While Hal might have been incapable of wielding the Ordinances in the physical world and was restricted to simply negating the use of the Ordinances, within the mental realm that was his Sovereign Space, he could grant himself the Insight level comprehension of Abstract Ordinances through Infinity.
It is akin to a test run of what it would look/feel once he went past the Infancy level of his development of Infinity.
Anyway, what he had done to Elder-One was through an illusionary use of the Abstract Ordinance of Space.
While the Nine elders still had active minds with which they were still trying to trap him in their formation, they all lacked the control and manipulation that he had over the Sovereign Space that was HIS Domain.
He had dragged the minds of all Nine elders into a zone that was completely in his control and where he made and enforced the rules... They might not have known it yet but they never had a chance.