After everything that had been happening lately, Iris was beyond tired.
Lately, she had been in for questioning about the recent coup attempted in Excelsis.
Shortly after the trial regarding going back to her Corrupted world, something strange occurred.
Military forces in Excelsis attempted to overthrow the Oracle. They were all eliminated by the golems, soldiers, as well as the Oracle's Faithful before any real harm could be done. But the Oracle was suspicious of who could have organized such a thing.
Of course, she took the opportunity to accuse Iris of being part of it. With her recent issues, it was easy.
However...
Iris had absolutely no idea who could've organized a coup in Excelsis of all places. When questioned, she was found to be telling the truth. And so, they let her go...but they kept an eye on her.
And then there was the second problem...
She had been making frequent trips to Delvandal on account of the pantheon of divines residing above that world complaining.
Complaining about Iris' Enforcers causing mass destruction.
Mizik and Isabella had somehow obtained legendary heart stones. A man known as The Mad Admiral stabilized them and granted the two ultimate power.
Iris was completely sure at this point that each of them had the power to slay a god with great ease.
Since Mizik was told to wage a war on behalf of a country that did him the service of stabilizing the Heart of the World, Iris had been constantly bothered.
They wanted her Enforcers out of their world.
But Iris refused to budge on the subject.
After all, it was for their own good. The Corruption had arrived on Delvandal.
And as Iris waited for the next inevitable communication, Johann approached her on Excelsis.
He smiled as she looked up at him.
"Hey, Iris. You look down. Is everything okay?"
Iris allowed herself a smile.
"Better, now that you're here, Johann," she said.
He paused for a moment and looked away.
"Wh-what do you mean by that?" He said.
"Hm? Well, you're my best friend, Johann. Of course I'd be happy to see you!" Iris said.
"Ah...yeah. Of course..." He said.
After that, Iris stood up and hugged Johann.
He froze in place.
"Johann...I'm tired of all of these Delvandal gods. They keep bothering me!" She said.
"Umm...well..."
"Can you make them stop? Please? I keep telling them that my Enforcers are protecting their world, but they won't listen!" Iris said.
She let go of him and he seemed to relax.
"If you think it'll help, I can talk to them the next time they contact you. I mean, we fought the Corruption together. We know what it's capable of," Johann said.
"Exactly! But first...I'm kind of hungry. Want to get something to eat?" Iris said.
"Uh...you mean sit down and eat...together?" Johann said.
"Of course I do! What else? Are you hungry, Johann?" Iris asked.
"Yes! I could definitely eat!" He said with a cheerful smile.
"Come on then!" Iris said with a smile.
She grabbed his hand and pulled him away.
* * *
Over time, Iris had definitely noticed a few things about Johann.
He was closed off towards most people. He was very handsome, but often rejected the advances of women that approached him.
He seemed to be entirely against romantic relations of any kind.
Truthfully, Iris was surprised that he chose to spend so much time with her.
She didn't see herself as particularly appealing or even that interesting. Johann was way out of her league as far as she was concerned
But he always looked happy around her.
He was truly her only friend on Excelsis.
And they had been friends for thousands of years.
Johann found her as she was crying alone on a bench in Excelsis. She'd been crying because Novak arrived on Ignitus and laid claim to her world.
He started a global war and Iris had no way of fighting him.
Novak was more powerful than she was, of course. If they fought in their normal forms, Novak would win every time.
This was before they were banned from personally waging wars on mortal worlds, of course.
But once it happened, Novak even managed to beat her on the field of battle using mortal soldiers and advanced tactics.
Iris was beside herself... She loved her world so much and all of the people in it. She felt unworthy of them because of her weakness...
And then Johann arrived.
They became friends and eventually, he showed her something called a Dragon Contract.
With experimentation, they changed what it did.
And found that when used on someone compatible with Divine Energy, it could manifest special powers in them.
Iris worked diligently from then on with Johann to fix the problem.
At one point, Johann offered to kill Novak for her, but she declined. If she couldn't beat Novak on her own, there wouldn't be a point. Eventually, someone else would try their hand since Iris couldn't protect her world on her own. That...and she didn't want to look weak in front of her people.
She was determined to protect Ignitus all by herself.
Soon, Iris found people with compatibility. She manifested powers in them that she called 'Aspects'.
Most people could only have one if they had compatibility.
There were two types. Elemental and Advanced.
But one day...she found someone who could hold two.
This man was the first of what Iris would call: Enforcers.
They would enforce the law of Iris and protect the world.
She began searching for more of them at that point as well.
Finally, she discovered that she could have a maximum of six Enforcers before her power began to feel faint.
But the others, she called Attendants. There could be an infinite number of them.
With these new soldiers, she obliterated Novak's forces on the ground. Since they could no longer wage wars using their divine power, Iris had an assured victory.
But Novak was clever...
He figured out what Iris had done and answered her Enforcers with his own twisted version.
Overlords who would bring everyone down under the law of Novak and rule the world.
Iris had quite the conundrum... Their war had gone on for quite some time.
As much as Johann offered to help, Iris refused.
And eventually, after a thousand years of fighting, Novak managed to acquire an especially powerful Overlord possessing two very potent Advanced Aspects.
After several cities were razed to the ground and hundreds of thousands were slaughtered, Iris lost three of her Enforcers and numerous Attendants.
And then...she stumbled upon someone.
A man who lost his family. His wife and kids were slaughtered by that Overlord and Novak's Attendants. His home had been destroyed.
The man, Dante Cooper, was homeless, sick, alone, and dying.
But he had an absurdly high compatibility.
Iris nursed him back to health and began manifesting Aspects within him.
