position must be able to fulfill the necessary conditions by completing a very significant contribution to the operating mission given by the Cult and have a extraordinary track record of achievements. Thus all the other members in the Cult hope to join the Rounds by gaining a "Seat", seeking both the immortality and power promised by the position. It is possible to lose a Seat, with Lutheran having lost his and seeking to regain it.

There is also another requirement to become a candidate of the Knights of Rounds without being "Named" and First and Second Children are allowed to participate. The Rounds candidate will be selected if the leadership have acknowledged their strength or they have be nominated by their leader, which is a member of the Rounds Knight from their respective factions to support their candidacy as a representative proxy, even their volunteer members have the right for occupying a 'seat' position to join the Rounds when given the trust to carry out the Cult's special mission.

Although twelve Cult members hold *seat* positions within the Knights of Rounds, the hierarchy is complex and dynamic due to the friction of internal discord inside the gathering circle as the highest authority position itself does not necessarily to dictate the overall hierarchy. Each seat's number does not determine the level of authority positions, as all Rounds members are strategically striven to increase their own influence within the organization. This is achieved by making important contributions, accumulating power, and forging influential connections. In addition, the Knights of Rounds are based on the strongest level within a certain number of seat rankings whose places are orderly ranked from based on the appointment-holder members of all twelve respective positions at the **Round Table**, which are determined in terms of their strength and achievement contributions made to the Cult. Like Fenrir, who previously occupied sixth position, then rose into ranks and hold the 5th seat, as well as Nelson, who was also a member of Rounds but was still held at the 11th place because he was considered weak.

Not even one member of the twelve prestigious Knights could simply doing a selecting any member randomly as a candidate for filling a vacant position from the available seats and there are some fierce infightings on any different faction within the Rounds. Each faction seeks to advance their own interests by placing their pawns in positions that grant decision-making power. As a result, every Rounds' member with more powerful seat position attempts to lead and entice others, including tempt any opportunistic Cult members by promised of promotion and make them to become a member of the Rounds, including all of its associated benefits and immortality. This drives members to commit any atrocity and perform dirty work, regardless of how inhumane or homicidal deed that they use for whatever it takes to ensuring their allegiance to the Cult with/without the intention of ever fulfilling the position.

When a member obtains an esteemed Rounds position in an available seat, their positions are not considered the same as equal since there are varying levels of achievement among any Cult's Knights they own, in addition to the strengths and abilities that the members have. Consequently, intercommunication between members relationship is often strained and minimal interact to each other as all of them have an extremely adversarial correlation. Such was the case with Perv Asshat who almost joined to become Knights of Rounds with his weak track record of achievement. However, he aligns himself with various factions, playing along for the time being until his position within the organization becomes more powerful enough.

Five years after the appearance of Shadow Garden, Fenrir remarks that the **Knights of Rounds** has degraded in quality due to each member of the Rounds being replaced by a randomly selected individual with a weak track record of achievement to fill the Rounds executive position from the previous seat holder, with someone like Petos who should never be able to obtain a Seat position normally under any circumstances which making Fenrir blaming Shadow Garden and the Cult's leadership for having grown complacent due to their immortality. Moreover, Petos revealed as he states that with the destruction of the Sanctuary at Lindwurm and the release of the demon Diablos' left arm, the annual production of the Tears of Diablos has been reduced from twelve to nine and may soon be eight, which leading to intensifying factional conflicts and make the Cult's "Rounds" members desperation grow increased thus they were in a great hurry to revive Diablos' other body parts.

In fact, Petos had told Fenrir that he would not be getting the demon's tear drops if the number of drops was lower than expected or a new Rounds member had been appointed. That means the number of Knights of Rounds members has been adjusted based on the number of drops that have been produced, but thanks to Shadow Garden for making the number of Rounds itself has also decreased as they don't have to worry about the short supply.

## Chronology

### Origins

Centuries ago, maybe millennia, a scientific cult emerged with an ambitious goal—to unravel the mysteries of magic in their world and attain immortality. In their relentless pursuit of knowledge, they resorted to dark, cruel, and unending experiments on young boys and girls who displayed magical aptitude. Among these unfortunate subjects was a girl named Aurora, who became one of their earliest experiments in magic.

The Cult members imprisoned their subjects within isolated and domed environments, providing simulated surroundings in an attempt to pacify them. Inside these confined spaces, they subjected the children from three races, Elf, Therianthrope, and Human to be implant Diablos Cells inside their bodies. Among these children, Aurora have been given to numerous injections of various magical substances, some of which were even of demonic origin. As the years passed, Aurora transitioned from a girl into adulthood, and the constant experimentation took a toll on her, causing her powers to spiral out of control.

In an explosive display of unleashed fury, Aurora shattered the Cult's facilities, triggering widespread chaos in the world as a consequence of the torment inflicted upon her. The cruelty she endured eventually led her to embrace her dark side fully, and she ascended to become the first Demon King, known thereafter as the fearsome Demon Diablos.

### Discovery Scientific Results from Inventor Research Scientist, Lord Laugus

At that same year, the Cult's still obsessed with unlocking the secrets of magic and achieving immortality persisted. To attain these goals, they sought out promising scientists to perfect the enigmatic Tears of Diablos. One such scientist was Lord Laugus, whose brilliance and insanity made him a valuable asset for the Cult. He quickly rose to the esteemed 11th seat within the prestigious "Knights of Rounds", a position of great authority and influence.

Initially, Lord Laugus worked alongside Nelson and other scientists to perfect the Tears, another magical project of the cult. However, his interest soon shifted, becoming fixated on something he deemed even more valuable—the study of "the Origin of Magic and the Realms". As Lord Laugus veered away from the Tears' research, the cult grew increasingly concerned, as the Tears project held paramount importance to them.

Despite their efforts to pressure Lord Laugus into resuming his work, he eventually managed to escape the confines of the cult's laboratories, leaving no trace behind. Faced with this setback, the cult leaders entrusted the task of perfecting the Devil Pearls to scientist Nelson, who now held the 11th seat. Despite Nelson's best endeavors, he came to the conclusion that he could not achieve the same level of perfection as Lord Laugus, even if they were to bring him back.

The cult's relentless pursuit of perfection led to catastrophic consequences when their attempts to refine the Devil Pearls resulted in a devastating explosion. Forced to abandon their current scientific facility, the cult members sought a new location to continue their endeavors.

Realizing that rectifying the flaws of the pearls required drastic measures, the Cult decided to explore various means, including reviving powerful Devils and studying the blood of ancient heroes. Over the years, they resorted to kidnapping the descendants of the Three Heroes, using their blood to conduct experiments and cultivate Diablos cells in pursuit of their elusive goal.

### Cult's First Unusual Report

Approximately five years ago, a report surfaced concerning a daring attack on a Demon Possession carriage by an unidentified group. Fenrir, suspicious of the report's implications, was determined to handle the matter to prevent any potential problems. However, the "Rounds" decision seemingly confirmed that the monstrous entity responsible for the attack was not a significant threat.

Consequently, they chose to overlook the incident, not realizing that the true perpetrator was the bandit group who attack the carriage until they are decimated by Cid Kagenou. It was only then that Cid discovered the existence of a possessed child, who would be later known as "Alpha", and the birth of the clandestine organization called Shadow Garden with Cid naming himself as **Shadow**.

Following the matter case, the Cult began to receive a series of distressing reports concerning numerous carriage attacks, the destruction of several branch facility bases, and the deaths of numerous members, including those among the esteemed Rounds themselves. This alarming pattern persisted for the last three years.

### Abduction of Claire Kagenou

The first true meeting between the Cult of Diablos and Shadow Garden happened when the Cult abducted Cid's sister, Claire Kagenou by Viscount Grease two years ago. In order to be able to save his daughter Millia from Demon Possession, Grease is ordered by the Cult on a mission to monitor the heiress of Baron Kagenou to see if her blood is "compatible" or not before being brought to the testing facility. Later at night when Claire was preparing before heading to the capital and attend the Academy, the Cult had successfully kidnapped her after they infiltrated her family home and kept her in a secret branch base.

Just as Olba was going to check on Claire after noticing that her symptoms had been cured, he was alerted that there were intruders attacking their facility and rushed to deal with them, only to find his men slaughtered by seven women in black who belonged to an organization called Shadow Garden, with knowledge of the Cult of Diablos' existence and their top secrets. Grease was surprised that an outsider could know the organization he was affiliated with and its supposedly undisclosed secrets whilst he trying to fight them, only to be completely overwhelmed. Knowing that he would not be killed until he passed on information about the Cult for them, Olba decided to retreat from the fight and alerted headquarters about the mysterious group's existences by escaping through a secret trapdoor.

After escaping from them, Olba runs into a young boy who he thinks is the leader of a newly discovered organization and tries to fight him. However, Olba felt an overwhelming difference in strength until he decided to consume most of the strengthening pills to show him the powerlessness of reality. Nonetheless, the young boy managed to block his attacks with ease until he used a large amount of magic power to then slash Grease in one strike and with dying in the aftermath.

