Inanna's Descent into the Underworld Ch. 01

Ereshkigal's eyes narrowed. "So, you are a glutton for punishment and pain, my sister," she crooned, eyes gleaming wickedly. "You wish to suffer more at my hands, instead of yielding to me?"

Inanna blinked the tears of pain out of her eyes. She knew with grim certainty that if she submitted, her sister's mercy would be scant indeed. She tried to draw herself upright, but gasped with pain. It was all she could do not to double over. Yet, once more she imposed her indomitable will upon her body. The mighty Queen of War held herself straight, muscles gleaming all over, and raised her hands in a posture of readiness.

"I will never submit to you, Ereshkigal," she vowed. She would exact divine retribution upon her twisted sister. She would bring this evil sibling of hers to justice.

"Then I will make you," Ereshkigal said, her voice low with menace. She would utterly crush this vision of divine beauty before her. She would make the mighty Inanna squirm and scream.

She matched Inanna's pose. The two goddesses approached each other, slowly closing the distance, exchanging no further barbs or taunts. Wordlessly, they moved their hands together for a test of strength, lacing their fingers together, each putting one foot in front of the other to brace themselves.

This would be the final test, both sensed. Neither goddess would back away or seek to break the test some other way. This contest, the entire Trial, would be decided by strength, endurance and will. If Inanna won here, she would throw down her dark sister and take over the cold dominion of the Underworld, perhaps bringing some justice to it to replace the cold horror of Ereshkigal's reign. If Ereshkigal should triumph, Inanna would be broken, her mortal body dead, her spirit consigned to as much suffering as Ereshkigal could devise. More -- her powers would be claimed, and Ereshkigal would become inconceivably potent.

They stared deeply into each other's eyes as each took a deep breath. Then the contest began. The muscles on their bodies stood out -- each was a perfectly formed woman in her own way. The onlookers -- the dark inhabitants of Irkalla -- gasped as one at the sight, and looked on raptly.

"I must win this Trial," Inanna thought. "I must defeat you, my evil sister, in this contest of strength and supremacy. For my dear Puabana... for the innocents you have caused to suffer... for the many innocents to come!"

Her magnificent leonine flanks bulged. Her powerful arms, the strong arms of a divine mother, rippled. Giving a loud cry, she surged forward, overpowering Ereshkigal and bending the dark goddess back! Ereshkigal's face was a rictus of effort as she found herself bent over, almost down on one knee, her arms pushed back and out to the sides.

"Argh... arrghhh..." Ereshkigal's grunts and groans of effort echoed Inanna's own. Sweat began to trickle down both their faces and bodies in rivulets, until they were both drenched with their exertion.

Inanna exulted silently. She was still the stronger! Ereshkigal's panic was etched on her face, mere inches from her own. She wondered if her sister was regretting that she had miscalculated.

"I must show you no further mercy, sister," she whispered, a little breathlessly. "You have had your chance to atone. Now comes my judgement."

"Sanctimonious bitch," Ereshkigal spat back, almost literally, in Inanna's face. "You have not defeated me yet... nor will you."

Gathering her remaining strength, Inanna braced and pushed, as hard as she could. Her body trembled all over. So did Ereshkigal's. Their arms shook as trees in a gale.

Long moments passed -- and Ereshkigal did not fall. Her knee still hovered just above the stone floor, her back was bent far back, her body was stretched out to its limits, yet somehow, her strength held. Inanna found she could not seal her victory yet -- it was still as much a struggle as at the beginning of the match.

And try as she might to put the thought from her mind, she was weakening. Her fiery surge of passion had given her a burst of power that was starting to fade here in the cold, cold air of Irkalla. The strength was being sapped from her by the unseen aura of the place, little by little, but inexorably. She was shorn of all her divine accoutrements that contained a large part of her essence and her strength. And she had been weakened, injured, by the combat with Ereshkigal, and by the strength transfer that Ereshkigal had worked with the death of Puabana. A portion of her own strength was, even now, being used against her.

Her lips pressed together, trembling. Then she bared her teeth. She would not give up -- she could not let her fatigue be the cause of her defeat! Surely Ereshkigal was tired too -- surely Ereshkigal, with her inferior physical prowess, did not have the stamina to hold out for much longer. Surely she could outlast and outmuscle Ereshkigal.

