Galileo finally opened his eyes, startled at what he came to know. The straw bed underneath him suddenly felt a bit more uncomfortable as he once again went through the memories he had just finally absorbed. He searched for many things and among them, he looked for how society had changed. And those changes were utterly unbelievable.
A society without magic. A place where common men reigned over those who were even more common. A land unchecked by deities or devils. Moreover, from what he had seen the phenomenon was not singular, but global.
Galileo's eyes landed on the ground, there on the dirt floor of the shed he was currently occupying there were many symbols inscribed, forming a perfect heptagon. He needed to confirm something, and this was the fastest way. His hand flickered and a small dent appeared on one of his fingers, a single drop of blood escaped the wound before it was melded. That crimson liquid moved to the middle of the geometric symbols on the ground, and there it formed yet another drawing.
"Archimo, I call upon your name. I, Galileo, demand the scorcher's presence!" Galileo chanted, and a surge of magic left his body. Passing through the formation it lingered around the engravings for a moment longer, and then vanished to the beyond. Galileo returned to his thinking, if he was correct there would be no answer to his call.
The society without magic put its focus on researching nature in a different way. Those firearms were merely one of many things this thing called 'science' brought. Countless weapons and tools that people without shred of mana in their body could use. The implications were immense. Galileo shook at that though. He shook with joy when he imagined the thousands or perhaps millions of things he did not begin to comprehend. He realised that his heart was beating intensely. He was already looking forward to what this new world had to offer.
The formation on the ground shook and scattered, the surge of magic he released earlier returned in its entirety and scattered. Archimo was always a bit mad even for a devil, and rather weak for a God, however, first and foremost he was a coward. He would not dare ignore Galileo even if he was in crisis. Since he hadn't as much as attempted to reply it was likely that the immortal was dead.
With a flicker of his hand, the carving on the ground was rearranged, this time around it was a nonagon and many of the symbols had changed. Once again Galileo allowed a drop of his blood to enter the middle and chanted: "Gormandu, I call your name. I, Galileo, demand the fury lord's presence!" he sent another call and continued his thoughts.
The men whose memories he had taken for his own did not know of gods, in fact, from what he understood it was often even questioned whether they ever existed. When put in tandem with the obscene lack of mana and divinity pertaining the air Galileo arrived at a hypothesis: There had been a cataclysm which had killed the Gods and many powerful beings. Once again the formation on the ground shattered and the power he sent was returned. Galileo decided not to contain it. If there was someone who could detect the leaking power they might know a bit more. Galileo created another formation of symbols and finished it with a drop of his blood, though this time his incantations were different.
"Deities or Devils. Denizens of the beyond. My name is Galileo, the one you used to fear. The one you dared not cross. I call upon all of you, I dare you to answer or suffer the consequences!" Galileo yelled, and power incomparable to before surged into the ground. The symbols began to shine with clear blue light and the droplet of blood began to visibly boil. This time around the lingering power did not vanish all at once, rather it was absorbed in doses. With this threat Galileo could be completely sure. It was possible that the two Gods he called upon previously were an exception, yet this method was the most certain. He did not think that there were many who dared not answer his threat. And indeed, after a couple of moments all the power came cascading back. The drawing on the ground lit up again, this time around the blue light grew increasingly intense until it could no longer be contained. With a boom the dirt exploded, flying in all directions at various speeds. Most of the splinters merely bounced off the shed's walls, however, some fragments were ignited by the sheer friction force due to their speed. One of those fragments hit the dried straws beneath Galileo and they immediately began to get immolated.
"What the fuck happened!?" also, a startled male voice sounded from outside. Likely the owner of the shed Galileo decided to rest in. Though Galileo did not particularly care about him, instead he felt the surrounding area. The amount of magic he allowed to escape was large enough to be noticed even by an absolute novice from a large distance. And indeed, soon enough he felt something approach. It was not particularly powerful or fast, but it had definitely sensed Galileo's presence. By the time Galileo stood up the straws beneath him were completely aflame, the door flew open and s grizzly man in a tattered shirt stared in.
"Oh fuck!" he cursed, and Galileo walked passed him. The man did not even look at the immortal passing by, it was as though he did not see Galileo. A moment later the man turned around and ran off in panic. Meanwhile, Galileo was no longer standing on the ground, his feet had lifted off and soon enough he was already standing about 20 metres above the ground, awaiting his guests.
20 minutes passed before a black dot appeared in the distance, and not much later a weak murmur reached Galileo’s ears. The dot quickly grew closer and the sound also became more intense. Reaching deep into his stolen memories, Galileo managed to scry that the name of the vehicle was a helicopter. Quickly suppressing his intention to disassemble and study it, Galileo stepped towards his guests, ignoring the panicked man who was trying to extinguish the flames beneath. Now that they were moving towards each other it did not take long for Galileo to meet head-on with the helicopter. The pilot seemed very startled as he finally realised it was a man approaching them through the air. He turned back and yelled something before focusing his gaze on Galileo again.
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Galileo decided to be polite for now. He could get any answers he wanted, but he did not know all the questions. If they were to surrender what he needed to know peacefully it might spare Galileo a hassle. That is why he beckoned towards the ground and descended, quickly landing. Not long later a rope fell down from the helicopter, and from it descended four figures. Among them, Galileo quickly located the source of the minute power he had felt earlier. It came from the man who stood at the front, most probably the leader. Galileo immediately noticed that he was not exactly human despite his current form.