With all the Cult members in that base, along with Olba were already killed, Claire was successfully rescued from her confinement by Shadow Garden and returned to the Kagenou mansion. However, this would not be the last meeting between the Cult and Shadow Garden. Rather, this was just the beginning of the Cult of Diablos' first and biggest obstacle to their goal. The Cult's leadership noticed the repeated operation failures because there were suspicious movement from the Midgar Kingdom controlled by Fenrir's Sect faction territory, which in resulted in his faction fell into decline.

### Princess Alexia's Kidnapping

The second meeting between the Cult of Diablos and Shadow Garden would come when the Cult kidnapped Princess Alexia Midgar, planned by Zenon Griffey from Fenrir's Sect faction. Zenon's intention of kidnapping Alexia is to extract her royal blood which will then be used in the Cult's experiments in order to raise his position to occupy the 12th Seat in the Knights of Rounds.

Despite using the arranged engagement method as a powerful approach thanks to his status, the plan for being able to bring Alexia to the testing facility was very difficult especially in the Midgar Royal Spellsword Academy and with the princess being difficult to interact with until Zenon learns that Alexia has approached the son of a lower-class noble named Cid Kagenou. It was then that Zenon carried out his plan by having his subordinates kidnap Alexia to be brought to the Cult testing facility under the Midgar Kingdom's capital and frame Cid Kagenou to make him as a scapegoat which puts Cid as the main culprit by taking the fall for his crimes and then accused him of being the ringleader in kidnapping the princess.

The next day after successfully kidnapping Alexia, Zenon and his followers prepare an arrest attempt to detained Cid by accusing him of being the main suspect of the princess' "disappearance" and torturing him under the false accusations they made up, although the young man did not yield as he still honestly confess of his innocence despite being subjected to brutal acts of torture.

As a result of this action, all of Fenrir's faction's hidden bases and facilities in the royal capital were simultaneously destroyed as their hideout had been discovered by Shadow Garden who had mobilized their forces to take revenge against their actions under the unjust torture of Cid Kagenou because the Cult had not known that he had another identity, namely as **Shadow** who is also the leader of Shadow Garden to which assumed that Zenon's act has brought Shadow Garden attention.

With the situation getting worse, the Cult scientist who was Zenon's benefactor that had helped him in his mission by extracting royal blood from Alexia tried to inject a disfigured creature to rampaged across the city until the creature confronted Iris Midgar and was then killed by Alpha.

Then, Zenon Griffey returns to the facility where Alexia Midgar is being held to be moved to a safe location while the situation is still chaotic. However, he is suddenly surprised by **Shadow's** appearance which hinders his intention to take the princess and the two of them fight. The fight ended up being one-sided as Zenon was overwhelmed by **Shadow** who beats him mercilessly and mocks his so-called superior swordsmanship, even though Zenon was strengthened by using the red pills. The fight ended when **Shadow** vaporized Zenon into oblivion using his ultimate attack **"I Am Atomic"**.

By the time the Knight Order had conducted their thorough investigation at the Cult's destroyed facility, they managed to collect most of the classified documents and items the day following Princess Alexia's rescue by Shadow Garden. However, the Cult was cunning enough to anticipate the investigation and had already destroyed the remaining evidence by setting fire to the warehouse, leaving nothing but ashes behind. Despite their attempts to cover their tracks, the incident brought the existence of both Shadow Garden and the **Cult of Diablos** to the world's attention.

### Midgar Academy Terrorist Attack

The Cult has recently learned of an organization known as Shadow Garden, which has been causing disruptions in their operations across the country for the past five years. Initially underestimating Shadow Garden, The Cult believed it to be easily crushed and not a significant threat. Nonetheless, they devised a plan to ensure that Shadow Garden would not hinder their future endeavors. Lutheran Barnett, the former 12th seat with ambitions to be reinstated in the Knights of Rounds, assumed the identity of "Sir Gaunt" and ordered his henchmen to commit misdeeds throughout Midgar Kingdom, attributing these actions to Shadow Garden, along with the assistance of Rex.

Their intention was to provoke contempt and enmity toward Shadow Garden on a global scale and thus, the Cult used the name Shadow Garden as their way to act on serially massacre the citizens in the pretense to deliver a "death judgment" on their killing spree, even the members of Knight Order have become their victim. While the Knight Order investigated a series of murderous attacks on citizens, Shadow Garden also went on search and successfully captured one of the Cult's minions and began interrogating him. When Lutheran and Rex received the report of the lost contact, Lutheran dismissed it, stating that they had already located the item they needed, which is their priority being its retrieval.

Under Lutheran's command, The Cult forces took control of Midgar Academy, rounding up students and killing anyone who resisted, in order to frame and discredit Shadow Garden as the primary enemy. Meanwhile, Rex's mission was to retrieve the Eye of Avarice's control unit from Sherry Barnett's hands while dealing with interference from the Crimson Order knight, Glen and Marco Granger. However, Rex's report to Lutheran and informed him about the artifact control unit failed retrieval much to his anger by threatening him, until he heard Rex's reports that some of their men had been taken out by a highly skilled individual, leading to assumed that their actions had manage to get the Shadow Garden's attention before Rex and his men immediately went out to search for the artifact.

As Lutheran waited for Rex (unaware of his death at the hands of **Shadow**), the Cult began to attack the students for their amusement. Suddenly, the magic-blocking field was disabled when Sherry threw the artifact's control unit at the auditorium hall. Notice that the magic barrier had disappeared, the students are fought back when their magic recovered against the Cult forces after being rallied by the Student Council President Princess Rose Oriana. In that moment, **Shadow** along other members of Shadow Garden joined the fray and engaging the Cult's forces in combat. Realizing he was losing control of the situation; Lutheran activated a system that caused the auditorium and the rest of the school to burst into flames. He sneaked into his room and burned some incriminating books to hide his involvement.

While deciding to escape, Lutheran suddenly met Cid Kagenou inside the room and tells him that he already knows his true identity which Lutheran praises Cid for his perception much to his surprises as he took off his disguise. Cid questioned Lutheran's motives, which he replies that he did everything to reach the top he once was and started searching a way to cure his disease. Lutheran confessed to Cid all his misdeeds, including the murder of Sherry's mother and manipulating Sherry for his own purposes to facilitate the artifact research's completion. When Cid wonders if Lutheran used Sherry for his selfish reasons, he confirmed his statement. Cid, disinterested in Sherry and her mother's fate, urged Lutheran to act before someone else intervened. In a tense confrontation, Cid and Lutheran faced each other, but in an unexpected twist, Lutheran fatally struck down Cid, causing him to fall through the window.

Shortly after, **Shadow** appears before Lutheran, realizing that he is already at disadvantage because of his experience. With no other choice, Lutheran decide using the Eye of Avarice to its full potential as his only chance to win against **Shadow's** superior skill because Lutheran cannot win against **Shadow** at his current state. When Lutheran acquires an immense magical power and his disease has been cured, he starts attacking **Shadow**. However, even with this newfound magical power, Lutheran's attacks proved ineffective against **Shadow** as he is not able to make a scratch on **Shadow** and still continues to attack him.

Despite acknowledging **Shadow's** strength, Lutheran taunted him that he will fail by revealing his devised plan to framed him on this incident so that the world will despises him and his organization. To his shock, **Shadow** remained undeterred, stating that their path would not change regardless of public opinion. Enraged, Lutheran claims that **Shadow** isn't afraid of becoming the world enemy is an arrogance and prepares to kill him. But in a swift turn of events, **Shadow** disarmed Lutheran and retaliated by proceeds stabbing his limbs in a manner reminiscent, also recalls Lutheran about how he killed Sherry's mother as **Shadow** pierced his heart the same way he did until twisting his blade. While in his final moments before he dies, Lutheran discovers that **Shadow's** true identity is actually Cid Kagenou.

After the incident, the Midgar Kingdom's government labelled **Shadow** and Shadow Garden as an enemy to the kingdom and is wanted for mass murder, kidnapping, arson, and robbery. Despite their successful effort to bring Shadow Garden being branded as criminals, this was not enough to hinder them from continuing their mission.

### Sanctuary Infiltration

Before the "Goddess Trials" event, the 11th Seat Knight of Rounds, Jack Nelson, ordered Venom the Executioner to assassinate Archbishop Drake. This dark directive was issued due to rumors from the Archbishop regarding of his corruption and allegation on the missing orphans that had reached as far as the royal capital, potentially incriminating Second Princess Alexia Midgar and the Crimson Order. Nelson aimed to erase any evidence before their arrival in Lindwurm to investigate the matter further. During an audit with Alexia, Nelson informed her that the Church would be handling the investigation and had already sent a letter to King Klaus Midgar.

