Zeon Countdown



Zeon Countdown is a 1-volume, 13-issues comic book about the story of Zeon's final days before it's ultimate destruction. It mainly follows the king's chairman and Zeon's most famous scientist Forseti, as he discovers that the stars around the planet Zeon have been acting strange over the past years.

Characters

 * Forseti - The king's chairman and Zeon's most famous scientist. Known for being honest and to be a someone wtih a strong personality, he is the first Beorn to notice the strange occourings around the planet.
 * Bragi - A poet who is constantly escaping against the king's forces, as they believe that Bragi's works are against his government and are corrupting the young beorns of Zeon. His most well known work is called "".
 * Freyr - The king of the country Hel. Known for be ruthless with his opponents, Freyr is pretty protective to his people. Often considered to be considered to be Zeon's best king, Freyr holds a dark secret within him.
 * Heremod - Hel's army leader. Trained by the king himself, Heremod has been thought by him how to not lose control even during dark times. Born during a war, Heremod has spent his entire life perfecting his body and mind to be the perfect war machine.
 * Hoor - King and army leader of the Zeon's rival country, Vanaheimr. Looking to conquer the entire planet of Zeon, Hoor is known for his self-minded way to think, as his only goal is to be "perfect" and as his self-minded way to think, he believes that he is the only one that deserves to be the leader of the countries.
 * Týr - A demigod, daughter of the major deities of the Fantendoverse with a beorn. Týr was the focus of a massacre that killed an entire species. She wanders around the world as a punishment from her father himself. She is destined to walk around Zeon at the most miserable places ever and suffering from the worst things.
 * Ullr - A mercenary, hired by Hel's forces to be their trump card. A mysterious and unpredictable foe.
 * Vili - Hel's judge, born without legs or arms. She is known for her will power and determination, even with those handicaps.

Issue #1 - Reppertum
Alternate title: Discovery


 * "Zeon. Such a beatiful planet", says Bragi, the poet of Zeon to a crowd of young Beorns. "Home of interesting creatures, crafted perfectly by the god and protector of Zeon, Ferre. One thing that Ferre left for us after he created the planet was a warning, when the stars stop shining the dark skies, him and the other deities will give us our deepest desire, peace. At the cost of our homeland."


 * After Bragi stops talking, a young beorn comes and asks him a question.


 * "Mr. Bragi, that means that our world is going to end?"


 * Bragi appears to be silent for a few seconds and then he replies.
 * "That is one interpretation of his warning."


 * Right after Bragi says that a group of knights notices him. Bragi asks for the youngsters to run, while he escapes through the other way.
 * "Damn it, missed him again.", says Heremod, leader of the army.
 * "Let's go back and hope to Ferre that Freyr is in a good mood today.", Heremod and his crew heads back to the castle.

Meanwhile, in the castle, Forseti comes to the castle.


 * "You are late.", the king Freyr says.


 * "Milord, I apologize for being late today, but you see it is a bit time consuming coming all the way from where I live to the castle. It would be easier if you have given me a way to travel to here faster.", Forseti replies.


 * Freyr laughs a bit and says:


 * "And they say that I am the close-minded person. Forseti, I have given you the opportunity to live on this castle many times and yet you seem to stick with that little house that a simple rock would be able to crush it."


 * "Look, it is something I have explained to you already, that house is the only thing that my parents left me after they went to vacation in Hell or something.", Forseti replies.


 * Freyr appears to be stuck in place, silent.


 * "Anything wrong, milord?", Forseti asks, woried.


 * "It's nothing, Forseti.", Freyr goes to the throne room.


 * "Good ol' Freyr, always being weird and odd.", Forseti goes to the chairman room.

After a while, Heremod arrives on the castle.


 * "Father and Lord of Hel, I have returned and I bring you news regarding the fugitive." Heremod says.


 * "Well then, have you managed to capture Bragi?", Freyr asks.


 * "No sir, the attempt was unsuccesful. He managed to outrun us again.", Heremod replies.


 * A few moments of silence happens after Heremod's response.


 * "Father and Lord of Hel, I don't think that I deserve the title of leader of Hel's forces if I can't catch a simple old Beorn. I don't want to turn our forces into a joke and so I ask to you to remove my leadership.", Heremod puts his sword down and moves towards the exit, without Freyr saying anything, until Heremod reaches the very end.


