The duo of Vash and Mihawk walked toward the opposite end of the stone wall where stone steps descended into the ground. Vash carefully stepped down at full alert while Mihawk was nonchalantly walking.
"So what's the situation inside??" Vash asked.
"How would I know?? I just stormed the first room that I found. There, I got the two things you have seen. It was probably room of some security personnel." Mihawk explained.
"Ok, let's check it out first." Vash said as they went down the stairs and found a room carved out on the sidewall. The iron door of the room was unhinged and half destroyed, a huge shell of a creature was pasted on the front wall at some distance. Vash guessed that Mihawk must have done this. The duo went inside and observed in detail the condition of the room. There were four weapon racks; mostly empty with few ancient weapon just by the entrance, and some weapon were rusty and few were in good condition like they were timeless and couldn't be corroded regardless of how much time passed.
"Oh... Seastone weapons!!! It's my first time seeing them." Vash looked at a chain similar to previous ones and a baton shaped weapon.
"What a pity... there isn't a Seastone sword. But I can make do with a baton." Vash said with a sigh.
"I tell you, I haven't even seen a Seastone knife and you are talking about a sword." Mihawk said dismissing Vash's expectation.
"So, is this a den den mushi? It seems dead. I think this place was abandoned in hurry and these creatures died here without someone caring for them." Vash said looking at the huge shell of the snail. There were also smaller dead shells on stone tables.
"Mihawk, you do your thing here." Vash said as if he was a mafia boss ordering a subordinate.
"And that is??" Mihawk asked not understanding a thing.
"I think you are forgetting basics of pirate profession after becoming a big shot, I'm talking about pillaging. Now hurry up and take all the Seastone here." Vash said as he didn't want to touch Seastone weapons. Mihawk just grunted and grabbed the chain and wrapped it over his shoulder and joined both hooked end of it.(A/N: Nicolas cage Ghost Rider style)
Vash then took two batons by the handle that were coated with another metal and also hooked them on Mihawk's back where 'Yoru' was strapped. Mihawk seeing Vash's action was speechless and felt like he was treated as porter boy.
Then they went out of the room and steadily descended down the stone steps without finding anything on the way except some dead shells of crustaceans.
"Seriously... Another tunnel and with steps!!! but whoever made this hole on this mountain was really mighty." Vash said.
"Well, it could had also been made by labour workers." Mihawk said another possibility.
"Hmm... it's possible." Vash said with a short nod.
After descending for about fifteen minutes they stumbled upon a dead end.
"Now what??" Vash asked scratching his head.
"I feel a lot of life energy below, there must be some way through here." Mihawk said as he stomped down on the last stone step and it gave away breaking into pieces. At the same time, a stone slab slid out from sidewall above them blocking their way back. As the stone broke beneath their feet, they immediately plunged into water like cloud.
"Guhkk..." Vash was drained of some portion of his strength and started drowning fast while Mihawk like an expert swimmer dived into depths.
Mihawk first came out of the cloud and started falling further below the empty space, using color of Supreme Kings Haki he floated and looked for Vash who also came out with an ammonite like creature in his mouth and with white eyes, like he had a trip back from hell and saw unspeakable things there. Mihawk unwrapped the chain and threw it hooking Vash's Gi with it. Vash came to himself fast and he also started floating by himself.
Vash hanging by the chain spewed out the creature from his mouth and started coughing.
"Damn!!! what the hell." Vash said and looked above the floating cloud, it was like sea fermenting bubbling froth in the sky.
"How mysterious..." Vash said and marveled at the sight.
"It's a cloud sea or should I say cloud lake by the size of it, and there are still creatures living inside. This type of cloud has water like property except the density which is low in case of these clouds." Mihawk explained as he has more experience and had seen a lot of strange things.
"It's formed when some kind of Seastone chemical reacts with water droplets. Outside there is whole sea of same clouds and there are even islands made up of some special clouds called sky islands." Mihawk explained further.
"... And let me guess people with wings live on them, on the so called sky islands." Vash said interrupting Mihawk.
"Well... you are right but how do you know?? Have you been to sky island before??" Mihawk asked.
"Nah... I just saw some sculpture below. But it's not difficult to guess by the theme with which you were going." Vash said in vague tone. Mihawk didn't fully understand the later half of the sentence but he looked down to find an ancient city. It had circular stretch and prominent enclosure of mountain, from up above the duo could see simple architectural designs of stone houses, and of which, few were high rising buildings with criss-cross of roads among them. Mihawk also saw few sculptures of winged people holding spears as if they were challenging their opponent.
"Really... They carved out a whole mountain to make a city. It's really exaggerating." Vash said in wonder.
"Hmm... I don't know how they made it but their technology must have been far advanced going by the things we are encountering." Mihawk said.
"You are talking about the Robotic Dino above this place... Anyway how are we gonna get it now that we are here??" Vash said.
"That's your problem. You were the one who said about making it a pet." Mihawk said.
"But first, we have to get down and check this dead city of ancients. Lets go." Mihawk said and both slowly floated down.