They barely manged to hold their ground for a year and a half until Dante awakened.
Iris was confused.
She had never seen such a power before... A conceptual power that was labeled: The Reaper.
She called this an Ultra Aspect.
And Dante singlehandedly saved Ignitus from ruination. Iris fell in love with his determination to protect the world.
Although...she noticed that Johann seemed to be bothered by the subject everytime it was brought up. As much as he tried to hide it, Iris could tell something was wrong.
Meanwhile, the battle went on to protect Ignitus from Novak and his Overlords. Dante cornered them in their final city of Central.
Unfortunately...another man had also appeared before the battle could be won.
One with similar powers.
An Overlord named Kazuma. Possessing an Ultra Aspect called: The Demon.
This was their stalemate.
And as much as Johann would have blamed himself, Iris wouldn't allow it.
After all, he had given her the ability to protect her world without direct intervention.
To Iris, Johann was a treasured friend and ally.
Although he was kind of weird.
Sometimes he would hug her or kiss the top of her head. Even her cheek if he was in an especially good mood.
He claimed it was just a dragon's way of expressing affection for a dear friend.
Iris just assumed all humanoid Dragons were weird like that. And despite all of these things, Iris never got the feeling that Johann saw her as anything more.
In fact, she would never be so bold as to assume such a thing. She didn't want to get the wrong idea about him.
Since Johann so often refused the advances of other women and even got angry when they pointed and laughed at Iris.
Johann was something of a protector to her. He didn't tolerate anyone mocking her for her small chest, her personality, love for Ignitus, or anything else.
Iris always felt safe with him around.
Even if he was weirdly physical with her at times.
Sometimes he would use his powers to punish people that bothered her too much.
Which she thought was super cool. Iris loved that sort of thing.
And as the two of them sat and ate together, she couldn't help but smile at him.
Her treasured friend and ally. Johann.
Although he had trouble maintaining eye contact her at times like this. She didn't mind it. She assumed it was something to do with dragons and their weird behaviors.
She knew that some creatures wouldn't maintain eye contact with others they cared about because it was seen as a challenge. A form of hostility.
Iris was no such creature, but she didn't know if Johann adhered to the same rule, being a dragon.
Still, she would respect him.
But strangely enough, she noticed that he maintained eye contact with everyone else. Even looking Mizik dead in the eye every time they spoke. Not even Iris liked to do that as she found Mizik to be quite intimidating.
She assumed that Johann just respected her as the reason for not staring.
"Hey, Johann, I-"
"Ooooh! What do we have here~?" Said a female voice behind Iris.
The two of them looked over to see one of the girls that often bullied Iris.
The goddess of moons, Masina.
"The handsome dragon god is spending time with the ugly goddess of flat-chests? Why is that?" Masina said mockingly.
Iris lowered her gaze.
Masina was more well endowed and constantly berated Iris for it. On top of caring so much for her world.
Lately she had also mocked Iris for being a criminal and for losing her world.
"Please just...go away Masina..." Iris said.
"Oh? Why? So you can have Johann all to yourself? You can't please a man when you look like a boy, sweetie."
"I'm not a boy! Stop that!" Iris said angrily as she stood up.
"Huh? Are you going to attack me? The last time we fought, I won. I'm stronger than you. So why don't you take a hike, Iris?"
Then they both looked over as they heard the sound of glass shattering.
Johann had clutched his glass so hard that it shattered in his hand.
He was bleeding, but he didn't seem to notice.
"Are you done?" He said as he glared as Masina.
"Ah...when you look at me with such...primal eyes...I can't resist you, Johann!" Masina said.
"GO AWAY!!! LEAVE IRIS ALONE, YOU WHORE!!!" Johann roared.
He stood up and fire burst from his back forming into wings.
"U-umm...Johann?" Masina said fearfully.
He looked ready to kill her.
"Johann, stop!" Iris shouted.
He looked over at her and seemed to calm himself.
"She's not worth it. Please...just calm down!" Iris said.
Then she hugged him.
Masina glared at Iris and ran away.
Johann's wings disappeared immediately.
"Sorry...I kind of..."
"Don't be... I appreciate you defending me, Johann. But please...don't lose control."
"Y-yeah..." He said.
Then, Iris took his hand in hers.
"You cut your hand on the glass. Does it hurt?"
He looked away.
"Johann..."
"A little bit..."
"Here, let's get you cleaned up, okay?" Iris said.
She paid for the meal and they left the restaurant.
Then she took Johann back to her apartment where she washed his hand and bandaged him up.
"There you go! Good as new! Just try not to exert yourself, okay?" She said with a smile.
He returned it and broke eye contact again.
"Iris...I-"
Just then, there was a knock at the door.
Iris went to answer it and saw one of the divine messengers again.
The same one as usual. The one that Iris had actually begun to know personally.
"Ugh...what is it this time!?" Iris said.
"The Divine Council has requested that Iris, goddess of balance come in for questioning...yet again..." He said.
At this point, she wasn't surprised.
"Fine...I'll go..." Iris said.
Then she turned to Johann.
He seemed angry for some reason.
"Johann, I'll be back later, okay? Feel free to stay here and get some rest!" She said.
He nodded and with that, Iris left to depart for the council building...once again.
And as she walked, she couldn't help but wonder why Johann always got so incredibly angry whenever Iris was bullied.
Although...she didn't mind.
It was nice to have someone take up for her for once.
Iris smiled as she admired the architecture of Excelsis.
"Ah...if only he was interested in dating... Maybe I could..."
She shook her head.
"Not possible! I won't destroy what we have! Keep it together, Iris!"
And with that, she continued on.