Nero expected that to prepare the Vitracil for absorption, Vanessa would use various cards and activate the silver metal somehow, maybe putting it in an active state. Maybe it required some kind of ritual, or perhaps a very specific card with a very specific purpose.
The reality was a lot more mundane than his imagination, though. Vanessa took out her daggers and placed one on the crystal like a chisel, and used the pommel of the second as a hammer.
She chipped away at the crystal, forming a spike with the thin streak of Vitracil right in the center, almost making it look like an injection. The exertion increased her heart rate, putting pressure on the effects of Semi Aquatic, yet there was naught that she could do about it.
