This creature, a hybrid of parademon and something else, seemed to have integrated some of Doomsday's characteristics and abilities. This greatly enhanced its power without rendering it as uncontrollable as Doomsday.
Though this new strain of parademon appeared as feeble as a newborn infant before Bai Qi, that was solely due to its opponent. Were the adversary to change, such a parademon could effortlessly slaughter several fully armed armies.
Considering Darkseid possessed such a vast parademon army, Earth's fall became almost inevitable.
Bai Qi, however, was curious whether the Justice League of this Earth still existed, or if they had all perished in their resistance against the invasion from Apokolips.
After a brief moment of thought, Bai Qi shifted his gaze to the parademon he controlled.
"There, there, little one, don't move. It will be over soon."
Despite being subjected to Bai Qi's rough handling, the once arrogant parademon now behaved like an aggrieved bride, passively allowing Bai Qi to place his hand on its head and crudely rummage through its memories.
As a bio-weapon, the parademon was designed without overly complex thought processes. Bai Qi finished reviewing all its memories in less than two seconds.
However, as a mere combatant, the information this parademon could offer Bai Qi was extremely limited.
According to its memories, it had been mass-produced with other parademons a month prior and then transported to Earth via Boom Tubes. At that time, Earth was already a battlefield, but its inhabitants had not yet surrendered. Governments still possessed some fighting capability, and their armies clashed with the parademon hordes.
Even with the valiant resistance of human forces, they struggled to make a significant impact against the parademons enhanced with Doomsday's genes. It often took fifty to sixty soldiers to take down one parademon, highlighting the immense disparity in power.
Within the parademon's memories, Bai Qi witnessed footage of Earth's superheroes battling the parademons. Yet, to his surprise, these superheroes were generally not very powerful, mostly being second or third-tier. The damage they inflicted on the parademons was also quite limited.
The only ones truly capable of standing against them were the Teen Titans, who were still quite young.
This led to questions: if the Teen Titans were deployed, where were the Justice League's main forces? Where was Superman?
Unfortunately, the above constituted all the useful knowledge Bai Qi could extract from the parademon captain's memories. As it had been born too recently, it held no record of earlier events.
After consolidating the relevant information, Bai Qi gripped the parademon's head and exerted sudden force, crushing it like a ripe tomato. He then immolated the scene with fire and departed.
Perhaps sensing his current appearance was too conspicuous, Bai Qi quickly altered his form. From a colossal dragon, he transformed in an instant into a disheveled man, about 1.85 meters tall, dressed in a windbreaker.
Although parademons occasionally flew overhead, their presence served more as a deterrent than a tool for slaughter. Their targets were those who resisted Darkseid's rule. They rarely attacked ordinary civilians now, except for the initial massacres during the invasion.
The reason they had attacked Bai Qi earlier was likely their wariness of him as an unknown entity. Now that Bai Qi had assumed a human guise and suppressed his aura, the parademons in the sky had no further cause to bother him.
Bai Qi walked alone down the deserted streets. The heavy, dark clouds obscured the sky, making it impossible to discern the time. The surviving humans, unless absolutely necessary, were reluctant to venture outside, fearing they might attract the attention of the parademons and end up as another unfortunate victim.
Of course, even hiding at home with doors and windows boarded up offered no absolute guarantee of safety. After all, there were always a few scoundrels around, no matter the era.
As if on cue, not far ahead, Bai Qi spotted several ruffians in bizarre attire across the street. Armed with steel pipes, they were pounding and smashing at the door of a residential building, while others picked up rocks to hurl at the windows.
Under their relentless assault, the door, unable to bear the strain, developed a crack. Seeing this, the thugs exchanged glances, their faces alight with the triumph of victors, yet they refrained from cheering.
Just as the thugs were about to break down the door and ransack the place, it suddenly swung open from within. Before the thugs could react, a gunshot rang out.
The lead thug collapsed, a gruesome bullet wound blooming on his chest, from which blood gushed. A middle-aged man holding a shotgun emerged from behind the door, glaring menacingly at the thugs.
The scene instantly fell into a deathly silence. Soon, an uncontrollable fear spread across each of their faces. However, their fear was not directed at the shotgun in the man's hand, but at the sky.
With Earth conquered by Apokolips and occupied by the parademon army, all human weaponry had been destroyed to crush any remaining will to resist. Any human found in possession of a firearm would be mercilessly torn to shreds and devoured by the parademons in the sky.
It was ironic that America's long-standing gun control debate had, in a way, been resolved after Earth's fall.
This was precisely why the thugs were so terrified. They had merely intended to break into a house with occupants to loot their supplies, relying on their numbers. They had never expected the resident to be armed.
The gunshot would undoubtedly attract the parademons from above. If they didn't flee, none of them would survive.
As expected, less than five seconds after the shot, two parademons descended from the sky, tearing apart two thugs nearby as they landed.
Witnessing their companions' demise, the remaining thugs could no longer maintain their composure. They scattered in all directions, abandoning their weapons in their desperate flight.
The two parademons exchanged a glance. One pursued the fleeing thugs, while the other fixed its gaze on the middle-aged man with the shotgun.
Seeing the ferocious parademon, the middle-aged man instinctively took a step back. However, upon hearing sounds from behind the door, his terrified expression vanished, replaced by a solemn and determined roar, "No one comes out! All of you!"
With that, he slammed the damaged door shut, cocked his weapon, and fired a shot directly at the parademon's head.