 * "No.", Freyr replied, "You deserve the title of leader, Heremod. A Beorn that acknowledges his own errors and that training to overcome those errors is the one that I want to lead my troops in war. I prefer a Beorn that knows that he isn't perfect, than one that thinks too much of itself that only prefers victory.".


 * Heremod stops and looks towards Freyr and quietly replies with:


 * "Thank you, milord."

In the meanwhile, Forseti is on the chairman room, doing his usual study of the stars. He looks at the constelations and seems nothing is out of the usual, except for one constelation, that simply just disappeared.


 * "What the?", Forseti quietly says.

Forseti started looking in his astronomy books to see if there is any previous knowledge of this event happening before and he didn't managed to find anything, except for one non-astronomy book, a poetry, written by Bragi. The poetry described the same event that Forseti just witnessed and started to have thoughts on the matter, questions regarding whatever or not the poetry might be right or wrong, if the poetry is actually a prediction or not, if it was a simple coincidence or not. As he walks around his room asking those questions, he sees through the window a group of youngsters, whose description matched the one that Heremod previously described in other attempts of trying to capture Bragi. He goes outside to talk with those youngsters.

He meets up with the other beorns and asks about Bragi. They remain silent for few minutesm until Forseti asks why they are silent. The youngsters says that they are like that because Bragi told them to believe no one linked by with the king. Forseti leaves disappoined, but also curious about the situation, why is Bragi so much hated by the king. He returns to the castle and asks Freyr directly.


 * "Milord, could I ask what is the deal with this Bragi beorn? He doesn't seems to be threathing or doesn't seems to be doing anything wrong." Forseti says.

Forseti looks suprised and worried by Freyr's statement and quickly replies with "I'm sorry for my claims, milord, I will return to my post now."
 * Freyr stares and laughs at Forseti's claims of Bragi's innoncence, "If there is something that sack of garbage Bragi isn't is innoncent. It is a long story and one that I am not particularly interested in telling. You better return to your post before you face the jury."

At the chairman room, Forseti once again takes a look at the bookstand.


 * "What is with the king and Bragi? There doesn't seems to be anything related to Bragi on my bookstand, who else could know more about Bragi... wait a minute, the judge! She has information of every case in the kingdom, she might help me in this issue."

Forseti stayed on his post until late night, when he goes back home. Instead of going home, he went to the court room. There, he met with Vili.


 * "Judge Vili, I apologize for coming late at night to talk with you but I didn't had a better time to do this.", Forseti said in a hurry.


 * "What's the hurry, Forseti? Have you done something wrong?", Vili replied


 * "No, I came here to ask about someone in the kingdom, Bargi the poet." Forseti replied.


 * "Bargi. Hm, that name is indeed familiar, but I am afraid that I cannot help you Forseti.", Vili replied.


 * "Why not?", Forseti asks.


 * "Because all the documents related to the beorn in question were burned by a request of the king.", Vili explains.


 * "Does anything related to him still exists?", Forseti once again asks, still wanting to know anything about the deal between Freyr and Bragi.


 * "Techincally, there is.", Vili asks to Forseti follow her.

-

They go into the court room's archives, where she gets one of the documents related to a case.


 * "Case #1782, accusation: murder, victim: Palom, accused: Bragi", Vili starts reading the file before being interrupted by Forseti.


 * "Palom?", Forseti appears to be surprised by the name.


 * "Palom was Freyr's wife. After the case, everything related to her was destroyed alongside Bragi's documents.", Vili replied.


 * "Why the king would do such thing?", Forseti asked.


 * "If you let me finish reading, then you shall may know.", Vili replied in a tone of bitter anger, Forseti kept silent and Vili read the rest of the document.


 * Later.


 * "So basically, Bragi killed Palom?" Forseti asked.


 * "The evidence seems to point to that conclusion, there is nothing that disproves the king's alibi.", Vili replied.


 * Forseti kept silent for a while, like if he was thinking about something related ot the case, then he said "Thanks for the help, Vili.".


 * Your always welcome., replies Vili, as Forseti leaves the courtroom.

The comic ends with Forseti walking home, asking himself five questions:


 * "Is Bragi's poetry a premonition or a coincidence?"


 * "Why did Bragi killed Palom?"

"Did Bragi really killed Palom?" and lastly;
 * "Why did the king laughed when I mentioned Bragi considering that it involved his wife's death?"
 * "What is going to happen with Zeon?"

He walks home and accidentally drops his scarf on a river that is reflecting on of Zeon's constelations, and the constelation fades away in the river.

