The price might be allowing himself to be corrupted by the C'tan's consciousness.
But to him, it was worth it.
The ultimate knowledge of the universe had been the pursuit of his entire life.
"Sage Vetius, there are some matters that require your assistance."
The person beside him explained the situation to Vetius.
"..."
Vetius fell silent for a while, then wiped the corrupted engineers' memories. Although something had been implanted in those engineers, permanently altering their brain structures,
it did not matter. Their previous data had been backed up. He could simply delete that portion of the data and reload their souls, and they would be their old selves again. As for the altered versions, they could just be burned.
"Replace them with new recruits and send them in."
Cutting C'tan shards.
Vetius had mastered part of the technique, but precise and skillful cutting was impossible.
Moreover, cutting a C'tan shard and directly extracting its energy were not the same concept. Cutting meant permanently losing a portion of it, while drawing energy did not cause permanent loss; it would replenish itself over time.
The fragments cut from a C'tan shard would also carry certain physical laws of the universe.
For example, they could allow someone to exist eternally alongside the universe, or grant inexhaustible energy.
"Tell them I will cut off what they need."
Vetius could cut those things away. Besides, cutting them only meant finding a C'tan and sweet-talking it into voluntarily severing part of its power.
Vetius had deceived it more than once anyway.
Gamma wanting its fragments only meant that Gamma no longer regarded it as a primary energy source. The integrity of its body no longer mattered to Gamma World.
Back when he was in the Adeptus Mechanicus,
he had often sought to research C'tan