Erza confronts Jellal with the fact that the Tower of Heaven cannot be completed without a massive amount of magic energy, leading Jellal to seemingly concede defeat. Soon after, the Etherion fires on the tower which, to everyone's shock, is absorbed by the tower's true form, an enormous lacrima crystal, preventing the attack from killing anyone. Jellal reveals that he had disguised himself as Siegrain using a magical projection of himself to coerce the Magic Council into firing Etherion at the tower, thereby completing it. He tries using Erza as a sacrifice to resurrect Zeref, but Natsu arrives and rescues her. Natsu fights Jellal, but Jellal outmatches him, so Natsu decides to aim his attacks at the tower and destroy it instead.