The next day, they once more began to discuss what needed to be done in order to break in to fight Don Armage. Raptor had pulled up a screen to reiterate what they already knew.

"This is the barrier protecting the Crux system." Raptor stated.

"We can't reach their base on Planet Southern Cross until we break this barrier, right?" Spada said.

"That's right." The commander said. "My idea is-"

Tsurugi cut him off and started explaining instead. "To break the barrier, we need the kyu energy of Cepheus, Perseus, Cassiopeia, and Andromeda. Long ago, I saw the warriors of those four constellations using their power to break it. We have the Andromeda kyutama."

"So there are three left." Naga commented as Balance set down three empty kyutamas on the table.

"So we need to fill these empty kyutamas with their kyu energy, right?" Stinger asked.

"We're splitting up to go to Cepheus and Perseus." Tsurugi stated.

"Alright! Then kyulette-" Shou started to speak.

"Balance, you'll stay and operate the Battle Orion Ship." Tsurugi started dividing everyone on his own.

"Okyuu, corral!" Balance nodded.

Before long, everyone that was to deploy to the Perseus system left. Onyx just sighed. Tsurugi was really getting bossy now that they were so close to finding Don Armage.

"I keep feeling like empty air a lot recently..." Shou said to himself.

"Once Tsurugi has his mind set on something, he will start doing this. I apologize." Onyx replied to him.

"You have much experience with his behavior." Shou commented.

"I didn't even intend to acquire this child when we first met. He inserted himself into my life. He's been doing this since I've known him and he was only ten back then." Onyx said, fondly shaking their head at Tsurugi. "He's always been a handful. But, I don't think I'd want it any other way."

"I'm amazed at how well you two bonded. Your personalities feel like they would clash too much."

"Let's just say he was lucky he was such a cute kid. Had me wrapped around his finger."

Shou chuckled at the comment. "And now you have him wrapped around yours. He listens to you surprisingly well for the most part."

"He knows better than to argue with me." Onyx said, "Though... sometimes I wonder if I was too lenient with him..."

"We're about to arrive! Prepare yourselves!" Raptor interrupted any more of their conversation.

They were coming onto Planet Acholk in the Cepheus System. It would soon be time to start searching for this next kyutama. Well, the energy for the kyutama.

The group for this planet was Shou, Tsurugi, Onyx, Hammie, Naga, Raptor, and Garu. Everyone else besides Balance had gone off to the other planet.

...

"We've arrived. These are the nine chambers of Kyulin Temple." Tsurugi stated, "Nine different ordeals await us. Long ago, Cuervo, onii-chan, and I passed the nine ordeals and a Cepheus warrior joined us."

Onyx's ears twitched as they picked up a faint whirring sound. They glanced around and noticed a projectile heading their way.

"Watch out!" Onyx called.

Everyone managed to dodge the object. A worker of Jark Matter's caught it nearby.

"Achoo~" They began to speak, their back turned to the Kyurangers. "I am the Cepheus System Chief Retainer- oh, wrong way."

They turned around and continued to speak. "I am the Cepheus System Chief Retainer, Death Gong-sama."

"Not your annoying ass!" Onyx yelled.

Death Gong stared Onyx down. "May I finish? Jark Matter has taken over Kyulin Temple!"

"In other words, we can't get the Cepheus kyu energy until we defeat you?" Shou said.

"You're fast." Death Gong replied, "But it's not possible to pass our nine evil ordeals!"

"They even changed the stupid challenges?!" Onyx sighed. "It was bad enough the first time..."

Tsurugi glanced at them and then back at Death Gong. "Intriguing. I'll overcome them and go down in legend!"

At least somebody was confident about this. Onyx was starting to remember the original challenges and the pain that came from it. They really didn't want to have to go through more even if it had been how many years.

"Very well." Death Gong replied, "Chamber !: Indaver Hell Chamber! Defeat 99 indavers in one minute."

Indavers started popping up from the ground left and right. That was a lot of them.

"Now way! In just one minute?!" Hammie yelled.

Onyx cracked their knuckles. "Now this is a challenge that's more my style. Better than the previous ones."

"Get fighting already!" Garu yelled as the indavers started to swarm forward.

No one needed to be told twice. They all activated their kyutamas and transformed.

"Star Change!" "Dragon Ascent!"

Everyone rushed forward and started taking down as many indavers as they could. With how many of them there were, this challenge really shouldn't be that hard to complete. They had all split up to take on indavers in their own little sections. That way they stayed out of each other's space and didn't get in the way of anything.