Issue #2 - Dubium
Alternative Title: Doubt

Following the events at the end of Zeon Countdown, Forseti decides to confront the king about one of his questions. "Milord.", Forseti says, in a nervous tone. "This isn't about that Bragi peasant, isn't it? I thought you already got over this.", Freyr replied. "I contacted Villi about Bragi and her information only gave me more doubts that I hope that you can answer me about it.", Forseti says, having difficulty to actually say due his own fear of the king. "I see... Villi didn't did what I said her to do. You are aware that having knowledge of this information is a thing that can get you to jail?", Freyr replied, loudly and angrily. "Pardon me, Milord, but it is a topic that it is bothering m-", Forseti is interrupted mid-sentence by Freyr, "Enough, fool. Even being aware of the consequences of your actions, you still insist in doing it. Very well, as the father and lord of Hel, I myself give you a guilty verdict for the rest of your life. You will have no judgment. You don't have a right for a defense. Straight behind the bars until your last breath. Curiosity can kill, you know. You are very lucky I am in a good mood today, because otherwise, I would have sent you directly to the guillotine. Now, general Heremod, call your man and send this man to jail, right now." Forseti looks baffled at the king while Heremod and his men escorts him to the jail.

"This is unfair! Even the cruelest of men had a chance to face the court, why am I being sent directly to jail for a question?", Forseti angrily shouted. "The king has his reasons to do such thing. While his actions may seem not logical for you, one must remember he is our father and lord and if you don't follow what he says this is the punishment you get.", Heremod replies to Forseti as he leaves.

Forseti sits on a bench of his jailcell. He looks at the window and sees the missing stars. "My first step into trying to solve the question and it literally sent me to jail.", Forseti thought. "Don't give up so easily.", an unknown voice said. "Huh? Who was that?", Forseti replied. "Forseti of the North, aren't you?", the voice once again replied. "How do you know me?", Forseti replied, surprised. "My name is Bragi, the poet. I traveled around the four continents of Zeon and met several faces. Names are a thing that I don't easily forget.", "Bragi? I thought that the police was looking for you.", Forseti seemed even more confused. "They were succesful this night. Having different beliefs seems to be a civil offense to the king.", Bragi replied, in a monotone voice. "May I ask you a few questions?", Forseti asks. "I believe you want to know about my story, very well, as a poet, I feel happy to tell my story to a new folksman. Ask what you want, I will not hold my words.", Bragi replied, still without any emotion. "What was your connection to the king?", Forseti asked. "He married my daughter, Palom.", Bragi gets immedieatly interrupted by Forseti, "The one that they said you kill?", "Words are a quite powerful weapon, Forseti of the North Continent. Although, words alone don't have the power to take down the real story. What the king is doing is hidding himself behind a wall of words, in which he uses his position to take anyone that might be any kind of threat to him.", Bragi replied, in a slightly angered tone. "If you didn't killed her, who did?", Forseti replied. "There was a fourth person that night. The killer wasn't the king or me, but instead the demigod Týr.", Bragi once again gets interrupted by Forseti, "But she is only a legend. A story.", Forseti replied in a baffled tone. "And so were the missing stars, but it's happening."

Bragi continues, "The truth was that Týr had a massive grudge against the poor ones and Palom and I were one of them. Týr did not understood the responsabilities of her powers and left her own belifs take control of her. This led her to kill everyone of us, with the obvious exceptions of me and Palom. Nobody knew who actually commited the crime, only me and Palom. We were part of a different species, although our species had the ability to adapt to new sorroudings and we could simply adapt to the Beorn's life and even look like them. Palom fell in love with Freyr but after hearing the news that she was going to be the king, Týr wasn't happy with a few members of that clan still being alive. She was only aware of Palom's existence, not mine and that's why she didn't killed me. She served as the waitress during that night and served the king and the queen a drink. That drink made the queen fell sleepy so she hid somewhere in the queen's room, waited her to come and then proceed to stab her. I was worried about my daughter and so I decided to visit her and then I saw her there, lying dead with a knife through her heart. Out of shock, I removed the knife, but that was where things started to fall, as the king saw me holding the bloody knife and since his wife had a hole in the place where she kept her love for him, the assumption that I killed her was obvious. The jury decided to make me guilt in 15 minutes. The king himself decided to partake in as the prosecution and sent my attorney directly to prison, so I didn't had any chance against him. Though, I escaped prison and continued to live as a poet."