Chapter 22: Ouroboros Unbound

Prime Timeline - 1023 AD

The hound's quantum echo manifested during Isolde's first soul-splitting ritual. As she chained Caelum to the bloodstone altar, the creature's spectral jaws clamped her wrist – a temporal feedback loop that left the 21st-century Isolde screaming with phantom pain.

Modern Resolution - Saint Lorraine Clock Tower

Lynette reprogrammed the hound's matrix using Caelum's fragmented memories. "You're not his shadow," she uploaded the final code sequence, "but the bridge between our timelines."

The creature dissolved into silver mist that coalesced into:

1. A wolf-headed knight guarding 14th-century Florence

2. A 1920s detective protecting Spiritborn #37

3. Caelum's true form reaching through quantum static

As timelines synchronized, the hound's original purpose became clear – not a curse, but a love letter written across 500 years of entropy.