Galileo had been challenged. Not from his identity as a usual man but as the infamous Golden mask. He was currently standing in an old phone booth at an abandoned outskirts area of the city, looking over at a faraway billboard. There, in clear text, the challenge was written: Wisdom and Gold go great together. Call Mask and Regalia jewellery store for more information. Such advertisements had turned up all around the internet all of a sudden as well as on the television and various other formats. The message sounded good and clear as Galileo had adorned his usual get up and called the number attached to the challenge.

“Good afternoon. You had reached Mask and…” the female employee replied.

“Connect me to Wisdom,” Galileo cut her off. The woman on the other side was startled for a moment but then a click sounded.

“I am glad you finally called,” the familiar mechanical voice with a bit of feminine subtone had confirmed that his call had been redirected.

“Not answering such a blatant challenge would be boring,” Galileo shrugged.

“Then how about we play a game?” Wisdom suggested through the phone.

“Go on,” Galileo allowed.

“It gave me a headache, however, I have figured out your goal. You want information. About the Foundation and especially about the most well-guarded secrets of humanity. So I will give you that. I will truthfully answer your questions as long as you keep following my instructions,” Wisdom explained her rules.

“The odds are brutally rigged in your favour,” Galileo pointed out, “You are obviously going to lead me into a deathtrap.”

“Of course,” Wisdom replied, “The question is whether you dare.”

“I do,” Galileo was naturally not intimidated, “Yet there is no guarantee you won’t just lie to me.”

“You had been snooping around for who knows how long,” Wisdom reassured him, “You can ask me about things you already understand and I would have no idea. It is not in my interest to take such a risk since I don’t intend to let you live past today either way.”

“Sounds reasonable,” Galileo laughed, “Then let's start,” just as his words sounded Galileo heard a familiar muffled sound in the distance. He had taken extra care to remember the sound of various weaponry since dodging bullets seemed like a far more reasonable thing to do among normal humans than surviving direct hits without even a scratch on his skin. And indeed, the next moment a bullet shattered the glass of the phone booth just as Galileo's head moved barely out of the way.

“The sniper has a phone we can use for further correspondence,” Wisdom said and terminated the call, not surprised that the infamous Golden mask was not even fazed by the sneak attack. Galileo quickly realised what her goal was as he located the already fleeing sniper. She was testing whether he was patient enough to slowly track the man down or whether he would use brute force and reveal his abilities.

In the end, Galileo was never known for his patience when it came to doing things he didn’t particularly enjoy. The fleeing man froze in place together with everything else in the general direction. The next moment he was pulled towards Galileo, relatively slowly since breaking the phone would have been annoying. It took merely a few seconds before the man was dragged to him. Galileo allowed the sniper to run away as soon as he had the phone in hand. It was an older model and quite brittle, moreover, there was only a single number saved within.

“Now then,” Wisdom picked up on the first dial, “Let’s get started. Shall we. First, leave the city outskirts and head to the middle of the forest about a 100 kilometres to your North.”

“Good enough,” Galileo took off, quickly reaching just below the sound barrier. There seemed to be no one in the surroundings, perhaps barring the man who Galileo had let go earlier, though even if there was an audience he would not have cared much, “I will begin with my first question in the meantime then,” he said as he made sure the phone would not be destroyed by the rampaging winds.

“Of course,” Wisdom did not object.

“Where do you belong in the hierarchy of the Foundation and what is the composition of the hierarchy?” he asked, rather interested in that particular topic for quite some time.

“I am a member of the Overseer Council. The ruling executive body within the Foundation. The highest strategic and tactical decisions are made by us through a majority vote,” Wisdom did not seem to mind Galileo’s question, “The 5 members are mutually unaware of each other’s identities and even suspecting another member's name can be grounds for removal from the council. As a cover-up, we each have our identity as regular members of the Foundation at various positions of authority. Since we cannot know the identities of others there is a side council called the Wardens. It consists of 5 people who were deemed as ‘someone with nothing left to lose, yet still loyal towards humanity’ by the other members. The Wardens are the only direct link we have between each other and there are very drastic measures in place to prevent them from leaking any information or succumbing to any influence outside their circle of 5. Below the 10 of us are the highest clearance members, such as facility directors or extremely accomplished researchers. The rest is divided into 5 clearance tiers, clearance 1 being the absolute lowest. And finally, there are the so-called Casualties, often disposable murderers or other monsters just like you. They are the worst of the worst and so is their fate as guinea pigs.”

“Then the next question. I have heard that the Foundation exists for the sole purpose of defending humanity from what all things magical. Why is it that you fundamentally hate magic?” Galileo decided to go a bit off track.

“That is a stupid question,” Wisdom bluntly stated.

“Humour me,” Galileo did not let that discourage him.

“All of you use a power that is not human. Something foreign, unnatural and wrong which twists you into monsters. It’s the most natural things to hunt down the beast which terrorize your children.”

