In an instant, Lynn sat bolt upright with Zuo Zuo in his arms, almost by reflex.
His gaze darted to his little finger. For a fleeting instant, he glimpsed the barely perceptible soul thread that had vanished from it long ago.
"Miss Doll!"
Almost instinctively, he reached for that thread as fast as he could.
But the instant he touched it...
It vanished again like an illusion, like a reflection in water, as though it had never existed.
No! That wasn't right!
That feeling of connection couldn't have been false. He was absolutely certain that, just for an instant, the bond between him and Black String Moon, severed for so long, had reconnected.
He had sensed it clearly!
He immediately stood up, his pupils dilating sharply. Even his breathing grew ragged.
The scene from back then resurfaced in his mind-the moment she hovered on the brink of death after her chest was pierced.
"She's still alive."
Lynn quickly forced himself to calm down.
But no matter what he did, he could no longer still his turbulent heart.
Several days earlier, after receiving coordinates from the Hive for the Dollhouse's possible hiding place, he had immediately sent people to investigate. The location those coordinates pointed to was incredibly distant, so far away that it almost exceeded the outermost reach of Dark Night City's intelligence network, deep within the unknown darkness.
And he immediately understood what had happened.
Those coordinates were correct!
As the people he had sent drew closer, they had allowed him to establish a connection with her at closer range.
In an instant, without any hesitation...
Lynn's left eye blazed with a brilliant, ghostly blue halo. He activated his Eye of Cthulhu, and his consciousness entered that blue space in a flash.
Almost simultaneously...
At a location unimaginably far