After Archbishop Drake's demise, Nelson was appointed Acting Archbishop to replace him and oversee the Goddess's Trial until the end after the announcement of the last challenger, Cid Kagenou, was expected to arrive soon. However, an unexpected turn of events occurred when **Shadow** made a surprising appearance at the arena. Nelson immediately ordered his men to gather the Church's Paladin to surround **Shadow**, until Nelson shock because he didn't activate any summons as he saw **Shadow** summon the figure of ancient warrior that reveal to be Aurora, known as the Witch of Calamity. Nelson remarked on **Shadow's** unfortunate choice, as Aurora was considered the most powerful witch in history. A duel ensued between **Shadow** and Aurora, during which **Shadow** dodged all of Aurora's attacks and surprisingly defeated her with a single slash. **Shadow** then decided to depart, but the situation escalated when the arena's barrier broke, and a magical door materialized.

Nelson was startled by the appearance of the magic door as he wonders if the door is responded to **Shadow** and worthy enough to pass through the Sanctuary. As the door starts opening, Nelson immediately ordered the evacuation of citizens and the cancellation of the trial. He attempted to persuade Alexia and the two others guest, Princess Rose Oriana and Natsume Kafka to leave as well, but Shadow Garden, led by Alpha, intervened. Alpha requested that the princesses refrain from taking action until the door was closed, after which they entered the door. Epsilon defeated Nelson's guards and declared her intentions to Nelson for his participation in accompanying them through the gate. Nelson, in desperation, called on Venom to eliminate Epsilon, only to witness Venom being cut down. Epsilon then asked Nelson if he had seen anything unusual, to which Nelson claimed ignorance as he was afraid of her murderous intent. Epsilon grabbed Nelson and jumped into the magical door, with the rest of Shadow Garden taking Natsume (Beta's public cover) as a "hostage." Princess Alexia and Rose also entered the door.

As the group followed Alpha's lead, she explained that the Sanctuary was the place where the hero Olivier had severed Diablos' left arm and they had sealed it in Lindwurm. Their goal was to investigate the Cult of Diablos and its objectives. Realizing that Nelson was unlikely to cooperate, they decided to uncover the truth themselves. Alpha pointed out a statue of the hero Olivier that appeared feminine, surprising both Princess Alexia Midgar and Rose Oriana. Alpha even revealed her own face, which resembled Olivier's. Nelson then realized that she was possessed but believed she should be dead. Alpha states that they knew the truth about the Three Heroes and the Demon Possession, from which the Cult want to maintain the situation under their control, even suspecting that the Cult's goals extended beyond reviving the demon and Alpha suggested they should proceed to see for themselves by exploring the Hero Olivier's memories to learn more.

Nelson pretended to accompany the group but secretly intended to lead them into the Sanctuary's defense system. As they explored the facility and reached the Sanctuary's center, they discovered the cult's true objective: creating Tears of Diablos, which granted extraordinary strength and immortality that the Cult is currently still trying to perfect them. Its primary ingredients were Diablos Cells cultivated from the demon's body and the blood of the hero's descendants. Nelson reluctantly confirmed Alpha's suspicions on her guess until she exposed his true affiliation as the 11th Seat Knight of Rounds, known as **Nelson the *Avaricious***. He separated them into groups, intending to confront Alpha and Delta.

Facing Alpha and Delta, Nelson created copies of himself and stated that they would soon regret opposing the "Cult". Delta easily dispatched Nelson's copies, but something was amiss as Nelson explained that the closer, they were to the Sanctuary's center, the more their powers drained, while he gained more power. Nelson had hoped to get them even closer but believed this distance was sufficient to defeat them. Despite her diminishing power, Delta continued to eliminate his copies, shocking Nelson with her strength and causing his memory to falter. To his surprise, Delta erased over a hundred of his copies, and Alpha explained that even with a hundred copies, they still shared a single mind, making them difficult to control. Feeling cornered, Nelson then called for Olivier to join him, but Epsilon's group joined Alpha, announcing the completion of their investigation and their intent to leave. Nelson was taken aback by their decision, but Alpha revealed that their objective was to cut off the source of power, and now that they understood the Sanctuary's defenses, they would return.

As Alpha and her team departed, Nelson contemplated what to report to the other members of the Rounds. He considered explaining that he had lured them into the Sanctuary to expose their identities and obtain Alpha's blood for perfecting their experiments. However, before he could leave, a notification indicated that someone was in the Sanctuary's center. Nelson decided to personally deal with the intruder, accompanied by Olivier.

Upon arriving, Nelson saw two figures, Aurora and a young boy (unbeknownst to him as **Shadow**). He dispatched Olivier to confront them, believing that no human could defeat her. Olivier attacked the boy and inflicted an injury. Nelson ordered Olivier to finish the job, but Aurora intervened, knowing that no ordinary human could best Olivier. Nelson laughed at their predicament, insisting that without magic, Aurora was helpless. He offered to spare the boy if Aurora agreed to assist him. However, the boy interjected, asserting that he didn't need help and shouldn't be underestimated. Annoyed, Nelson commanded Olivier to eliminate him, but the boy resisted and managed to counterattack. Surprisingly, the boy revealed his right eye and inflicted a fatal wound on Olivier, defeating her.

Nelson couldn't fathom how the boy had survived the stabbing and listened as the boy explained that survival was possible by protecting vital organs and arteries. He was astounded that a child with no magic had bested Olivier. Nelson, in disbelief, declared that Olivier had been a mere copy and summoned countless copies of her using his magic.

Several of them attack the boy until he opens his right eye and defeats them using his magic, much to Nelson surprised that the boy is able to use magic as he explains that he just tempered with the magic until it was too solid to be absorbed which took him some time, but its something simple. Nelson felt that's not possible to which he did not believe when he heard the boy's explanation about the method and orders the Olivier copies to kill him.

The boy engaged in combat with the Olivier copies and, despite his wounding, decided to cast his ultimate spell, **"I am the All-Range Atomic"**. One of the Olivier copies managed to stab him in the heart before he completed the spell. Astonishingly, the boy remained unaffected and unleashed the spell's explosion, obliterating all Olivier copies, the chained door, the holy sword, and ultimately Jack Nelson and everything else within the Sanctuary, which the blast effect has flooded Lindwurm.

Upon learning of the complete destruction of the Sanctuary that had been wiped out of existence, the Cult placing more notoriety for Shadow Garden by using their influence to exert the authority within the Midgar Kingdom's government from the shadows. Despite their efforts, they couldn't conceal the Sanctuary's destruction from the public eye. Princess Alexia felt compelled to investigate the Holy Church of Divine Teachings by explaining this huge discovery to her older sister, Princess Iris Midgar, suspecting that Acting Archbishop Jack Nelson's involvement with the Cult indicated the existence of a larger organization capable of keeping the Sanctuary and its secrets hidden from the public, with Iris having also shared the same suspicion and had even discussed it with King Klaus Midgar, their father. But fortunately for the Cult, the King advised both princesses not to take any action and the Cult expressed indifference towards Nelson's death, as they would simply choose another replacement for the 11th Seat.

However, the Cult's greatest fear is the Sanctuary that had been destroyed in Lindwurm that was once the sealing place for the demon Diablos' left arm has been released. They feared that the quantity of Tears of Diablos, which had been given to the "Knights of Rounds" for strength and immortality, would likely start to decrease. In response to this concern, they decided to postpone the selection of a candidate to occupy the 11th Seat and the originally vacant 12th Seat. Their decision was contingent on confirming how many drops of Tears of Diablos would be produced this time of year.

### Bushin Festival Tournament

The Oriana Kingdom had long been a puppet state under the oppressive control of the Cult of Diablos, a situation that had persisted since the era of the Black Rose. However, the current King of Oriana, Raphael, refused to hand over his daughter Rose to the Cult and decided to take a bold stance against them as he began seeking ways to free his kingdom from their tyrannical grip. To bolster his efforts, King Raphael forged an alliance with the Midgar Kingdom, intending to build a force capable of rebelling against the Cult and sent his daughter to attend their academy because her nurturing interests in taking up swordsmanship, in the secret hope to protect her from harm and away from the Cult's clutches.

The Cult viewed King Raphael's actions as treason, as he had broken the old agreement with them. In response, they devised a sinister plan to brainwash him. They ordered Doem Ketsuhat to drug the king, with the assistance of his collaborator, Queen Reina Oriana. Doem sought to gain favor with the 9th Seat Knight of Rounds, Mordred and his faction to help him in appointing him to be selected as a candidate for occupying the vacant 12th seat of the Rounds if his mission given from the Cult proved successful. Mordred agreed to assist Doem, in exchange for his support in the upcoming internal power struggle within the Cult.

As King Raphael became aware of Duke Asshat's adopted son, Perv, being involved with the Cult, he began gathering evidence of Perv's crimes. However, Raphael soon realized that he was being drugged, understanding that this was a scheme orchestrated by the Cult to turn him into a mindless puppet. Knowing that he would soon lose his sanity and autonomy, Raphael took one final decisive action. He concealed the "Ring of Succession", a key to the "Black Rose" that he had altered to ensure it could only be activated by Rose. Additionally, he recorded his last will and testament within the Ring, documenting all the evidence of Perv's crimes and the conspiracies of the Cult within the Oriana Kingdom.

