When the Pope announces the Crusades to reclaim the Holy Land from the pagans, de Guillon and his Knights of the 12 Cities are the first to assemble an army to fight. De Guillion's hatred for the Heretics is so great that he never loses a single battle. One day, while he and his knights are camped outside of Damascus, they receive a message from their home country. The message is from the wife of one of the knights, who tells them that her husband and two daughters have been killed by the devil. They decide to burn her alive. The slaughter of innocents continues without an army without papal blessing. The banner of the Crusade continues to fly over heathen lands like a "portent of death" .