Lucy finds herself all alone in the enemy base, as all of her guild members have been absorbed by the living cube. Sometimes, I really wonder how little clothing Mashima tries to get away with when drawing some of the girls after their clothes have become battle torn. Lucy is basically wearing a ripped up bandana over her large bosom and a short skirt. Marde Guille alerts the rest of the Tartaros guild to the presence of the lone Fairy Tail member and offers a tasty reward for her death. Amazingly enough, Lucy still hasn’t forgotten how to wield her rarely used whip and manages to fend off the small fries of Tartaros. When other more mid tier members arrive though, she has to use her Celestial Spirits for help. With Loki and Virgo busy, Lucy has to take on the third arrival, Jackal. Unfortunately she has a blonde moment and forgets a key factor about figthing this particular Tartaros guild member. In a last ditch effort, Lucy calls forth her most powerful key, Aquarius.
I really think Mashima likes to torture Lucy because even with her most powerful Celestial Spirits called forth, they are still no match for the teamwork of the Tartaros trio. There is not much hope for her saving the day until Aquarius 
divulges the details of summoning the Celestial Spirit King, the most powerful of all the spirits. Of course, Lucy and Aquarius spend the better half of a chapter arguing back and forth about whether or not its a good idea. I feel like it was a practical use of space but far too shallow to really envoke an emotional response of sadness of their parting. They delve into some minor backstory but only a couple of phrases tossed in about Lucy’s mother. I’m glad they didn’t start a whole backstory about Aquarius’ previous owner because that would have really detracted from the current pacing of the fight and the immediacy needed for action to save Lucy.
Completing the summoning, the Celestial Spirit King comes to the rescue and annihilates the Tartaros base. It seems that the Celestial Spirit King and Marde Guille know each other from previous times. They spend a good chapter fighting pretty much equal with each other in strength, and neither one seems to be making any headway and mostly just destroying the area around them. Lucy gets a nice little short power-up and snazzy new outfit to replace her rags for clothes. Every time you think Lucy might be able to some some sort of decent aptitude at holding her own in a fight, it’s almost always short lived. She served her purpose and now she’ll probably be unconscious for the next few chapters. The month of June will probably focus on the upcoming four vs four fight, which hopefully won’t delude into a certain character fangirling and needing to rescued.