After the king had succumbed to the Cult's brainwashing, Doem noticed that the Ring was missing, hidden away by King Raphael. While Mordred set out to search for the Ring's secret hiding place, Doem embarked on a mission to the royal capital of Midgar, under the pretense of retrieving Rose Oriana as her supposed fiancé, an objective that concealed his true intentions.

Perv meets Rose and he smiles at her along with his subordinate after he presents her brainwashed father to her. Rose drew her sword and attacked him suddenly, but his aide called for some guards to apprehend her. Rose, now framed as a criminal, fled with Perv warning the princess to surrender herself before the Bushin Festival ended, or he'd order her father to make him kill King Klaus Midgar. Perv also notices that Rose shows signs of possession, which means the princess will become a prime material for the Cult's experimentation.

Perv and his collaborators took steps to dissuade Midgar's government from intervening in Rose's affairs, insisting on handling the situation themselves. In due course, Perv Asshat and the puppet king held a meeting with Princess Iris to discuss the security plan for the upcoming Bushin Festival. However, Perv appeared rather nonchalant about increasing security measures. Iris, ever astute, noted the contrast between Perv's condition and the report of the attack on him, which she had received. Perv casually agreed, suggesting that the news story had been somewhat exaggerated. He speculated that Midgar might be overly concerned due to the recent incident involving Alexia's kidnapping. Perv then learned that Iris had personally taken it upon herself to search for Alexia and expressed his intention to do the same, emphasizing that Oriana should address their "family issues" independently. In addition, Perv assured Iris that he would personally handle all business matters, negotiations, the reconstruction of the princess's order, and his participation in the Bushin Festival. He empathized with Iris's concerns and reassured her that the Oriana Kingdom had no intention of causing trouble for Midgar.

During his mission, Perv orders his Cult pursuers to capture Princess Rose who has fled into the capital's underground tunnels. But Rose evades capture when she confronts the Cult's pursuers by injuring their non-vital points whilst clutching her aching chest as the Demon Possession symptoms continued to develop. Even after Rose managed to escape, the pursuers continued their relentless search for her. They were confident that they had finally located the princess when they sensed a surge of power in the vicinity. However, to their surprise, it wasn't Rose only Rose they found, but **Shadow** who was also there.

As **Shadow** departed, the Cult's pursuers remained determined to approach Rose. Unbeknownst to them, the princess had undergone a transformation, harnessing a newfound power granted to her by **Shadow**. She now possessed a portion of his formidable magic power. When the Cult's pursuers closed in, they were completely unaware of the immense strength Rose now wielded. With her newfound powers, she easily overcame them, swiftly defeating the pursuing agents who had once sought to capture her.

Perv encountered Iris Midgar once more days later at the tournament, where she, harboring suspicions about Perv, initiated a discussion and inquired about Rose's predicament. In response, Perv remained composed and calmly expressed his confidence that Rose would eventually return to him once she had calmed down. He explained that his puppet king, who had previously been unwell, would be attending the festival tommorrow. Perv acknowledged the security measures that had been put in place, expressing regret that they seemed to have been in vain. Iris, however, disclosed that her father, King Klaus Midgar, would also be present at the festival starting the next day.

Perv and Iris watch the tournament when the match between Annerose Nichtsehen and Mundane Mann. Iris had a feeling that Mundane will possibly win the match, and Mundane won against Annerose and compliments Iris's observation. After the match was over, Perv had his men search Mundane Mann's background, believing he might be a potential threat to his plans because it will be a problem if he is a denizen of underworld society backed by a monarch from the Lawless City, even Perv dismisses the idea of Mundane have a connection with Shadow Garden and doubts if they have the motive to take action at the Bushin Festival.

Prior to attending the final tournament and meeting with King Klaus Midgar, he once again drugged King Raphael, ensuring that his men covered the scent of odor sweet from the drug with perfume to prevent any suspicion. Perv eagerly awaited Rose's arrival at the tournament, keeping in mind the threat he had issued to her. He was prepared to follow through with his ominous promise, even if Rose chose not to appear. He was fully aware that her absence would lead to the puppet king carrying out the assassination of King Klaus, which could spark a war and potentially lead to the Oriana Kingdom's destruction along with the loss of his status. Nevertheless, Perv's allegiance to the Cult superseded his concern for personal consequences, as their plans to install a puppet leader in the Midgar Kingdom were already in motion. Furthermore, Perv was apprehensive about Shadow Garden's potential movements and the possible involvement of their cooperation with Rose. In response, he made preparations to bolster the Cult's forces around the tournament arena, aiming to ensure that their objectives would not be thwarted and that they could maintain control over the situation.

Upon arriving at the tournament for the final match, Perv, along with King Raphael Oriana, met up with Iris once more only to become wary when Beatrix was there, who took notice of something off about the king. Perv also thought of getting rid of Princess Iris if she were to become a hindrance at first but he decided to forget about it, due to Beatrix's presence which would become even more troublesome if she decided to make a move against him. Even Perv has to be on high alert about Mundane Mann because he never found anything about him no matter how hard Perv searches, which means Mundane is a pro and has some objective. So, Perv decides to wait until the predicament outcome of the match between Iris and Mundane.

He watched Iris's match against Mundane and was shocked that Iris was taken down in one strike. Suddenly, Rose Oriana arrived as he expected and apologizes to her father, stating she made mistakes and will likely make one more, but she decided to follow the path she believe in, to which Raphael replied that forgives all of her sins. Perv is surprised as he didn't instruct the king of saying that until Rose suddenly jumps at Perv, who then uses the king as a shield. However, Rose proceeds and stabs him in his heart which eventually killed the puppet king, along with wounding Perv.

Perv is shocked as he yells at Rose at how easily she killed her own father and outraged that he lost his puppet. When he sees Rose holding her blade against her neck, Perv ordered his men to stop the princess's suicide attempt only for them to be killed suddenly by Mundane Mann who then later revealed himself as **Shadow**.

#### Novel/Manga

Perv sends his men after Rose as she flees only to see the men he chose have been killed by **Shadow** and he watches **Shadow** against Beatrix but she was overwhelmed. Perv witnesses in horror as **Shadow's** fight ends with Beatrix losing even with Iris Midgar's help, as he bests both of them. Also, Perv witnessed **Shadow** emitting a large magic vortex from his body in the tournament.

#### Anime

Perv wants to stop her, but all of his men are already killed by Shadow Garden members. When Beatrix decide to jump in and clash with **Shadow**, Perv uses the chance to escape and runs back to Oriana Kingdom without stopping at the embassy, leaving the dead puppet King Raphael Oriana which will be return through Marquess Grant, who is the leader of the anti-chancellor faction.

In Oriana Kingdom, Mordred hears about the report of Perv failure mission in securing Rose was due to **Shadow** interference during the Bushin Festival tournament and conveyed his disappointment, to the point where he was forced to beg his superior’s forgiveness for his failure. Perv also told his superiors that as long as the Cult holds the royal family, Rose won't be able to stay hidden. Plus, Oriana's situation is already in chaos and turmoil with the loss of their king, Perv is sure that Rose can't ignore it and will definitely come back.

Mordred tells Perv to taking care of Oriana Kingdom's business first, while waiting for a news about the "Ring" hiding place and hopes for Perv not to disappoint him too much before he goes to the meeting with his fellow Rounds, until the Cult of Diablos have finally decides to get serious about crushing Shadow Garden.

### Great Trading Company Conflict

The Cult notice that the Mitsugoshi Company's success has grown in expanding their business rapidly since the time of their foundation in Midgar Kingdom is currently experiencing economic development which had improved dramatically along with their quality of life, thanks to its highly innovative products that are traded to the public and coupled with introducing banking notes to the world for increasing the currency value, which had become very popular among the kingdom's citizens allowed Mitsugoshi to venture into fractional-reserve banking to increase wealth, even to the point that foreign countries flocked to express interest in business relations with Mitsugoshi due to their fame by requesting for company store branches to be built in their capital, thereby strengthening Mitsugoshi's position as they continuing to expand their company's power and influence.

By seeing the accelerated expansion and influence of their company has reached overseas, the Cult of Diablos intends to destroy Mitsugoshi before it succeeds in controlling Midgar's market trade monopoly because they fear to consider that the existence of the Mitsugoshi Company so dangerous that it could become a potential powerful threat one day and prevent adding new obstacles that would becoming a hindrance to the Cult's future plans. However, this goal cannot be carried out personally because of the situation tied to Cult's concerns about Shadow Garden and not wanting to reduce their personnel, coupled with their ignorance that the Mitsugoshi Company is Shadow Garden's front.

