The Sand-Leviathan lunged, its glass-like claws slicing through the air with terrifying speed. Elara raised her hand, summoning a barrier of sapphire frost to clash against the beast's heat. The contact created a massive cloud of steam, blinding everyone for a moment. She could feel the two crystals working in harmony—ice and light fighting against the raw fire of the desert.
"We can't defeat it by force alone!" Kaelen shouted, diving under the creature's massive tail. "It's powered by the desert's own heat. You have to disrupt its core!"
Elara focused all her willpower. Instead of fighting the heat, she reached out to the third crystal's energy, which was pulsing somewhere deep within the city ahead. She used its distant vibration to create a resonance. Her hand began to glow with a brilliant, blinding white light—a mixture of all the powers she had gathered. She thrust this energy into the ground, creating a shockwave that froze the sand beneath the Leviathan, turning its molten core into brittle glass. With a final, echoing crack, the beast shattered into a thousand pieces.
Exhausted, Elara fell to her knees. But as the dust settled, the mirage on the horizon finally cleared. There it was—the Sun-City, its golden spires reaching toward the heavens like frozen flames. They were closer than ever, but the General's airships were already circling the city's gates.