Need help translating a sentence involving 要して

Question

I'm helping someone translate some supplemental material for an old video game, and I'm a bit unsure how to translate this sentence. For context, it's about an ancient biological superweapon ("Deus") hatching an elaborate scheme to repair itself over thousands of years.

何故　“神”－－デウスは一万年という遠大な時間を要してまで自己修復しなくてはならなかったのか?

And here's my attempt at a translation:

Why was it absolutely necessary for 'God', Deus, to restore itself within the long span of 10,000 years?

The part that's tripping me up here is 要してまで. According to the dictionary, 要す　basically means "need" or "require", but that doesn't seem to fit the way it's used in this sentence, so obviously I'm missing something here. The next sentence talks about Deus having to operate within a time limit, which supports my interpretation, but that still doesn't make sense of 要してまで.

The full text I'm translating is here, just in case: http://xeno-underground.net/x_u_hi_res_scans/xg_pw/PW302.jpg

Any help would be much appreciated!

Answer 1

I really do not think that the issue here is how to translate 「要する」. If your TL above is any indication, I do not think you are familiar with the sentence structure 「AしてまでBする」, which is more important.

「AしてまでBする」 = "to go so far as to do A in order to do B"

In the sentence in question:

Action A = 一万年という遠大な時間を要する

Action B = 自己修復する

「要する」 can be translated to "to take" or "to spend" because it is talking about time. If you used "to need" or "to require" just because your dictionary said so without knowing the context, it would make the translation much more difficult.

My own TL idea: "Why did Deus the God have to go so far as to spend an enormously long span of 10,000 years in order to restore himself?"