"Nice job, everyone. I'm so proud!" Shou called.

"Stop relaxing and get fighting!" Raptor scolded him. "We're running out of time!"

They were already almost at the minute mark? Thankfully, it didn't take much more effort to finish off the remaining indavers. They had passed the challenge.

Everyone gathered back together and untransformed. They were all a little out of breath from that fighting. It had been a lot.

"Looks like we made it in time." Tsurugi stated.

A screen showed their scores. Garu was 10, Naga was 13, Hammie was 12, Raptor was 9, Shou was 5, Tsurugi was 30, and Onyx was 20.

"Commander." Hammie stated.

"Huh?" Shou replied.

"Were you slacking off?" Hammie crossed her arms.

"No, I was just going at my own pace." The commander replied.

"Don't worry about it." Tsurugi called back. "Cuervo himself only beat five. Now onwards!"

"I got more than him!" Garu stated happily.

Onyx rolled their eyes. They had never cared for the competition aspect of any of this.

"We're going already?!" Shou exclaimed.

"Although... I lost to Hammie." Garu was still going on about the scores.

Everyone began to follow after Tsurugi. They came to a dividing path.

"The path splits three ways." Raptor stated, "There's an ordeal in each direction."

"Alright. We're splitting into three teams." Tsurugi said.

"Okay!" Shou stepped to the front. "As commander, I know you guys best so I can decide the groups."

No one protested. Onyx was glad Tsurugi wasn't trying to interject again.

"Tsurugi-kun and Raptor go to Chamber 2." Shou said.

"Okay." Raptor and Tsurugi nodded.

"Chamber 3 is Garu and Hammie."

Garu pulled Hammie into a hug. "Glad to be with you."

"Chamber 4 is Naga, Onyx, and me."

Onyx and Naga exchanged glances with each other. Both were equally as confused by the fact Onyx was not put in the same group as Tsurugi.

The groups split up and went their separate ways. Onyx lead the way to the fourth chamber.

"Why am I not babysitting Tsurugi?" Onyx questioned as they walked.

"Figured you'd like a break from him for a bit." Shou replied, and then quietly added, "And maybe your help will be needed more with me."

They soon arrived at Chamber 4. The game chamber apparently. They had to play a game called Daruma-san falls down.

"How do we play the game? I have never heard of it." Onyx whispered.

"Don't move when he looks back at you. It's hard because you're going down a steep hill." Naga replied.

"How do you know this but I don't?" Onyx protested.

"Balance showed me it."

"Let's get going. The game is about to start." Shou stated.

They game began. Onyx followed the movements of Naga for the most part. He seemed to know what to do the most in this situation.

The indaver turned around and the three of them came to a stop.

"I'm bad at this." The commander whined.

"Just hold on for a bit." Onyx replied. "I'm no better at this than you."

"Your body's in better shape than mine is, though."

The indaver turned back around. The three of them started to slowly creep forward again. The indaver started to turn around again. Of course, that was when the commander started to fall forward. Onyx reached out and grabbed him by the collar of his jacket. They were able to steady him just in time as the indaver turned back around.

"Stay still. Let Naga finish this." Onyx growled under their breath.

"Understood..."

Thankfully, the next time the indaver turned around, Naga was able to reach it and touch its shoulder.

"Alright!"

"Let's get a move on." Onyx drug the commander toward the next chamber.

"Now you're being bossy like Tsurugi-kun!" Shou complained. "I'm the commander here!"

"And who almost got us out?" Onyx shot back.

Shou didn't have anything to say after that. The three of them met up with the other two groups in Chamber 5. A dance chamber.

"How does any of this equal evil?" Onyx questioned.

"You really shouldn't complain." Raptor whispered.

"Fair point."

"Dance chamber?" Hammie said.

"In other words, I just need to show my legendary dancing." Tsurugi stated.

"Time for me to shine!" The commander got in front of Tsurugi again.

"Can I sit this one out?" Onyx asked.

"If we're all embarrassing ourselves, you gotta do it too." Garu pushed them toward the dance floor.

"Let's dancing!" Shou shouted.

A dance began. Onyx put in as little effort at they thought they could get away with. It was better than the commander, who had frozen up and a crack had come from him. Onyx sighed once they had finished.

"I think a disc slipped..." Shou grunted.

"Hold still. This is gonna hurt." Onyx walked behind him and hit his back hard.