At that time, Gettan wants to volunteered himself to accept this special mission, making the Cult leadership immediately gave their direct trust to Gettan in carrying out this task and ordered him to destroy the Mitsugoshi Company by leading the Major Corporate Alliance through his Garter Corporation, in exchange for taking a Seat in the Knights of Rounds for his dedicated hard work despite unconfirming the quantity of Tears of Diablos drops that will be produced this time of year.

Later, Gettan acted as the MCA's de facto shadow leader even though he was officially seen as a mercenary hired by Garter who worked as his subordinate and served as the puppet leader of the Alliance with Gettan giving orders to Garter to mobilize all of his private army to carry out all efforts to disrupt their competitors' distribution chains to hinder product sales in order to harm Mitsugoshi's business progress on the market.

Although the Alliance's only successful effort was causing losses from the traveling merchants who carried Mitsugoshi's goods to the commoners in the countryside however, Mitsugoshi refused to back down at all for whatever reason due to their urban trade was completely unaffected and still accelerating their expansion. Since the Alliance's efforts were fruitless in stopping their adversary's distribution chains, Gettan order Garter for an attempted to financially sabotage Mitsugoshi by sending their best enforcers, especially the Clovers who were Gettan's personal elite mercenary group to mount a daring attack on Mitsugoshi's carriage and eliminate their employees to intercept their business.

But unfortunately, the carriage's direct strike that carrying Mitsugoshi's goods products was also unsuccessful with their supply route unimpeded and still running smoothly due to not knowing that a meager mercenaries sent by MCA had faced fierce resistance from the *company's employees* who were Shadow Garden's well-trained forces, leading to many of their deaths and a few of them being captured for interrogation.

Moreover, Gettan asked the Alliance to try to imitate Mitsugoshi's idea of producing banknotes just like them, to the point to the point of establishing a bank and asking citizens (even by force) to replace bills from Mitsugoshi with MCA's banknotes, which for the Alliance is that the concept of credit is something new in the world market and tried to understand the concept to which they is still poorly understood. Furthermore, in contrast to Mitsugoshi, the bills of the MCA are easier to counterfeited which the Alliance produced per Gettan's direction when in fact the idea actually came from the Cult's plan to utilize counterfeit banknotes to distribute among kingdom's citizens to raise the liquidation of the substantial capital marketplace aimed at creating a credit collapse which ultimately brought down Mitsugoshi along with the Major Corporate Alliance.

While carrying out the Cult's plans, Gettan heard another report of failure from Garter after receiving word that the Alliance camp had been raided as his private troop prepared to disguise themselves as bandits to attack Mitsugoshi's camp carriage, resulting in the death of all the mercenaries in the camp, even one of the Clovers members also became one of the victims and Garter suspected that Mitsugoshi had hired several dark knights.

Not wanting the Alliance's resources to drain quickly, Gettan told Garter to send the remaining Clovers to infiltrate and conduct a night raid on Mitsugoshi's headquarters with the aim of obtaining money and product manufacturing details, also collect all the confidential documents while carrying out sabotage as well as looting and kidnapping important personnel without failure.

However, the following day, the Alliance's planned operation at the Mitsugoshi Company's main building also failed miserably as the Clovers didn’t return and were presumed to have been killed. Even Garter's private army as Clovers' support and rear guard that responsible for reporting back in case of mission failure, never returned either. Seeing how the Clovers, who were the best mercenary group whose members were chosen by themselves, had been eliminated, Gettan now understood the reason why the Cult considered Mitsugoshi to be a dangerous threat, confidently not minding the Clovers' failure because Mitsugoshi had been caught up in the Cult's plans.

When rumors about counterfeits had been discovered and began to spread in circulation has reached Gettan's ear, he told Garter to immediately find out where it came from, which he thought was that the Cult's plan had begun as they finish create the bills and liquidating them into the capital which accord on the initially planned to circulate counterfeit bills to destroy the credibility of the banknotes in order to overthrow Mitsugoshi by using MCA as a sacrificial pawn.

However, the plan was supposed to be executed after the Cult's assets and funds within the Alliance's vaults had been safely withdrawn from the capital and relocated to a designated place away from the public eye after completing their deal and sever their ties with the MCA. With this suddenness, Gettan decided to contact the Cult to ask his superiors to check the confirmation of the operation.

Unbeknownst to Gettan and the Cult of Diablos, it turns out that the credit collapse plan had already been used ahead of time by **Shadow** after he accept the invitation with the White Tower monarch, Yukime the Spirit Fox, asking him to join forces with her in joining the secret war between MCA and Mitsugoshi, seeking the collapse of both parties as **Shadow** working together with the Snow Fox Corporation from the Lawless City under the alias "John Smith" and implements the exact plan to create counterfeit money from Alliance's flashy bills that is circulated throughout the capital in order to collect all the gold coins they procure from the citizens.

By the time he heard the news from the Cult’s messenger, Gettan was furious because their counterfeits hadn’t been finished nor distributed. This tipped off Gettan that another party was mass-producing fake bills, and he speculated the culprit was the Mitsugoshi Company who used the Cult's plan against him. So, Gettan angerly ordered Garter to mobilize all his subordinates to find the route of the counterfeit money distribution chain and track down John Smith, who is the individual protecting the transportation carriage, in order to recover their funds and salvage the crisis.

With rumors of counterfeit money already circulating around the capital as winter begins, Gettan was running out of time because he couldn't find John Smith, even though Garter informs that John's trail ended up in the Lawless City, pursuing any further would be a fool's errand since any investigation in the Lawless City is incredibly risky and the MCA keep losing contact with their investigators upon entering the city area.

Knowing that the credit crisis time has near, Gettan hear that an influx of people exchanging their bills for gold and a massive liquidation request came in this morning to which all company presidents in the Alliance refuted Gettan's promises, asking to shut down the exchanges as they fearly knew their reserves wouldn’t hold out. Sensing something amiss from the huge liquidation order had come this morning, Gettan felt suspicious about it because no one would react that quickly until he ordered Garter to find out who made it as Gettan will investigate it himself and wait for further news from him.

During his investigation, Gettan's suspicions were proven correct when he confronted Yukime, who revealed that she was the one who caused the credit collapse. She revealed she did so by working together with John Smith, and Gettan sought to take back the money they stole in order to mend the crisis for the MCA's favor. He fought with Yukime and exploited an opening, forcing her down with a fatal wound and decided to kill her.

However, John Smith appeared and overpowered Gettan in brutal punching, demanding Gettan to confess; John Smith wanted Gettan to confess to taking the money he thought Gettan stole from him, while Gettan thought he meant what he felt about Yukime. Seeking to end John Smith and take back the money, he takes entire red pills and augments himself into a "Third Awakening", a futile effort as John Smith then beats him until he dies.

The day the credit collapse had begun, the Knight Order was mobilized by royal order to arrest all Alliance members who tried to escape and force them to open the vaults at MCA bank to appease the mob of patrons seeking their gold. Once the public discovered the duplicity of the smaller amount of money than the bills in circulation within their reserves, the populace lost their trust with the Major Corporate Alliance which was eventually dissolved, and the kingdom severely punished Garter as the leader of the Alliance along with all trading company presidents for fraud.

Subsequently after the Major Corporate Alliance's dissolution, the public then raced to Mitsugoshi Bank and found ample reserves, honoring their bills with enough surplus remaining by carry out the process of money exchange unaware that the mountains of gold coins stored in their bank vault actually came from **Shadow** which he had collected together with Yukime, to which effectively overcome the crisis and Mitsugoshi are able to restored the people's trust on the banknotes.

Knowing the MCA's history are finished after suffering a crushing defeat, Mitsugoshi took advantage of the Alliance's swift downfall by bought up all former Alliance assets and eliminate all of their competitors, also they gain monopoly rights to fully control the market, as well as further elevated their trust on the consumers.

Afterward, Mitsugoshi Company's social standing has been improved after becoming the winner in the regional trade war and their company influence became so powerful that even the Midgar Kingdom's government could not risk defying them and was financially dependent on the commercial monopoly, even forming a partnership with the Snow Fox Corporation.

For the Cult of Diablos itself that not only cost them the MCA by inadvertently making the Mitsugoshi Company more powerful than ever after they taking control over the marketplace in the region, but they also lost a large portion of their funds and influence in the kingdom to which will be impacting on all the factions that were in Midgar.

Especially for the Fenrir's Sect Faction which had recently been in decline after his faction was under constant attack by Shadow Garden for the past 5 years, while Fenrir was just starting on carrying out a mission to revive Diablos' right arm that have been sealed in the Midgar Royal Spellsword Academy to resupply the Tears of Diablos by kidnapping many student who were possessed magic power that are compatible with the Demon Possession at the Academy after the Sanctuary's destruction in Lindwurm had unleashed the left arm caused by **Shadow**.

### Oriana's "Black Rose" Civil War Wedding

Even though the Cult of Diablos finally started to get serious about destroying Shadow Garden due to the rapid development and progress of their efforts, the Cult in fact still felt very agitated by their lack of success due to their lack of information about Shadow Garden and having not yet in pinning down their base of operations.