Ereshkigal's face showed the strain too, as much as Inanna's -- but she still managed a feral grin. Despite her massive disadvantage and her being on the brink of defeat, she could draw upon the negative energies of the Underworld to sustain her. The despair of her victims, the distilled agony of their suffering, the simmering resentment she had been nursing all these centuries after being banished here by her sister -- all fed her now, fuelling her muscles, strengthening her limbs and her trunk.

A long time passed. The observers could see no change in their postures. It seemed as if they were magnificent statues, except for the shaking and trembling all over their bodies, the rivers of sweat now pooling beneath their struggling forms, and the masks of agony their faces had become. And now Inanna felt the first stirrings of despair and horror. No matter how hard she pushed, how much she strained and flexed, Ereshkigal was just refusing to go down. If she could just push Ereshkigal back and down an inch more, she knew, it would be the tipping point. She would be the winner, for she would have Ereshkigal subdued and defeated.

But no matter how hard she tried, she just could not do it, just could not get that one inch of movement she needed.

And now Ereshkigal's slitted eyes began to gleam with dark anticipation. She could sense her opponent's strength flagging. She could feel Inanna's hot breath on her own lips, as Inanna gasped and panted. Drops of perspiration fell from Inanna's face onto Ereshkigal's, but she welcomed the sensation, for it spoke to her of Inanna's growing fatigue.

"Only a little... only a little more!" If Inanna had been a mortal, she would have been calling upon the gods for strength. As it was, she could only dredge up what strength she could from deep within herself.

Then a lance of pain shot through Inanna's overly strained back, and Inanna threw her head back and gave a little scream of pain and shock. That was when both goddesses knew -- Inanna could do no more. She had done her best, her very best -- and it was not enough.

Ereshkigal still had more to give. Inch by inch, she began to regain lost ground. Her arms, shoulders and chest flexed as she pushed Inanna's hands back and up. Her abdomen muscles undulated as if alive, as she unbent her taut body, and slowly reversed Inanna's advantage. Her leg muscles stood out, pillars of strength, as she raised her lower knee further and further off the floor, straightening out her supporting leg and thrusting against Inanna.

Inanna was now forced on the defensive, and could do no more than slow down Ereshkigal's progress. She could no longer stop it. Grimly, she hung on, to the bitter end.

Inch by shuddering inch, Ereshkigal pushed Inanna back up to the neutral position. Their arms were high overhead then, straight upwards. Their breasts pressed together, and Ereshkigal felt her own dark nipples stiffening against Inanna's pink ones, swelling larger and harder, overwhelming Inanna's in this ancillary contest. She grinned through her fatigue.

Then she reached deep into herself, and pushed. For several moments Inanna resisted -- then her resistance crumbled, and she gave way with excruciating slowness. Her body bent, sinking lower, until now she was the one who was on the verge of a humiliating defeat. Ereshkigal leaned low, pressing her breasts to Inanna's, using body weight to exert extra pressure on Inanna's tortured trunk muscles. Inanna's own arms felt leaden and numb. Every muscle was still flexed to the limit, but her body seemed devoid of strength.

A few moments more -- then her knee felt the cold shock of the stone floor. Ereshkigal had forced her down onto one knee. Yet Ereshkigal was not done. She continued pushing, pushing. Inanna was in a world of pain now, unwilling to yield, yet unable to hold back the tide of power that was Ereshkigal. It was like trying to hold up a mountain. Her back was bent back to an agonizing degree, and she was forced to go down onto her other knee.

Now Inanna knelt before Ereshkigal. Unable to move; subdued, defeated. Her fingers were limp now, her wrists bent to the point of breaking, her arms stretched out to the sides straining her shoulder joints. Her back trembled for a few moments more as she was bent back further and further, like a bow -- then gave out as well, and she fell backwards, her shoulders and hands touching the cold stone floor. Tears of pain and shame streamed now from her eyes. She had lost.

The unthinkable had happened! Inanna had lost in this battle of strength and dominance to Ereshkigal -- she had lost the Trial! Keeping her sister's body completely pinned, Ereshkigal threw back her head and gave an unearthly shriek of triumph. It resounded through all the halls of Irkalla -- it darkened the skies of the mortal realm -- a faint hint of it even reached the high heavens, where the gatekeeper deities frowned as if a chill wind had just blown, which was impossible on that plane.