"Ack! Oh? It's better now."

"You're welcome."

They went out of the chamber. Shou was limping a bit now, using his staff as a cane. Onyx stood by his side, making sure he wasn't going to fall.

"Curse you, Death Gong." Shou grumbled.

"That leaves four chambers." Tsurugi stated as they came to another fork in the path.

"Where do we go?" Raptor asked.

"Alright, raise your hand if you want to partner with me!" Shou said.

"Let's go." No one raised their hand and just went off.

It was just Onyx, Tsurugi, and the commander left.

"Who wants to partner with me?!" Shou repeated.

Onyx grabbed Tsurugi and tugged him over to the commander. "I guess us three will be a team."

"Very well." Tsurugi agreed.

"Eh? Really?!" Shou replied.

"Let's go."

Tsurugi led the way to the next chamber. At least he had the decency to slow down for the commander. At least the walk wasn't too bad.

Chamber 8 was a sniping chamber. The three of them stood in a line and began shooting at the targets. This seemed easy enough. Onyx still was confused how anything but the first challenge had been evil. Even that was only evil because they were attacking indavers.

"Why can't I hit?!" Shou complained, "I should be good at this. Why?"

"Onii-chan and I will handle it." Tsurugi stated, nodding to Onyx.

The two of them took down the remaining targets with ease. Onyx did feel a little bad that the commander wasn't helping out much.

They heard a different whirring sound from behind and quickly turned around. Three weird disks were coming flying at them.

"Tsurugi!" Onyx called in warning.

Tsurugi noticed and quickly shot the three disks down.

"Alright." Tsurugi stated. "That's one chamber remaining."

"Hey." Onyx whacked him on the head. "Those three disks were different. They were glowing."

Tsurugi shrugged. "We got rid of them. What more is there to it?"

"Tsurugi." Onyx glared at him.

"Maybe we'll find out at the next chamber. Standing around here isn't doing anything. Let's go."

Tsurugi began to walk away. Onyx sighed.

"Let's get a move on..."

...

They were first group to arrive at the last place it seemed. The commander took a seat while Tsurugi wandered off. Onyx looked around, hoping to soon see signs of the others. They couldn't shake off a bad feeling ever since those disks came at them.

Tsurugi offered them a drink. Onyx accepted and went to join the commander. Tsurugi had the same idea and also offered him one drink as well.

"Everyone's become such wonderful saviors..." Shou commented.

"Commander." Tsurugi said.

"And Lucky is an actual king." Shou continued on. "Tsurugi-kun has presidential-level leadership. You bring everyone into line. Onyx has overcome so much and keeps surpassing new heights. Everyone admires you so much."

"Well, I am a legendary man." Tsurugi replied, "And onii-chan is no different."

"It might be time for a self-proclaimed savior to retire." Shou said.

"Looking at you reminds me of Cuervo. He doubted he could be a savior because he wasn't physically strong. I told him his brains made him strong in his own way. After that, Cuervo's brains saved us many times." Tsurugi said.

And yet somehow his brains couldn't save him from becoming tainted by Don Armage. Onyx felt a ping in their heart as they remember the early days. Cuervo was so nice. And now he was being used to destroy the galaxy. Onyx didn't know how Don Armage worked. Didn't know if it was Cuervo anymore or if his body was just the host. They weren't sure which way would be easier to handle.

"He sounds like quite the man." The commander commented.

"We're not giving up on you either, commander. You're connected to one particularly bright star, after all." Tsurugi stood up.

"Tsurugi-kun."

"Commander, you have your own way."

"If we were all the same, we wouldn't be able to achieve as much as we had." Onyx added in.

"Hmm..."

...

After that short rest, they continued down the path to the actual chamber for the final trial. No one else had shown up yet.

"My word. We're the first ones here?" Tsurugi said.

"I have a bad feeling about this." Onyx muttered, keeping their ears alert for any sudden noises.

Death Gong appeared, clapping at them. Onyx narrowed their eyes at him. He had done something to the others, hadn't he?

"To start, I applaud you for making it past the other eight ordeals." He began, "However..."

He held out four disks, eerily similar to the ones that had been sneakily thrown at them. He tossed them out and suddenly the other four of their group appeared transformed and immediately began to shoot at them.

The three of them dodged. This was bad.

"Everyone!" The commander yelled in worry.

"They're now my puppets." Death Gong replied, "Now, defeat them! That is the 9th Chamber's ordeal. Fight your allies chamber!"

