Relics' revolution: the journey of massive, compact and old galaxies.

Relic galaxies, $i.e.$, massive, compact and old galaxies which have formed most of their stars in a short time are the remnants of high-$z$ red nuggets, which did not merge to form the biggest passive galaxies. The time has finally come: although extremely rare, it is now possible to find them and study their properties in very details. They will provide a unique look at the high-$z$ red nuggets, the stellar populations in the cores of the largest galaxies and the role of mergers and environment on the evolution of the most massive and passive galaxies. I will bring you through the "Relics' revolution", starting from the discoveries of the first relic galaxies in the local Universe, and then I discuss our contribution to the field, with our campaign using KiDS@VST survey and spectroscopic follow-ups to find relic candidates. But we are now approaching the innermost cave, with the INSPIRE ESO large program using XShooter@VLT. Thanks to INSPIRE, we seize the sword: we confirm the discovery of the first 10 relics ever found at $0.15 < z < 0.4$, which add to the only 3 existing in the local Universe. I will finally go through the current state of our project and future prospects.