Despite the Cult still believes that its grip on the world is still strong, Perv Asshat, who has seen **Shadow's** prowess firsthand, feels frightened and fears that the Cult still underestimates the threat he poses. When **Shadow** ruins his scheme at the previous Bushin Festival along with the escape of Princess Rose Oriana, Perv is forced to take a detour from his original plan and thought that the appearance of Shadow Garden is the Cult's own gross negligence in Perv's eyes.

Hearing the news that the key to the Black Rose had been found, Kouadoi was ordered to lead a group consisting of 40 First Children along with 3 Named Children to the location of the nearby ruins of Saisho Fort which had fallen into the hands of the Perv faction two days ago, as well as accompany Queen Reina Oriana to retrieve the "Ring of Succession". With the presence of Shadow Garden being a thorn in Perv's side, the Cult takes every precaution to ensure their mission in the Oriana went undetected.

Upon successfully breaking the seal and acquiring the ring, the deployed Cult group was ambushed by a Shadow Garden team led by 559 in which Queen Reina is nearly killed by 559's attack until the queen is saved by a member of the Numbers who which happened to be Rose Oriana and protects her mother from her superiors. Their argumentation allowed Kouadoi saw an opportunity to hold both Rose and the queen hostage during their dispute, whereupon 559 ignored the threat as she even brands Rose a traitor to Shadow Garden, making Kouadoi orders his men to send Rose along with her mother to Duke Perv Asshat while he engaged in battle with the enemy and called for reinforcements.

Perv had heard the news about the Shadow Garden at Saisho Fort and the Ring of Succession is almost stolen away from them, but he received a news that Rose Oriana is already captured also knowing that she become a member of Shadow Garden. After hearing the news that Perv had obtained the "Ring of Succession" and Princess Rose, Mordred immediately prepared to pull all the necessary strings for his 12th seat position, which he promised to Perv.

Anticipating Rose's return, Perv threatened Rose that her mother will be killed if she didn't comply with his orders. Reina being her mother and only family left, Rose was forced to comply with Perv's orders under the threat of her mother's safety while unaware that she conspired with him. Despite retrieving the ring, Perv realized that the ring's ownership was altered to Rose and that only she could activate it.

Left with no other choice, Perv was forced to compromise his plans from taking over the kingdom through usurpation by marring Rose in order to win the civil war so that he could gain ownership of the ring and finally succeed in completing his mission. In doing so, this would've ensured his position as 12th seat of the Knights of Rounds and the Cult of Diablos can directly conquer Oriana Kingdom as their puppet state, as well as handing Rose over to the Cult's nefarious experimentation after they extracted Shadow Garden's intel from her.

Since news of Shadow Garden's raid at Fort First had reached Perv, he had tightened the security around the capital to ensure that Shadow Garden couldn't infiltrate and take any action that could jeopardize his plans.

Following days later, Kouadoi still standing but his men is already dead after the fight for three day and night. While 559 also standing but running out of mana along with her teammates. He decides to kill her, but suddenly his legs have been cut by her and met his death by the hands of **Shadow** himself.

The next day when Perv was surveying the palace with his entourage, he coincidentally met Shiron who was an invited guest set to perform at their venue. However, she was with an uninvited young boy who claimed to be an apprentice. Suspicious of his presence coupled with the incident at Fort First, Perv stopped the two under the pretext of changing the castle's premise rules and that her apprentice might've been an intruder.

To confirm his suspicion, Perv tried testing the alleged apprentice of his legitimacy in front of the venue of nobles. Surprisingly, Perv was too touched by the boy's performance of "The Moonlight Sonata" much to his shocked and joy that he has willing to meet the apprentices in person to ask his name but the boy refuses to telling his name and leaves with Shiron, unaware the boy steals the "Ring of Succession" from his pocket.

After the performance, Perv barged into Rose's room after he heard that she was talking to someone. When he entered her room, he saw no one in the room but Rose. Perv confronted her about her current situation and threatened that her mother's safety was dependent on her cooperation with him. Unbeknownst to him however, Cid overheard everything of their conversation while hiding outside the room and learnt that she was coerced into the marriage.

Later in the night, Perv went into Reina's room and told her that once his business with Rose is over, he would publicize their relationship in front of the kingdom's citizens. While they became intimate, both of them not realized that Cid witness and heard everything they talked about until he concludes that Reina was never in danger to begin with and was conspiring in the kingdom's usurpation, all the while having an affair with The Chancellor.

Consequently, Rose found out about her own mother's affair with Perv and their involvement in seizing the Oriana Kingdom after Cid in his **Shadow** persona showing her the truth and reignite Rose's resolve in saving her kingdom as she became troubled and confused by her mother's betrayal and Cid's arrival until he decide to leave unknowingly that the "Key" has been Cid pocketed left in Rose's room, unaware of its true identity. Rose thought it was Cid's and became certain he was there to support her in her time of need after he gave her a speech about trust as a sign of both affection and devotion, to which the princess became set on saving her kingdom once more from the Cult.

Before the preparation for the wedding day at the ceremonial hall is complete, Perv dreaded over the security in the capital to the point where he had to carry out a check on the defensive perimeter from reports of Cult agents disguised as guards to ensure his plans followed through and that Shadow Garden wouldn't interfere, as well as watching on their movements that might be currently plotting something within the kingdom. With a tight security system in place, Perv assured himself that once he married Rose, he'll snuff out intel from her and be promoted to 12th seat after seizing the kingdom if everything goes smoothly as his calculation along with the backing of the faction led by Sir Mordred. Despite the elevation, Perv was well aware that he had the weakest track record of achievements and that he'll have to follow Mordred to gain more political power within the Rounds and whatever faction is in control.

Upon opening the case that contained the "Ring of Succession", Perv discovered that the ring was gone and began to panic. He thought to be sure that the box containing the ring was with him at all times and the only person who knew its location was Reina. However, Perv knew that the queen didn't a motive to do so and even thought that Shadow Garden was responsible. However, he also knew it was nonsensical when they would've simply killed him for it.

Left with no one else to deduct, Perv realizes that this act must have been caused by an inside job from the work of Mordred's opposing faction with their wicked motives and want to ruin Perv, which got him played by setting a cruel trap for him by stealing the ring and leaving the box. Believing that an internal power struggle must have begun if his assumption was correct, Perv assumed that his dream of becoming a Rounds had already shatter as his promotion to the 12th seat is vanish and Perv would definitely be killed for sure if Mordred finds out about his blunder.

Therefore, Perv sought to find the ring himself without using any Cult personnel due to their loyalties lie with Mordred. Fortunately, Perv still has some time left before he actually needs the ring, and he can probably buy himself time for three days before the handoff. At the time Perv wanted to do a search for the "Ring of Succession", Mordred spoke to him telepathically for congratulate and expect great things from Perv because everything is already setup for him in the honorary promotion that the 12th seat would be his once the mission is over and hope not to disappoint him. Uncertain of what the future holds, Perv anxiously continued on with the wedding.

At the wedding ceremony while Perv is waiting for the bride's vow, Rose suddenly proclaims her refusal to marry when she stated that she was indeed fully responsible for killing her father with Rose providing clarification in accusing Perv of being guilty of his crimes against the kingdom for manipulating the king, defiling the queen, and plotting to overthrow the government which is considered the highest treason.

Perv, who heard her refusal, asked Rose not to mess around by taking back what she had just said and say her vow like a good little girl so that he was willing to ignore what she had just done by reminding her about her mother hostage, Rose didn't want to obey Perv's orders because she promised herself that she would make her love come true, whatever the cost when she presented the Ring of Succession, much to Perv's shocked.

When Perv saw the ring is activated and a recording of the late king Raphael Oriana's projection appears to have been accordingly played to everyone in attendance presently, the king exposed Perv as the main culprit in his manipulation while implying his wife's involvement on his crimes for an attempt to brainwash the king and the Cult's conspiracy to usurping the kingdom along with revealing all the criminal activities carried out by Perv, as well as his helplessness in his struggle to continue fighting to protect his country until Raphael lastly entrusted Oriana Kingdom's future to his daughter and implored the citizens to believe in her as Rose will lead their nation to greatness before the recording finished.

Realizing that his plans have completely fallen through, Perv desperately tried to order for his now ex-fiancé's apprehension. Haven seen through everything, the guards at the venue glared at Perv in response. Now confronted by the princess, an enraged Perv attacked Rose and their final skirmish commenced. Initially thought to be evenly matched, Rose overpowered Perv and avoided fatally wounding him to confess his sins.

With the truth revealed, Mordred suddenly decided to reveal himself after killing Perv Asshat for his incompetence along with Queen Reina Oriana for just a little cleanup, also opens the now unlocked Black Rose portal gate, letting loose hordes of Magical Beasts upon the capital in order to kill everyone in Oriana so that the Cult can take control of what's left of the kingdom. Shadow Garden then make their move to suppress the outbreak and two Seven Shadows, Epsilon and Beta confronting Mordred to check "their answers on a few things" before they kill him.