"My word!" Tsurugi exclaimed.

"I told you something was amiss." Onyx grumbled.

Naga shakily started to raise his weapon. "My body won't do as I say!"

The four transformed Kyurangers attacked. Onyx, Tsurugi, and Shou dodged their attacks to the best of their abilities.

"Fools, those are just indavers... The real Kyurangers are in the discs."

It was a very quiet tone, but thanks to Onyx's heightened hearing, they were able to pick up Death Gong saying so. Onyx smirked. So much for his plan. He should've kept his mouth shut.

Onyx threw off the fake Hammie and started approaching Death Gong. "I know the challenge is to fight my friends but... you were at one point my ally so... perhaps I can fight you instead?"

"Eh?" Death Gong took a step back.

"Onyx, now isn't the time for that!" The commander yelled.

"Trust me!" Onyx yelled back. "I know what I'm doing!"

Shou wasn't pleased to not be listened to again, but he had other things to deal with rather than keep fighting with Onyx. He would understand soon what was going on.

Onyx stalked closer to Death Gong, summoning their sword. "Shall we play?"

"You're supposed to be fighting your current allies!" Death Gong protested.

Onyx looked around. "Where?"

"Eh?"

Onyx chuckled. "I heard you whisper about those ones being indavers."

Death Gong growled in reply. Onyx rushed at him and started trying to get him to lose his grip on the four disks in his hand. He was keeping a very firm hold on them. How annoying.

"Your friends aren't doing so hot. Shouldn't you help them?" Death Gong taunted.

Onyx briefly glanced over at Tsurugi and Shou. They had been taken down by the imposters. Onyx wasn't really sure how to describe what the hell was going on now. The commander was pleading for his safety and throwing Tsurugi under the bus?

"I'm helping them by freeing the rest of our group."

Onyx swung their sword erratically. Death Gong was unable to keep up with the frantic movements. Onyx hit his arm and sent the disks flying. They quickly turned on their heel and shot the backs on the four imposters, making them vanish and reveal they were indavers.

The disks clattered to the ground and freed the four that had been trapped.

"Eh?!" Shou exclaimed.

"My word. How did you do that?" Tsurugi also was quite shocked.

Onyx glanced at Death Gong. "I overheard him spill the truth."

Everyone gathered together now that they were freed. The four thanked Onyx for the help.

"I'm sorry I doubted you." Shou apologized.

"It's fine. I know it was quite an unexpected move to make, but I needed the element of surprise for a bit in my attack. Otherwise I would've just yelled the truth." Onyx replied.

"I had a feeling something was off with them." The commander continued. "None of you act the way those fakes had. If you had given me more time I could've done it..."

"Sorry..." Onyx lowered their head.

"How could you tell, commander?" Tsurugi asked.

"Hammie and Garu don't refer to me as Commander Shou. Raptor always gets mad at me when I'm being pathetic. Naga... just a feeling?" The commander explained. "I just hadn't figured out where the real ones were before Onyx took care of it. But, this was something only I could do, right?"

"Yes, indeed." Tsurugi agreed. "This is something only you could do, commander."

"Honestly, it was just a weird feeling I couldn't explain. I had no idea why something felt so off. You actually had reasons." Onyx added.

"In other words, you are a legendary commander." Tsurugi concluded.

"I'm the type to rise to a compliment." Shou replied.

"Eh?"

"Is that so?"

Death Gong interrupted their talk. "Don't get cocky just because you saw through my plan."

Indavers started coming onto the field. Looks like it was time for some more fighting.

"What's wrong with feeling cocky?" The commander questioned. "Walking the path of the dragon. Pursuing the dragon's path! If I don't so it, who will?!"

"He just said the same thing twice." Onyx whispered to Tsurugi.

"I'm the commander of the ultimate saviors, Shou Ronpo. Let's go, everyone!" Shou continued.

"Okyuu!"

Everyone began to transform.

"Star Change!" "Dragon Ascent!"

"Beast Star! Ookami Blue!"

"Silent Star! Hebitsukai Silver!"

"Shinobi Star! Chamaeleon Green!"

"Speed Star! Washi Pink!"

"Dragon Mastar! Ryu Commander!"

"Space Bustar! Houou Soldier!"

"Deadly Star. Shi Black."

"The ultimate saviors... Uchu Sentai... Kyuranger!"

"Alright. Let's test their luck!" The commander called, "Go!"

Everyone rushed into battle. Tsurugi fell into step beside