Ereshkigal released Inanna's hands at long last, and rose languidly off her, to stand proud and victorious, her eyes dark with long-awaited triumph and vindication. Inanna curled up in a foetal position, rubbing the life back into her numb arms, sobbing and gasping.

"I have beaten you, sister," Ereshkigal stated calmly.

Inanna could make no reply. Her pride and her hauteur had deserted her entirely. She turned her tearful eyes away from Ereshkigal like a chastened maiden, knowing the truth of what her sister said.

"I will have your submission from you now, sister... and if you will not give me the words, still I would have it from you... by other utterances from your lips," Ereshkigal whispered hoarsely, bending over the body of her defeated foe.

Inanna's eyes widened. "No..." But she could do nothing, as enfeebled as she was, against Ereshkigal's strength. In moments, Ereshkigal had grabbed hold of Inanna's calves, and had upended Inanna flat on her back, her arm muscles bulging strongly as she effortlessly kept Inanna's legs under her control. She stepped over Inanna's left leg with her right, and then slowly lowered herself... joining her loins to Inanna's.

"No... NO!" Inanna cried out, her arms flailing helplessly, her trunk hurting too badly for her to raise her upper body off the floor, or for her to thrust Ereshkigal away with her legs.

"They hail you as the Queen of Love, the Mistress of Sex, the Courtesan of the Gods, the Strong Mother," Ereshkigal hissed mockingly. Her womanhood was now pressed tightly against Inanna's, her juices already flowing from her own body into her sister's, invasively. Now she began to gyrate her hips.

"What will they all say now, when they see you like this, shuddering helplessly beneath me, as I take my pleasure from you, and give you pleasure you do not want?"

"No... no..." Inanna gathered the tattered vestiges of her divine dignity, such as it was, and tried to still the trembling of her lips. "You will not make my body betray me."

Ereshkigal only continued the circular sensuous swivelling of her hips. Inanna's hips began to move in accordance, despite her best efforts to resist. Her breathing quickened, her face flushed, her nipples swelled erect, her hips began to shiver.

"No... no..." Inanna lay stretched out, mounted by Ereshkigal, feeling the hot wet muscles of her loins begin a slow rhythmic pulsation... a sensation she had felt many times before, yet not like this, never like this. This was not permissible -- this was unthinkable -- Ereshkigal was overwhelming Inanna in a contest of sex.

Of course, Inanna's body was near broken, her will already shattered. This was merely the final seal of Ereshkigal's total victory, the inducement of an unwilling orgasm to mark her conquest.

"I am the stronger goddess," Ereshkigal panted, her own pleasure rising, "and when you are finished... I will be... the strongest of all..."

And she thrust her pelvis hard against Inanna's, driving it downwards. Once... twice...

Inanna felt her body explode in orgasm. Wave after wave of clenching pleasure, abhorrent loathsome undesired pleasure, washed through her body, radiating from her soaked womanhood. The divine Queen of War and Strength, the Courtesan of the Heavens, had been made to orgasm against her will by the dark Queen Ereshkigal. Outside of this arena, apart from the moans and screams as Ereshkigal too succumbed to the pleasure, the silence was deep. The shock was comprehensive.

Dimly, Inanna became aware that Ereshkigal had released her legs, and had bent over her. She was utterly unable to prevent Ereshkigal from scooping her up -- there was nothing left in her, no strength or energy, no hidden reserves left to tap on.

Ereshkigal slowly straightened her arms, lifting Inanna's body up in the air in a show of strength. She was the very picture of evil triumphant.

Then she slammed Inanna's magnificent body down upon her knee with such force, that the crack of Inanna's back breaking resounded through the hall, and it seemed, through all Irkalla and beyond.

Ereshkigal, new Queen of Darkness, Supreme Mistress of the Netherworld, stood over her vanquished sister. She placed one foot on Inanna's unmoving, supine body, and raised her arms, slowly curling them inwards, displaying every muscle she could, feeling endless strength flow through them. Inanna's powers were now her own as well. Tilting her head, she gave a primal scream of victory.

The time of her dark ascendancy was at hand.