“Are you the one who caused that burst of power,” the leader was frowning, likely wary of Galileo. The fact that the rest of his group never let their hands leave their firearms only served to confirm that sentiment.
“Indeed, I needed someone to answer some of my questions. Since you could at least sense it that qualifies you, little demon,” Galileo admitted, addressing the leader.
“Who exactly are you,” the leader’s frown only deepened as his nature was casually revealed, “There are very few people who can see through my nature with a glance.”
“Has the world really reached such a low?” Galileo wondered out loud. Any half-assed mage could tell such a weak demon from a mortal, yet the man seemed to believe that recognising him required some degree of skill, “Let’s see, based on your aura you should belong to the bloodline of Archimo. Normally I would say about a decade old to have so little power, however, based on what I had seen and heard, I will go with about 200 years instead. How far off am I?”
“You have some nerve,” the man exclaimed, “Although I don’t know what trick you used to fly or how you can see through me, I can clearly see how weak you are yourself. As an Elder magus I will not let such an insult go.”
“Elder? Ridiculous,” Galileo laughed, the man probably just couldn't feel Galileos mana and decided that it must have been exhausted or something similarly impossible “I had locked myself away for a long time, but I have never even dreamed that barely a novice demon would ever claim to be an elder of magecraft,” Galileo could not help but be amused by the unbelievable situation. He had seen newborn demons far more powerful than the one in front of him.
“I see you are not compliant, right,” the demon smirked and the ther rest of his group nodded, “Fine, have it your way! I will show you my might,” the demon said as a flame covered his hands, quickly incinerating his clothes. Without any hesitation those flames were thrown at Galileo.
“Gift of undying flames,” Galileo calmly identified as he dodged out of the way, “Purely magical in nature, the flames do not burn, rather they erode everything they touch into dust, only restrained by how much power they are supplied,” as Galileo continued speaking the demon waved his hand and the flames turned around behind Galileo, aiming for his back. At the same time two more waves of flames were through to Galileo’s left and right, making sure he would be unable to dodge out of the way, “Or at least that is the extent which you can achieve at the peak of the first stage,” just as those flames were about to struck Galileo, he also burst into flames just like the man before, however, his entire body was enveloped, and his clothing didn’t combust.
“The power has great potential. I have met many ascendants who had become nigh unkillable by merging their bodies with the flame,” those wisps of flames struck Galileo, yet they could not even move him. They fizzled out of existence as soon as they came into contact with Galileo’s own flames, burned away, “Yet I wouldn’t put even those grandmasters who were just a step away from becoming demigods into my eyes. Now stop showing off little demon, and answer my questions before you sour my mood even further,” the flames covering Galileo disappeared and he stared directly into the eyes of the demon. It did not take long for the demon to lower his gaze. Angels and demons were after all made to submit to those superior, “First of all, do you belong to this organisation called the Foundation?”
“No,” the demon immediately answered, unable to defy Galileo now that he was beginning to fathom of how far apart they were, “Our organisation is the Foundation’s opposition. We call ourselves the Covenant.”
“What is the difference between you two,” Galileo continued. Although this was not exactly peaceful as he originally intended, it went wrong somewhere along the way. It was still better than directly assaulting them on sight though. Probably.
“The foundation captures and contains everything and sometimes everyone who shows any signs of supernatural power. Moreover, they try to restrict the worship of most deities and devils,” the demon answered, “The Covenant is formed so that we with supernatural talent and power or deep occult beliefs can protect ourselves.”
“That brings me to my final question: What the hell happened to the Gods? Why are they all gone,” Galileo finally reached the main question he wanted to ask.
“I have no idea,” the man said without even a moment of hesitation, “I was born about 500 years ago, though I only managed to fully manifest my consciousness after three centuries of senseless wandering. From what I can remember the Gods were already gone when I was born.”
“So no answer,” just another mystery. Galileo smiled, he liked mysteries after all, “This is great,” he then laughed, “A realm full of new inventions and with no gods to annoy me,” his smile was stretched to an unnatural degree. Although whatever killed the gods was likely dangerous, it would definitely also be something worth researching. And in the worst-case scenario that the same thing came for him, Galileo still had an ace to play, “Now what should I do with you,” he looked at the group and they slightly shook. He could kill them and take their memories, but he decided against it on a whim. Travelling alone was one thing, however, having a backing of such a large organisation was another. He could brute force his way through any problem, however, sometimes he could not be bothered to deal with many mundane issues that came with pretending to be mortal.
“You arrived at the source of the mana and found me, a reasonably powerful magus who decided to come with you as a new recruit,” he eventually concluded and waved his hand. He usually wouldn't use mind magic, as the human brain was a bit too complex to manipulate, especially when it came to beings of immense power. Now, however, he decided to go on with the hassle. The men in front of him, as well as the pilot of the still floating helicopter, blinked and then returned to normal.
“Good,” the demon said as though he was continuing a different line of conversation, “Then let’s leave. The foundation might also be on their way. I am glad to welcome you among us, Galileo.”
“Treat me well,” Galileo laughed as he followed the men back into the helicopter. Without much further delay they then flew off.