However, Mordred didn't seem to care about their responses because he didn't want to waste his time for them as he pulls something from his pocket and hurls it into the Black Rose to summons the Grand Ruler of the Fourth Realm, Ragnarok in order to wipe out the members of Shadow Garden along with the capital. When Ragnarok is about to carry out its attack, **Shadow** appeared and cut one of Ragnarok’s wings. Mordred began to praise Ragnarok for his sudden strike and mocked Shadow that he angered Ragnarok, before **Shadow** cut Ragnarok off and mocked him back and he began fighting against Ragnarok to the death outside the capital.

While **Shadow** fights Ragnarok, Mordred fight against Beta and Epsilon in the triangle position. Then, in the blink of an eye, Mordred decide to strike at both of them before they leap backward at the same time, only able to wound the cheek of the legendary Faithful, Epsilon. Mordred compliment them for dodged his strike until Beta revealing his secret, which is the Invisible Sword from the long-lost elven artifact that was supposed to be kept in the elven capital and Beta accuses him of stealing the sword until asking him to return the sword he stole, which made Mordred taunts them for trying to take the sword away from him before Epsilon suddenly strike him down by throw her attack filled with magic, much to his shocked as Epsilon along with Beta gave him a warning shot because they both want Mordred to provide them information that he knew, in order to confirm the understanding of their answer.

Despite his efforts, Mordred felt twist in humiliation after fighting Beta and Epsilon, only for him to be struggle to which even Rose join the fight. Shortly after both sides still on the confrontation, Mordred decides to end the fight after having conversation to them about the "Black Rose", the magical beasts and Diablos at his confident that Ragnarok will defeat **Shadow**. Mordred telling them started at there are countless other worlds beyond their own world in entire other dimensions, which he calls it Realms. With the worlds orbiting around and spin as the years go by until they collide, which the impact sends rifts across the worlds, with two different worlds become linked and each exerts influence on the other.

Even Mordred says that this world has no magic and human are not the original inhabitants, because this world making contact with Realm in another world and the Cult are doing research for their working theory that this world and the Realms interact with each other on a cyclical basis and exerts influence over each other. When Beta questions him whether Diablos also came from one of these other worlds, Mordred claimed that her assumption was false by stating her that Diablos was a genuine inhabitant of their world and telling her that the demon isn’t true of the original Diablos, which is the organism that became the basis for Diablos and theorize that Diablos called the original in from the First Realm which is higher than the Fourth Realm.

After Mordred checking both Seven Shadows last answer about the "Black Rose" which Beta confirm that it’s a gate that can connect to this world to Realms, he praise them for their correct assumption about the "Black Rose" and telling the real story of the "Black Rose" when accidently open also poured Magical Beasts at Oriana Kingdom during the siege of Velgalta Empire, which was a stroke of misfortune for both nation. Even with the Velgaltan soldiers dead, the gate still kept summoning magical beasts and began to consuming Oriana and the kingdom would have been quite literally obliterated, if someone or something did not appear, to intervene and close the door. As Beta proclaim that it was then that the Cult of Diablos decided to make the Oriana Kingdom their puppet, Mordred replied that the Cult was the one who closed the door and saved the kingdom with the administration of the Black Rose to make sure that the kingdom will survive in perpetuity if the kingdom gives the Cult a sufficient compensation, which is the Royal Blood.

Mordred tell Rose Oriana that it was her blood that the Cult wanted, which even for a royal that she blessed with incredible amounts of magic and as their agreement, the kingdom should have turned her over to the Cult when she still a baby. But his father, the king foolishly refused them. Beta also adding that the Cult compensation not only a royal blood for kingdom to demanded. The other compensation is that Oriana were to give a majority of their tax revenue to the Cult, resulting in the kingdom to heavily invest on the arts was so it could entertain them. On top of that, the Cult are manipulating the Church to persecuted Dark Knights as a way for the Cult to prevent Oriana from gaining the strength and no manpower to rebel against the Cult, which basically became a puppet kingdom. Beta tell Rose that the King wanted to break the cycle by forged an alliance with Midgar Kingdom, in order to fix his twisted nation from within, and tried to secede from the Cult, but they killed him and confirming the reason Rose allowed to study at Midgar Academy is to get her somewhere safe from harm.

Mordred calling Rose's father, the king as a fool and telling him that with the gates of the "Black Rose" still open despite its unstable state, the Cult will take direct control of the Oriana Kingdom. However, Rose Oriana, who hates the Cult, will not let that happen and will continue her father's cause by rebuilding her kingdom with her own hands. He laughs at her statement and wish that Oriana Kingdom will burn to the ground by Ragnarok until suddenly a Ragnarok's right arm fell at the place Mordred fought against Beta and Epsilon, hitting his left arm.

Noticing this arm, Mordred still believe **Shadow** can't bring down Ragnarok when a Ragnarok's body parts flying one after the other have been gather at the same place, much to his surprise. Beta calling him a fool because **Shadow** had him dancing in the palm of his hand this whole time and add every piece's clue of the many Shadow Garden forces being gathered here, the "Black Rose" reaction and how did Rose Oriana have the "Ring of Succession" which is the key of Black Rose.

Hearing this, Mordred now realized that **Shadow** knew everything from the very start and wanted to observe the Cult's movement until he plans on destroying the Black Rose in its entirety, also saw Ragnarok's remains fell in front of his eyes along with **Shadow**. Mordred become disillusioned about the power of Shadow Garden is so much stronger than the Fourth Realm itself. Then, Mordred hollow laugh escapes from his throat because the outcome and decide to consuming Ragnarok’s flesh, absorbing its power until his body begin to change and strike **Shadow** with his upgrade power form.

**Shadow** seeing Mordred state by telling him as a failed experiment and taunt him that Ragnarok was stronger than him also mock him about merging with too much power without intellect, much to his frustrated anger. While **Shadow** was still looking at the sky with his back to Mordred saying the darkened sky heralds the end and hearing the nascent monarch’s cry to Mordred, **Shadow** powerful magic began gathers at his right hand.

When until his magic finally gathers at his obsidian sword which spiraling through the air and drawing an elaborate pattern over the weapon’s blade, Mordred could only be shocked of his magic which no human could have possibly possessed this massive power before **Shadow** kills him with his Atom attack.

### United on the Verge of Cult's Total Annihilation

Learning about their failed operation in the Oriana Kingdom, all members of the Knights of Rounds (except Fenrir) had convened the **"Round Table Committee"** council meeting this year to discuss the topic of the Cult's recent losses and decided that Shadow Garden must be eliminated by stating that they become a formidable threat after considering their blunder with the result of their failure operation mission and the destruction of their base of operation facilities, including the Sanctuary at Lindwurm that used to be the sealing place of the Diablos' left arm, even many of their member have been killed, including two Rounds member, leaving 3 vacant seats position in the Rounds.

With the release of the demon's left arm, the Cult was beginning to run out of Tears of Diablos that would grant immortality to the "Knights of Rounds", which made these intolerable and the Cult's "Rounds" members desperation grow increased thus they were in a great hurry to revive Diablos' other body parts. Hence, they sent out aid to assist Fenrir, who was not present at the meeting with the mission to revive Diablos' right arm that was kept in the Sanctuary at the Midgar Academy, to resupply the Tears and needed to decide on whether or not the 3 vacant seats would be occupied, considering how many drops to be expectedly produced this year.

As a result, the number of drops has decreased even further with the amount produced not as much as in previous years, which is estimated to be around maybe nine to eight drops. Loki, another Rounds seat member and hostile to Fenrir ignite their fellow Rounds by reminding them about the repeated failure of Fenrir and his faction which already become the problem for the Cult and make a decision that Fenrir will not take any of the Tears until his mission for reviving the right arm is success, which make an approval decision on Loki suggestion.

In the end, the Cult decided to stop factional strife and are now united for the first time in centuries in order to eliminate the existential threat from Shadow Garden until the remaining *Knights of Rounds* began to step in as they start to mobilize all of the organization's power into full force in response to Shadow Garden's harmful exploits against the Cult of Diablos whose actions will force the existence of their organization which had been hidden during its founding to go aboveground surface and become known to the eyes of the world, even the Cult tried to set up an "operation" to eliminate **Shadow** with Loki as its leader as **Shadow** is considered their greatest threat due to his unreasonable strength.

As a result of the council's decision, the Cult appointed Petos as an emissary who became the organization's representative by sending him to Midgar Academy to meet with Fenrir and inform him of all decision that had been made by the Rounds in the meeting at the **Round Table**, while bringing the latest artifacts developed in the Cult's laboratory that would be useful to help Fenrir's mission in speeding up the releasing process of Diablos' right arm in the Sanctuary and secretly wanted to confirm to Fenrir whether a certain Therianthrope girl was there.

