Dardus was shocked when he heard that. Indeed, whatever Lex said was true.
Dardus was indeed one such king who controlled minds. He wasn't essential powerful, the only thing great about him was that he could alter memories.
Needless to say, he altered the memories of all the women and everyone else in order to frighten them.
All the memories that were implanted confused Elina and Seria. Elina was definitely mentally strong, however, due to aging and due to the incident with Rex, her mentality had been weakened a bit.
Thus she too failed to realize the actual truth and for a moment believed whatever came to her mind and memories.
And yes, it was true that Dardus had the power to control others' bodies. Because of that everyone had become immobile, however, that too had a trick hidden in it.