[A flash of light. A new reincarnation cycle begins. Aria is reborn as Aryo, a protege chef that just moved to a big city to open their first pastry cafe.]
Once upon a time, in the bustling city of Alohony, there lived a chef named Aryo. Aryo had high hopes and big dreams, his talent for cooking made even the most difficult of culinary cuisines an easy feat.
Yet there was one pastry delicacy, the creme de la creme of sweet doughy goodness, that Aryo could just not master – the ability to bake the perfect chocolate cake.
“The Dark Lord has absconded me again,” he would complain to all that would listen – usually his friends and family members that stuffed their faces with his failed “creations.”
“My nemesis,” he would remark as everyone around him tore into a mountain of sweet cocoa cake heaven that Aryo pulled out of the oven.
However, to his loved ones dismay, Aryo could only see the cakes faults. “It always crumbls in the center.” He pointed to the collapsed interior.
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While everyone else could only see how soft and delicious the sponge cake layers were, how moist and inescapably delicious the chocolate filling was – their praise went unheard.
The problem was not that Aryo’s cakes were elusive of chocolatey perfection.
The problem was that Aryo hated the process of making them! In truth, he did not long for our enjoy the chocolate cake in itself.
In reality, he found he liked the idea of chocolate cake more than the reality of it. When presented with what it actually was, Aryo could only see it's physical reality: “it is just a cake. Where is the promised Nirvana of it?” He silently thought.
As a pastry chef, he in some half cup measure, hated his destiny…
Surrounded by a perfection he could not grasp.
Forced to endure endless trials of baking that culminated in the ashes of joy. Nothing remained for him but unsatisfaction.
“Oh mio Dio! Why me?!”
Aryo’s partner walked into the kitchen knowing what to expect.
Another cake crumbled and sank in the middle.
"The Shadow Lord has robbed me of sublime chocolate nirvana!" He told her.
"Aryo, your cakes may not be perfect, but they are always delicious!" She would would assure him.”
"Keep trying, amor. Chocolate perfection is out there waiting for you!"
One day he finally caught himself wondering: “ Who wants to spend a 1000 lifetimes struggling to defeat their foe? … I get the inner feeling that even if I did reach perfection I would still find a way to feel empty out unsatisfied …”
The deadline for the opening of Aryo’s pastry cafe was fast approaching, its date uneffected with or without Aryo’s inner turmoil.