The snow was deep enough to swallow footsteps whole.
Izumi led Le Fay and the others through a forest blanketed in pristine white.
After glancing down at the worn map in his hand, he clicked his tongue.
"Do all magi in this world insist on living in the middle of nowhere?
Deep mountains, ancient forests, isolated castles… seriously, what's wrong with you people?"
Tohsaka Rin, trudging beside him, didn't even bother to hide her deadpan expression.
"Do you really think our world is like yours, where mages and warriors run around everywhere?"
"In this world, magecraft only works as long as the Mystery survives.
To keep Mystery alive, magi must stay hidden. If we flaunt our existence, Mystery dies, and so does magecraft."
Izumi snorted.
"That's because everyone here is stupid."
Rin twitched. Hard.
"Clearly, you could combine modern technology and magecraft.
Plenty of worlds do it. But not a single person here studies it.
You're all just… unbelievably dumb."
He spoke with the casual tone of someone stating that fire was hot.
He knew many worlds where magic and technology worked hand in hand.
For example—
that world where a certain "Demon King of the Discipline Committee" could solo an army if he didn't get to jungle properly.
Or the world ruled by a white-haired tyrant who upgraded magical device systems every other month.
Or the place where a certain spiky-haired high school boy turned sorcery into "scientifically explainable superpowers."
All of them used modern technology to activate magic.
Take the Mahouka world: CADs, Tridents, activation sequences—
basically magical programming powered by the magician's own energy.
No chanting required.
Push a button, cast a spell.
The Nanoha world? Their transformation devices were practically advanced magical smartphones.
As for the Index world—
that ridiculous guy just forced the universe to treat magic as science and called the result "esper powers."
It was still magic. Just repackaged.
But this world?
To maintain Mystery, they deliberately suppressed technological development.
Completely backwards.
A slow, steady march toward extinction.
Maybe in the far future they would finally begin researching magecraft through technology—
(Chaldea coughs in the distance)
—but by then it would be far too late.
Izumi shrugged. He didn't care.
Rin, however, froze.
"…Using technology to activate magecraft?"
"Is that… actually possible?"
Izumi nodded.
"Of course it's possible. People in my world have already started researching it."
"In the Demon Realm, we even have machines powered entirely by mana."
"At this rate, I wouldn't be surprised if fully integrated magi-tech appears soon."
Could such things work in the Nasuverse?
Hard to say.
This world had the threat of the Steel Timeline looming overhead.
Gaia had once lost to Alaya and tried to borrow help from outside—
Izumi vaguely remembered something like that.
Maybe.
The setting was too messy to care deeply.
Whether magi-tech was feasible here was ultimately a separate question.
Maybe it was.
Chaldea certainly took steps in that direction.
He had only been speaking casually.
But Rin was no longer listening to the wind—she was lost in thought.
"Combining science and magecraft…
Could that be… a future path…?"
A dangerous spark of curiosity bloomed in her eyes.
Izumi had no idea what he had just unleashed.
If this electronic disaster girl ever tried to study science, he would laugh himself into an early grave.
You can't even operate a remote control—
and you want to research scientific magecraft?
What a joke.
He dropped the topic immediately.
This wasn't his world.
He would finish his business and leave.
Whether this world lived or died afterward wasn't his problem.
Even if the Steel Timeline descended, what did that have to do with Rin?
By then she would probably be an old lady anyway.
Far future problems were not his responsibility.
What he didn't know—
was that Gaia had already noticed the worldline shifting.
Seeing even the slightest hope of survival, it was preparing to intervene.
Given the choice between a doomed world and a world shrouded in uncertainty but possibly salvageable,
Gaia and Alaya had chosen the latter.
Why were they cooperating for once?
Simple:
Izumi's home was right next door and ready to merge with them at any moment.
Neither of them wanted that.
Being fused with another world wasn't just losing autonomy—
it was painful. Excruciatingly so.
Like trying to cram something enormous into the body of a tiny loli.
No one would survive the experience with dignity.
Thus, both primordial willpowers were terrified.
They absolutely refused to let world fusion happen.
This was also why the collision of worlds had yeeted Rin into another timeline—
an unavoidable safety measure.
Izumi remained blissfully unaware of any of this.
By now, he had arrived with his group at the gates of the Einzbern Castle.
And standing right outside the entrance—
was Emiya Kiritsugu.
Kiritsugu's brows furrowed the moment he saw them.
The two sides stopped, gazing at each other in a strangely heavy silence.
Izumi studied the so-called "ally of justice" with mild curiosity.
Kiritsugu, meanwhile, couldn't understand why this group had come here.
Neither spoke.
After several long seconds, Izumi simply continued walking forward.
Kiritsugu didn't greet him, didn't question him, didn't stop him.
They passed each other like ghosts—
silent ships crossing in the snow.
When they were finally far apart, Le Fay blinked and tilted her head.
"Izumi-sama, who was that man?
He looked… numb. Like he'd lost something important."
She wasn't wrong.
Kiritsugu's eyes were devoid of light, as if he were a hollowed-out husk.
Izumi chuckled softly.
"Oh, him? He's an ally of justice."
"If we hadn't appeared and ended the Grail War early,
he would have been Saber's Master this time."
Rin stiffened.
"Wait—
you mean he would have been my father's enemy?"
Izumi nodded.
"That's right. He was also Kotomine Kirei's closest friend."
"Well—
used to be."
Without further explanation, Izumi stepped past the threshold and entered the Einzbern barrier.
The worldline had already been completely rewritten.
What happened next was anyone's guess.
As for Kirei—
he died in a "gas explosion," so nothing more needed to be said.
And that lemon-headed priest?
He likely wouldn't participate in the Grail War now.
The fact that Kiritsugu had left the Einzbern household spoke volumes.
He had probably been abandoned.
Why else would he be wandering outside?
Izumi didn't bother thinking too deeply about it.
He had nothing more to say about Emiya Kiritsugu.
Right now, his priority was finding Ahad.
And if fate allowed…
he might even bring home a lovely Einzbern wife.