### The Academy Disappearances

When their operations in the Oriana Kingdom ended in failure, the Cult lost their foothold in Oriana after Shadow Garden had already eliminated their influence. Afraid that their existence would be exposed by Shadow Garden's actions to the point where their hold on the religion would be threatened, the Cult uses their connections within the Holy Church to create a faux story of their puppet ruler, Rose, being a patricide who summoned the Black Rose in the first place and turning the nation into a heretic state, resulting other nations cutting ties with them and their trade being severely restricted. The Cult also began gathering a large number of troops in the neighboring country to launch an "Inquisition", intending to completely annihilate the Oriana Kingdom to cover any traces of their activities.

At the same time, the Fenrir's Sect Faction is still carrying out the mission from the Cult to awaken the Diablos' right arm in the Midgar Academy to resupply the Tears of Diablos that granted immortality for the Knights of Rounds which are currently starting to decrease.

Using false evidence, the Cult has also managed to manipulate the Crimson Order into believing that the Cult of Diablos does not exist and that the Shadow Garden invented it to cover up their crimes.

## Equipment and Artifacts

Over time, the Cult of Diablos has created, collected, and stolen many artifacts, weapons, and other things around the world in order to increase the power of their organization and its members by using it as living force weapons to strengthen to the members and becoming powerful entities, at the same time as said things, they possessed the power, to repel or even capture powerful Demonic entities or not, belonging to parallel dimensions, or to be able to collect a sample of their blood or meat. Said artifacts and weapons that the Cult has had consist of:

* Red Pills and Tears of Diablos (Used by Cult members and their superiors which are the 12 Knights of Rounds)
* Swords ()
* Fire Arms (Anime only) (Equipment that are normal for the Cult and its members to use and maybe improve)
* Magic Sealing Chains ()
* Eye of Avarice (Used by Lutheran Barnett, to cure his disease and gain magical power)
* Sanctuary (Used by Cult members and their superiors as territory they created)
* The Holy Sword of Olivier (Weapon that can only be used by Olivier's direct descendants)
* The Holy Sword of (Freya) (Weapon that can only be used by "Freya" direct descendants)
* Invisible Magic Sword (Used by Mordred, as his special weapon)
* Black Rose (Used as a portal gate that can connect to the Realms)
* Blood Fang (Used by Fenrir, as his special weapon)

## Known Members

### Knights of Rounds

The *Knights of Rounds* are supreme executive that hold permanent seats on the highest authoritative body within the Cult, which consist of the organization's twelve superior knights and receive the "Beads of Diablos" in granting them demonic strength and immortality. However, each member becomes the leader of their respective faction.

#### Current Rounds Seat Holder

* Loki, Unknown seat
* Hel, Unknown seat
* Jormungandr, Unknown seat
* Fenrir, 5th seat (Deceased)
* Mordred, 9th seat and the "Knight Beyond Men" (Deceased)
* Petos, 10th seat
* Acting Archbishop Jack Nelson, 11th seat and the "Avaricious" (Deceased)

#### Former Rounds Seat Holder

* Lord Laugus, 11th seat (Deserted, Deceased)
* Assistant Principal Ruslan Barnett (Sir Gaunt), 12th seat (Revoked, Deceased)

### Children of Diablos

The *Children of Diablos* serve as the Cult's vanguard, with them operating behind the scenes in exercising their authority by exploiting their influence position which can be earned through blackmail, sabotage, manipulation, conspiracy, even assassination.

#### First Children

* Marquis Zenon Griffey, prime candidate of the 12th seat (Deceased)
* Rex, the "Game of Betrayal" (Deceased)
* Kouadoi, the "Raging Gale" (Deceased)
* Viscount Jean, the "Dark Smile" (Deceased)
* The Black Spider (Deceased)
* Sergey Gorman, the "Storm Sword"
* Stan Bach (Deceased)
* Karen von Herzog, the "Shooting Star" (Defected to Shadow Garden)

#### Second Children

* Viscount Olba (Deceased)
* Royal Chancellor Duke Doem Ketsuhat, 12th seat candidate (Deceased)
* Gettan, 12th seat candidate (Deceased)
* Crimson Order Vice Commander Hubb

#### Third Children

These children are the 10 percent who are deemed worthless ordinary members that are solely used for basic combat and treated them as foot soldiers which made them useful sacrifice tools; bearing no names, and as such, will never be recorded below.

### Associates

Over time, the Cult of Diablos managed to persuade or force the individuals of other races and people with different statuses and positions to temporarily work with them from the outside and complete missions requested by the Cult's leadership before being able to fully enter the organization, acting as collaborators, conspirators, sleeper agents, and spies. Regardless of their loyalty, they are easily expendable for the organization.

#### Enforcers

* Executioner Venom the Wandering Swordsman (Deceased)

#### Accomplices

* Queen Reina Oriana (Deceased)
* Isaac (Deceased)

## Sect Factions

Considering the fact, the Cult of Diablos exists since ancient times and all attempts to oppose them were swiftly dealt with, they become arrogance as they always been at odds with each other member that always wishing for eternal life and ruling the world from the shadows, as well as possessing wealth and fame. Also, doing engaged in the strife tension of internal power struggles against each other faction, because their own desired of selfishness and greed as they only lusted on the demon's power which they have not worked together for hundreds of years.

Each member of the Knights of Rounds has their own faction, which divided into 12 different Sect faction using their name on their faction; namely:

* Loki's Sect Faction
* Hel's Sect Faction
* Jormungandr's Sect Faction
* Fenrir's Sect Faction **(Defunct)**
* Mordred's Sect Faction **(Defunct)**
* Petos' Sect Faction
* Nelson's Sect Faction **(Defunct)**
* Barnett's Sect Faction **(Defunct)**

After the emergence of the opposition from the shadow organization called, Shadow Garden, the Cult's leadership still looking down on Shadow Garden because their own delusional self-assurance on their own capabilities as they believe that they be able to destroy them.

By the time the Cult realized that Shadow Garden thwarting every mission and territory base which they operated also wiped out every member of the Cult present including the *Rounds* members, their strength became greatly reduced and their personnel were far less than they had possibly recruited, making the Cult are completely unprepared to oppose an organization of far greater size than any of their other opponents.

Because the Cult can't be sure to verified about the Shadow Garden organization's strength as they doing a pretty good job to hiding it from them, the Cult's *"Knights of Rounds"* having convened a council meeting called the **"Round Table Committee"** after the failure mission in the Oriana Kingdom, which they have finally decided to take the Shadow Garden's threat seriously, as well as ending the factional disputes and now united for the first time in centuries.

## Nations under the Cult's influence control

The Cult of Diablos has control over every country within their grasp thanks to their sphere of influence all over the world, as well as having many connections that has been built up since the founding of the organization and organizing the country into sectoral territories of each faction to carry out their operations in the shadows.

## Trivia

* The name of Diablos from Spanish word and Diabolos (διάβολος) from Greek word, often translated as "Devil".
* The Knights of Rounds and the **Round Table Committee** at the Cult of Diablos organization are based on the Knights of the Round Table from Arthurian legend, with some members even sharing the names of the real knights.
	+ Among the Cult's "Knights of Rounds" members, there were several names are also inspired from Norse mythology, such as Fenrir or Loki. Even in the game at the "Seven Shadows Chronicles" story has revealed the two members' names, namely Hel and Jormungandr.
* Overall, all members of the Cult of Diablos that have been revealed so far are predominately male.
	+ But as the story progresses in the Light Novel plus being in the Game, it turns out that there are Cult' members who are female and teenagers from aristocratic families who have connections with organizations that join the Cult, namely Karen von Herzog and Isaac.
	+ Although it seems strange, in the Cult Organization, there are also members, at the female level, both within the memories of the Sanctuary.
* It seems that not even the Cult itself is aware of the disasters and disorders that it leaves behind, in its arrogant attempt to obtain its longed-for immortality, which becomes one of its many weaknesses, which can allow others to become discover them.
* In the anime, it is revealed that the Cult of Diablos symbol is used as a symbol for the Holy Church of Divine Teachings religion.
* In the Anime the Cult’s assassins wear the same outfits as Executioner Venom, it is not known whether assassins are a section built from his students or whether they imitated him.
* The creation of the Demon Diablos, although it was a failed initial experiment of the cult, after a while they were happy to have created a supreme magical being, who had what they Ahnelaban, so they decided to call their organization as; "The Cult of Devils".

## References

1. ↑ *Volume 2 Chapter 2: Investigating the Sanctuary!*
2. ↑ *Volume 1 Prologue: Preparing the Perfect Stage!*
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 *Volume 4 Chapter 3: Crashing the Ceremony!*
4. ↑ *Volume 1 Chapter 3: My Official Beginning as a Mastermind in Action!*
5. ↑ Episode 12
6. ↑ *Volume 1 Chapter 5: Mastering the Peaceful Life of a Nobody!*
7. ↑ Episode 12