“I don’t dare claim I am not a monster or a murderer,” Galileo replied, “But there is nothing more natural than my power. What you are doing is just attempting to remove those more powerful than you with numbers and tools. Even I am technically still a human being. The ones defying nature are you as you interfere with its selection process.”

“You are obviously biased,” Wisdom wasn’t convinced.

“So are you,” Galileo shook his head, identifying a pointless opinion argument in the bud, “However, I find the methods you had created interesting. It’s a shame though, I hoped the Foundation existed because it was practical, not because of some ideological creed," Galileo almost scowled in regret before he moved from his momentary curiosity to something he had wondered for quite some time already, "Anyway, my next question: I am looking for a certain man. Caucasian and tall, both his eyes are grey and lifeless. Most distinctly, every inch of his body is covered in countless tattoos of a single strange symbol. Rings any bells?”

“Yes, the description is familiar,” Wisdom confirmed after a moment of hesitation, “O-002 Immortal. An endlessly youthful man with utterly indestructible body and inhuman muscle strength. No known casting ability.”

“Yes that is him,” Galileo nodded gleefully. Out of all the possible beings that came to mind, that man seemed to be by far the most likely person to survive the cataclysm. And since that was the case, he might quite possibly also know what had happened, “Where can I find him.”

“I don’t know,” Wisdom did not even hesitate to say that.

“You don’t know?” Galileo seemed doubtful.

“O-002 is currently under the direct jurisdiction of a different member of the Overseer Council, thus I cannot interfere or even be aware of his current state and location. Also, you have arrived. Now stand still,” Wisdom attempted to lead the conversation away.

“Who is that other member,” Galileo obeyed that instruction and he heard loud whistling of the wind coming from the distance. Looking up, there were projectiles arching towards him from all directions.

“He uses the codename Red,” were Wisdom’s final words before the artillery barrage arrived, sinking everything into its deafening bellow. Galileo was surprised by both their power and numbers. Although they were not powerful enough to be dangerous to him, the sheer intensity would have given trouble to quite a few powerful beings even from the ancient times.

Unfortunately, there was a horrible side effect of that rain of death: Galileo could no longer hear or be heard through the cheap phone while he still wanted to ask about where he could possibly find the man called Red. With a roar a wave of his pure magic surged, disintegrating the incoming projectiles. That, unfortunately, didn’t help the situation as the artillery was closely followed by concentrated machine-gun fire from four gunships that must have been hidden beneath the clouds beforehand. But those shots didn’t even leave a dent. It got a bit worse when the four high calibre howitzers were added into the mix. Galileo marveled over the fact that their simultaneous impacts of explosive ammunition managed to slightly shake his shield. Admittedly, it was not a particularly powerful shield, but it was still far beyond anything achievable by this era’s people.

In the moment in between their fire Galileo raised his hand towards the gunships. Although they were far away their frames were brittle without magic. Galileo could easily snap them in half. However, he hesitated, uncertain whether he wanted to reveal as much of his ability. When he had decided to accept Wisdom’s challenge he wanted to reveal as little as possible and it was uncertain whether he needed to destroy those ships in order to get his piece of information. It was also quite possible that Wisdom would just cease communication once she came to realise that Galileo would not be so easy to kill. That thought process was interrupted when Galileo felt a strong electrical current in the distance. Looking over he noticed 5 large but strange cannons. They looked nothing like the usual weaponry he had read about so far, and the strong electrical power emanating from them was another proof they were nothing usual.

Suddenly a projectile left two of the cannons. At least Galileo thought so based on the burst of flames surrounding the barrels. As for the projectiles, Galileo did not even see them by the time they had impacted on his barrier. The brunt instantly disintegrated whatever hit his barrier, however, for the first time in many years, Galileo felt his barrier crack as he was pushed a step back together with it. He managed to focus his mind, even instantly overcharging his brain with mana and that made time slow down to a crawl in his perception. But it was already too late.

Galileo could only helplessly stare as two more projectiles just impacted his barrier. Their sheer velocity was so great that even in his focused state Galileo could not precisely perceive their form. Moreover, there was already the fifth projectile headed his way, targeting his seemingly defenceless body now that his barrier was shattered and his composure broken. It was still not as close, and Galileo would have been able to erect another barrier to stop it. Or he could just ignore it, allowing it to shatter on his regalia. However, both of those would have failed to achieve his goals. From the beginning Wisdom had intended to use his hubris in order to kill him. But two could play that game.

With that in mind, Galileo made his regalia part, forming a tattered hole around his stomach area. The next instant that projectile hit him, flying straight through that gap. Viscera and blood spilt all around as Galileo’s body was flung backwards with immense force. His seemingly corpse was like a ragdoll as it traversed through the air. It was only a long-distance further that his unmoving mess of a body landed on a pile of rocks.

And so Galileo waited there, profusely bleeding. Despite his sorry state, he would still accomplish his goal in accepting this challenge.